They are brief, pithy and terse.

Adjectives and adverbs are rarely used.

This is a new writing genre.

"They lived happily ever after" will just not do.

I recently discovered a new, fun way of expression. Made popular by Smith Magazine, this consists of saying all you have to say in a mere six words. This succinct way of expressing oneself means that people may read whatever they want into your sentence - and it also means that punctuation can make or break that meaning.

This, of course, was the gist of the gag that told of how males, and females, would punctuate the six-word story:

Woman, without her man, is savage...

or

Woman: without her, man is savage.

Truly, Brevity is the soul of wit.

The whole contest could well become a cult literary form.

The most famous "cliff-hanger" statement of them all in the history of cinema - when Michael Caine as Charlie Crocker in The Italian Job, says "'Hang on a minute lads, I've got a great idea" could be reduced to "Hang on boys, I've an idea!"

To recap, the back of the getaway van, loaded with $4,000,000 gold bullion booty, is left dangling precariously over the edge of a crag. The cinema audience is left to draw its own conclusions as to whether the gang perished, or lived to spend their loot.

This is similar to what the reader feels after perusing these stories in which life is distilled into six-word sentences that speak volumes.... sometimes because they are allegories ("Cycling is easy, once you learn...").

A sentence like: "Love I believed was eternal, wasn't." could have several interpretations. Is this person talking about a failed marriage, or an extra-marital bond? Is it about his own life that he is commenting, or that of someone else? Or is it just that he has watched a film where the protagonists did not sashay off into the sunset?

On the other the words "Today would have been our anniversary." could be referring to a relationship that did not last - or be a reminiscence by a widow.

The idea behind six-word love stories is to titillate the curiosity of the reader, making him want to find out more. The words must be good enough to stand alone as the introductory sentence in a book - ply in this case, there is no book, and sot he reader must flesh out the characters himself.

"Despite the weather, the tryst happened." The word ‘tryst' gives the idea that the relationship is one where for reasons of their own, the lovers do not want to be seen by others. But why is this happening? Is there any chance that one day, these people may get together for good? Is at least one of them already in a committed relationship? Or is it that the partner is not welcome by the parents of the other? Will these people have the courage to go public? Should they? Or... did this story happen a long time ago, and this is merely the first sentence the granny utters to her grandchildren when narrating the story of herself and the children's grandfather?

"I accidentally discovered her dark secret." What was this secret? Was she trying to keep everyone from knowing that her hosanna was not the father of her child - or that she had had fertility treatment with donor sperm? Did the writer meet her on a trip to Gozo - where she was canoodling with someone who was not her partner? Was she an exotic dancer? Was she at the hairdresser's, dying her hair strawberry blonde - when she always claimed it was her natural shade?

Explanations behind six-word stories can range from the sublime, through the sordid, to the ridiculous. "For Sale: Wedding Dress, Worn Thrice." asks a myriad questions. Was the dress bought from a parish bazaar, or for a reduced price from a bridal wear hire shop? Did the same woman wear the dress three times? Was it worn by three generations of the same family, or, perhaps, three siblings or sisters-in-law? If this is the case, do they want to sell it because it "brought them bad luck", and they want to split the proceeds?

Here are two dozen some more "Six-Word Stories" that I wrote. Why not have a go at visualising these characters instead of mindlessly zapping away at your television screen?

Or, better still... why not make up some six-word stories of your own?