Creative Writings: Six-Word Short Stories Behind the Tailgates of Trucks

Abstract

Hemmingway made a breakthrough against the rules of the novel when he came up with his six-word short story. For sale: Baby shoes, never worn. Using only six words, he was able to engage readers' attention on creating an opened outline of a narrative construct by viewing the situations in a chronological plot design of what had happened, what is happening, and what will happen to who might be involved in this situation, the ones could be said as the characters of this six-words story; one of them obviously would be the baby itself. Hemmingway's short story style seems to be popular in Indonesia even without fully awareness by the Indonesian. This is a phenomenal issue in Indonesia, which can be considered as part of creativity and entertainment, as creative fun writings are easily found behind the tailgates or mud guards of the trucks. “Anda butuh waktu, kami butuh uang” (You need time, we need money) is one of the writing popular written behind the truck triggering questions like who ‘you' and ‘we' refer to? Why you need money and we need money? What had happened between ‘you' and ‘we'? How do ‘you' and ‘we' compromise at the end? This six-word writing has created a narrative structure, which context has probably been understood by Indonesians. This article is about writings behind the trucks, which composing stories creatively. The plot structures and the implicit messages will be analyzed through the choice of the words in the writings