How Studying the World’s Shortest Story Taught Me to Be a Better Writer
By: Liz Jin
Tags: Writing, Short Story, Fiction, Self Improvement, Creativity

You can convey more than you think in only six words

Photo by Madhuri Mohite on Unsplash

Years ago, I took a creative writing course with the hopes of learning how to express myself through storytelling. On the first day of class, my teacher explained the essential elements of a story: characters, setting, plot, conflict, and theme. She then asked us to find these elements in the following “story” famously attributed to Ernest Hemingway.

“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

The effect of this heartbreaking sentence on the class was palpable as we let out a collective gasp. But we were also confused. How was this sentence a story?

The teacher must have anticipated our skepticism, for she only smiled and gently encouraged us to give the exercise a try. As we opened our imaginations and analyzed each of the six words, slowly but surely, a story began to emerge.

The characters were a dead baby and the person placing the ad. The setting was a newspaper. The plot was a couple whose baby had recently died. That the shoes were for sale introduced a financial component to the action. The conflict was the agonizing decision whether or not to sell the baby’s belongings. The theme was a profound loss.

The teacher explained that this story was an extreme example of a flash story — a fictional work of extreme brevity that still offers character and plot development.

Legend has it that Ernest Hemingway authored “For Sale, Baby Shoes, Never Worn” to win a bet. However, there are various versions of this story that predate his writing career, including a 1910 newspaper article that referred to a tragic advertisement for the sale of baby clothes.

May 16, 1910 article from “The Spokane Press” that may have served as an inspiration to the author, Wikipedia

Truth be told, I don’t remember much from the creative writing course. But that short story still haunts me and inspires me to this day. “For Sale, Baby Shoes, Never Worn” reminds me that the most impactful stories are about universal themes and that people respond to authenticity and vulnerability. In other words, write about what you know and have experienced first-hand and trust that it will resonate with others.

This short story also makes masterful use of “negative space,” the design principle of giving the eye “a place to rest” in order to enhance the main subject. By choosing his words economically, the author allows the reader to feel the significance of each word and, more importantly, feel the weight of what is left unsaid. Arguably, the crushing tragedy of “For Sale, Baby Shoes, Never Worn” is what is not mentioned, the joys of new parenthood and the future hopes and dreams of a child that no longer exists.

“In nostalgic mood” by Tang Yau Hoong. The power of negative space in art.

I am also reminded of this story whenever I find myself rambling or relying heavily on big words and complex sentences.

In life and in our writing, we tend to overexplain, overshare, and provide irrelevant details that detract from our message. We forget that storytelling isn’t just about self-expression — it’s about connection. Ruthlessly edit your writing and boil your message down to its essence to get to the heart of what you’re trying to say.

My creative writing course was only six weeks long. But it only took one class and six words for me to absorb lasting lessons on storytelling.