Flash Fiction
Also known as microfiction · sudden fiction · short short story
A complete story in very few words, usually under 1,000, with a character, a change and an ending, and gaps the reader fills.
- Summary
- A lonely widow mistakes her mail carrier for her late husband.
- Flash fiction
- She called me Walter. I said yes, I'd be home for supper.
In practice
Flash fiction is a complete story told in very few words, usually under 1,000 and often far fewer. It still has what a story needs: a character, a situation that changes and an ending that lands. What it leaves out is everything a reader can supply, so the form depends on implication, a sharp final line and a title that does some of the work.
The form goes by several names that mark rough lengths. Sudden fiction, from the 1986 anthology of that name, usually means up to about 1,500 words. The 1992 anthology Flash Fiction, edited by James Thomas, Denise Thomas and Tom Hazuka, set the popular ceiling at about 750. Microfiction runs to a few hundred words or less, a drabble is exactly 100 words and a six-word story is the shortest common challenge.
Very short fiction is much older than the label. Aesop's fables, Kafka's parables, Yasunari Kawabata's palm-of-the-hand stories and Augusto Monterroso's one-sentence "El dinosaurio" (1959) all fit it. Lydia Davis, whose stories can be a single sentence, won the Man Booker International Prize in 2013, and online magazines and contests have made flash one of the most widely written forms today.
Flash fiction read aloud in a scene
INT. COMMUNITY CENTER - WRITING WORKSHOP - EVENING
Folding chairs in a circle. TEO (70), a retired mail carrier, unfolds a single sheet of paper and reads without looking up.
TEO
"For forty years I delivered the Hendersons' mail. This week their box filled right up, so I knocked. Mrs. Henderson opened the door in her robe and called me Walter, her husband's name. Walter died in March. I said yes, I'd be home for supper. I'm still deciding about supper."
Nobody moves. The INSTRUCTOR (40s) puts down her pen.
INSTRUCTOR
Six sentences, and every one of us is standing on that porch.
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Teo's story is 50 words and complete. The overflowing mailbox sets up the situation, the mistaken name turns it, and the last line leaves the decision with the reader. Nothing explains Mrs. Henderson's grief or Teo's loneliness; the gaps carry it.
Flash fiction examples
Monterroso's "El dinosaurio" is the classic one-sentence story: "When he woke up, the dinosaur was still there." The reader has to imagine the dream, the waking and why the dinosaur is a problem. The six-word "For sale: baby shoes, never worn" is often credited to Ernest Hemingway, but no evidence ties it to him; versions of the line appeared in newspapers decades before the attribution.
Longer flash shows what a few hundred words can hold. Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" (1894) covers a marriage, a reported death and a reversal in about 1,000 words. Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl" (1978) is one long sentence of a mother's instructions. In 1906 Félix Fénéon wrote three-line news items for the Paris paper Le Matin that are now read as miniature stories.
Hemingway did write very short fiction of his own: "A Very Short Story" (1925) tells a wartime romance and its sour ending in under 700 words. In Japan, Yasunari Kawabata wrote more than a hundred palm-of-the-hand stories across his career, many of them only two or three pages long, from his twenties into his sixties.
How to write flash fiction
Start late, as close to the turn as possible. With so few words there is no room for setup, so the first sentence should already place a character in a situation that is about to change. One scene, one moment or one decision is usually enough.
Let details do double duty. An overflowing mailbox tells the reader that time has passed and that something is wrong without a sentence of explanation. Use the title as part of the story, and trust the reader to fill the gaps you leave on purpose.
Write long, then cut. Many flash writers draft a story at two or three times its final length and then remove every word the reader can infer. The ending should resonate rather than explain: a final image, a line of dialogue or a decision left open often lands harder than a stated twist.
Flash fiction vs. short story, vignette and prose poem
A short story usually runs from about 1,000 to 7,500 words and can develop several scenes and characters; flash keeps a story's shape but compresses it to one movement. A vignette is a moment, a portrait or a mood with no real change, while flash fiction needs something to happen, even if it happens off the page.
A prose poem is closer, and some pieces could be read either way. The difference is emphasis: a prose poem leads with sound and image, flash with character and event. Editors who publish both often decide by asking whether the piece tells a story.
Flash fiction and short films
Flash fiction is good training for short films, because the constraints match. A short of three to ten minutes has room for one situation, a few characters and a single turn, just like a flash piece. Many short films begin from a story of a page or less, expanded with images rather than words.
The same habits apply on the page of a script: enter late, show the telling detail, and end on an image instead of a speech. A flash story that works on paper is often one location and two actors away from a short film.
Common questions
What is flash fiction?
A complete story told in very few words, usually under 1,000 and often under 500, with a character, a change and an ending.
How long is flash fiction?
There is no single rule. Most magazines set the limit at 500, 750 or 1,000 words. Microfiction is usually under 300 words, a drabble is exactly 100 and a six-word story is six.
What is an example of flash fiction?
Augusto Monterroso's "El dinosaurio" (1959): "When he woke up, the dinosaur was still there." Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" and Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl" are longer examples.
What is the difference between flash fiction and a short story?
Length and scope. A short story usually runs 1,000 to 7,500 words and can cover several scenes; flash fiction compresses a story to one moment or turn in under about 1,000 words.
Did Hemingway write "For sale: baby shoes, never worn"?
Probably not. No evidence links the line to him, and similar wording appeared in newspapers long before it was attributed to him.
What is sudden fiction?
Another name for very short fiction, popularized by the 1986 anthology Sudden Fiction. It usually means stories of up to about 1,500 words.
Where can you publish flash fiction?
Many literary magazines and websites publish flash fiction, and contests are common. Check each one's word limit and whether it accepts previously posted work before you submit.