Yeah, they tend to hint at either a beginning or an ending, but rarely both. Hemingway's was genius in that respect.
One of the ones I did last year actually had an entire plot - conflict, climax, resolution - but as a result didn't have much room for anything interesting: "I cried. She left. I laughed."
I personally believe Hemmingway's six-worder, like virtually all the others, was poetry- not a story. It depicts a single moment, and the emotions of that moment, but there is no conflict, no conflict resolution, no building action, no denouement, not a single characteristic of dramatic storytelling structure.
I definitely see your point, reading it again - it doesn't tell a story at all, merely hints at the existence of one. It's fantastic poetry... but in itself, no, there's no story there.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2006-10-26 04:28 pm (UTC)Mine's fanfiction, of course. Go figure.
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Date: 2006-10-26 05:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-26 06:04 pm (UTC)Yeah, once you look twice, most of what people are coming up with - even for Wired - aren't really stories.
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Date: 2006-10-26 06:31 pm (UTC)One of the ones I did last year actually had an entire plot - conflict, climax, resolution - but as a result didn't have much room for anything interesting: "I cried. She left. I laughed."
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Date: 2006-10-26 11:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-26 11:49 pm (UTC)