Flash fiction is a literary trend that’s here to stay. But even if the term is relatively modern, flash fiction stories have been around for a long time. They’re a great challenge for any writer wanting to refine their skills, or create a complete work of art without investing years of effort the way you might for a novel. If you’re interested in experimenting with storytelling techniques, such as flashbacks, flash fiction provides a concise format to try them out.
If this is the first time you’re hearing about flash fiction, don’t worry. We’ll break down the meaning, flash fiction word counts, and key elements of every flash fiction story.
What is flash fiction?
“Flash fiction,” or sudden fiction, is a very short story of under 1,500 words (some publications say under 1,000 words). Some are much shorter. To be considered flash fiction, a short story must fit into the designated word count while also having complex characters and a cohesive, well-rounded plot.
Within the flash fiction umbrella you’ll find a few subtypes of short-short stories:
The six-word short story: this tiny story has, as you may have deduced, six words! The most famous example is Ernest Hemingway’s (possibly misattributed) story that consists of the sentence “For Sale: Baby’s shoes, never worn.” You can see that there’s not much there on the page, but a world in its implication.
Postcard fiction is a story of up to 50 words, designed to fit snugly on the back of a postcard. If the story is exactly 50 words—no more, no less—it’s called a Dribble.
A Drabble is a story of exactly 100 words.
Micro fiction refers to any short story (including the six-word story, postcard fiction, and drabbles) of under 300 words.
Sudden fiction is any story between 300 and 750 words.
Prose poetry doesn’t have a specific word count, but it’s usually around 200—500 words. A prose poem is a piece of flash fiction that uses the lyricality and linguistic devices of poetry.
Each of these have a short word count in common, but you can use them to explore any genre or style of writing.
What’s the difference between flash fiction and a short story?
You’ll sometimes hear the terms flash fiction and short story being used interchangeably, but they’re not quite the same thing. “Short story” refers to any complete story of up to about 7,500 words. Flash fiction is just one type of writing that falls under this category.
In other words, all flash fiction stories are short stories, but not all short stories are flash fiction.
In longer short stories you have a bit more room to explore messy, nuanced characters and more complex plots with multiple settings and scenes. In flash fiction, you really have to pare down as much as possible to deliver a punch in a small amount of space. We’ll look at how the best flash fiction stories accomplish that next.
Characteristics of flash fiction
Here are the key elements that flash fiction writers use to create powerful mini stories.
1. Brevity
The defining feature of very short fiction is that it’s brief! A snapshot in time, rather than a sprawling narrative. The literary journal SmokeLong Quarterly defines flash fiction as a story that can be read in the space of a cigarette break.
The challenge of writing flash fiction is to convey a lot with only a few words. A lot of this has to do with implication, or as Ernest Hemingway put it, the tip of the iceberg. Flash fiction is a tightly wound, cohesive work with no room for superfluous detail. Every single word matters. Writers should also be careful to avoid problematic tropes, such as fridging, by ensuring that every character and plot element is meaningful and necessary.
2. Character
Because of its limited space, most flash fiction stories tend to be character driven, rather than plot driven. Although you won’t have room for a lot of dramatic character development, you can use the space you have to dig into the psychology of the person you’re writing about.
A well developed character is essential for giving the reader the sense of a larger story off the page. Flash fiction characters feel real and alive, even if just for a moment.
3. A hook
Then, a flash story needs a unique premise or “hook.” This will look different for every story. It’s a detail that makes a reader go, “Oh, that sounds really interesting.”
It could be an unusual setting, a character with an unusual occupation or belief, or a strange event that sets the story in motion. The hook is apparent within the first few lines of the story (because, remember, every word counts!). When done correctly, it will encourage the reader to keep reading and learn what happens next.
4. A satisfying ending
Even though these micro stories don’t take up much space on the page, they should still reach a satisfying conclusion.
Flash fiction usually has one of two endings: a closed ending or an open ending. A closed ending means the story has reached its natural conclusion and tied off the questions raised at the start. Sometimes this will be a humorous twist, or punchline. An open ending means that the story could go in a few different ways; the true ending is left to interpretation. These are quite good for raising thought-provoking discussions.
What you don’t want is to drop off in the middle of the story, leaving your reader wondering what they missed. Even though we’re working in microcosm, your flash fiction should feel like a complete story that’s run its course.
How to get started writing flash fiction
We have a comprehensive guide on how to write flash fiction stories, but here’s a short intro to help you get those creative juices flowing:
Ready to tackle the art of short-short fiction? Here’s how to get those creative juices flowing.
Practice with vignettes
A vignette is a short, evocative description of a moment in time. It’s not exactly flash fiction because it doesn’t have a plot arc with a beginning, middle, and end. Instead, it uses minute detail and sensory imagery to bring a scene to life.
This could be something like a memory, an observation, or a daydream. For example, the “meet cute” between a couple, or two best friends; a discovery that changed someone’s perspective; or a precious memory of someone now lost. The goal is to use enough detail that the reader feels like they’re right there in the moment.
Vignettes are a bit like muscle reps for writers. Many writers find that they help develop essential skills which you can then apply to developing any kind of story in any genre.
Explore your point of view character
As we looked at further up in this article, powerful characters is often driven by powerful characters. To create compelling characters that feel alive in the reader’s mind, you as the writer need to know them inside and out.
Spend some time daydreaming about the person you want to write about (as the poet Billy Collins once said, for a writer, staring out the window with your head in the clouds is “working”). Think about where they’ve come from, where they’re going, what they want from life, what they’re afraid of, and how they’ll ultimately face those fears.
Then, once you know how this person behaves, simply drop them into a room and write about what happens next.
Start “in medias res”
“In medias res” (sometimes written as “in media res”) means to open in the heart of the action. In other words, you don’t spend a lot of breath on backstory or exposition or who was slighted by who. You as the writer know what brought your characters to this moment, but most of it will have happened off page (that’s the “iceberg”, remember?).
In flash fiction, it’s essential to devote all of your precious word limit to what’s happening here and now.
Some of this might happen during your revision process (more on revision down below). It’s not uncommon for writers to write a story, then chop off the first few paragraphs once they have a better understanding of what their story’s about. So don’t worry too much about starting in the right place right away.
Show, don’t tell
You may have heard the phrase “show, don’t tell” before, one of the most repeated and well-intended bits of writing advice ever to grace Strunk and White’s Elements of Style. This just means that you use descriptive verbs and real-time dialogue to convey what’s happening in a scene, rather than explaining it to the reader.
For example, saying “He scared her” is telling a story. “The hairs on the back of her neck stood up whenever he was around” is showing a story. Not only is it more immediate and lifelike, it uses the space on the page more effectively.
Embrace symbolism, metaphor, and allegory
In its compact space, flash fiction is a really good medium for allegorical or metaphorical writing. This is where the story describes one thing on the surface, but its true meaning is something else.
For example, you could write a story about a bird anxiously guarding her eggs as a metaphor for the uncertainties of motherhood. Or, a romance about a vampire and a werewolf as a metaphor for the challenges of cross-cultural relationships.
These kinds of stories are useful for talking about sensitive topics like politics, race, or sexuality in ways that might be more contentious when explored more overtly. They work well in longer forms too, but they’re particularly effective in getting the most out of the limited scope of a flash fiction story.
Revise like your life depends on it
Flash fiction is an exercise in ruthless editing. Once you’ve put together a short story you’re relatively happy with, go through and cut all extraneous adverbs and adjectives, restructure any passive voice into an active voice, and flabby psychological musings that don’t support the story, any “throat clearing” at the very start as the story finds its feet.
You can think of your rough draft as raw material from which you’re carving out a masterpiece. Revision is sloughing away everything that’s not that masterpiece in order to reveal the core truth underneath.
Read a lot of flash fiction
Finally, the best way to familiarise with the craft of writing the very short story is to read a lot of flash fiction! Pick up a magazine, anthology, or short story collection that focuses on this kind of storytelling, or read literary journals online. While many magazines will include flash fiction amongst their offerings, the following journals specialise in flash fiction exclusively:
As you can see, there’s a big market for flash fiction! Keep an eye on these publications when you’re ready to publish your own.
Flash fiction will make you a better writer
Writing flash fiction might seem easy with its limited length, but it takes a lot of patience and dedication! Because you have to create a powerful experience for the reader in just a few pages or paragraphs, you really have to use the space as efficiently as possible. Experiment, read what other writers have successfully done, and practice, practice, practice.
