Finally A Literary Form I Have Time For
It isn’t every day you stumble across a new literary genre, but Flash fiction (yeah, I linked there!) could be just the thing for people like us who aren’t capable of sustained reading of complex texts. Flash fiction consists of short stories of limited word count that, unlike vignettes, have elements of plot such as setting, characterization, and resolution. Anthologies date at least back to Thomas, Thomas and Hazuka’s 1992 Flash Fiction: Very Short Stories but flash fiction has gained in popularity recently due to (surprise!) the Internet. Here’s a few Webzines known for flash fiction: Brevity, double room, SmokeLong Quarterly, Vestal Review. So no more excuses, put down those tech manuals and the library management crap literature and get literary!
By Marc Meola
Posted by Marc Meola on January 10th, 2007 under In The Disciplines.
Comments: 6
Comments
Comment from Stephen Downes
Time: January 11, 2007, 10:53 pm
Funny thing is, I found myself skimming them.
Comment from Dave Clapper
Time: January 12, 2007, 7:48 pm
Cool that you found flash. I’m a huge fan (obviously). I hope you enjoy SmokeLong.
Comment from Henry Stratmann III
Time: February 17, 2007, 1:01 am
I’m a high school junior, and I’ve just published my first anthology of Flash Fiction, entitled “Eye Has Not Seen.” I wrote all of the stories myself. Some of them are “fiction fables” and some are just for fun. Sometimes I write from a viewpoint opposite my own. I’ve been writing since I was in kindergarten, but I gravitate to short “short stories” since I have ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). This genre is perfect for readers and writers with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), and I’ll soon be adding ADHD tips to my website.
Comment from Whim
Time: March 10, 2007, 10:29 pm
Actually, good flash fiction can takes a lot longer to write than most people think, especially if there is a tight word limit. Not only do you do rewriting to get the entire story into such a few words, but you spend time ensuring every word counts.
At Whim’s Place (http://www.whimsplace.com/contest/contest.asp), we hold a quarter 500-word flash contest. Later this year, we will release our first paperback anthology. Needless to say, it is an addictive form of writing for some of us. 
Pingback from ALA Editions » Blog Archive » Friday Fiction from Jennie Inglis
Time: March 23, 2007, 2:07 pm
[...] Back in January, one of the bloggers over at ACRLog, Marc Meola, wrote a post about flash fiction. I took particular notice because last year I connected with Jennie Inglis, who had been writing about her experiences as a librarian using a similar format. I’ve run across a lot of definitions of flash fiction (and its variants, such as microfiction and nanofiction), most having to do with restrictions on word count, though some including characteristics related to plot. Inglis held herself to just one rule: the content had to fit on the back of a business card. [...]
Comment from Guy Hogan
Time: October 17, 2007, 11:13 pm
For me flash fiction is the cutting edge of today’s literature.
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