In the 19th and early 20th centuries such stories in English were often referred to as sudden fiction or short-short fiction.

What is flash fiction. Flash Fiction Stories. After all flash fiction requires writers to effectively cramming a whole narrative into 1500 words or less. It is a complete story that is usually told in around 500 words.

Flash must have structure a beginning a middle and an end. Something must happen to someone or something and. Flash fiction refers to stories 1000 words and under.

To look at it another way flash fiction tries to tell big rich complex stories quickly and concisely. Flash fiction is an umbrella term used to describe any fictional work of extreme brevity including the Six-Word Story 140-character stories also known as twitterature the dribble 50 words the drabble 100 words and sudden fiction 750 words. 25 Examples of Lighting-Fast Stories Flash fiction is one of the most fascinating creative mediums in this day and age.

Its average word count ranges anywhere from five to 1000 words but the consensus is that the maximum tops out at 1500. Its not about pulling an excerpt from a longer-form piece of writing. There are many flash fiction stories that are no more than 100 words.

The shorter the complete story the better. This very short form has been growing in popularity since the 1980s gathering many names along the way. However flash fiction is also unique in that it sometimes only tells the sparsest version of a storymerely hinting at something that is clearly much more layered and complex.

While flash fiction has been around for centuries think of Aesops Fables or other collections of folk tales it has recently garnered a lot of attention from writers and publishers. Incredibly difficult but also incredibly rewarding. No one will enjoy an 80000-word novel thats poorly structured.