Flash Fiction

Flash fiction is a sub-genre of fiction, and applies to extremely short stories. There are various names for it: the short short story; sudden fiction; six-word fiction; 280-character fiction; the micro-story. I studied a few in a writing class and took a shot at writing some. The writer must suggest a lot in a very, very compressed space, which is why they are very difficult to write.

I remember one which was quite moving. A man, cleaning behind his refrigerator, found a knife that had been long lost. It connected with a very painful fight he’d had with her. His first intention was to show it to her, but instead, he put it back under the refrigerator and went on cleaning.

I suspect most of us have memories we’d rather keep buried. What the story didn’t have room to tell was whether the genie stayed in the bottle. We could have learned more about both characters if it could have.

I enjoyed learning about flash fiction, and my attempts to write it, but I prefer to have more room for my ideas to roam around in. I occasionally play with the form, though, just to improve my ability to write parsimoniously.

Next: Non-fiction.