six words, one idea, intriguing challenge

Larry Smith and fellow editor Rachel Fershleiser put together the book, "Not Quite What I Was Planning," based on peoples six-word memoirs.

Used to be biographies were only written about Famous People, or by People Who Have Done Something Historically Important.

 

But the genre's changed.

Go to the biography section of your local bookstore today, and you'll find memoirs written by everyday people crowding the shelves, side-by-side with tomes on Harry Truman, Albert Einstein and Marilyn Monroe.

Larry Smith decided to take it one step further. Two and a half years ago, on Smith Day ("the most common name in America," he claims) he started an online magazine called Smith, a space where people can tell their personal stories.

And then in November 2006, he challenged his readers: write a six-word memoir. Condense the essence of your life into six vital words, and send them in.

He based the invitation on a Hemingway legend, in which he was challenged in a bar whether he could write a six-word story. As the story goes, Hemingway, th, then wrote a man of few words to start with, the following story: "For sale: Baby shoes, never worn."

SPECIAL TO FLORIDA WEEKLY Author Larry Smith has received more than 30,000 six-word memoirs.

"With Hemingway as our guide, we basically said to our readers, 'We'd like you to write a six-word memoir, your own life story. It could be about how your day went, or your whole life, some kind of essence of who you are in just six words,'" Smith says.

 

And then, to provide inspiration, he gave his readers some examples.

The first person he e-mailed for a six-word memoir was Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the best-selling full-length memoir "Eat, Pray, Love." She wrote back that she was running to hop a plane to Indonesia, but sent back a memoir "to be spoken in the voice of a giddy, Tarzan-like (but girlish) figure": "Me see world! Me write stories!"

"Kind of like a Tarzan-like thing, swinging from country to country," Smith says. Then he contacted Dave Eggers, who offered, "Fifteen years since last professional haircut."

 

Life is a banquet, so eat - Robert Cacioppo Florida Repertory Theatre

Smith's own six-word memoir is: "Big hair, big heart, big hurry."

"I wrote it pretty quickly," he says. "And I say to people, 'Go with your first instinct, often. Don't over-think it. Take your time and be careful, but don't make it a big thing.' I did mine really kind of quickly, and it works. And then I thought, maybe I should do a better one, and I started asking friends, and they said, 'No, that is it, man, that is you.'"

And then the six-word memoirs started pouring in.

"You give people examples, and they start thinking," says Smith. "And wow, not only can they do it, but they love it. They can get good at it. And they get addicted to doing it. So that's what happens. You put the challenge out, and thousands and thousands of people sent in six-word memoirs. And for days, we were like, whoa!"

To date, Smith's received over 30,000 six-word memoirs.

Readers sent in memoirs such as:

"Wasn't born a redhead. Fixed that." (Andie Grace)

"Time to start over again, again." (Dan Petronelli)

"Everyone who loved me is dead." (Ellen Fanning)

As Aspire, inspire. Make something from nothing. Naples - Myra Daniels Philharmonic Center for the Arts

"Always dreamt of kissing pretty girls." (Jessica Furey)

 

"Life is circular. Caring for parents." (Timothy McGrath)

"Mmm, tea. So stereotypical. Rule Britannia!" (Paul O'Brien)

"Big heart protected by sharp tongue." (Kris Kleindienst)

"Entire story written with quotidian nouns." (Tim Batton)

"No shit I'm critical - you're flawed." (Elizabeth Koch)

"Joined Army. Came out. Got booted." (Johan Baumeister)

"A crush on Susan Sarandon. Unrequited." (Wally Edge)

"Sperm too potent. Now have triplets." (Rachel Schunk)

"Blogging is easy. Writing is hard." (Jennifer Shreve)

Some were sad: "I still make coffee for two." (Zak Nelson), "Mom died, Dad screwed us over." (Lesley Kysely) Some were wistful: "Born in the desert. Still thirsty." (Georgene Nunn) Others were defiant: "She walked barefoot in wet cement." (Michelle Pinchev) Some are humorous: "The psychic said I'd be richer." (Elizabeth Bernstein) And one channeled his inner Sir Mixalot: "I like big butts, can't lie." (Dave Russ)

No, no, no, no, no. Yes. - Bill Taylor Theatre Conspiracy

The entries were so diverse and creative that Smith and fellow editor Rachel Fershleiser put together a book, "Not Quite What I Was Planning." (Harper Perennial, paperback, $12.)

 

It was praised in Oprah magazine and in Vanity Fair, became a New York Times Bestseller and is now in its sixth printing.

Interspersed among six-word memoirs from readers of Smith are entries from famous people and celebrities, though they're not identified as such.

Author Nora Ephron ("Heartburn," "I Feel Bad About My Neck" and the screenplay for "Sleepless in Seattle") wrote: "Secret of Life: marry an Italian."

Prolific novelist Joyce Carol Oates wrote: "Revenge is living well, without you." (She also submitted three "found" six-word memoirs from the poems of Emily Dickinson, including "Hope is a thing with feathers." Dickinson "seems to have had a genius for the sub-genre," Oates told the magazine.)

Satirist and author Neal Pollack ("Alternadad") submitted: "Eight thousand orgasms. Only one baby."

"I'm a tough act to follow." - Carrie Lund Florida Repertory Theatre

And Mary Roach, whose humorous book "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers" was a critical success and New York Times Bestseller, offered: "Cadavers played an unexpectedly large part."

 

New age guru Deepak Chopra wrote the mystical "Danced in fields of infinite possibilities." And his son, Gotham Chopra, offered "Soul'd out so I could prophet."

"I asked. They answered. I wrote." Sebastian Junger, author of "The Perfect Storm" submitted.

Celebrity chef Mario Batali submitted half a dozen mini-memoirs. Smith went with "Brought it to a boil, often," which lends itself to multiple interpretations.

TV celebrity Steven Corbert offered, "Well, I thought it was funny."

Singer/songwriter Aimee Mann wrote, "Couldn't cope, so I wrote songs."

And Wikipedia creator Jimmy Wales wrote, "Yes, you can edit this biography."

People have taken the idea of sixword memoirs and run with it, Smith says. One reader used the concept while eulogizing their grandmother, a poker enthusiast. Explaining the six-word memoir concept, they ended their tribute with this summary: "Life was like a royal flush."

"Work in progress, please stand by." - Rachel Burttram Florida Repertory Theatre

A battered women's shelter in Philadelphia uses it as an easy way for women to tell their stories and reflect on their lives. And teachers all over are using the concept in their classrooms.

 

"I've taught six-word memoirs in some classrooms," Smith says. "And I know teachers all around the country, really, the world, have used it all over, in grade schools, kindergarten, grad school."

Smith taught six-word memoirs at his nephew's classroom at George C. Baker Elementary School in Moorestown, New Jersey. All the teachers were coming up to him and saying, "Hey, could you do my classroom?" he says.

"And it's amazing what kids come up with. In a sense, the third graders were even more brilliant than the sixth graders. The eight year olds in the class made a special book, called 'Not Quite What We Were Planning.' Of all the things that have happened -- being on national TV, NPR, having interviews all over the world, all sorts of fun stuff, the book's a best-seller - there's nothing that I cherish more and made me happier than when Mrs. Nixon's third grade class handed me this binder book. Each kid had a page of six-word memoirs. They're just unbelievable."

"Familly first, artfully inspired, compassionate liberal." - Will Prather Broadway Palm Dinner Theater

Some samples: "They're mean, but I love them." "Always in trouble, but not troubled." "Life is better in soft pajamas."

 

"They're just, wow!" Smith says. "It's a really cool book. The kids hold their own.

"You have an idea, and you love your idea, but watching the way the world takes that idea and does new things with it [is just spectacular.] All based on this idea of personal, popular storytelling. It's so wonderful. That's what the site's all about."

Smith magazine has plans to publish a few more books. (When they chose memoirs for the first book, they had three books' worth then, he says.) In January 2009, they'll publish "Six-Word Memoirs on Love and Heartbreak." (The ratio is four to one, heartbreak memoirs to love memoirs.) Then they plan to publish a book of teen memoirs, which will be 90 percent by teens, but include some memoirs by young adult authors.

"Things aren't always as they appear." - Dallas Dunnagan The Naples Players

And then they'll publish a sequel to "Not Quite What I Was Planning." This time, it'll include some backstories to the memoirs. For example, a woman, Joanna Brody, submitted a memoir about being infertile: "Multiple miscarriages. Cousin will carry baby." But then she adopted a boy, and became pregnant. And now her new memoir is, "Adopted baby, got pregnant. Instant family."

 

And then there's the first entry in "Not Quite What I Was Planning": "After Harvard, had baby with crackhead."

"That's a true story," Smith says. "After school, the father died, overdosed on drugs. She's raising this little boy. She went to Harvard. It's all true. She's now working on a full-length memoir. So the six-word memoir was basically getting her first story printed."

"Just two cats, and a rabbit." - Ron Bishop Bob Rauschenberg Gallery

And that's what it's all about for Smith, getting people to tell their personal stories.

 

"Everyone has a story," he says. "You just have to remember to ask."

Share your life

Intrigued by the whole idea of six-word memoirs? Why not try your hand at one? Yes, it has to be limited to six words. Not four, not seven. Six. Send your six-word memoirs to: nstetson@floridaweekly.com, and put "sixword memoir" in the subject line. Then look for entries in a future issue. Please include your full name.

And for those of you who want to contribute memoirs to Smith, you can submit them at www.smithmag.net.

Locals chime in with their own six-word memoirs

We decided to ask some of the local arts people to write their own six- word memoirs, to see how they'd condense their lives into a short sextet of words. Some came up with more than one, though each six-word sentence is a complete and full thought. The memoirs are mysterious, whimsical, straight-forward. One even riffs on Mame's famous lines: "Life is a banquet, and most poor bastards are starving to death." (The line was later changed to "…most poor suckers are starving to death.") Here's what they had to say:

(See photos and captions above.)