Flash Fiction Discussed

Also known as:

50-word story: The dribble;

100-word story: The drabble a/k/a micro-fiction;

140 words: Twitterature;

750 words: Sudden fiction;

1,000 or less than 1,500 words: Flash fiction a/k/a micro-story or short-short fiction.

Some describe as:

“… fictional work of extreme brevity, that still offers character and plot development. Possess[ing] a unique literary quality, e.g., the ability to hint at or imply a larger story.”
(Wikipedia)

“…the intellectually challenging blurb… [but] …do not make the mistake of assuming that such bare-bones writing is less than elegant or beautiful. Flash fiction is a story in which every word is absolutely essential, …peel away the frills and lace until you’re left with nothing but the hard, clean-scraped core of a story” 
(Jason Gurley, writer for Writing-World.com) 

“…a genre that is deceptively complex.”
(Becky Tuch, writer for the review, views on publishing) 

“…one-part story and one-part poem. Plot matters less than mood and telling details—yet it does matter. The joy of flash fiction as a writer and a reader is found not only in the words of the story, but in what is left out—the absences can be almost spectral, haunting what’s been told, only guessed at.”  
(Editor/Writer, Grant Faulkner)

Notable writers:

Anton Chekhov 

Franz Kafka 

O’Henry 

H.P. Lovecraft 

Ernest Hemingway 

Ray Bradbury 

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. 

Etgar Keret

The shortest story ever told?

Supposedly, Ernest Hemingway was challenged by a friend to write a story in less than 10 words. He did it in six: “For Sale, baby shoes, never worn.”