Flash Fiction

Flash fiction is a fancy pants name for really short stories.  How short is short? I would say that most would be no longer than 400 words.  However, there is an extreme form of flash fiction referred to as the 6 word short story.

The most well known 6 word short story is from Ernest Hemingway, who wrote, “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”  I actually really like it as it evokes emotion and makes me wish that there was a longer story attached to it.

A couple of years ago, Wired published an article on 6 word short stories and had guest writers submit their own stories.  Here are a couple of my favourites from the article:

“Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so.”  Joss Whedon

“Machine. Unexpectedly, I invented a time.” Alan Moore

Since the Wired article in 2006, many people have tried their hand at writing these short stories.  There are even annual competitions. Many of the stories are serious, some are funny, and most read like captions (which is hard to avoid, I think).

As an end of the week exercise, and because I have a super creative and talented readership (hey you two!), I figure we can make our own extreme flash fiction.  Let’s call it Friday Flash Fiction Fun.  Alliterative.

Here’s mine:

I was 4th on his list.