Baby Shoes, Never Worn

/ Jeff Cann

The first and only time I wrote a six-word story, I did so as a joke. A bad joke, no one got it. I needed to explain the punchline. Six Word Story – Part II

Last week, Bill, the library employee who runs my writers’ group, assigned homework. “Jeff and I have been discussing Negative Space in writing. Jeff, do you want to explain what we talked about?” I didn’t know this was coming. Slightly panicked, I gave it my best shot. “Negative space is what you imply by your writing, but never actually say.” I looked around the table. People attentive but confused. No glimmers of recognition. I tried to describe negative space in visual art: “In a drawing, the negative space is the part you don’t draw.” Blank stares. I talked about Rubin’s vase. “You’ve seen that image of two faces with a vase in between them?” Confusion morphed into concern. “You know the one I mean, the vase isn’t really there, but…” This went on for thirty more seconds.

Bill jumped back in. “Jeff thought it would be cool if we wrote six-word stories as a negative space exercise.” I tried to give the famous Hemmingway example: For sale: baby shoes, never worn, but I botched it. “Baby shoes for sale… no wait, New baby shoes…, Urm…”

Bill came in for the rescue. “Write a six-word story before next class. We’ll discuss the negative space aspect then.”

Note: If you’d like to understand what I really mean by “Negative Space” in writing, read my last blogpost. That post also includes an image of Rubin’s vase.

This past week has been exciting for me as a blogger and writer. The conversation in the Negative Space comment section continued all week. People agreed, people doubted, people gave their own examples. One writer, a college professor, brought up the six-word story example. I got so excited about the topic I emailed Bill an excerpt from my blogpost along with a picture of Rubin’s vase. I finished up with “I thought it would be neat to have a writers group discussion about writing with negative space, and then we can write six-word stories as a workshop exercise.”

Today I worked on my homework. I came up with two ‘stories.’ I hope each encourages the reader to conjure an image in their head, and maybe think a bit about what comes before and after what I wrote—which in my mind is the point of a six-word story.

  1. Birds swarm feeder, indoor cat chirps.
  2. Buried beneath blankets. Suffer and economize.

Leave your own six-word story, something fresh or an old favorite, in the comments below.

36 thoughts on “Baby Shoes, Never Worn”

  1. Here’s my contribution:

    Aphantasia makes six word stories incomplete.

    It may not be true for every aphantasic, but it is true for me. I have to mentally enlarge the story by several sentences before what the author didn’t say becomes meaningful, at which point it is no longer a six word story.

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  4. That story – the new baby shoes never worn – it tore at my heart. Such a very short story indeed that spoke VOLUMES with that ‘negative space’ you talk about. I’d love to write like that one day, Jeff. I smiled as you explained your attempts at telling that story. I do the same when I’m nervous. Good on you for trying, though.

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    • Hemmingway allegedly created the genre with that story and no one has ever written a better one. I’m actually meeting with my psychiatrist tomorrow to explore whether my tourette medication may be impacting my ability to string together several sentences.

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  6. I love this technique most in writing I think. Reminds me of the same in film: what happens off camera, or out of the frame. That engaged and surprises the audience on a whole other level, brings different layers of reality to the whole world you’re creating and depth. Never thought of it as negative space, thanks for sharing Jeff. Negative space invites readers in.

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    • I suppose this can be achieved in any art form. When I listen to music, I’m often focused on the negative space of the composition. I think it’s prevalent in punk which may explain why it’s a genre that people love or hate. I know it’s prevalent in Jazz, but in that case, it’s just something I can’t ‘see’.

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  8. Considering all the wordiness in the world (i.e., using lots of words to say little), this minimalist approach seems profoundly important. It may be a way of training our minds away from all the noise.

    The Imagist poets made great use of negative space, I think. Consider W. C. Williams poem:

    so much depends
    upon

    a red wheel
    barrow

    glazed with rain
    water

    beside the white
    chickens

    So much is potentially going on in what is not said overtly. Plus, the possibilities suggested by the word at the end of the first line of each stanza create real negative spaces that I find amazing.

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    • Ahaha. So relevant! Actually, I’m in Pennsylvania, we have 2 inches of snow. I got into work, but in my front wheel drive truck, the roads are terrible. Think I’m trapped here. Thanks for following.

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  12. Pingback: A Short Short Story… – Bloggish

  14. I understand “six word story.” You understand “six word story.” So many “writers” out there in blogland think they understand “six word story” when in fact, they do not. Most of these “writers” offer simple six word sentences foisting them off as “stories,” when at best they are simple declaratives. Operative is “story.” SWS [sorry, I’m lazy and feeling redundant typing the phrase over and over] implies something cleverly crafted so as to inescapably make the reader know the missing requisite components of “story” – beginning, middle, and conclusion, no matter that each reader’s pieces of the whole are different. Great SWSes manage further to bundle humor, irony, and hidden alternate meanings. Happy to see someone other than me bridle at misapplication of the moniker “SWS.” Now. Howja like to talk about what many current “poets” consider poetry?

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    • Now you’re pulling me into a rant of my own. The so called daily prompts are answered by people as if they are being interviewed by a reporter. There’s very little storytelling or creative writing. They give blogging a bad name. I’m not versed in poetry (heh heh) enough to determine what’s good and bad. Every now and then I try to knock out a poem and people politely offer up likes, but I don’t try to fool myself.

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      • Get on it. Your rant. Time wannabe essayists, poets, storytellers, singers, and musicians of no talent hear from more than a few sane people. While I doubt any pretenders would be convinced of their lack of talent and pursue avocations which do not insult normal folk, it would make for interesting reading.

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