“I think my brain is overheating”
Six-Word Search: Heat
The above headline comes from “Ashley 101,” a student at Brick Memorial High School in New Jersey, who, like many other Sixers, shares her thoughts on record breaking temperatures. Summer heat got you beat? Here are some of our favorite memoirs from www.sixwordmemoirs.com on enduring and surviving intense summers.
1. "Heat builds. Rain comes. Rinse, repeat." — turniphead
2. "107°, 111°, 112°, 107°, what heatwave?" — BecomingLuke
3. "No heatwave here. Just June gloom." — Stella_Matutina
4. "You're crimson on my heat map." — GirlyHebbish
5. "When the heat waves I swoon." — J3nny
6. "Melting in heat, humidity, and hormones." — Writerreader
What should we search next? Let us know!
Six Contest: Your Summer Stories In Six Words
Road trips. Sunburns. Ice cream. Summers are the time for travel fun, family gatherings, and making lasting memories. For SixContest #145, we challenge you to share your summer stories in just six words.
Sixers have shared classic tales about beach trips ("Watching the tide swallow my castle." — BanjoDan) and family vacations (“Sleepovers: cousins squashed together, mosquitoes. Bliss!" — Miera). Some write about the memories (“Cold environment, stiff desks, SAT prep." — SarahBae) and emotions which ride summer’s wave ("Laughter; golden as the summer sun." — Riaaaaa).
The contest ends on July 31st, so submit your memoir on the contest page at Six-Word Memoirs or leave a comment below for a chance to win a Six-Word Memoir book of your choice!
Short Cut: Six-Word Reviews
From Substack: From discussing pop band ABBA's virtual avatars (you know, as "Abbatars") to observing the quiet foreboding in a hospital waiting room, It's Not Just You shares Susanna Schrobosdorff’s unique perspectives on the human connection. Schrobosdroff, columnist and executive editor at TIME, launched the magazine’s first “personality-driven” newsletter in late 2020. Schrobsdorff inspires readers with her poignant stories, to think holistically and recognize memorable connections all around us.
Six-Word Memoir's Danielle Shum's Six-Word Review: "Comforting anecdotes echo the human condition."
From the World: I know and love The Moth — a force of live, personal narratives with roots in porch lit, bourbon-infused storytelling. Six Words has been a fan and a friend of The Moth forever (and even had a number of Six-Words Live alumnae take the stage at Moth events).
One of my greatest pleasures is tuning out the world and turning on a Moth podcast (which I can confirm pairs well with bourbon and a porch, especially on a hot summer night). The Moth has been setting the bar for storytelling for 25 years, and its newest book, How to Tell a Story: The Essential Guide to Memorable Storytelling, belongs on the nightstand of anyone who wants to up their storytelling game.
Larry Smith’s Six-Word Review: “True stories. Told live. Take notes. ”
This just in: the Six-Word Memoir app!
The Six-Word Memoir app is here! Our in-process, beta version of the app is a tool that enables anyone to create a Six-Word Memoirs topic of their choosing as a way to engage, connect, and celebrate a community, company, or organization. The plan is to allow users to click a few buttons and create their own Six-Word book! How many different ways could you use this app? The only limit is your imagination.
• Birthdays (“Share six words for Allie on her 30th”)
• Weddings (“Six words of advice for the couple”)
• Graduations (“Six words of advice for the proud grad”)
• Company meetings and retreats (“Describe our mission, vision, or values in six words”)
• Common hobbies, causes, or goals (“Six words on birding, climate change, pickleball prowess)
Have an event coming up and want to be a beta tester? Get in touch and let’s play!
Back to School Project: Make a Classroom Book
We are all writers, and I believe we should be published writers. That’s why last fall we created an innovative and easy way for any classroom to make their own Six-Word Memoir book. Making a book to celebrate students’ individual identities and a classroom’s collective spirit is, for starters, a blast. Teachers across the world have found the six word format to be a terrific tool for social emotional learning and also a way for students to feel successful (which I recently wrote about for a piece on Edutopia).
Want to get started on your students’ book? Head on over the Six In Schools to get your presses rolling.