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Flash fiction is fiction of extreme brevity. There is no widely accepted definition of the length of the category. Some self-described markets for flash fiction impose caps as low as 300, while others consider stories as long as 1000 words to be flash fiction.^[1]

[edit] Terms

Other names for flash fiction include sudden fiction, microfiction, micro-story, postcard fiction, prosetry and short short story, though distinctions are sometimes drawn between some of these terms; for example, sometimes 1,000 words is considered the cut-off between "flash fiction" and the slightly longer "sudden fiction".

The term "flash fiction" may have originated from a 1992 anthology of that title.^[2] As the editors said in their introduction, their definition of a "flash fiction" was a story that would fit on two facing pages of a typical digest-sized literary magazine, or about 750 words.

[edit] History

Aesop's Fables is an early example of flash fiction

Flash fiction has roots going back to Aesop's Fables, and practitioners have included Bolesław Prus, Anton Chekhov, O. Henry, Franz Kafka, H.P.Lovecraft, Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Fredric Brown and Lydia Davis. New life has been brought to flash fiction by the Internet, with its demand for short, concise works. A ready market for flash-fiction works is ezines; however, flash fiction is also published by many print magazines. Markets specializing in flash fiction include SmokeLong Quarterly^[3], Flash Fiction Online^[4], and Vestal Review ^[5].

One type of flash fiction is the short story with an exact word count. Examples include 55 Fiction, the Drabble and the 69er. Nanofictions are complete stories, with at least one character and a discernible plot, exactly 55 words long. A Drabble is a story of exactly 100 words, excluding titles, and a 69er is a story of exactly 69 words, again excluding the title. The 69er was a regular feature of the Canadian literary magazine NFG, which featured a section of such stories in each issue. Short story writer Bruce Holland Rogers has written "369" stories which consist of an overall title, then three thematically related 69ers, each with its own title.^[6] Writer Mark Budman has written a novel-in-flashes^[7].

[edit] Vignette

Flash fiction differs from a vignette in that the flash-fiction work contains the classic story elements: protagonist, conflict, obstacles or complications, and resolution. However, unlike the case with a traditional short story, the limited word length often forces some of these elements to remain unwritten, that is, hinted at or implied in the written storyline. This principle, taken to the extreme, is illustrated in a possibly apocryphal story about a six-word flash allegedly penned by Ernest Hemingway: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."^[8][9]

[edit] See also

• Prose poetry

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Flashes on the Meridian by Pam Casto
• Flash What? A Quick Look at Flash Fiction by Jason Gurley
• What is Flash Fiction? An Essay by Kathy Kachelries and Steve Smith
• Flash Fiction by Miriam N. Kotzin
• The Essentials of Micro-Fiction by Camille Renshaw
• "Short-Short Sighted" article series by Bruce Holland Rogers
• Writing Flash Fiction by G.W. Thomas