Six Word Memoirs: Romance Fact or Fiction

According to literary legend, American novelist Ernest Hemingway, famous for his succinct prose, once accepted a challenge to write a story in six words. He won the bet with these six: “For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.” In 2006, Smith, an online magazine that defines itself as “a place for storytelling, with a focus on personal narrative” invited its readers to accept a version of the Hemingway challenge and write their memoirs in six words. The response was so successful that in 2008 Smith editors Rachel Fershleiser and Larry Smith published a collection, Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure. That book became a NYT bestseller, so Fershleiser and Smith followed up in 2009 with Six-Word Memoirs on Love and Heartbreak by Writers Famous and Obscure. Some of the memoirs are nearly as poignant as the Hemingway original: "For the children, I remain his." Some, like writer Erica Jong’s contribution (“Much married, fourth time is charmed”), have a dark humor. Some, like poet Robert Hass’ memoir (“May I have the last dance?”) have a captivating ambiguity. My personal favorite is by poet and naturalist Diane Ackerman (“Wonder-filled, and never a dull torment.”)

I thought that it would be fun for us to celebrate our love of romance fiction by writing our own six-word memoirs of love and HEAs. You can share your own love story or you can assume the persona of a character from a favorite romance novel. Smith’s advice to his contributors should stand us in good stead as well: “write honestly, write truthfully, write specifically, and write quickly.”

 

I’ll start with a few examples:

 

Love’s memories console. One day—reunion.

                                                            --Janga

 

She shot me. I fell hard.

                                    --Dain (Lord of Scoundrels, Loretta Chase)

 

His walk. Lessons learned. Heart call.

                                     --Josie (Pleasure for Pleasure, Eloisa James)

 

Your turn, my friends. Give it a try. I promise these things are addictive. Just to encourage you, I’ll give one randomly selected memoirist a copy of one of my favorite new releases, No Longer a Gentleman by Mary Jo Putney. HEA is guranteed.

 

This post is adapted from one I posted in 2009 at Romance Vagabonds.