As National Short Story Month comes to a close, I’m reminded short stories come in many dimensions. “For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.” is at one extreme. This story is usually attributed to Ernest Hemingway, though that is unsubstantiated.

That flash fiction inspired Smith Magazine to put out a call to readers, which resulted in Not Quite What I was Planning: six-word memoirs by writers famous & obscure. Subsequently, Smith Magazine edited another volume, It All Changed In An Instant: more six-word memoirs by writers famous & obscure. Those six-word entries could inspire an incredible number of short stories for writers who go longer than flash-fiction. Or how about your own six-word nugget? You might become addicted to these mini-morsels. Mine is “Granny gave me a round tuit.”