Search results
Brevity, surprise endings, and rich language
- Good flash fiction utilizes the following elements: Brevity, surprise endings, and rich language. Brevity: Usually, flash fiction has to tell a complete story in 1500 words or less, or… a lot less. Rich language: Flash fiction uses poetic language to give the story a thicker texture.
whenyouwrite.com › what-is-flash-fiction-with-examples-of-promptsFlash Fiction Writing Guide with 15 Flash Fiction Writing Prompts
People also ask
What makes a good flash fiction piece?
What is flash fiction?
Why is flash fiction a popular genre?
What makes a good flash fiction writer?
Sep 2, 2022 · Flash fiction is a favored genre among the English-speaking world’s most celebrated writers for its ability to convey deep truths and universal human emotions in just a few short paragraphs. When done well, flash fiction can convey deep truths and resonate with readers from all walks of life.
Mar 4, 2024 · Sean Glatch | March 4, 2024 | 18 Comments. Like a lightning strike, flash fiction stories can be over in an instant—radically altering the terrain of the reader’s imagination. These bite-sized stories take a lot of style, skill, and effective word choice to pull off.
Dec 8, 2021 · What’s important is that they’re a premier example of everything fiction’s shortest form can do. In flash fiction — where twist endings and enigmatic last lines are standard practice — just six words can allude to the tragic death of a child. Check out 25 of the best flash fiction examples for more lightning-fast stories ⚡
Flash fiction can give its readers tension and conflict. Poetry gives imagery. Flash fiction gives character motivation through narrative. Poetry gives rhythm. While flash fiction contains the poetic elements of imagery and rhythm, its writers are less dedicated to exploring poetic constructs and more to exploring human experience.
- “Angels and Blueberries” by Tara Campbell
- “As The North Wind Howled” by Yu Hua
- “Baby Dolls” by Becky Robison
- “Curriculum” by Sejal Shah
- “Give It Up!” by Franz Kafka
- “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid
- “John Redding Goes to Sea” by Zora Neale Hurston
- “Housewife” by Amy Hempel
- “Likable” by Deb Olin Unferth
- “My Dead” by Peter Orner
Word count: 744 words First lines: “Why is the sky blue?” you ask. Well, it all depends on who’s answering. Campbell’s sweet, wholesome story posits various explanations for the color of the sky, one of which (naturally) involves angels and blueberries. Besides making you crave a fruit smoothie, it’ll open your eyes to the delightful possibilities ...
Word count:1,371 words First line: Sunlight had sneaked in through the window and was creeping toward the chair where my pants dangled. I was lying bare-chested in bed, rubbing some gunk from the corner of my eye. It must have collected while I was sleeping, and to just let it stay there seemed inappropriate. Translated from the original Chinese, t...
Word count:175 words First line: My mother isn’t always Raggedy Ann, but she was when I was born. This super-quick vignette from Becky Robison manages to be profoundly moving and disturbing at the same time. It details the circumstances of the narrator’s birth, during which her mother was dressed as Raggedy Ann… or had perhaps morphed into her, dep...
Word count:490 words First lines: The map was printed on a handkerchief. It is a map of a place that no longer exists. One of the most praised pieces of flash fiction examples in recent memory, “Curriculum” is divided into three parts: Area Studies, Women’s Studies, and Visual Studies. As you might expect, however, the details of each are not purel...
Word count:128 words First line: It was very early in the morning, the streets clean and deserted, I was walking to the station. “The Metamorphosis,” “The Trial,” and “The Castle” are all very good stories, but “Give It Up!” is a perfect summation of the Kafkaesque: disconcerting and ultimately hopeless. Clocking in at just over 100 words, it’s als...
Word count:681 words First lines: Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline. From the author of A Small Placecomes this insightful passage on what it means to be a girl, presented in an almost stream-of-consciousness series of instructions. From how to cook and...
Word count:750 words First lines: The villagers said that John Redding was a queer child. His mother thought he was too. She would shake her head sadly, and observe to John’s father: “Alf, it’s too bad our boy’s got a spell on ’im.” “John Redding Goes to Sea” delivers on its title in a surprising yet sweet way: John is a 10-year-old boy, and the “s...
Word count:43 words First lines:She would always sleep with her husband and with another man in the course of the same day, and then the rest of the day, for whatever was left to her of that day, she would exploit by incanting, “French film, French film.” A quintessential work of microfiction, this single sentence encapsulates the experience of a b...
Word count:335 words First lines: She could see she was becoming a thoroughly unlikable person. Each time she opened her mouth she said something ugly, and whoever was nearby liked her a little less. Another superb meditation on womanhood, Unferth’s story dissects what comes after the stage of Kincaid’s “Girl”: that is, the process of growing older...
Word count:1,283 words First lines: Her name was Beth. We didn’t know each other. We took her car and headed to Missouri from Chicago. I remember that by the time we’d gone a few miles south on the Stevenson we’d already run out of things to say. This piece tells the tale of two relative strangers attending a séance. But rather than using horror to...
- Reedsy
Flash fiction, sometimes called microfiction or sudden fiction, is a type of writing that tells a story in at most 1,500 words. They can also be much shorter. Flash fiction is shorter than a short story, which can be as long as 10,000 words, and it can be of any genre. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that flash fiction is any less ...
Who can write flash fiction? You can! As a flash fiction editor, I’m going to break down the fundamentals of what makes up “good” flash fiction for you and give you some tricks of the trade so you can write flash fiction. Ten Components of Good Flash Fiction . Structure; Just like any narrative, flash fiction needs a beginning, middle ...
