One Sentence Stories

Hemingway famously once won a bet that he could write a complete story in just six words.

"For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

As someone who tells my clients’ stories for a living, this a fascinating art form.

I once heard that until you can state your case, or tell your story, on a fortune cookie, you don’t really know it yet.

Can you write a story in six words?

Others have taken a shot at this art form:

• “Dad left. A flag came back.”
• “It’s our fiftieth. Table for one.”
• “Sticks…Spears…Swords…Guns…Nukes…Sticks.”
• “What’s your return policy on rings?”
• “He bottle-fed his wife’s killer.”
• “Failed SAT. Lost scholarship. Invented rocket.” - William Shatner
• “Automobile warranty expires. So does engine.” - Stan Lee
• “TIME MACHINE REACHES FUTURE!!! … nobody there …”- Harry Harrison
• “Ever seen chalk outlines that small?” “Goodbye Mission Control. Thanks for trying.”
• “Introduced myself to Mom again today.
• “I look like Dad’s college roommate.”
• “K.I.A. Baghdad, Aged 18 - Closed Casket” - Richard K. Morgan Epitaph:
• “He shouldn't have fed it.” - Brian Herbert
• “Siri, Delete Dad from my contacts.”
• “The smallest coffin is the heaviest.”
• “He hit ‘send,’ then the tree.” Holding up a nub:
• “Safety third.” “Kill yourself,” they said. She did.
• “They lived happily ever after. Apart.”
• “The only child. Never the favorite.”
• “Three to Iraq. One came back.” - Graeme Gibson
• “He read his obituary with confusion.”- Steven Meretzky
• “Just married” the shattered window read.”
• “Passengers, this isn’t your captain speaking.”
• “Strangers…Friends…Best Friends…Lovers…Strangers.”
• “I met my soulmate. She didn’t.”
• “Mom taught me how to shave.”