The Word

The American novelist Ernest Hemingway was renowned for his verbal economy, short words and short sentences.

He was once, allegedly challenged to write a story in just six words and this is what he came up with; for sale baby shoes never worn.

An online publication, Smith Magazine recently asked its readers, not for six word fictions, but for people's six word autobiographies.

A selection has now been published in a book called "Not Quite What I Was Planning".

The BBC World Service's weekly writing and literature programme, The Word, decided to issue the same challenge to its listeners and was inundated with entries.

Here are just a few of the many responses that came into the programme;

• Reporting death destruction suffering and survival, by Abdurrahman Warsameh, Somalia

• Future billionare to be interviewed on BBC, by Danielle Nelson, Kingston, Jamaica

• Keeping my knowledge in the stars, by Francisco de-Medeiros, Cotonou, Benin

• No partner, no pleasure no pain, by Peter Pliesovsky, Prague

• Caught in hell can't wait heaven, by Pascal, Nairobi, Kenya

• The solution to my problems suicide, by Tandong Michael Yde

• At sea ashore anchored at Antwerp, by Captain Robert Thake, Antwerp, Belgium

• Stormy past steady changes coming out,by Akintayo Ogunsanya, Lagos, Nigeria

• From an influential but selfish family, by Ishmael Bash-Kamara, Sierra Leone

• Early successes decades unemployed writing fiction, by Matthew Mweu, Kangundo, Kenya

• Blind lawyer knowing loss finds justice, by John Eagen, USA

• Still meet kind strangers thank god, by Bharat Khiani, Maharashtra, India

• Since eighty-five I'm lost in space, Meshach Williams in Liberia

• Now or forever still stuck help, by S L Ting, East Timor

• Woman so sad reason husband polygamous, by Binta, Sierra Leone

• Hard as I try can't resist cheating, by Paul Chandler, Brighton, England

• A loved child a blessed man, by Henry Colefield Jr, Kingston, Jamaica

• Born carnivorous atheist became herbivorous agnostic, by P.P. (aka strippy), Prague, CZ
• Born blind radio eyes see world, by Robert Flood, Texas, USA

• Squandered more chances than others get, by Hans Westin, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands

• Alone love it and hate it, by Joe Goss, Boston, USA

• Sad childhood an optimist for life, by Ann Mallinson, New Zealand

• I should have but I didn't, by Dan Pendick, Milwaukee, USA

• Gave my all for my mother, by Olivene Thomas

• Drinking nearly killed me should have, by K Doolan, Chicago, USA

• Home becomes hell when papa drinks, by Karo Umukoro, Nigeria

• Schizophrenia 21 happily mad 44 drugs, by Graham Binns, Bradford, UK

• I never killed but shot before, by Perry Kafui, Accra, Ghana