Alone.
Silence. It can be really terrifying when there is a complete absence of sound, as it often implies that something is very wrong or that you are in a desolate and dangerous place where no one else is around to make noise.
Another could be 'Cake, teeth, scream'. The idea is that something normal like a cake suddenly becomes terrifying when you think of teeth and a scream perhaps related to something hidden in the cake.
Sure. 'Final Breath' is one. It makes you think of someone taking their last gasp, which is quite terrifying in just two words.
As I said before, Ernest Hemingway's 'For sale: baby shoes, never worn' is a key origin example. It showed how much emotion and story could be packed into just six words.
She left. He never recovered.
Fable. Fables are short stories that often have a moral lesson. Aesop's Fables are very famous examples where animals are used as characters to convey wisdom.
I don't have the content of the 'day 168 word story', so I'm unable to provide examples. However, if it's a general short story, it could start with something like 'The sun was setting over the small town, casting a golden glow on the rooftops.' and then continue to develop the plot within the 168 words.
Another one could be 'Strangers. Friends. Best friends. Lovers.' It's a very concise way to show the development of a relationship in just six words. This kind of short - form storytelling forces the writer to be extremely creative and convey a lot of meaning in very few words.
The dog died. He was alone.
Of course. 'Found love. Lost it. Still alive.' It's a short but powerful statement about the experience of love and loss. And 'She left. I stayed. Silence ensued.' which effectively conveys the aftermath of someone leaving.
Honestly, I'm not familiar with a particular 'the first word novel'. There are so many great novels out there. However, some novels start in a very unique way. For instance, 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times' from 'A Tale of Two Cities'. But this may not be what is meant by 'the first word novel' as the term is rather unclear.