NaNoWriMo: I'm not a Fan

I have a confession to make: I do not like National Novel Writing Month, a.k.a. NaNoWriMo. While I want to be supportive of my friends who find it useful for their writing exercises, the mere concept of making myself write 50 thousand words in one month gives me a headache. I want to simplify my life, not clutter it. I appreciate Cloudscome's haiku and Tricia's poetry exercises for their focus on brevity and precision. Prose allows for more words, but I want it to be just as focused.

Sometimes, I find Sean Lindsay of 101 Reasons to Stop Writing refreshing in his humorous cynicism about the glut of bad writing. I am appreciative of HipWriterMama for her encouragement of aspiring writers, but I'm also ever hopeful that the writers' products are stories that waste no words.

To counteract the effects of NaNoWriMo, I'm going to offer six word stories again. Guess the literary allusions of these offerings:

1) Heading home. Twenty years later... home.
2) "Marry me." "Never!" Later: "Nice mansion!"
3) My better half stole my girlfriend.
4) "Magic does not exist." "Oh yeah?"


Answers (highlight to view) :
1) The Odyssey
2) Pride and Prejudice
3) Anansi Boys
4) Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

Six Word Storytime

I enjoyed reading your contributions to last week's Six Word Stories*. Let's play again. I'll go first. Write whatever you like. I feel like rewriting children's books. If you like pithy reviews of children's books, check out Emily Reads and Book-A-Minute.

Charlotte's Web, by E. B. White:
Some pig! Some spider! No bacon.

Constance: A Story of Early Plymouth, by Patricia Clapp:
"I hate you!"
"Kiss me."
"Okay."

Sleeping Beauty, retold by Trina Schart Hyman:
"What is a spindle? Owwwwwch." (Snore.)

*Six Word Story concept stolen from the pages of Fishsuit. I'm hoping to settle out of court.

Update: Six Word Stories is a meme. I don't have to pay Fishsuit anything. Here is Wired magazine's feature on six word stories by science-fiction authors: Very Short Stories. My favorites are by Neil Gaiman and Ursula K. LeGuin. Thanks to Bede for the link.

Six Word Story Round-Up

Here is a sample of the six word stories you contributed this week. Thank you, Fishsuit, for starting this whole circus of storytelling.

"What? I missed my show? No!"
Lady K.

The alien princess zapped gross posters.
Lone Star Ma

"That's not my belly-button."
"Oh, sorry."
Limpy99

"What's that?"
"I made it."
"Oh, sorry."
BlueMamma

Arg...thick...poop...hurts...ung...corn.
Steven Novak

"I ate raisins?"
"Nope. Bugs."
"Squishy!"
Alkelda

The laundry just kept piling up.
Nonny

I came, I saw, I caffeinated.
Tony (aka Bede)

Six Little (or Big, or Medium) Words

I get it! The Round Robin is too much work. You want to be entertained, not to entertain me. Well, the pigeon has feelings too. I'm going to sulk in a corner and make faces at all the passers-by.

Really, though: if it works, it works. If it doesn't, I move on. Sometimes it takes awhile for things to catch on, and sometimes they never catch on at all.

Now, how about writing a six word story instead? Come on. Entertain me. Six little words. Six big words. A pleasant mixture of both little and big words. Follow Fishsuit's link for some examples, then add your own in my comments section. I shall reuse my own contribution just to kick-start the fun.

Alkelda's 6 word story:
Where does this go? Uh-oh.