Baby Shoes, Never Worn

The first and only time I wrote a six-word story, I did so as a joke. A bad joke, no one got it. I needed to explain the punchline. Six Word Story – Part II

Last week, Bill, the library employee who runs my writers’ group, assigned homework. “Jeff and I have been discussing Negative Space in writing. Jeff, do you want to explain what we talked about?” I didn’t know this was coming. Slightly panicked, I gave it my best shot. “Negative space is what you imply by your writing, but never actually say.” I looked around the table. People attentive but confused. No glimmers of recognition. I tried to describe negative space in visual art: “In a drawing, the negative space is the part you don’t draw.” Blank stares. I talked about Rubin’s vase. “You’ve seen that image of two faces with a vase in between them?” Confusion morphed into concern. “You know the one I mean, the vase isn’t really there, but…” This went on for thirty more seconds.

Bill jumped back in. “Jeff thought it would be cool if we wrote six-word stories as a negative space exercise.” I tried to give the famous Hemingway example: For sale: baby shoes, never worn, but I botched it. “Baby shoes for sale… no wait, New baby shoes…, Urm…”

Bill came in for the rescue. “Write a six-word story before next class. We’ll discuss the negative space aspect then.”

Note: If you’d like to understand what I really mean by “Negative Space” in writing, read my last blogpost. That post also includes an image of Rubin’s vase.

This past week has been exciting for me as a blogger and writer. The conversation in the Negative Space comment section continued all week. People agreed, people doubted, people gave their own examples. One writer, a college professor, brought up the six-word story example. I got so excited about the topic I emailed Bill an excerpt from my blogpost along with a picture of Rubin’s vase. I finished up with “I thought it would be neat to have a writers group discussion about writing with negative space, and then we can write six-word stories as a workshop exercise.”

Today I worked on my homework. I came up with two ‘stories.’ I hope each encourages the reader to conjure an image in their head, and maybe think a bit about what comes before and after what I wrote—which in my mind is the point of a six-word story.