So about a month ago, my friend Michael Onesi turned me on to this website he regular contributes to called The Four Word Film Review where people review films in four words or less. It seems like a daunting task: how do you sum up a movie in so few words? Very wittily, it turns out. Some of my favourites:
The Fantastic Four—“Four? Yes. Fantastic? No.”
The Blair Witch Project—“Tense. Intense. In tents”
Iron Man—“Downey surprisingly well cast.”
XXX—"Why? why? why?"
Jurrassic Park—“Experiment with dino sours.”
Michael also turned me on to Smith Magazine home of the "Six-Word Memoir" where people post their six-words-or-less autobiographies. If you ever need a source for story ideas, this is fertile ground. Recent submissions include:
"Foster Parent. I now know heartbreak."
"Mum's wig is my biggest secret."
"I am undiagnosed, unnoticed and unhappy."
"You can't be gay in Tennessee."
The six-word memoirs have been so popular, they were published in a book called Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure which became a New York Times Bestseller. Not surprisingly, it's being followed up by other six-word books, including one on love and heartbreak, and one written by teens.
I've been pondering how I would sum up my life in six words or less. I have some ideas, but am still letting them percolate. In the meantime, while browsing the site yesterday, I noticed they had a 100-word contest for Pregnancy Stories. A whole 100 words! It was irresistible. So even though the contest closed in August 2008, and I won't be eligible for the contest prize—a yummy-looking jar of pickles—I decided to post a pregnancy story anyway. Those of you who are interested can read it here:| | |
| Pregnancy Stories Contest at SMITH Magazine http://www.smithmag.net/pregnancy-contest/story.php?did=44824  | |
No comments:
Post a Comment