Bloggy Boot Camp | Six Word Memoir

Drop me in a room full of bloggers in Las Vegas and what happens? My geeky, sit in the front row of the class, school girl self comes out and I'm giddily in Beginner's Mind land.

That's right, Bloggy Boot Camp. (Try to get past the name.) My head is stuffed full of learning and ideas and motivation. My business card case is filled with new blogs to check out. I met a couple of amazing women. Plus, I had a bonus day to myself to write and redesign my blog and luxuriate in a super cool bathtub. And shop a bit. And eat lobster pasta. Lucky girl, me.

My favorite part of the bootcamp was the writing workshop, and the best part of that was a little exercise called The Six Word Memoir. The classic example is

     Baby shoes for sale. Never used.

Our three minute exercise was to use this method to describe our blogs; then a few people read theirs out loud. First called on was Elizabeth, all shiny five feet nothing of her clad in a beautiful short black dress, a dazzling statement necklace, a dainty and also LARGE engagement ring, accenting the tiniest wrists I've ever seen. Her six words were a surprise...

     (T)hug Life. Part Hood. Part Good.

Well, then. Exteriors can be deceiving.

All explained later when, as the closing speaker, she led us through her personal journey to illustrate being authentic in your blogging. Working from a little stack of index cards, Elizabeth put her soul right out there in the front of the room. Authentic, honest and, most of all, wicked funny. If you are intrigued by someone who had her daughter at nineteen, married five years ago after knowing her husband for a grand total of eighteen days, who can't go five sentences without swearing, and who got huge bumps in readership from the disparate corners of Gretchen Rubin (The Happiness Project) and Tupac (yes, posthumously,) she blogs at FlourishInProgress.com. I'm not sure that I would have loved her blog without meeting her in person first, but with that talk as introduction, I'm there. This woman's got a heart under her tough girl writing style and sparkly jewelry.

So, back to the six word description. (And, yes, I raised my hand and read mine right after Elizabeth....told you I was geeky.) Here's what I came up with:

     Not a natural Mama. Trying Hard.

and

     Small moments yield meaning. Blog them.

And that pretty much sums it up, I think.

What would your six word memoir be? Share, please!