Mar 03, 2023 | By admin
Today we are going to talk about flash fiction and learn a few crucial things about this genre of fiction and how it operates. We are going to learn key characteristics of flash fiction and even talk about key things to remember when writing flash fiction.
But before we can talk about that, let us understand what is flash fiction so that we might have a better idea about it.
Flash fiction is exactly what it sounds like and in order to understand it we must concentrate on the word flash. Flash is something very quick and that is exactly what reading flash fiction is.
It is a very short story that can be read within minutes because flash fiction is not even 1000 words in most cases and in general. Flash fiction on average consists of 500 words on average.
Some even consider the word flash fiction as an umbrella term to bring different kinds of short stories under a single genre.
This is the perfect category of fiction for nearly every kind of reader because generally other kinds of literature like novels are long in size and people need days or weeks to complete an average novel if they read for one or two hours every day but flash fiction can be completed within half an hour and probably 10 minutes in most cases.
It is over in a flash and this genre has contributed to other forms of art such as short films and YouTube videos because they perfectly match the word duration and time duration.
This is the shortest form of flash fiction and this is quite a difficult genre to write for because everything has to be precisely within 10 words.
While the word limit might be longer but there is a limitation that the words must be a minimum of 25 to a maximum of 55 words.
This is one of the most modern iterations of flash fiction which is written on a specific platform of the social media platform Twitter. Since you are only able to write 140 characters, the story must be within that character limit.
These two are probably the most popular types of flash fiction subgenres and the dribble is 50 words and the drabble is 100 words respectively.
This is the subgenre of flash fiction where the word limit is 300 words and this is quite popular because it does not take extensive skill such as writing under 10-word flash fiction and many people can try this before going into the other extremities of flash fiction.
Some people consider this the only true category of flash fiction and some people consider it sudden fiction and the limitation is from 750 words to a maximum of 1,500 words.
If the word count exceeds 1,500 it cannot be classified as flash fiction.
If you want to classify your short story as flash fiction then you must understand that the story needs to be short and compressed because if the story exceeds 1,500 words then most readers will not consider it flash fiction.
While there are no such rules and you can make or break any kind of rule but shortness is something fundamental to this type of literature.
No matter how short you write the flash fiction piece, you must make sure that it has a complete plot with a beginning, a middle and a clear end. It is not a poem that you are writing and it is something that needs to have a plot in order to convey something.
While this is not something that is mandatory but this is a key characteristic of flash fiction because flash fiction incorporates surprise which is the surprise of thinking deeply about the story after it has ended.
For example, one of the most popular pieces of flash fiction by Ernest Hemingway “For sale: baby shoes, never worn” invites wonder and deep thoughts after we finish reading these mere six words.
Since you do not have a lot of words to describe a lot of things, imagery is one of the important tools that you can use to deliver impact through flash fiction.
When you are writing a novel you can work with different POVs to do the job but with flash fiction, you do not have a lot of space and that is why it is best to stick to a single point of view.
Even if the flash fiction is of 6 words or four words, you still have the luxury of having a title which is the case for any other story-based literature. Therefore, having a title will increase your chances of conveying the story with an already very short word limit. Use it well.
Since you do not have the luxury of space in this type of literature you should utilise a single scene and it is not wise to have more than two characters. However, it is your flash fiction story and it is your will.
We hope this blog has been helpful for you to understand what is flash fiction and if you are someone who wants to write your own flash fiction but you simply do not have the time to do so then we are here to help you.
We are Get Best Writers and we are the fastest-growing and most popular ghostwriter-for-hire agency in India and we do everything from flash fiction to novel writing to any and every kind of online content.
We welcome you to check out our services and we would love to write every kind of content for you including flash fiction.
