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“Brevity is the soul of wit,” goes the famous quote. After reading some forum posts, I was reminded of a word I learned yesterday via my personal learning network tool, Twitter. Twitter enables you to share what you are learning or doing via 140 character missives, which teaches us all to be concise and to the point.

The “tweet” about the new word came from someone by the name of “definethis” who shares new words. One of the words was “prolix.”

prolix • \proh-LIKS\ • adjective

1 : unduly prolonged or drawn out : too long

*2 : marked by or using an excess of words

While many forum posts are often marked by an excess of words, lots of folks are doing more than coping. They are actually writing stories! Here is one example:

Another web site–suggested by a fellow twitterer, Barb L Cohen –is the Six-Word Memoir. From the web site….

Legend has it that Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in only six words. His response? “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Last year, SMITH Magazine re-ignited the recountre by asking our readers for their own six-word memoirs. They sent in short life stories in droves, from the bittersweet (“Cursed with cancer, blessed with friends”) and poignant (“I still make coffee for two”) to the inspirational (“Business school? Bah! Pop music? Hurrah”) and hilarious….

As we all become more facile with texting–a facility that boggles my mind when I watch my daughter text me–brevity, conciseness…writing…are even more necessary today than when we had to pay postage.

Hoping I haven’t been too prolixic!

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