Satisfying Reading Without the Time Commitment? Flash Fiction is the Answer

Lengthy novels seem to be en vogue. When J.K. Rowling proved that even children are willing to lug around books as large as a Britannica volume if the story is compelling enough, a rash of massive tomes flooded the market. Elizabeth Kostova earned a huge advance for her debut novel, The Historian, a 650-plus page vampire tale that turned into a bestseller.

Fantasy-minded readers lost themselves in the immense Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell while the literary crowd discussed the merits of Tom Wolfe’s hefty I Am Charlotte Simmons. These may be fine novels, but sometimes such high page counts leave readers wondering what ever become of concise writing. If you find yourself yearning for satisfying alternative reading that won’t take your entire summer, you may want to get online and seek out some flash fiction.

Flash fiction is a relatively new genre that attempts to present a complete story in as few words as possible. A flash fiction story generally contains between 500 and 1000 words, but some people have written tales in as few as 100. By comparison, an average novel can easily run the length of 100,000 words or more.

While their small size might suggest that flash fiction pieces lack any substance, the exact opposite is true. The best flash writing attempts to distill fiction to its essence, focusing with precision on the most powerful elements of a story and eliminating the extraneous. It grabs the reader by the metaphorical collar and demands her attention. A good flash fiction story will have a true plot – a conflict that runs through a beginning, middle, and an end – and paint a clear picture in the reader’s mind. Accomplishing this in such a small space is not an easy task and demands considerable talent. Think of flash fiction as the prose equivalent of haiku. Just as the best haiku can carry readers away in three short lines, the best flash fiction satisfies us through its very concision.

One can find flash fiction in almost any genre, but sci-fi and literary fiction seem to be most prevalent. A simple Google search for “Flash Fiction” will turn up a some stories, but you can also visit online journals dedicated solely to the genre. Examples include the Vestal Review, Flashquake, and Flasheville. If you are looking for stories in print, several good anthologies exist. Examples include Flash Fiction: Very Short Stories (ISBN: 0393308839) and Micro Fiction: An Anthology of Really Short Stories (ISBN: 0393039684).

Flash fiction probably won’t replace the novel as your recreational reading of choice, but for those interested in trying something that requires a little less commitment than the bricks readers have been toting around lately, it is worth investigating. The rewards that 500 words can provide are truly amazing.