Literary Digest LITERARY DIGEST MAY 2020 | Page 16

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lash fiction - a medium of brief and enclosed
Fstories. Its average word count ranges
anywhere from five to 1,500 and a maximum
up to 2,000 words. It goes by many other names,
for example Short shorts, Nanotales, Micro-stories,
Postcard fiction, or sometimes even napkin fiction.
Its focus isn't necessarily on plot or characters,
though it should still have both. Instead, the stress
is on movement: each sentence must peel back a
new layer that wasn't visible at first. If a line or a
word doesn't progress the story or reveal more
about a character, it probably won't belong in this
medium.
A short History?
With roots in folklore and collections like
Grimms' Fairy Tales and Aesop's Fables, (very)
short stories have been around for centuries. They
fell out of fashion for a while, but recently came
back in a big way — not entirely surprising for a
generation that publish 140-character 'stories'
every day.
There are up to six different categories in this:
Ÿ Flash fiction: Max 1500 words.
Ÿ Sudden fiction: Max 750 words.
Ÿ Drabble, or microfiction: Max 100 words.
Ÿ Dribble, or minisaga: Max 50 words.
Ÿ Twitterature: Max 280 characters.
Ÿ Six-word story: Any story with a single-digit word
count is a category unto itself.
In the world of words, flash fiction is
underdog prose. Scarcely discussed and often
poorly defined, it becomes that much more
exciting, edgy, and experimental. Twist endings
and sudden violence are hallmarks of the form,
where just six words can allude to the tragic death
of a child.
Flash fiction is dangerous — it asks the
writer to surrender all safety nets and let a mere
smattering of sentences speak for themselves. But
it can also be extremely rewarding, if done right.
Before we get into that, however, let's gauge what
it actually is.
Flash fiction is growing in popularity. It's the ideal
length to read online, so many websites and literary
journals are now devoted exclusively to flash, and
flash fiction anthologies are published every year.
You can find and submit your works to the following
websites:
Ÿ SIX-WORDS: sixwordmemoirs.com
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What
is
FOR YOUR PRACTICE
First write a story of 500 words or so. Then trim
the second draft to approximately 250 words.
Then see whether you can get the final piece to
exactly 100. See how a story changes, and might
even be enhanced, when you leave unnecessary
things out.
WHERE TO SHOWCASE FLASH?
MONKEYBICYCLE: monkeybicycle.net
NANO FICTION: nanofiction.org
100WORDSTORY: 100wordstory.org
SMOKELONG: smokelong.com
ECLECTICA MAGAZINE: eclectica.org
THE COLLAGIST: thecollagist.com
PANK: pankmagazine.com
WORD RIOT: wordriot.org
FICTION SOUTHEAST: fictionsoutheast.org