SixWordStories Workshop #4 : Descriptions

Once every two weeks on a Thursday, we will hold a six word story workshop involving a bit of discussion about anything (and everything!) related to the six word story form and a small activity for you all to get stuck into.

You may think that it seems a bit paradoxical to host a workshop, let alone many workshops, on a form that uses only six words, but after years of reading these six word stories, we felt it was time to start these workshops to help you with your stories.

Therefore, if you would like us to do a workshop on your six word story, in the sense of having us discuss and critique your six word story, please send us a note!

In Workshop #3, we tackled questions in six word stories. Many of you wrote some great six word stories involving questions, so thank you for participating in the workshop!

Today, we will be looking at descriptions for descriptions, similar to questions, rarely depict stories. First, let us consider what descriptions actually are.

Simply put, descriptions are written accounts of people, objects or events. Descriptions often involve statements, statements that don't necessarily guarantee stories. As pieces involving description usually consist of descriptive representation, often pieces contain an account of the main concept or subject matter and that is all.

One of the key things about description is that it offers no progression, or anything within the piece to encourage the reader to launch off and imagine something more than what the piece already proposes. Additionally, there is usually no action within the piece.

This often happens because people take all six words to set the scene, as if the scene is enough to emphasise the story. The subject is described in which a story could take place, but this is not a story in itself.

A good way to resolve this situation is to remove all description, or, if you do want to include description, either do so briefly or use the description for more than one purpose. One could argue that many things come under 'description', so to remove all description seems impossible. However, what we would like to emphasise is that description, in six word stories, should do more than simply describe. If you would like to describe something, consider what significance it would have. Ask yourself what you would like your reader to get from this description. What does the description symbolise or mean? Does the description have a point (to make)?

If you would like to set the scene through description, keep this brief and/or ask yourself whether this is necessary at all. Does the description really contribute much to the story?

Bear in mind that, in this context, description and portrayed action are two separate things. Description primarily consists of adjectives and nouns, whereas action primarily consists of verbs and more.

So, what do you think? Do you agree or disagree?


Hopefully this has been informative. If not, send us a note and tell us how it should be done. Feel free to offer suggestions on what we could do for our next workshop.

Thank you!