Short Fiction
About a month ago I became intrigued by the concept of flash fiction. I'm now a proponent and begun writing it. Here's what I learned.
I’d never read or written flash fiction, but I’ve often posted tweets that could be stories. I kept seeing references to flash fiction, so I investigated.
Short fiction is writing that is shorter than a short story. Short stories can be anywhere from 7000 to 7500 words (plus or minus). [That’s weird. A short story isn’t considered short fiction in today’s world.] With short attention spans and social media, a new form of short fiction has grown where the word count is 1000 words or fewer, generically known as flash fiction.
Depending on who you ask, or read, this sub 1K form can be further broken down into categories. For example, Twitterature is short fiction that fits into a tweet, but flash fiction is a complete story written to fit the 1000 word mark that can either be a flexible or a hard word limit. That is, sometimes, the story has to be exactly 1K words.
How can you write a complete story in so few words? One thousand words are actually a reasonable amount with which to work. The keys are, you have to:
- have a complete story (a story arc, including conflict)
- start the story right away "in media res"
- have a theme
- have interesting characters
- leave out exposition
- leave out non-critical description
- allow the reader to fill in the blanks you create.
In novels and even short stories, we spend a lot of time fleshing out the world and characters to immerse readers. It’s like sinking our reader into a hot, luxurious bath to relax. Short fiction is more like having your reader dip their toe into a hot, luxurious bath and have them imagine what it would be like to sink into it.
In novels, because we need to hit a high word count, we often pad. With short fiction, you don’t have that concern. This reduces the pressure on a writer. In short fiction you trust the reader to fill in the blanks you leave, but in order for them to do so, you as the writer are required to leave clues. In short fiction, much of the story and context is implied.
In long-form writing, the ending is often explicit. In short fiction, the ending can be open to interpretation.
In short fiction words matter. You cut the fluff and edit mercilessly. Action needs to be meaningful to the story.
Short fiction sets its own challenges, but it also allows you to develop stories that may not have enough “meat” to be complete long forms.
I’ve jumped into the hot, luxurious pool of short fiction and begun writing it. I’ve found I really enjoy it. It allows me to write a story without pressuring me with high word counts. Short fiction lets me write stories that may not merit a complete short story. These are character studies, interesting scenes, and settings.
I’m still learning what works and doesn’t work for me, but I’m hooked. Does that mean I’ll stop writing novels and short stories? No. But writing short fiction lets me take a break and do something quick in the middle of a large project, or when words aren’t flowing in my major works.
If you’re intrigued, there are many online resources and books that can help point the way. Your search engine is your friend.
If you’re interested in my attempts, I’ve added a “Free Short Fiction” section to this website where you will find what I’ve written. What I post, however, are first drafts and are rough. Also, please don’t repost, publish, or reuse my writing.
Go short and word up!