Single Sentence Story Contest…

Can you sum up an entire story in one sentence?

As we roll into week-two of our forty days and forty nights of contests I’ve received a lot of great opening sentence suggestions from people all across the country (literally). In fact I’ve gotten so many great sentence suggestions from people that I’d like to open up another side contest that I will post in addition to my weekly short-story postings.

The Single Sentence Story Competition…

Perhaps the most famous single sentence story ever written belongs to Ernest Hemingway, which he contained not only in one sentence, but he only used six words to do it:

“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

- Ernest Hemingway


Pretty crazy, huh? Well, I’d like to open this up to all the would-be writers out there who have just been waiting for inspiration to take hold. Most national surveys suggest that well over 80% of Americans want to write a book some day. Why not start one sentence at a time?

I’ll continue to take submissions for this side-contest from people this week and all weekend, so don’t be shy. Just email me your sentence or send it to me on Facebook or post it in the comments field on this blog. There’s absolutely no limit to how many individual sentences you can submit…so let your pens flow freely. Or more likely, let your keyboards clack away. Let your peers see just what a nifty little story you can convey in a single sentence. There’s no limit on the number of words you can use just so long as it ends after the first period on the page.

But wait, Mark? I’m confused…there’s too many contests. Nope, just two. The usual Mystery-Name contest that repeats weekly, see my post on Mardi Gras, and now an addition Single Sentence Contest just for next week. So what are you waiting for? The human mind is a vast and uncharted place; let’s see what’s inside yours.

Hemingway