Larry Smith - It All Changed in an Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure

For sale: baby shoes, never worn. Ernest Hemingway, American writer It all changed in an instant. Candis Sykes, accounting-group leader
and American writer Legend has it that the short-short story came about in a bar bet when Ernest Hemingway was challenged to write a novel in only six words. Well probably never know whether the anecdote is factual or apocryphal, but we do know this: the challenge works. Three years ago, on the storytelling Web site SMITH Magazine, we gave the classic form a contemporary twist. In these confessional times, we wondered if people could use six words to tell the true story of their own lives.

Since then, more than 250,000 six-word memoirs have been submitted to SMITH Magazine (SMITHMag.net) and its younger cousin, SMITH Teens (SMITHteens.com). Weve published three books of these life stories so far, Not Quite What I Was Planning, Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak, and I Cant Keep My Own Secrets. The response from readers, writers, librarians, teachers, artists, parents, and children has blown us away. Preachers and rabbis alike have embraced six-word prayers. In hospitals and shelters, from after-school programs to speed dating, six-word memoirs have been used to ease communication, foster understanding, and break the ice. A SMITH contributor who goes by the screen nameMiandering documented her year of traveling the globe in a series of more than 100 six-word memoirs submitted one by one Sticky rice at every meal. Yum (a great start in Thailand) to Wet flip-flops.

Shiny linoleum. Bad combination (a tough break in Malaysia). Teachers from kindergarten to graduate school have found the six-word memoir an inspiring writing lesson. In a third-grade classroom in New Jersey, we heard Life is better in soft pajamas and one students precocious Zen observation: Tried surfing on a calm day. Like our first book, Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure, the one youre holding offers a mix of bestselling memoirists like the late Frank McCourt (The miserable childhood leads to royalties) and debut writers like Jennifer Labbienti (I still practice my Oscar speech). There are stories from the iconic and visionary Gloria Steinem (Life is one big editorial meeting) and the unfamous and practical Joy Zuercher (Cant reach top shelves, married tall). Were confident youll find all our storytellers equally worthwhile, but if being published alongside Pulitzer Prize winners like Junot Diaz and Tony Kushner validates any aspiring authors, all the better.

And just as we like to balance populist and aspirational, we see six words as both complete and open-ended. Its plenty to tell an entire story, but its often just the start. Weve heard from many people whose six-word creations spurred them to shoot for six hundred, six thousand, or more. Robin Templeton, author of After Harvard, had baby with crackhead, the first story in our first book, is now working on a full-length memoir. In that spirit, weve added a feature calledback-story on SMITHmag.net, where you can tell the longer tale behind your mini-memoir. (Six-word purists should feel free to skip that part.) Online there are many more backstories, as well as art and videos from contributors all over the world. (Six-word purists should feel free to skip that part.) Online there are many more backstories, as well as art and videos from contributors all over the world.

We launched SMITH Magazine to provide a new kind of reading experience, a place where users create the content and editors curate it. The success of the Six-Word Memoir project proved that people are hungry for passionate personal stories, told in a forum where everyone is welcome and the literary playing field is level. This book contains less than 1 percent of the torrent of self-expression that arrives at our virtual doorstep each day. If youre new here, we welcome you to our world of six, and hope youll head over to sixwordmemoirs.com to claim your place in it. We can even send you our pick for the Six-Word Memoir of the Day via Twitter, the microblogging platform that has exploded since the tech wizards there helped launch the first six-word memoir contest back in 2006. With each submission, our library of shared stories becomes wider, deeper, and richer.

The growth of a small writing game into an international phenomenon is definitely not quite what we were planning, but its incredibly gratifying. And if theres one thing weve learned never to doubt, its this: It really can all change in an instant. Larry Smith (Now I obsessively count the words.) and
Rachel Fershleiser (Morning: national television.
Afternoon: bookstore bathrooms.)
September 2009, New York City