Wired had a fantastic collection of similarly short strings of six that they posted here. None match the elegance of Hemingway’s, but if it weren’t for that elegance, we wouldn’t be concerend with brevity.

There was a time when the novel was seen as cheap, because the novelist was given so much room to craft a character. The art, it was said, was in telling a story in just the space that needed.

The writer wasn’t making a world, just an emotion. An impression.

Maybe that’s not a fair critique of novels or long-form fiction, but it is certainly an endearing challenge to fans of the short form to muscle in every word into a lattice work of emotion.

Maybe all short writers should aim for six –even if we miss be a few or three thousand.

For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn.