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Six words.
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Read complete stories told in exactly six words. Love one or don’t. Your vote shapes what rises and falls.

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Literary
Everything takes time. Time takes everything.
Originally found on reddit.com
+29score87%loved it39 votes

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0 judged todayUnreasonably Neutral
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Six Word Story is a place to read, write, judge and explore complete short stories, memoirs, poems, and jokes told in exactly six words.

1,983+ six-word pieces1,598+ credited writers2,350+ reader judgments

TODAY'S SIX · EDITOR SELECTED

One excellent piece. Six words.

A daily doorway into the collection, chosen for craft rather than generated from rankings.

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What is a six-word story?

A six-word story is a complete narrative told in exactly six words. The best examples suggest a character, conflict, and world beyond the sentence, leaving the reader to finish the story in their imagination.

Start with six-word story examples or six-word memoirs, then browse funny, scary and horror, sad or science-fiction stories. For the craft behind them, use the practical writing guide and word-counting rules.

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Six words. Proper guidance.

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What is a six-word story?The form, its rules and why six words can still tell a complete story.How to write oneA practical method for finding the turn, cutting hard and making every word count.Six-word story examplesCurated examples with short explanations of what makes each tiny story work.Six-word memoirsTrue-life examples, human-written prompts, practical craft guidance and a live community collection.Prompts and exercisesStarting points for memoir, comedy, horror, romance and speculative stories.Classroom resourcesA simple lesson structure, writing activity and peer-voting exercise for teachers.Six-word stories for studentsStudent-friendly examples, prompts and a simple method for writing a complete story in six words.Six-word biography lesson planA complete research-to-writing lesson with sourced models, differentiation, a rubric and printable worksheet.Workshop and writing-group kitTimed session plans, prompt cards, generous critique, anonymous voting and printable participant sheets.Six-word writing for kidsStories, memoirs, jokes, poems, prompts, games and private writing activities for ages 6–14.Six-word stories for kidsTwelve funny, spooky, adventurous and magical examples with a private Story Lab.History of the formBaby shoes, the Hemingway myth and how six-word storytelling became a worldwide form.Six words in popular cultureDoctor Who, celebrated authors, bestselling books, advertising and public storytelling.The family of literary formsNovels, flash fiction, haiku, limericks and the precise place of six-word stories.Six words vs microfiction vs flashA direct comparison of length, structure, purpose and the word-count boundaries editors disagree about.Famous stories, fact-checkedVerified examples, original sources and the evidence behind the Hemingway baby-shoes myth.Six-word story glossaryForty-eight plain-English definitions spanning six-word forms, flash fiction and miniature-story craft.Questions, answeredForty-two direct answers about counting, craft, forms, history, ownership, safety and publishing.Rules and word countingClear answers on hyphens, contractions, titles, punctuation and exactly what counts.Editorial standardsWhat we publish, what we decline and how corrections, reports and AI-assisted work are handled.Writing toolsUse the non-AI Writing Lab, word resources and practical tools built for the six-word constraint.
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Find your kind of story.

Explore permanent genre collections with selected stories, writing tips and answers, or browse the complete Genres & Themes directory.