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Six-word stories.

Page: (1)2 3 4

grant

14:35 / 25.10.06

Based on Hemingway's shortest story: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

Includes stellar sudden fictions like:

Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so.
- Joss Whedon

Machine. Unexpectedly, I’d invented a time
- Alan Moore

Longed for him. Got him. Shit.
- Margaret Atwood

From torched skyscrapers, men grew wings.
- Gregory Maguire

Internet “wakes up?” Ridicu -
no carrier.
- Charles Stross

I’m your future, child. Don’t cry.
- Stephen Baxter

1940: Young Hitler! Such a cantor!
- Michael Moorcock

Dinosaurs return. Want their oil back.
- David Brin

Bang postponed. Not Big enough. Reboot.
- David Brin

Osama’s time machine: President Gore concerned.
- Charles Stross

And more.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

14:46 / 25.10.06

Some of these are fantastic.

Ticker

14:50 / 25.10.06

those were so much fun indeed!

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

14:52 / 25.10.06

Margret Atwood is awesome.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

14:55 / 25.10.06

And Ken MacLeod's in there! I can never get anyone to read his books... maybe they'll manage six words.

Ticker

14:55 / 25.10.06

Starlet sex scandal. Giant squid involved.
- Margaret Atwood

I hafta agree

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

15:08 / 25.10.06

I rather like Joss'.

Char Aina

15:16 / 25.10.06

joss' is well dark, hey.
took me a minute to realise it, but it sends you off thinking.
a few of them do that quite well.

Evil Scientist

15:17 / 25.10.06

MUD avatars rebel: virtual Independence Day.
- Paul Di Filippo

My biggest fear.

Happy Dave Has Left

15:23 / 25.10.06

I mean, I like Cory Doctorow. I think he's a great speaker, I like his books and I subscribe to BoingBoing. I've even emailed him a couple of times about various SF related things. But jeez, his entry - one track mind, much?

Batman Sues Batsignal: Demands Trademark Royalties.
- Cory Doctorow

Dude, come on

Alex's Grandma

15:50 / 25.10.06

Not sure if this is the point of the thread, but I'd like to re-write Joss Whedon's contribution thus, all the same;

'Mirror, toilet, old chap. Pleasure. Horror.'

Alex's Grandma

15:55 / 25.10.06

'Why did I have to cut ...' - Tony Parsons.

Triplets

17:15 / 25.10.06

"Teeth bit at his old chap"

Ticker

17:35 / 25.10.06

"Damn. Cat ate the aliens again."

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

17:37 / 25.10.06

"Trapped in a New South mediocrity."

Alex's Grandma

17:44 / 25.10.06

'Blokes. Football. Relationships. I'm Like You' - Nick Hornby.

Followed by;

'I'm really deeply ashamed of myself.'

And;

'Why am I still alive? Why?'

Princess

17:44 / 25.10.06

"Get off me, bastard face-hugger."

Alex's Grandma

17:51 / 25.10.06

'Hitler, Stalin, Mao. Christ, I'm drunk' - Martin Amis.

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

16:11 / 26.10.06

Citing this, Language Log also posted an old poem of Atwood's:

you fit into me
like a hook into an eye

a fish hook
an open eye

Twice

17:35 / 26.10.06

Always an ignorant killjoy, but they're a bit disappointing, aren't they? I mean, Ernie's original wrote a backstory in itself, but most of these are just statements which...well...stand alone.

Atwood's disappointing man nothwithstanding (it at least suggests a developed story), and this

K.I.A. Baghdad, Aged 18 - Closed Casket
- Richard K. Morgan

...which is emotive rather than narrative, and reads as 8 words*; or this

I saw, darling, but do lie.
- Orson Scott Card

...which I like, but leaves too many possibilities. I'm not sticking my hand up at the back of the class, mind, and offering to do better.

*and is a bit parochial. How about "Remains, Badhdad. Age unknown, case closed"?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

17:48 / 26.10.06

But MacLeod's

We went solar. Sun went nova.

is about as epic SF as it gets, surely?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

17:49 / 26.10.06

And I'd argue that "closed casket" suggests a lot more horrifying things than "case closed".

Twice

18:01 / 26.10.06

Yeah, but…

I agree with you about solar/nova, but epic isn’t really specific. ANYTHING could have happened. Hemmingway’s example is clever because it manages to limit the options available while allowing the reader to invent a backstory to fill in the blanks. My own example was weak for the same reason: there are too many possible stories that end that way. ‘Closed casket’ is more personalized, sure, but ‘case closed’ indicates that its contents don’t matter.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

18:03 / 26.10.06

And that's a better ending why, exactly?

Incidentally, my epic SF tale in six words'd be Born. Grew. Fucked. Killed. Became God.

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

18:08 / 26.10.06

With bloody hands, I say good-bye.
- Frank Miller

“Cellar?” “Gate to, uh … hell, actually.”
- Ronald D. Moore

It cost too much, staying human.
- Bruce Sterling

The baby’s blood type? Human, mostly.
- Orson Scott Card

Epitaph: He shouldn't have fed it.
- Brian Herbert

Thought I was right. I wasn't.
- Graeme Gibson

Lost, then found. Too bad.
- Graeme Gibson

My particular favourites.

Twice

18:21 / 26.10.06

And that's a better ending why, exactly?

I agree that I’m contradicting myself, but I think I feel awkward that the language in the original seems to identify the ‘nature’ of the combatant (ie ‘allied’), whereas in my version the victim is non-specific. That’s what I meant about ‘parochial’. However, the original is more precise and does indicate an actual story, which is why I highlighted it as being one of the stories that succeeded (despite being 8 words long), and never claimed that mine was ‘better’.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

18:23 / 26.10.06

Ah, I thought you were saying it DIDN'T make a good story. A reread of your post clarifies things.

I read it again. I'd erred.

Olulabelle

21:00 / 10.02.07

I really don't think that anything beats the Hemmingway one. It's just so, so huge.

Seth

21:54 / 10.02.07

Every Murakami story:

She left. And yet, and yet...

Alex's Grandma

01:12 / 11.02.07

Cocktails and jazz get you through?