Friday, November 18, 2011

Take the Ten Word Story Challenge!

At yesterday's AASLH webinar on storytelling, I invited participants a ten word story challenge as a way of using our imaginations about the historic spaces that we share with our visitors.  What's a ten word story challenge?  At some point, it's said that Ernest Hemingway was challenged by a friend to write a story in ten words--he responded with a story in only six.  His story?
                        For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

Many of the participants in the webinar had wonderful responses when I asked them for a ten word story about the image shown at the top of this post.  The responses had a sense of drama, of excitement, that is often not found in historic house interpretation.  Here are just a few of the responses:

The dog passed, the lamp went dark.  No one ever ate in this room again.   
Answered an ad to go to the prairie as a bride.
The house is still; mourners are in the parlour.
Mother left. The children found her dog.
Yikes! Empty space on wall!  Out looking for another picture.
Awoke. Snuck off. Had fun. With who?
A quiet man had lunch. 
After the earthquake the lamp eventually stopped swinging.
The light was lit, they led them into the hall.

 Take the challenge--what's your story of this place?

7 comments:

  1. It wasn't the same without him.

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  2. My ten word response to these submissions:

    Love it. Gets to the heart. That's what it's about.

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  3. Blue walls. Many lamps. Anything to keep the dark away.

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  4. Thanks for your stories...it was fun thing to do with everyone...maybe I'll try a couple more images soon to see what other great ideas are out there.

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  5. Waiting in guest room so doctor can see her alone.

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  6. Thanks for one more story! Hope there's some more out there...

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  7. He appeared out of nowhere. “Quick, what year is it?”

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