Your Life in Six Words...

Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure - I heard about this book earlier this week on a local radio station I listen to in the morning. One of the editors was interviewed and read some of the memoirs. I was intrigued. As you will see from the review below, the entire book captures more than 800 six word memoirs from both the famous and obscure. I also checked out the magazine that put the book together. It is a great web site for the weekend writer and the personal non-fiction enthusiast in all of us. Check it out.

Review from Amazon.com -

"Can you describe your life in six words? That's what the editors of storytelling magazine SMITH asked readers in 2006; the results, though decidedly uneven, make for compulsive reading and prove arguably as insightful as any 300+ page biography. Taken as a whole, this cascade of quotes from contributors famous and unknown creates a dizzying snowball effect of perspectives and feelings. Highlights from professional writers and artists include journalist Chuck Klosterman wondering, "Nobody cared, then they did. Why?"; pop singer-songwriter Adam Schlesinger lamenting, "We still don't hear a single"; and comic strip artist Keith Knight illustrating "I was a Michael Jackson impersonator." At their best, these nano-memoirs evoke the same kind of rich emotional responses as a good story: 9 year old Hannah Davies considers herself "Cursed with cancer. Blessed by friends"; Zak Nelson says "I still make coffee for two"; Scott Birch claims "Most successful accomplishments based on spite." Some entries read like bumper stickers (Rip Riley: "No wife. No kids. No problems"), and others are just plain weird (Amy Sedaris: "Mushrooms. Clowns. Wands. Five. Wig. Thatched"), but this compelling little book will have readers and their friends hunting for favorites and inventing six-word self-definitions of their own. This review in six words? Read. Enjoy. Pass it on. Repeat."

I thought this would be a fun thing to try and do. Here is my attempts:

"Found life in most unexpected places"

"Thankfully, it didn't go as planned"

"Giving in was never an option"


Your turn.