Summing up a life in six words proves addictive

By Belinda Goldsmith

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - If you were asked to sum up your life in six words would it be a work of triumph -- or tragedy?

"Not quite what I was planning," is a book of six word memoirs compiled by Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser, editors of online storytelling publication Smith Magazine.

The pair set out with an online contest to see if writers could emulate the success of Ernest Hemingway's legendary six-word story: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn" -- and were flooded with 15,000 entries, putting about 800 into a book.

The entries came from writers never published as well as big names like U.S. celebrity chef Mario Batali ("Brought it to a boil, often") and American author Joyce Carol Oates ("Revenge is living well, without you.")

Smith and Fershleiser spoke to Reuters about how condensing life into six words can be addictive:

Q: What was the most surprising aspect of these memoirs?

Smith: "One of the wonderful things of this process is that they were, by and large, really good. People are really good storytellers ... Our first feeling was that is could be fun, cool, kooky, sweet but we found such intensity in these."

Fershleiser: "People were shockingly open. They would send in six words having never written before. People would then send photographs. One man sent a picture of his late wife who was 29. People sent photos of headstones of babies' graves."