Imagine Your Life In SIX Words…
Players can only use six crucial words to describe their life. Will you be able to come up with an intriguing
Six-Word-Memoir?
Memoirs are so long! If only there was a way to shorten them AND make a game out of it… I give you: Six-Word-Memoir, a quick and easy activity for groups of close friends and complete strangers alike! If you have a good size group that needs something to do, good thing you read this blog, you will now have a great idea under your belt!
So what is a Six-Word-Memoir? Let’s find out…
Players: 2-15 (or more)
Gear: Paper, Pencils
HOW TO PLAY: SIX-WORD-MEMOIR
This game is fundamentally non-competitive, but it is very easy to include some level of competition if you so wish.
All you have to do is instruct each player to come up with six words that describe their life, or if not their whole life, then perhaps the most intriguing snapshot of their life. The memoir doesn’t have to be written down, which makes this game fantastic for car rides. Give the players all about 20 minutes (or less if they don’t all need the full 20 minutes) and then have each player read their memoir to the group.
Some examples from The Games Bible include:
- Stole wife. Lost friends. Now happy
- Struggle Struggle Finally a Winning Streak
- Not Quite What I Was Planning
- Left Home. Still Seeking Second One
Each memoir can range from intimate or gloomy or hilarious or outright inappropriate!
But the point is now you have some stories to pass around the table to find out more about these life-defining blurbs!
WINNING
As I said before, it’s not really a competitive game, but here’s one way that you can make it one. And I actually enjoy this variation!
Once each person has written their six-word-memoir on a piece of paper, place them all into a hat and gather the group of into a circle. Pulls the slips randomly and read them out loud so that the players try and guess who matches the memoir. The person with the most correct guesses wins!
Author’s Note
This game is actually very similar (content-wise) to a previous post I made about a game called Charles Ate a Goat Testicle in Algeria… weird huh? Even though the two share many qualities, I think this one adds a little more pressure and can be a fun exercise/reflection! Both games are great for friends and strangers alike, and they’re just meant to get everyone interacting and learning more about each other. Please try this sometime! I’m sure it’ll be great fun.
Analysis
Since there isn’t a specific end goal that the players are trying to reach, there isn’t much in the way of analysis, but this game is definitely unique and special!
Creativity: This game totally revolves around your creative aspect. You have to rummage through the archives of your brain in order to remember how you can turn those life defining moments into quick intriguing blurbs. I personally have always been garbage at word games and word association games, but some people are fantastic and I think they’ll succeed in this game.
Luck: Without an end goal to “win,” luck doesn’t play such a major role in the game. Pretty simple.
Strategy: Overall, strategy isn’t a very important game factor, but here is one tip that might help:
Tips & Strategies
- Instead of having a competitive goal, this game is all about having a good time. So, you should really try and have your memoir make people smile, laugh, or confused,. With that perspective, don’t try and describe your life as a whole, instead, think about moments that made you feel those emotions, and write your memoir based off of that. And I know that you’re already limited on words, but if you think it’ll be more dramatic by taking out key words, go for it!
Variations: Try this out next time you play!
-
Think six words is too restricting?? How about playing Haiku Memoir? Instead of describing your life in six words, spice it up a little bit and make each player write a three-line poem, following the form: 5 syllables in the first line, 7 syllables in the second, and 5 again in the third. This allows for a little more artistic license but is basically the same!
Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful day!
Credits
I cannot stress enough the importance of Leigh Anderson’s fantastic book The Games Bible for inspiring these blog posts. Her book has hundreds of amazing ideas, from icebreakers, family games, and weekend getaways. This blog would not be possible without all the hard work she put into writing the book so my source for ideas and research are from her book.
Sources
- Anderson, Leigh. The Games Bible. Workman Publishing Company, 2010.
- Anderson, Leigh. “The Games BIBLE: The Ultimate Gamebook… Book by Leigh Anderson.” ThriftBooks, www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-games-bible-the-ultimate-gamebook-for-grown-ups-307-games-to-put-the-fun-back-in-parties_leigh-anderson/571781/#edition=5740103&idiq=12407424
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffMLIL5qGQg
- https://www.google.com/search?q=haiku+examples&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwj8if2pidP1AhWihHIEHRU8CeoQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=haiku+ex&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQARgAMggIABCABBCxAzIFCAAQgAQyBAgAEEMyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEOgcIIxDvAxAnOgsIABCABBCxAxCDAToHCAAQsQMQQ1DDAVi4CmDCEmgAcAB4AIAB5wGIAYkDkgEFMy4wLjGYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZ8ABAQ&sclient=img&ei=DinzYfzKNaKJytMPlfik0A4&bih=915&biw=1800&hl=en
Image Sources
This is a really good game for long car rides. Gives people something to to do rather than stare at a screen for the entire trip. The concept itself is quite interesting where you come up with a story in six words. Although the competitive variation only works written down. There are many similar games out there but this variation is interesting. Six words make the stories a lot more shorter and requires people to put in a lot of thought. Overall it is very interesting.
I think six word memoir is for sure a car ride game; like you said in your post, the paperless and board-less layout lends itself to a situation where you don’t have immediate access to either tool. I think another way to add competition in this game would be to anonymously read out the memoirs and have people vote on their favorite ones at the end, like Apples to Apples. The person with the most votes at the end of each round wins, and decides what the topic of the next six minute memoir would be.
I think that this could be a fantastic time passer that could be fun for a group of friends (or maybe even an icebreaker for when you meet new people) since it has such a casual and informal air. If you just want to sit back and relax without really getting heated up or competing, coming up with some quick, witty quips about your life could definitely keep a group entertained! I also like how it can be turned competitive if need be, in case that is the atmosphere you are looking for. It is also nice how the rules of the game could be changed (less or more words) to adjust the level of difficulty as well.