If you’re a long-time WYG grief-friend, you know that Eleanor and I looooove six-word stories. Why? First, because we love creative expression as a tool for coping with grief. Writing, of course, is one of those creative tools. We also know from many years of working with grievers and hanging out here with all of you, not everyone fancies him/herself a writer. Or writing can feel really daunting in grief. But when all you have to do is muster six words it can feel a little more manageable.
Now, in case you have never heard of a six-word story, here is the deal: (contested) rumor has it that way back when Ernest Hemingway was out with some friends who challenged him to write a short story in just six words. He took them up on it and wrote the following story: “For sale, baby shoes, never worn.” This sparked a movement of people inspired to write their own six-word stories, six-word memoirs, etc.
A while back Eleanor wrote a post with a six-word grief journaling exercise and when we shared it on facebook we were overwhelmed by the hundreds of responses that rolled in over the course of just a couple days. It seemed a tragedy that they would be lost in the history of our facebook comments, so we wrote another post sharing some of the submissions. When we shared that post, people responded with hundreds more incredible six-word grief stories, which we were again sad would be lost in the comments of our blog and facebook page. So we did the only logical thing there was to do: we started a new website! Obvs.
That brings us to today: the official ribbon cutting for GriefInSixWords.com
Now, if you follow us on social media (which you should, just sayin’) you may be a little confused because we have been talking about Grief In Six Words on facebook and instagram for a while now. We encouraged our facebook grief-friends to go take the site for a test-drive with some six-word challenges, to help us get the kinks out. Thanks to those of you who helped – we know there were some hiccups, and your feedback allowed us to work out the details and get things running smoothly (we are griefy-mental-health gals, not web developers, so we needed all the help we could get).
Today, whether you’re hearing about it for the first time or if you knew about it already, we invite you to head on over to Grief In Six Words. While you’re there, we hope you’ll read the stories that got the site going. Though our early site testers faced some technological glitches, we were still left speechless by the powerful six-words stories that rolled in. We hope you’ll like them and share them, if you feel inclined. We hope you’ll consider sharing your own six-word grief story. Just so you know, none of the stories shared in the comments of past WYG six-word posts were moved to the new site, so feel free to share a story there that you have already shared with us. Or, share a brand new six-grief story. Or both! There are no rules here (well, except that whole six-word rule).
Stay tuned in the future on the blog and social media, because we will be doing six-word story challenges throughout the year. Children’s Grief Awareness Day is coming up in November and we will soon be announcing a six-word challenge for that day. And you better believe we will be encouraging you to share some of those holiday memories and complicated holiday grief emotions with some six-word holiday grief challenges.
Still a little confused about this whole grief in six-words thing? Below are some of the amazing stories that were submitted for our Suicide Prevention Week Challenge and our challenge to write a six-word story describing something you adore about your deceased loved one (perhaps about their best quality, your favorite thing about them, or just something that makes you smile).
Suicide Grief and Prevention Six-Word Challenge:
Something You Adore About Your Loved One Six-Word Challenge:
Hopefully you are feeling a bit inspired to write your own six-word grief story or to read some more stories. If so, head over to griefinsixwords.com. Seriously, go on now, get.
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The post Grief In Six Words: a new site by WYG appeared first on What's Your Grief.