I have recently taken great interest in flash fiction.

Flash fiction is a style of very short storytelling that conveys a full narrative in a highly condensed form. Writers of flash fiction must use creativity amidst word count constraints to tell a complete story with a beginning, middle and end.

Flash fiction stories range from a few words up to 1,000. There are also some specific genres. Microfiction is 300 words or less. Drabbles are exactly 100 words. Then there’s the six-word story.

Back in the roaring 20’s, the legendary novelist Ernest Hemingway was having lunch at The Algonquin with some fellow writers. Hemingway made a ten dollar bet with his pals that he could write a novel in six words. He scribbled his six-word story down on a napkin and passed it around the table. The writers unanimously bowed their heads in defeat then forked their money over to Hemingway. The story on the napkin read:

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

As it turns out, this Hemingway story is likely a tall tale. Nonetheless, this six-word short has remained attributed to him over the years, and the six-word story format has stuck around.

To join the flash fiction fun and flex my creative muscles, I penned a few of my own six-word stories, including a few takes on the “six-word memoir” subgenre.

Six-word stories

First came ChatGPT. Then, the humanoids.

Humanity has fallen. AI reigns supreme.

Big Bang. Dinosaurs. Homo sapiens. Superintelligence.

They swiped right then got struck.

She loved humor. His jokes killed.

Six-word memoirs

Loss. Grief. Psychosis. Despair. Redemption. Fatherhood.

My pain has turned to pride.

I miss mom more than ever.