How to write a Six Word Story?

In this article, I'm sharing a few tips on how to write a six-word story of your own.

Here are my tips…

Get inspired by what others have done before you. There are many communities online where you can sometimes find great examples of 6-word stories, like this one. 

 Your story doesn’t need to have a beginning, a middle, and an end like a classical story. However, it does need a controlling idea or theme - a message to make the reader use their imagination. 

Since you only have six words, it's okay for the reader to work a little harder than usual to understand the meaning. So what you leave out is as important as what you include.

By definition, you want to tell some kind of a story, but this doesn't have to be a traditional story. You just have to take the reader from one place to another and give a sense of something happening. Otherwise, it's just a statement. 

Leave the reader with emotion – all storytelling is about emotion. Create a feeling, whether it's sadness, shock, excitement, empathy, or joy. 

Use punctuation. Full stops, commas, colons, question marks, quotation marks, etc. This way you can split up your story into two sentences. 

Choose your words carefully. With only six slots to fill, you don’t have room for weak words. Choose words that have purpose and meaning and drive your story forward. 

I hope this helps, and if you do end up writing your own six-word story, please do share it with me via email or on Instagram! 

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