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DocuSign Envelope ID: CF1E5821-41D3-41CA-BE86-7063BD8D1470 <br /> 30-Word to 6-Word Stories <br /> Purpose: This workshop emphasizes the importance of being concise in poetry,and <br /> using images to be succinct. It challenges participants to pay careful attention to <br /> their diction within the confines of a word limit. It also introduces them to the genre <br /> of flash fiction as made popular by writers like Ernest Hemingway. <br /> • Have participants pick an important memory from their lives. Explain that <br /> this can be a memory that is funny, serious,joyful, exciting, sad,or just <br /> important to them for any reason. If they have created a list of 10 events <br /> from their lives in another one of these workshops,they may draw from that <br /> list. <br /> • Now,have them tell the story of this memory by only using exactly 30 <br /> words. Remind them that poetry is the art of being concise, or saying as <br /> much as possible in as few words as possible. Remind them that images or <br /> sensory information can tell us a lot,and poetry can use sentence fragments, <br /> so tell them to try to focus in on the most important image, sound,smell, <br /> taste,etc. and to use only the words that are absolutely necessary. Give them <br /> about 10 minutes. <br /> • Now,tell them to cut their story down from 30 words to only 20 words. <br /> Explain that they may cross out words, or rewrite certain parts if they need <br /> to. Suggest that they start by getting rid of some of the articles (like the,a, <br /> an) and conjunctions (like and, or,but) that aren't necessary, and then move <br /> on to the other words.Tell them to make sure that the words they cross out <br /> are still visible,since we will want to be able to see what they got rid of later <br /> in the workshop. Give them 3-5 minutes to do this. <br /> 6i <br /> • Next,have them cut their story to 10 words. Give them 3-5 more minutes to <br /> do this. <br /> • Finally,have them cut their story to 6 words. Give them a couple of minutes <br /> to do this. <br /> • Before sharing,Write the following example of a 6-word story by Ernest <br /> Hemingway on the board,and explain that this is an example of a genre of <br /> writing called flash fiction. Have them read the story silently and without <br /> speaking,try to decide what they think it means.Then,ask for volunteers to <br /> give their interpretations.The most widely accepted interpretation is that a <br /> couple experienced a miscarriage. Some clever students have suggested <br /> alternative,and more positive explanations such as the shoes the parents <br />