An exercise in brevity

Legend has it that Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in only six words. His response? “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” SMITH magazine asked readers last year to create six-word memoirs, the best of which were recently published in the book "Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure." As all writers know, it's incredibly hard to distill a thought down to its essence, much less a life. Feel free to post your own mini-memoirs here (or on the original site, below).

SMITH Magazine

Similarly, economist Stephen Dubner, best known for co-authoring the wildly popular book Freakonomics, recently asked readers of his blog to submit six-word mottos for the United States (Example: Coming to a country near you!). Results after the link.

Freakonomics blog