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The six word memoir exercise changed how I look at editing
I run a small creative writing group out of my living room on Tuesday nights. We have about eight regulars, mostly retirees like myself. A few months ago I gave everyone a simple prompt: write your life story in exactly six words. No more, no less. One of the guys wrote 'Married forty years. Still don't understand her.' Another woman wrote 'Lost my husband. Found my garden. Bloomed.' The shortest one that got us all talking was just 'Started late. Still here. Writing.' I thought it would be a silly five minute warmup, but people got really quiet and thoughtful with it. Has anyone else tried this kind of tight word limit exercise with their own writing? Did it change how you think about cutting down your sentences?
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andrew64612d ago
That 'Started late. Still here. Writing.' thing really stuck with me. It proves the best edits aren't about cutting words but finding the exact ones that carry all the weight.
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lindahunt12d ago
Does that mean I can blame my typos on "word weight" now?
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