Six Word Love Stories

Many years ago Ernest Hemingway claimed that he could write a great story in six words.

When challenged, he produced this: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

Ever since, aspiring writers have been trying to outdo the master of concision.

Today, the New York Times reports that the Website, Smith Magazine, has an extensive file of six word love stories. Link here.

If you read the list that the Times offers you will be struck by how difficult it is to write a six word story. Worse yet, Valentine’s Day notwithstanding, nearly all of them are stories of love lost.

Among my favorites are:

But our domestic partnership was notarized….

He wasn’t worth the panic attacks.

Loved her madly — then went mad.

And then I married him anyway.

I asked for nothing… She obliged.

Still can’t delete his final voicemail.

Does this mean that true love always ends badly? Not at all. Certainly not on Valentine’s Day.

The moral of these stories is: don’t live your life as though it were a story.