There’s a legend that Hemingway once was egged on at a bar to write a six-word story on a napkin. His friends said he couldn’t do it, and they offered a bet to see it happen. Hemingway grabbed a napkin and jotted:
For sale: baby shoes, never worn.
Then he passed it around to his friends as they choked on their bet. Over the years, Hemingway’s legend transformed into a new style of writing, a style that has flown under the radar yet attracts a core following who attempt to mimic Hemingway. The zhong was born.
Maybe there’s more to it than mimicry… Back in the 1600s in Japan, there was a new style of poetry brewing, spurred by the two poets Matsuo Basho and Ueshima Onitsura. They sparred back and forth and founded what is today known as the timeless poetic structure of haiku.
What Is the Zhong?
The word “zhong” itself is Chinese and has several meanings depending on its context. Zhong most commonly means “middle” or “centered” and “bullseye” or “to hit the mark.” Occasionally, it can mean “heaviness.” It’s pronounced “jhoong.”
The zhong can better help writers convey their thoughts more clearly and concisely. In this day in age we see so much jargon streaming on social media outlets, we want to bring a new meaning to posting. Zhong may seem restricting with the number of characters, but on the other hand it challenges you to think outside the box. For aspiring novelists and writers out there it will definitely churn their creative juices. Reading zhongs often spark the imagination and drive to post something of substance, which will then effect your own following. It’s a chain affect of creative writing!
How Can the Zhong Help You Write Better Novels?
Zhong can help writers to:
- Condense writing to more powerful sentences
- Broaden vocabulary
- Gain freedom to express any thoughts
- Spark thought provoking pieces of work
The zhong is a great tool for college students majoring in literature and philosophy to test their writing. The zhong can serve as a way for teachers to engage student activity. How many times do professors call on students who are not interested or engaged in a topic and are speechless when called on to partake in class?
Examples of the Zhong
Here are some examples of zhong:
Embrace the gratitude, kick the entitlement.
Played my cards but didn’t fold.
I dream, in which, life’s eternal.
BANG! Lightning struck, thunder was stolen.
The Zhong App
To further explore the potential of this form, we decided to build the fun new app Zhong. As we were building, we considered how we could evolve the zhong into its own style of poetry, like the birth of Haiku in the 1600s. Building on the notion that most social networks discourage creativity, we felt it was important to distinguish the Zhong app from its poetic style. Zhong, as we portray it, is merely a style of poetry that must be written across in no more or less than six words. Users of Zhong can express themselves however they’d like: stories, flash fiction, comedy, biographies, quips, memoirs, and more.
Zhongs can leave you feeling various emotions, whether they’re joyous, sad, reminiscent, or funny. The potential responses are innumerable. One of the greatest outcomes is meeting complete strangers who resonate with you. Your’e only limited by your imagination.
Feel free to play around with Zhong. The developers welcome all feedback and appreciate anyone who would just like to get in touch.
Tell me your opinion: Do you think the zhong form could help you write better novels? How?
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About Emily Pennachio
Thanks for sharing with us today, Emily!
love. light. tragic. plight. Spirit. reign
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Thanks for the post! Will check out the app. This will help me tremendously with learning how to avoid the information dump. How you might ask? By condensing everything I want to say into just six words and staying on topic. Love it already and I wish you great success.
This is already so much fun! Here are two I came up with:
Live with bravery or die afraid.
Rain stops when the world drowns.
I’m so glad you like the idea, please feel free to log in and share with other users!
Invitation: Attend my funeral this Wednesday.
Hi Anna,
just read your zhong and instantly a movie scene flashed before my mind´s eye.
I saw a woman sitting at a desk writing her suicide note.
That is the power of zhong done right.
Haunting, the vision in my head is chilling… I hope to see you post !
Yes, it does help. Anything that will help an author be clear and concise. It makes the writer consider the scene, the paragraph, the sentence. Every word counts. And if Katie will allow, we do this over on http://theironwriter.com
Hemingway developed what he called the Iceberg Theory, later known as the Theory of Omission, where the writer omits details that he or she knows well and leaves them only to the readers imagination. Like an iceberg, only 20% of the story is visible, 80% is left unsaid.
You can see this in Hemingway’s story Big Two-Hearted River. Ostensibly, it’s about a man who goes fishing. It’s very external. Not much happens internally save for some reminiscing about how to make coffee. Yet, the story is about a boy coming home from the war and trying to recapture lost childhood, even though it is never said outright.
I think it’s a powerful tool, but it can easily be overdone. (For example, I had to know what Big Two-Hearted River was really about before it meant anything to me. People of his time were able to get it from context of having just left the war.)
Wikipedia has a nice summary article on the theory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceberg_Theory
—Lawrence
Interesting.
While this might help the novelist write up a concise logline, it still takes a certain mindset to execute it properly. People will throw away six words easier than they will to construct with it, so what does the app do to get the writer over the hump?
We’ve all seen the overused “six word story,” but it falls into the same category as the “write ten pages a day” or “Write 1667 words to make a novel in a month” realm. Possible for a few, but not feasible for most.
How can this apply to the average person who can’t express themselves in so few words?
I’ve always loved that story and dreamed of being able to say so much in so few words. I try to condense but my writing does seem to rattle on. I clicked on the Zhong link above and signed in, but got nothing back but tech gobbledegook error message. So I guess I’ll just go back to examining each sentence to see if it’s needed.
To be able to tell the story just in a few words was always my dream. I love Japanese poetry that tells the whole story just in four lines. But to get focused on such skill can lead to the road of writing for a few who are willing to challenge theirselves. Though I would like challenge myself in writing this way.
Great article! I think I’ve heard that Hemingway story before, but it is powerful! Hemingway had a lot of issues, but he was an awesome writer. Some say all his work is depressing, and I wouldn’t disagree, but I would say it’s real, and real life can be depressing so much of the time.
I know writing today is quite different from back then, and we have to read current writing to know what is doing well these days, but in my opinion, Hemingway is still good to learn from, as his writing is so concise, yet powerful. Like the image of the fisherman in “The Old Man and the Sea”: “Up the road, in his shack, the old man was sleeping again. He was still sleeping on his face and the boy was sitting by him watching him. The old man was dreaming about the lions.”
This seems like a great tool. I’m just planning my novel and have been working on defining the dramatic question, etc… in my typically verbose fashion.
I tried to write it as a Zhong and have it sussed: “He resisted, was cheated, and lost.” Three acts, each summed up in two words. Really useful tool, thanks.
Fight for hope, if nothing else.
I guess that line really sums up my current novel.
I never heard of that. It sounds interesting.
Hi Eugenia,
Thanks for checking Zhongapp.com out, it might have to do with the browser you are using, I suggest refreshing the page and logging in again. If you have further problems feel free to email me epennachio1@gmail.com
Enjoy your day!