Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Six-Word Intermission

Detail of Peter Sis's Happy City, which can be seen in the
NYC subway station at 86th and Lexington,

where you can catch the SIX train...

Too obscure? Okay, moving on.

I'm shamelessly copying another blogger's idea today, and then getting back to issues of writing and identity tomorrow.

Sierra Godfrey has brought us another spin on the famous six-word story concept. We already have the six-word memoir and six-word memoir of love and heartbreak ... how about the six-word plot summary?

I'm still working on mine. Thematically, I could say:

Adversity reveals character, for the better.

But is that too light on plot information? How about:

Graphic designer is pregnant: now what?

I'm still working on it. Novelists, give me your six-word summary! If you're not writing fiction, a description of your other writing (blogging, etc.) would be equally welcome.

16 comments:

  1. I like "Graphic designer is pregnant: now what?" THAT pulls me into the story. The other is more theme...and could apply to anything. But theme is important too.

    Mine: "Woman goes in search of father." Maybe that's too vague. This is hard! "Woman meets prince, falls in love." "Women escapes home, finds haunted castle." All are within the same story!

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  2. And then I wondered if she knew.

    Okay, it's seven words and it's not even mine. It's a song title from Jazz Pianist Danny Zeitlin (who is also a professor of psychiatry), but the story writes itself.

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  3. Six words? What if I'm imagining all this? That about sums it all up.

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  4. Um, this is hard. I guess mine could be: Kids dig backyard tunnel: danger awaits. That was bad :(

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  5. I like your second one, Carrie. The adversity one is pretty broad but the pregnant one tells us a LOT about your character.

    I am so loving this game. Thanks for linking to me.

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  6. Graduate pursues Mortuary Science: Parents disapprove.

    or

    Kidnapped on internship: discovers medieval secret.

    Again, both in the same book. Hey, I'm kind of a fan of this whole six-word thing with two segments for a total of 12 words. Sounds like most people have double intrigues going on! Sounds exciting.

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  7. Oh gosh, so hard! Hmm...

    Life can renew, regardless of age.

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  8. Dude, these are all AWESOME! And Natalie, that's not even a little bit bad. It sounds fun, AND it sounds like it's dead-on for middle grade. How many six-word summaries also indicate genre?!

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  9. Darn- I was planning on stealing this idea too. Oh well the more the merrier, right?!

    I am still working on mine. But here goes:

    Grace stumbles lies and finds truth.

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  10. You know, this is good to keep in mind when thinking of a title for your book. Can you summerize in six or so words?

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  11. 'Jungle Mom and her memory trails.'
    (groan)

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  12. "This is my kind of mess."

    or

    "My crazy's prettier than yours."

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  13. Fun game. Mine would be "Woman meets Beast within after thirty-two years." Does that count? Yeah, I know. It is seven words...

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  14. It was hard to get my story into a paragraph, but here's a peice of it: Allies aren't freinds, provinces aren't subjected.

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  15. Fun exercise!

    Mine: "One right turn changed her life."

    And your second one was more of a grabber for me, too.

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  16. Good post, I'm sorry I didn't read it earlier..

    Hmm six words... tough call:

    "The zombie apocalypse wasn't all bad."

    I liked your second six word synopsis better than the first, more of an attention getter.

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