Definitions of Flash Fiction

One of the first known usages of the term "flash fiction" in reference to the literary style was the 1992 anthology Flash Fiction: Seventy-Two Very Short Stories. Editor James Thomas stated that the editors' definition of a "flash fiction" was a story that would fit on two facing pages of a typical digest-sized literary magazine. In China the style is frequently called a "smoke long" or "palm-sized" story, with the comparison being that the story should be finished before the reader could finish smoking a cigarette. A very popular literary journal is titled �The Smokelong Quarterly,� and you can guess what they publish.

Other names for flash fiction include micro fiction, micro narrative, micro-story, postcard fiction, short short, short short story, and sudden fiction, though distinctions are sometimes drawn among some of these terms; for example, sometimes 1000 words is considered the cutoff between "flash fiction" and the slightly longer short story "sudden fiction". The terms "micro fiction" and "micro narrative" are sometimes defined as below 300 words. The term "short short story" was the most common term until about 2000, when it was overtaken by "flash fiction.�

Micro fictions are under 300. But as we have all seen lately, the six word stories are popular. I also just saw a call for a 58 word story. I guess our attention span has truly been whittled away.

 

Definition of Flash Nonfiction

All of the above but: memoir, essay, and factual writing in the very short form.