Six-Word Fest has come and gone (6). But let us not shed tears (6).

On September 24 at 1pm EST we opened up the festival floodgates and sent out the first Six-Word prompt, inviting anyone and everyone with a Twitter handle and a love of storytelling to tweet out Six-Word responses. Things got pretty wild; more than 25,000 tweets tagged #sixwords poured in, #sixwords trended nearly non-stop for the three days. Countless celebrities — Ricky Gervais, Mark Hoppus, and Judah Friedlander, to name a few — joined our short-form celebration with their own Sixes.

Throughout the fest, editors here at Six-Word Memoirs have been sharing our personal favorite submissions from each prompt with you. But now it’s time to give props to the winners as selected by our fine crew of celebrity judges. Here they are, prompt by prompt:

“Six words that mean you’re lying”

For the winning submission, our judge, comedian/actor/writer/legend Michael Ian Black chose a line that I’m sure he is sick of hearing:

@michaelianblack “People say I should do comedy” #Sixwords #sixlies

— Lauren Tschida (@laurenonymous) September 25, 2013

 

“Thou shalt tweet a new commandment” Slate editor David Plotz and Esquire editor-at-large A.J. Jacobs were our honorable judges for this prompt. Plotz went all out and picked three separate winners, each in its own category: “Best use of actual commandment:”   

Honor your mother and her boyfriend. #newcommandment #sixwords — Greg Wind (@gregwind) September 24, 2013

“Best Actual Advice:”

#newcommandment Apologize quickly and forgive even faster #sixwords @sixwords

— Gary Drossel (@GaryDrossel) September 24, 2013

“Best commandment approximating judges life:”    

@Slate @davidplotz @sixwords Take a shower. You’ll feel better. <–mom’s answer to everything that ails you! Flu. Allergies. Gunshot wound. — Dawn R. Dugle (@MsWr1te) September 24, 2013

A.J. Jacobs stuck with just one winner, a new commandment so wide-reaching in its scope that it actually makes the previous 10 obsolete:

@sixwords @Slate @davidplotz @ajjacobs #NewCommandment Thou Shalt Not Be A Meanie!!!

— Liz (@Esunshineg) September 24, 2013

 

“The Secret Ingredients to Happiness Are…” Celebrity Chef Todd English judged this prompt and picked a favorite (which, much to our surprise, wasn’t at all food related!):    

open road and a full tank. #happysix #sixwords @sixwords — Ashley Sather (@AshleySather) September 24, 2013

 

“I only turn my phone off when…”

The ubiquitous and eternally-connected tech-bloggers at ReadWrite selected this Sixtus-interruptus as the winner:

#nophone “I only turn my phone off when…” ever… sorry I gotta get this

— dilburtus (@len_massaar) September 24, 2013

 

“Six words Mom never told me”

  Talk show host and XoJane editor Jane Pratt judged the Mom-tweets, and selected the following undeniable bit of wisdom (which, somewhat confusingly, also doubles up as a “secret of life” submission [see next prompt]):  

#momforgot Secret of Life, don’t impress everybody @sixwords @WJHS9 — Jessica Erdman (@JessicaGymnast1) September 25, 2013

 

Secret of life: __ __ __” [add three words]”

If anyone’s fit to judge this audacious category, it’s the great Katie Couric. For the winner, she chose a Six that certainly hits home for us here at Six-Word Memoirs:

#threemore @katiecouric Secret of life: write your story.

— Marc Bryant (@Tone_Fried) September 25, 2013

 

“Your personal style—in Six Words” Style guru Tim Gunn took the helm on this one, and chose this very strong Six for the winner:

Confidence and grace: always in style. #StyleSix #sixwords @sixwords @TimGunn — Molly O’Gorman (@Molly_O) September 25, 2013

 

“Where does all the time go?”

All-around funnyman Rob Delaney was our judge. A brilliant tweeter himself, it’s no surprise that he picked this clever Six:

Try asking it. Time will tell. #timeflies @robdelaney #sixwords @sixwords

— R.M.J. (@RMJ837) September 26, 2013

 

“What you’ll miss about Mayor Bloomberg” New York City based comedian Baratunde Thurston judged this one, and picked one of the few Sixes of the festival written in Spanish (sort of):

@baratunde @sixwords Los muchos tweetos brilliante de @ElBloombito #MissAboutBloomberg

— andy roth (@ndyroth) September 26, 2013

 

 

“I’m better today than yesterday because…”

To Write Love on Her Arms, an organization that helps young people deal with pain to find hope (and partnered with us on a project on SixWordMemoirs.com), selected this lovely #bettertoday tweet:

“I’m better today than yesterday because”… I’ve asked forgiveness for yesterday’s mistakes #bettertoday #sixwords @TWLOHA

— Greg Van Ermen (@gvanermen) September 26, 2013

 

“I will never do that again” The always charming Jason Biggs sent out many great #neveragain Sixes of his own before picking this winning tweet:

“@JasonBiggs: “@RAngelAmy: #Neveragain hear the voices in your head @sixwords #sixwords @JasonBiggs” Good luck with that” — Amelia ಌ OFFICIAL (@RAngelAmy) September 24, 2013

That about wraps it up for the judges selections. Big congratulations to our winning Sixers. We thought we’d end with a bonus tweet, another #neveragain submission…

Compete in a twitter writing contest #neveragain @sixwords @JasonBiggs @OITNB

— Casey Woods (@jokevalues) September 24, 2013

…but we indeed do hope to see all of you again. Follow us on Twitter for updates on the next Six-Word Festival, and come on over to  Six Worders  to share your Sixes 24-7-365.