Flash Fiction

Here are excerpts from an article that may help you understand the term Flash Fiction and how your group might be able to write one yourselves.

(If you wish to read the article in its entirety, follow the title link.)

Flashes On The Meridian :
Dazzled by Flash Fiction
by Pamelyn Casto

Is flash fiction something new? Or is this art form presently enjoying yet another period of popularity? I would answer that it is something old, something new, and even something borrowed too.

Defining or stating exactly what flash fiction is would be comparable to defining or stating exactly what a poem or novel is. It just cannot be done to anyone's satisfaction. The main thing about flash fiction, however, is that it is short.

In general, flash fiction runs from as few as 100 words up to 1,000 or even 1,500 words (some more and some even much less). Flash fiction, of course, goes far beyond a mere word count.

Flash fiction also carries many names. Other names for it include short-short stories, sudden, postcard, minute, furious, fast, quick, skinny, and micro fiction.

By whatever name you might prefer, flash or short-short fiction covers a large range of forms and styles.

The wedding of flash fiction and the Internet seems to have all the ingredients for a happy and prosperous relationship. In print, or on the web, the future of this art form seems assured. There will always be a need for good, tightly-written flash fiction pieces-- miniature condensations that open out the world for and with us. They can show us, as Keats said of poetry, "infinite riches in a small room."

Before you continue on your way to the research task, look at the following link under the Micro Fiction section from Pif Magazine. Read the article by Camille Renshaw and check out (read) at least two of the Flash (Micro) Fiction examples that are there. If you wish, there are many other examples of Flash Fiction in the recommended links that follow. Just make sure to read at least two.

http://www.pifmagazine.com/vol13/ Pif Magazine Volume 13 Micro Fiction section including article by Camille Renshaw

You may go onto the research task now, but if you are interested, here are many more interesting Flash Fiction links:

http://www.thewindjammer.com/smfs/newsletter/html/hotflashes.html Article WRITING HOT FLASHES by Michael Mallory focusing on the mystery hot Flash.

http://www.lcdf.org/indeterminacy/index.cgi John Cage's Indeterminacy

http://www.storybytes.com/ Story Bytes - A monthly Ezine and weekly electronic mailing list presenting the Internet's (and the world's) shortest stories - fiction ranging from 2 to 2048 words.

http://www.heelstone.com/meridian/meansarticle1.html Riding the Meridian with article Flashes on the Meridian : Dazzled by Flash Fiction by Pamelyn Casto

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