S[ex] Stories?
Ok, so I really just wanted to have that title somewhere in this blog.
But-no-really. How do you tell a STORY in SIX words? Does it lose its identity as a story when it’s stripped to the barest bones? Is sex really sex when it’s just the act of intercourse or climax? The pleasure in reading builds with foreshadowing, the denouement carries the significance into the realm of intimacy.
Can all that really be sacrificed and the integrity of the story remain?
Some raw elements I have discovered on this journey:
- Character: somebody–be it personification or anthropomorphism (like that?)
- Sense of time: sequence–first this, then this, and probably that
- Space: where are we?
- Arc: implications without specificity don’t take you on a trip; you have to start, trek, and finish–which means you have to see an actual trail, not a bunch of underbrush that needs serious machete-trimming
- Problems: if the conflict is too easily resolved, you’ve written a proverb or aphorism
For your consideration, straight from the poet’s mouth:
Married in six days, separate forever.
The bank closed forever that day.
Revolution backfired. Humanity may not recover.
I won’t bore you with the 10 others…
christopologie 
I like this. The way you have broken down and simplified the main points of a story. It helps keep it all in order and precise when you keep these in mind, otherwise, especially when you are trying to write a story in six words, you might just end up with a nice sentence, but really no narrative.
I wonder if there are any novels out there that, even though they are longer than six words, full of sentences and paragraphs, that would fail to meet these five main points and could be considered just a nice ‘aphorism’ or ‘proverb’ and not a story?
Also, sex is still sex if its just intercourse and climax…its just called a ‘booty call’ at that point, rather than ‘love making’. 😉