Not too way back, within the Earlier than Occasions, once I nonetheless dared attend massive gatherings like writers’ conferences, I skilled the delight of successful first place within the Flash Fiction class at William Bernhardt’s Crimson Sneaker convention in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
I’d written the story someday previously, however had by no means achieved something with it. After I noticed its word-count certified it as “flash fiction,” I felt the identical pleasure as M. Jourdain (The Bourgeois Gentleman) when he discovered he’d been talking prose. I’d written flash fiction with out realizing it.
Quick narratives are nothing new. Aesop had a lock on them 5 hundred years earlier than the Widespread Period. What’s new is what they’re known as within the twentieth century.
Within the Forties, Cosmopolitan journal was famous for publishing fiction of assorted lengths in every version, together with what they known as a “quick quick” story of 1,000 phrases.
Starting within the Seventies, specialised phrases for brief fiction took off. Definitions differ and word-counts differ, relying upon whose web site or contest pointers are consulted. Listed below are some phrases for brief fiction with the approximate date of origin and the word-count related to it:
microstory (1973) 100 phrases
flash fiction (1977) 1,000 phrases
sudden fiction (1983) 1,500 phrases
postcard fiction (1985) 500 phrases
55fiction (1987) 55 phrases
nano-fiction (1994) 300 phrases
twitterature (2006) 280 characters
trace fiction (2007) 25 phrases
By far, my favourite phrases for a brief fiction narrative are drabble—a narrative of 100 phrases—and its offshoot, dribble, a narrative of fifty phrases.
Drabble as a time period for a narrative of 100 phrases originated within the Eighties amongst British sci-fi followers. Within the Monty Python Massive Crimson Guide (1971),”Drabble” is a phrase recreation by which the primary participant to put in writing a novel, wins. The Birmingham College Science Fiction Society tailored the sport’s guidelines to the true world by lowering novel-length to 100 phrases.
The drabble/dribble household has supplied flash fiction writers with helpful models of measurement:
drabble = 100 phrases
dribble = 50 phrases
half a dribble = 25 phrases
drabble and a half = 150 phrases
double drabble (aka a drouble) = 200 phrases
My very own expertise with flash fiction didn’t finish with successful the competition. Quickly afterward—presumably on the energy of my win—I used to be invited to evaluate a flash fiction contest. Wishing to be as goal as attainable, I drew up a judging rubric. This may increasingly or will not be helpful to readers planning to enter one of many quite a few quick fiction contests to be discovered on-line.
What one decide was in search of:
Size: 1,000 phrases most
Formatting: 12-point Occasions Roman, double-spaced
Deadline: [date specified]
Plot: A narrative that triggers an emotion within the reader
Characterization: Properly drawn characters
Growth: A change from the start to the top
Language: Commonplace English spelling and utilization when acceptable. Nonstandard English appropriate to the characters.
Conclusion: An efficient final line
Quick fiction, no matter one chooses to name it, ought to possess the weather of a satisfying story of any size. It’ll have a transparent starting, center, and finish. It’ll start with exposition, exhibit rising motion, and end with a climax, falling motion, and backbone. That’s a tall order for 100 phrases, or perhaps a thousand. Making the try is a wonderful option to hone the craft.