Five Little Words

I love a writing challenge, especially when they’re short. There are lots out there—from “Tiny Love Stories” (New York Times—100 words max), to the events sponsored by the Rehoboth Beach Writers Guild (at which people read their work aloud, with a 300 word limit—alas, for at least one writer each time, 300 words translates to 3000 words, and the organizers are much too kind to stop them from talking on and on). For me, Queen of the 500 Word Blog Post, I wouldn’t dream of uttering word 301. 

Not sure why I’m so drawn to writing briefly. I like to think it’s because I have a genius for capturing beauty and meaning in a fleeting moment, that I am a lyrical haiku-ist in a world of clunky epic poets. But honestly, I just hate the thought of editing a longer draft. Much better to avoid that tedium by keeping my work too short to trim in the first place!

A few weeks ago, I contributed a prompt for a writer friend’s upcoming One Liner Humor Sprint (participants will write one funny line per day in response to prompts). I came up with this: write a one-liner in the style of a favorite comic (Seinfeld, Rickles, etc.) I’m looking forward to what everybody comes up with (including me—I have no clue what to write, yet).

Rose seems to have been bitten by the brevity bug herself, because she just emailed family and friends to ask them to send her a five-word piece of advice, responding to the prompt Always Remember…

I’m hoping Rose has a rule-following bunch of buddies! I sent her: Life is about creating yourself, which I believe to be both true AND adhering to the word limit. I could have shared many other deep, five word thoughts on life, from personal experience, such as:

Always remember…

Bananas make pears ripen faster

Shag carpet’s a terrible idea

Never go to bed angry

Therefore, never wake up happy

Floss more than once yearly

Don’t wake a sleeping baby

Ask your doctor about Implausia

Good fences make invisible neighbors

Only you can prevent forest fires (six words, I know, but SO important, right?)

No white shoes after summer

No puffy parkas after winter

And so on.

These culled pearls will be used as part of a home decorating/art project Chez Rose. I applaud my daughter’s gutsy approach to interior design--though I too once decorated the walls of our Stuyvesant Town apartment, with bold Crayola murals in 64 brilliant colors. That was the same artistic era which saw my extra illustrations (also crayoned) in my parents’ wedding Bible. Mom called it her Blue Period, for some reason.

As we prepare to greet another New Year, I challenge my readers to tighten up those paragraphs, to compress those rambling thoughts, to become terser and concise-r. Learn how very much you can convey in just five (or fewer) little words.

Here’s to a Reader’s Digest condensed 2024 for all!