Definition
Flash fiction is a complete narrative told in roughly 1,000 words or fewer. Unlike a sketch or vignette, flash fiction has all the bones of a story - a character who wants something, a conflict, and some kind of shift or resolution. The magic is in the compression. You don't have room for lengthy descriptions, slow buildups, or subplots. You have to walk into the story late, leave early, and trust your reader to fill in the gaps.
Why It Matters
Flash fiction is one of the best training grounds for any writer because it forces you to make ruthless choices. Every word has to matter, every detail has to do double duty, and you learn to trust implication over explanation. The skills you build writing flash - tight pacing, sharp openings, resonant endings - will make all of your writing stronger, whether you end up writing novels or screenplays.
Types of Flash Fiction
Famous Examples
A single breathless sentence that captures an entire mother-daughter relationship and a culture's expectations for women, all in about 650 words.
A complete story in about 400 words about a father who obsessively decorates a metal pole in his yard. Funny, sad, and devastating.
While the full story is longer, Machado uses embedded flash-length retellings of urban legends that demonstrate how tiny stories can carry enormous weight.
A story told as a list of the narrator's sexual partners against the backdrop of an apocalypse, showing how flash-length constraint breeds formal invention.
Common Mistakes
Flash fiction still needs movement. Something has to change between the first line and the last. A beautiful description of a sunset is a vignette, not flash fiction.
Drop the reader into the middle of the action. You do not have room for setup. Start as close to the key moment as possible and let the reader infer the backstory.
Flash works best with a single character, a single conflict, and a single moment of change. Narrow your focus until the story feels inevitable.
A twist ending can work, but if the story only exists to set up the twist, it will feel hollow. The best flash fiction resonates even when you see the ending coming.
Try It Yourself
Write a complete story in exactly 500 words. Your story must have a character who wants something, an obstacle, and a moment where something shifts. Start by writing freely, then cut it down to 500. Pay attention to what you remove - those cuts will teach you what your story actually needs versus what felt important but was not.
Watch Your Flash Fiction Take Shape
Novelium's writing analytics track your word count in real time, making it easy to draft and trim your flash fiction to exactly the right length.