Basically, it is a story one can read while drinking a single cup of coffee.

The increasingly popular art of flash fiction is rooted as far back as Aesop’s fables in the 6th century BCE. It is a form of short story of extreme brevity. As lapidary as the famous shortest flash fiction penned by Hemingway “Baby shoes: For sale, never worn.” to those who stretch a maximum number of words to 1500 words. Purists insist that it is a complete story told in less than 75 words; others claim 100 should be the maximum. For less-rigid flashers, anything under 1,000 words can be considered flash-worthy.

The combination of the Internet and the accelerating pace of life in industrialized countries has given a serious boost to flash fiction. According to Edgar Allan Poe’s, a short story should be readable in one sitting. Yet, Poe lived in the 19th Century, when the length of a “sitting” was about half an hour. Nowadays, a “sitting” is considerably shorter. It could be the time to go to the water-cooler and read a story on an iphone for example. Yes, that would be standing, but a “sitting” in the 21st century does not imply actually sitting anymore…

The innate need for narrative that defines human beings has to adapt to the ever increasing pace of life, hence the increased popularity of flash fiction.

A piece of flash fiction has to be a complete story, with a beginning, a middle and an end, at least one protagonist, a conflict and a resolution. This means it is a story reduced to its bare essentials, without any trace of flourishes or long drawn descriptions.

This Sunday, we will hold a Flash Fiction Contest, with a price designed especially for self-published writers.

Come back on Sunday to find out which of the following types of Flash Fiction it will be and what the terms and conditions are.

69ers: a flash fiction of exactly 69 words (hyphenated words count as two words)
Under 75: 75 words or less
Under 100: 100 words or less
Under 250: 250 words or less
Under 500: 500 words or less
Under 750: 750 words or less
Under 1000: 1000 words or less

Tell your writers friends about this so that they register on time!