How to Use Narratives As a Sentence

Ernest Hemingway once famously wrote a short story in six words: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." The six words make up a narrative: someone posted the advertisement, the baby shoes were intended for someone else, which suggests rising action based on hope, and then something happened that caused the shoes to remain in pristine condition, a climax, and that in turn suggests disappointment and a sad ending. Since then, many people have tried their hands at single-sentence narratives.

Instructions

    • 1

      Think about the basic structure of short fiction: opening, background, rising action with conflict, climax, and resolution. You will either clearly mention or imply these elements in your one-sentence narrative.

    • 2

      Play around, writing sentences that either imply the presence of a central character, as in Hemingway's story, or that clearly mention a character. Rather than think through an entire plot, go straight to the result of the climax: "For sale: baby shoes." Add the clincher that implies that a drama has ensued and ended: "Never worn."

    • 3

      Punctuate to craft a single sentence. To present your narrative as a single sentence, don't use periods between independent clauses. Use colons or semicolons, or add a coordinating conjunction (and, or, for, nor, so, but, yet) and a comma between them.

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