What Is Flash Fiction?
WD editor Moriah Richard outlines the short short form and answers the question, “What is flash fiction?”
“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
You may have heard of this six-word short short story; it’s often attributed to Ernest Hemmingway, though his authorship of the piece has never been confirmed.
Six words. So many emotions.
This is the goal of flash fiction—also referred to as micro-fiction, short short stories, or sudden fiction. Instead of focusing on plot or character development, the writer instead focuses on the narrative’s movement. Every sentence, every word, should reveal something to the reader that we did not know before. It should also hint at a larger backstory than what’s revealed on the page.
While flash fiction has been around for centuries (think of Aesop’s Fables or other collections of folk tales), it has recently garnered a lot of attention from writers and publishers. Despite this, the form itself isn’t well-defined. The general consensus among writers and publishers is that anything between 5 and 1,500 words is flash fiction.
Beyond that, flash fiction is employed by writers of all genres; horror, science fiction, fantasy, thriller/suspense, literary, YA, and even romance writers have all produced some excellent work in under 1,500 words.
To help you better understand the form, here are some excellent articles by flash authors on the WD site:
- Flash Fiction FAQs
- 3 Things You Need to Know to Write Great Flash Fiction
- 4 Short Lessons on the Subject of Short Stories
- Robert Scotellaro: Writing Flash Fiction That's Short But Not Slight
- Five Reasons to Write Flash Fiction: Understanding the Literary Love Child of the Short Story and Poetry
- Nancy Stohlman: Creativity in a Flash
- Vintage WD: Flash Fiction
Since obtaining her MFA in fiction, Moriah Richard has worked with over 100 authors to help them achieve their publication dreams. As the managing editor of Writer’s Digest magazine, she spearheads the world-building column Building Better Worlds, a 2023 Eddie & Ozzie Award winner. She also runs the Flash Fiction February Challenge on the WD blog, encouraging writers to pen one microstory a day over the course of the month and share their work with other participants. As a reader, Moriah is most interested in horror, fantasy, and romance, although she will read just about anything with a great hook.
Learn more about Moriah on her personal website.
