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Flash fiction stories: 25 examples of lighting-fast stories.

Flash fiction is one of the most fascinating creative mediums in this day and age: incredibly difficult, but also incredibly rewarding. After all, flash fiction requires writers to effectively cramming a whole narrative into 1,500 words or less.

But when writers rise to this challenge, the results can be exquisite. This post is dedicated to those dazzling flash fiction examples. We'll cover works by the masters of the medium, from Franz Kafka to Joyce Carol Oates. Some stories are a few paragraphs long, some a few lines, and others only a few words — but all of them display storytelling ability that's out of this world. Without further ado, here are 25 flash fiction examples worth a (very quick) read!

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the number of great short stories out there, you can also take our 30-second quiz below to narrow it down quickly and get a personalized short story recommendation 😉

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1. “ Angels and Blueberries ” by Tara Campbell

Word count: 744 words

First lines: “Why is the sky blue?” you ask. Well, it all depends on who’s answering.

Campbell’s sweet, wholesome story posits various explanations for the color of the sky, one of which (naturally) involves angels and blueberries. Besides making you crave a fruit smoothie, it’ll open your eyes to the delightful possibilities of imagination when we disregard science for a few minutes.

2. “ As the North Wind Howled ” by Yu Hua

Word count: 1,371 words

First line: Sunlight had sneaked in through the window and was creeping toward the chair where my pants dangled. I was lying bare-chested in bed, rubbing some gunk from the corner of my eye. It must have collected while I was sleeping, and to just let it stay there seemed inappropriate.

Translated from the original Chinese, this brilliantly bizarre story follows a man who awakens one morning to find a stranger pounding down his door. The stranger insists that he’s come to visit his sick friend — the only trouble is, our narrator has no idea who he’s talking about. The uncanniness escalates from there, culminating in a dark yet comic ending that deftly comments on the oppressive nature of social obligations.

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3. “ Baby Dolls ” by Becky Robison

Word count: 175 words

First line: My mother isn’t always Raggedy Ann, but she was when I was born.

This super-quick vignette from Becky Robison manages to be profoundly moving and disturbing at the same time. It details the circumstances of the narrator’s birth, during which her mother was dressed as Raggedy Ann … or had perhaps morphed into her, depending on how you interpret the poetic prose.

4. “ Curriculum ” by Sejal Shah

Word count: 490 words

First lines: The map was printed on a handkerchief. It is a map of a place that no longer exists.

One of the most praised pieces of flash fiction examples in recent memory, “Curriculum” is divided into three parts: Area Studies, Women’s Studies, and Visual Studies. As you might expect, however, the details of each are not purely academic, but provide a rich context for the narrator’s life — particularly her relationships to cultural identity, womanhood, and her mother.

5. “ Give It Up! ” by Franz Kafka

Word count: 128 words

First line: It was very early in the morning, the streets clean and deserted, I was walking to the station.

“The Metamorphosis,” “The Trial,” and “The Castle” are all very good stories, but “Give It Up!” is a perfect summation of the Kafkaesque: disconcerting and ultimately hopeless. Clocking in at just over 100 words, it’s also one of the most impressive feats of flash fiction by an author largely known for his full-length works.

6. “ Girl ” by Jamaica Kincaid

Word count: 681 words

First lines: Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline.

From the author of A Small Place comes this insightful passage on what it means to be a girl, presented in an almost stream-of-consciousness series of instructions. From how to cook and clean to the most appropriate ways to present oneself to men, “Girl” potently demonstrates the many near-impossible standards that women are expected to fulfill without faltering. Don’t worry, though — there are a few surprisingly optimistic moments in the piece as well.

7. “ John Redding Goes to Sea ” by Zora Neale Hurston

Word count: 750 words

First lines: The villagers said that John Redding was a queer child. His mother thought he was too. She would shake her head sadly, and observe to John’s father: “Alf, it’s too bad our boy’s got a spell on ’im.”

“John Redding Goes to Sea” delivers on its title in a surprising yet sweet way: John is a 10-year-old boy, and the “sea” is the nearby river where he launches his twig ships. This 750-word story is a lovely rumination on dreams, obstacles, and how we change as we grow older. And in the vein of Their Eyes Were Watching God , it’s full of Hurston’s signature lyrical description and historically accurate dialect — both proof of her careful attention to detail .

8. “ Housewife ” by Amy Hempel

Word count: 43 words

First lines: She would always sleep with her husband and with another man in the course of the same day, and then the rest of the day, for whatever was left to her of that day, she would exploit by incanting, “French film, French film.”

A quintessential work of microfiction, this single sentence encapsulates the experience of a bored but clearly aspirational housewife. We’ve copied it here in its entirety for you to enjoy:

9. “ Likable ” by Deb Olin Unferth

Word count: 335 words

First lines: She could see she was becoming a thoroughly unlikable person. Each time she opened her mouth she said something ugly, and whoever was nearby liked her a little less.

Another superb meditation on womanhood, Unferth’s story dissects what comes after the stage of Kincaid’s “Girl”: that is, the process of growing older and becoming less “valuable” in the eyes of society. This heart-wrenching piece will resonate with any woman over the age of 40, and force the rest of us to confront what exactly makes the narrator feel so unlikable.

10. “ My Dead ” by Peter Orner

Word count: 1,283 words

First lines: Her name was Beth. We didn’t know each other. We took her car and headed to Missouri from Chicago. I remember that by the time we’d gone a few miles south on the Stevenson we’d already run out of things to say.

This piece tells the tale of two relative strangers attending a séance. But rather than using horror to compel readers, Orner turns instead to good old-fashioned wit: “What’s the hurry?” one of the characters says at one point. “Everybody’s already dead.” However, the ending will get your heart racing with its sudden hairpin turn into drama… and not in the spooky manner you might think.

11. “ Possession(s) ” by John Smolens

Word count: 875 words

First lines: When your wife dies, you find music tastes different and food sounds the same.

Though we’d normally steer clear of anything to do with a writer and his dead wife , “Possession(s)” proves that it can be done without a hint of misogyny — and indeed, with remarkable nuance. The narrator of this story describes the excruciating process of adjusting to a new life when one’s spouse passes away — namely, figuring out what to do with her things. Infused with incredible emotion and rendered in beautiful prose, “Possession(s)” is an affecting account of mourning that you won’t soon forget.

12. “ Ramona ” by Sarah Gerkensmeyer

Word count: 1,132 words

First lines: Ramona used to say, “When it’s on the outside I feel self-conscious.”

“Ramona” is another great flash fiction example: a compelling combination of Miranda July-esque, intimately observational prose and unexpected elements of the surreal. The narrator is best friends with (and has romantic feelings for) the eponymous Ramona, who wears her heart outside her body… literally. Pain, love, and an incisive sense of nostalgia all intertwine in this roughly thousand-word short story.

13. “ Riddle ” by Ogbewe Amadin

Word count: 1,159 words

First lines: I think Aunty Adesuwa is a witch. Mama says so sometimes.

If you’ve ever pondered the true nature of good, evil, and the shades in between, you’ll likely sympathize with young Idara. Her mother claims that Idara’s aunt is an evil witch — but from what she knows of Aunt Adesuwa, this can’t possibly be true. Or can it? Contemplative and haunting, this story (and especially its resolution) has the staying power of a much longer piece.

14. “ Sorry Dan ” by Erik Cofer

Word count: 734 words

First lines: I like you, Dan, I really do. You’ve been the face of this company for many years, overseeing a period of unprecedented net growth. And on a more personal level, you’ve become a dear friend. Heck, our wives attend spin class together twice a week! But unfortunately, friendship only means so much in today’s cutthroat business environment.

The full title is this one is actually “Sorry Dan, But It’s No Longer Necessary For a Human to Serve As CEO Of This Company”... which pretty much sums it up. Published in McSweeney’s in 2014, Cofer’s satirical letter to a boss made obsolete by his robotic counterpart has only become more relevant over the past few years . Not to mention that its apologetic-but-firm tone flawlessly imitates actual downsizing notices.

15. “ Sticks ” by George Saunders

Word count: 392 words

First lines: Every year Thanksgiving night, we flocked out behind Dad as he dragged the Santa suit to the road and draped it over a kind of crucifix he'd built out of metal pole in the yard.

“Sticks” is one of the best-known pieces of flash fiction this side of Hemingway’s alleged baby shoes — perhaps because it puts a serious spin on the infamous Seinfeld Festivus pole . The narrator’s father keeps a metal pole in their yard and decorates it not just for the winter holidays, but for every significant occasion: Groundhog Day, Veteran’s Day, the Super Bowl, etc. Yet his affection for the pole doesn’t seem to extend to his own children. Fans of David Sedaris’ dysfunctional family anecdotes: this is the story for you.

16. “ Taylor Swift ” by Hugh Behm-Steinberg

Word count: 500 words

First lines: You’re in love; it’s great, you swipe on your phone and order: the next day a Taylor Swift clone shows up at your house.

The premise of this wonderfully weird story is that anyone can order a perfectly replicated clone of Taylor Swift straight to their front doorstep — or multiple clones, if you want to build yourself a herd. Another one of those much-praised bit of flash fiction examples from the past few years, “Taylor Swift” is like a Black Mirror episode meets celebrity fanfiction meets… well, you just have to see for yourself.

17. “ Three Is A Rational Number ” by Michele Finn Johnson

Word count: 1,055 words

First lines: Lola’s lost her rational numbers worksheet. She’s got the whole school bus looking for it — when Lola says to do something, it’s like she’s an orchestra conductor and we all just fall in line.

This is a funny, poignant glimpse into the minute melodrama of seventh grade: the narrator’s twin sister, Lola, starts dating the “goon” of Darby Junior High, Billy Maguire. Needless to say, her brother isn’t exactly thrilled, and even less so when Lola starts cheating off Billy’s algebra papers. Vivid details and an authentically juvenile voice will transport you right back to your own seventh-grade bus scandals — especially if they involved copying homework.

18. “ The Huntress ” by Sofia Samatar

Word count: 374 words

First line: For fear of the huntress, the city closed like an eye.

A gorgeous piece of almost folkloric flash fiction, “The Huntress” describes its titular predator in ambiguous terms (“a stench of fur,” “she left a streak”) that somehow makes its terror even more palpable. Though critics are divided on whether the Huntress is meant to be a metaphor , the evocative strength of Samatar’s writing leaves an incredible impression.

19. “ The Wife on Ambien ” by Ed Park

Word count: 1,039 words

First lines: The wife on Ambien knows the score. I mean this literally. Rangers, 4–3 in overtime. Devils fall to the Flames, 3–1. Knicks lose again at home. In the morning, I open the paper and none of this checks out.

What does the wife on Ambien do? Quite a lot, according to Ed Park — even if she doesn’t remember it. This hypnotizingly anaphoric account of her musings, activities, and general welfare is equal parts sad and hilarious, complete with an ending that will have you questioning the narrator’s stability as well.

20. “ The Visitor ” by Lydia Davis

Word count: 342 words

First lines: Sometime in the early summer, a stranger will come and take up residence in our house.

Widely renowned as the queen of flash fiction, Lydia Davis has produced countless micro-stories over multiple anthologies, but perhaps none as excellent as “The Visitor.” Beginning with an anecdote about the narrator’s sister and a strange houseguest she once entertained, this barely 300-word story soon moves into unexpectedly sweet territory, and its usage of the past to anticipate the future is nothing short of subtle genius.

21. “ This Is How You Fail to Ghost Him ” by Victoria McCurdy

Word count: 959 words

First lines: Swipe right. Swipe right. Tinder. Bumble. Be unable to remember which, but this younger, generically handsome boy whose face reminds you of a Playmobil figure has driven from the suburbs tonight to meet you.

More of a thinkpiece than flash fiction per se, “This Is How You Fail to Ghost Him” nonetheless deserves a place on this list for its acerbic wit and all-too-cutting observations of modern dating life. If you read “ Cat Person ” and loved it, you’re sure to enjoy McCurdy’s writing here too.

22. “ Unnecessary Things ” by Tatyana Tolstaya

Word count: 677 words

First lines: This Teddy bear once had amber eyes made from special glass — each one had a pupil and an iris. The bear itself was gray and stiff, with wiry fur. I adored him.

Though translated from the original Russian, this piece retains a stunning sense of clarity in its rumination on “unnecessary things”: items that do not, or no longer, serve a commercial or useful purpose. Our narrator happens upon a teddy bear that fits this description, but her feelings for it still overwhelm her — and might just cause the reader to shed a tear, too.

23. “ War of the Clowns ” by Mia Couto

Word count: 571 words

First lines: One time two clowns set themselves to arguing. The people would stop, amused, to watch them.

This 571-word story gives new meaning to the phrase “clowning around,” as two battling jesters resort to more and more aggressive tactics. And while they entertain their spectators at first, their violent delights most definitely have violent ends.

24. “ Where Are You? ” by Joyce Carol Oates

Word count: 523 words

First lines: The husband had got into the habit of calling the wife from somewhere in the house — if she was upstairs, he was downstairs; if she was downstairs, he was upstairs — and when she answered, “Yes? What?,” he would continue to call her, as if he hadn’t heard and with an air of strained patience: “Hello? Hello? Where are you?”

Joyce Carol Oates’ simple yet elegant style lends itself extremely well to flash fiction examples, as this piece demonstrates. In just over 500 words, she paints a striking portrait of an elderly married couple and the discord between them, which stems from their inability to communicate.

25. “Widow’s First Year” by Joyce Carol Oates

Word count: 4 words

First lines: I kept myself alive.

Our final entry also comes from Oates, and probably holds the record for most succinct display of emotion in flash fiction history. Here it is, all four words of it — though of course, you also need the title to understand the full impact: I kept myself alive.

Want more quick reads? Check out these 11 interesting short stories that may change the way you think. Or try something a little different (but just as fast) by picking up some of the best graphic novels !

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How to Write a Short Story in 750 to 1,000 Words

A short short story is an art form often referred to as "flash fiction." It requires unique writing talent and practice to master. If you think of a novel as a movie, then this is the literary version of a painting or photograph. It describes a moment of a character’s life that highlights an important decision or life-defining choice. In writing flash fiction, you reveal the motivation and idealism in your character while showing your audience something human in themselves.

Write a title for your story that is no longer than two words because your word count includes your title. Focus your title around a short, ironic word or phrase that plays a role in your story. For example, the title "Ravenwood" could simultaneously describe the name of a location where your story takes place, the feeling or mood of the story and a symbol of death to a reader who is familiar with the raven metaphor.

Define your character’s scenario. Symbolism is a good technique to help you do this while limiting your word count. Keep this section under 50 words. For example, you can describe a cross around your character's neck to define him as religious and create a contrast by also placing him in a shirt with a short secular message.

Tell your story entirely at the moment of your plot climax and let your reader assume the buildup toward your climax as well as the resolution that follows. Instead of a slow, rising action that climaxes near the end and slowly resolves any unfinished points, focus your whole story on an instance of your plot.

Eliminate your character's history or back story, creating a snapshot of her life at a point when something significant is happening to her. Avoid extraneous character thoughts or long periods of contemplation. Give your character only enough time to react to a situation such as her initial few seconds of action following a threat to her life.

Edit your story and avoid using any unnecessary descriptions. Eliminate any references to setting or details (like your character's hair color) that are not essential to your story.

Read your story and eliminate all unneeded words. Build your theme through subtle description, irony and symbolism. Avoid wasting words on explanations or reiterations. Allow your readers to draw their own conclusions.

• Jerz's Literary Weblog: Short Story Tips: 10 Ways to Improve Your Creative Writing

Kristyn Hammond has been teaching freshman college composition at the university level since 2010. She has experience teaching developmental writing, freshman composition, and freshman composition and research. She currently resides in Central Texas where she works for a small university in the Texas A&M system of schools.

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Short stories: Read the winning entries from our 750-word short story competition

Laura Shipler Chico is a peacebuilder, facilitator and aspiring writer. She is the author of This Light that Pushes Me: Stories of African Peacebuilders , and various articles, including an essay published by This I Believe and aired on National Public Radio in the United States. This is her first time participating in a WM competition.

Her father held her small plump hand as they walked through the tunnel that separated the foreigners’ compound from the world outside. She stepped out of the dark with a thrill, following her father onto the grey Moscow street.

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Short Fiction Forms: Novella, Novelette, Short Story, and Flash Fiction Defined

When it comes to fiction, a short narrative can be found in many forms, from a slim book to just a few sentences. Short fiction forms can generally be broken down based on word count. The guidelines in this article can help you understand how short fiction is commonly defined. There are, however, no exact universal rules that everyone agrees upon, especially when it comes to flash fiction. When submitting your work for publication or contest entry, you should follow the specifications or submission guidelines. With that in mind, here's a list of short fiction forms and their definitions.

A work of fiction between 20,000 and 49,999 words is considered a novella. Once a book hits the 50,000 word mark, it is generally considered a novel. (However, a standard novel is around 80,000 words, so books between 50,000 to 79,999 words may be called short novels.) A novella is the longest of the short fiction forms, granting writers freedom for an expanded story, descriptions, and cast of characters, but still keeping the condensed intensity of a short story. Modern trends generally seem to be moving away from publishing novellas. Novellas are more commonly published as eBooks in specific genres, especially romance, sci-fi, and fantasy.

A novelette falls in the range of 7,500 to 19,999 words. The term once implied a book that had a romantic or sentimental theme, but today a novelette can be any genre. While some writers still use the term novelette, others might prefer to simply call it a short novella or long short story. Like the novella, a novelette may be difficult to pitch to an agent, but might work better as an eBook in niche genres.

Short story

Short stories fall in the range of about 1,000 to 7,499 words. Due to its brevity, the narrative in a short story is condensed, usually only focusing on a single incident and a few characters at most. A short story is self-contained and is not part of a series. When a number of stories are written as a series it's called a story sequence. Short stories are commonly published in magazines and anthologies, or as collections by an individual author.

Flash fiction

Flash fiction is generally used as an umbrella term that refers to super short fiction of 1,000 words or less, but still provides a compelling story with a plot (beginning, middle, and end), character development, and usually a twist or surprise ending. The exact length of flash fiction isn't set, but is determined by the publisher.

Types of flash fiction

There are many new terms that further define flash fiction. For example, terms like short shorts and sudden fiction are used to describe longer forms of flash fiction that are more than 500 words, while microfiction refers to the shortest forms of flash fiction, at 300 to 400 words or less. Here are some of the types of flash fiction:

Sudden fiction/Short short stories

The terms sudden fiction and short short stories refer to longer pieces of flash fiction, around 750 to 1,000 words. However, the definition varies and may include pieces up to 2,000 words, such as in the series that helped popularize the form, Sudden Fiction and New Sudden Fiction .

Postcard fiction

Postcard fiction is just what it sounds like—a story that could fit on a postcard. It's typically around 250 words, but could be as much as 500 or as few as 25. An image often accompanies the text to create the feeling of looking at a postcard, with the reader turning it over to read the inscription on the back.

Microfiction/Nanofiction

Microfiction and nanofiction describe the shortest forms of flash fiction, including stories that are 300 words or less. Microfiction includes forms such as drabble, dribble, and six-word stories.

Drabble is a story of exactly 100 words (not including the title). Just because the form is short doesn't mean you can skimp on the basics of a good story. It should have a beginning, middle, and end, and include conflict and resolution. You can read examples of drabbles at 100WordStory.org .

Dribble/Mini-saga

When writing a drabble isn't challenging enough, you can try your hand at writing a dribble, which is a story told in exactly 50 words.

Six-word stories

Ready to boil down a story and squeeze out its essence? Try writing a six-word story. It's not easy, but it's possible to write a complete story with conflict and resolution in six words, according to flash fiction enthusiasts. The most well-know example of a six-word story, often misattributed to Ernest Hemingway , is, "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." The story evokes deep emotion, causing the reader to ponder the circumstances that brought the character to post the advertisement. You can read more examples of six-word stories on Narrative Magazine's website (with a free account), which are more carefully selected, or you can browse user-submitted stories on Reddit . Some authors also write flash nonfiction, composing six-word memoirs .

Short Fiction Challenge

Now that you are more familiar with some of the forms of short fiction, why not give it a try? Flash fiction can provide a helpful change of pace and help fine tune your writing skills. The limited word count forces you to consider the weight of every action, every character, and every word. Writing good short fiction takes time and practice. Sometimes it's the shortest pieces that can take the longest to write.

• Literary Fiction

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The short story is a fiction writer’s laboratory: here is where you can experiment with characters, plots, and ideas without the heavy lifting of writing a novel. Learning how to write a short story is essential to mastering the art of storytelling . With far fewer words to worry about, storytellers can make many more mistakes—and strokes of genius!—through experimentation and the fun of fiction writing.

Nonetheless, the art of writing short stories is not easy to master. How do you tell a complete story in so few words? What does a story need to have in order to be successful? Whether you’re struggling with how to write a short story outline, or how to fully develop a character in so few words, this guide is your starting point.

Famous authors like Virginia Woolf, Haruki Murakami, and Agatha Christie have used the short story form to play with ideas before turning those stories into novels. Whether you want to master the elements of fiction, experiment with novel ideas, or simply have fun with storytelling, here’s everything you need on how to write a short story step by step.

The Core Elements of a Short Story

There’s no secret formula to writing a short story. However, a good short story will have most or all of the following elements:

• A protagonist with a certain desire or need. It is essential for the protagonist to want something they don’t have, otherwise they will not drive the story forward.
• A clear dilemma. We don’t need much backstory to see how the dilemma started; we’re primarily concerned with how the protagonist resolves it.
• A decision. What does the protagonist do to resolve their dilemma?
• A climax. In Freytag’s Pyramid , the climax of a story is when the tension reaches its peak, and the reader discovers the outcome of the protagonist’s decision(s).
• An outcome. How does the climax change the protagonist? Are they a different person? Do they have a different philosophy or outlook on life?

Of course, short stories also utilize the elements of fiction , such as a setting , plot , and point of view . It helps to study these elements and to understand their intricacies. But, when it comes to laying down the skeleton of a short story, the above elements are what you need to get started.

Note: a short story rarely, if ever, has subplots. The focus should be entirely on a single, central storyline. Subplots will either pull focus away from the main story, or else push the story into the territory of novellas and novels.

The shorter the story is, the fewer of these elements are essentials. If you’re interested in writing short-short stories, check out our guide on how to write flash fiction .

How to Write a Short Story Outline

Some writers are “pantsers”—they “write by the seat of their pants,” making things up on the go with little more than an idea for a story. Other writers are “plotters,” meaning they decide the story’s structure in advance of writing it.

You don’t need a short story outline to write a good short story. But, if you’d like to give yourself some scaffolding before putting words on the page, this article answers the question of how to write a short story outline:

https://writers.com/how-to-write-a-story-outline

How to Write a Short Story Step by Step

There are many ways to approach the short story craft, but this method is tried-and-tested for writers of all levels. Here’s how to write a short story step by step.

1. Start With an Idea

Often, generating an idea is the hardest part. You want to write, but what will you write about?

What’s more, it’s easy to start coming up with ideas and then dismissing them. You want to tell an authentic, original story, but everything you come up with has already been written, it seems.

Here are a few tips:

• Originality presents itself in your storytelling, not in your ideas. For example, the premise of both Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Ostrovsky’s The Snow Maiden are very similar: two men and two women, in intertwining love triangles, sort out their feelings for each other amidst mischievous forest spirits, love potions, and friendship drama. The way each story is written makes them very distinct from one another, to the point where, unless it’s pointed out to you, you might not even notice the similarities.
• An idea is not a final draft. You will find that exploring the possibilities of your story will generate something far different than the idea you started out with. This is a good thing—it means you made the story your own!
• Experiment with genres and tropes. Even if you want to write literary fiction , pay attention to the narrative structures that drive genre stories, and practice your storytelling using those structures. Again, you will naturally make the story your own simply by playing with ideas.

If you’re struggling simply to find ideas, try out this prompt generator , or pull prompts from this Twitter .

2. Outline, OR Conceive Your Characters

If you plan to outline, do so once you’ve generated an idea. You can learn about how to write a short story outline earlier in this article.

If you don’t plan to outline, you should at least start with a character or characters. Certainly, you need a protagonist, but you should also think about any characters that aid or inhibit your protagonist’s journey.

When thinking about character development, ask the following questions:

• What is my character’s background? Where do they come from, how did they get here, where do they want to be?
• What does your character desire the most? This can be both material or conceptual, like “fitting in” or “being loved.”
• What is your character’s fatal flaw? In other words, what limitation prevents the protagonist from achieving their desire? Often, this flaw is a blind spot that directly counters their desire. For example, self hatred stands in the way of a protagonist searching for love.
• How does your character think and speak? Think of examples, both fictional and in the real world, who might resemble your character.

In short stories, there are rarely more characters than a protagonist, an antagonist (if relevant), and a small group of supporting characters. The more characters you include, the longer your story will be. Focus on making only one or two characters complex: it is absolutely okay to have the rest of the cast be flat characters that move the story along.

Learn more about character development here:

https://writers.com/character-development-definition

3. Write Scenes Around Conflict

Once you have an outline or some characters, start building scenes around conflict. Every part of your story, including the opening sentence, should in some way relate to the protagonist’s conflict.

Conflict is the lifeblood of storytelling: without it, the reader doesn’t have a clear reason to keep reading. Loveable characters are not enough, as the story has to give the reader something to root for.

Take, for example, Edgar Allan Poe’s classic short story The Cask of Amontillado . We start at the conflict: the narrator has been slighted by Fortunato, and plans to exact revenge. Every scene in the story builds tension and follows the protagonist as he exacts this revenge.

In your story, start writing scenes around conflict, and make sure each paragraph and piece of dialogue relates, in some way, to your protagonist’s unmet desires.

4. Write Your First Draft

The scenes you build around conflict will eventually be stitched into a complete story. Make sure as the story progresses that each scene heightens the story’s tension, and that this tension remains unbroken until the climax resolves whether or not your protagonist meets their desires.

Don’t stress too hard on writing a perfect story. Rather, take Anne Lamott’s advice, and “write a shitty first draft.” The goal is not to pen a complete story at first draft; rather, it’s to set ideas down on paper. You are simply, as Shannon Hale suggests, “shoveling sand into a box so that later [you] can build castles.”

5. Step Away, Breathe, Revise

Whenever Stephen King finishes a novel, he puts it in a drawer and doesn’t think about it for 6 weeks. With short stories, you probably don’t need to take as long of a break. But, the idea itself is true: when you’ve finished your first draft, set it aside for a while. Let yourself come back to the story with fresh eyes, so that you can confidently revise, revise, revise .

In revision, you want to make sure each word has an essential place in the story, that each scene ramps up tension, and that each character is clearly defined. The culmination of these elements allows a story to explore complex themes and ideas, giving the reader something to think about after the story has ended.

6. Compare Against Our Short Story Checklist

Does your story have everything it needs to succeed? Compare it against this short story checklist, as written by our instructor Rosemary Tantra Bensko.

Below is a collection of practical short story writing tips by Writers.com instructor Rosemary Tantra Bensko . Each paragraph is its own checklist item: a core element of short story writing advice to follow unless you have clear reasons to the contrary. We hope it’s a helpful resource in your own writing.

Update 9/1/2020: We’ve now made a summary of Rosemary’s short story checklist available as a PDF download . Enjoy!

Click to download

How to Write a Short Story: Length and Setting

Your short story is 1000 to 7500 words in length.

The story takes place in one time period, not spread out or with gaps other than to drive someplace, sleep, etc. If there are those gaps, there is a space between the paragraphs, the new paragraph beginning flush left, to indicate a new scene.

Each scene takes place in one location, or in continual transit, such as driving a truck or flying in a plane.

How to Write a Short Story: Point of View

Unless it’s a very lengthy Romance story, in which there may be two Point of View (POV) characters, there is one POV character. If we are told what any character secretly thinks, it will only be the POV character. The degree to which we are privy to the unexpressed thoughts, memories and hopes of the POV character remains consistent throughout the story.

You avoid head-hopping by only having one POV character per scene, even in a Romance. You avoid straying into even brief moments of telling us what other characters think other than the POV character. You use words like “apparently,” “obviously,” or “supposedly” to suggest how non-POV-characters think rather than stating it.

How to Write a Short Story: Protagonist, Antagonist, Motivation

Your short story has one clear protagonist who is usually the character changing most.

Your story has a clear antagonist, who generally makes the protagonist change by thwarting his goals.

(Possible exception to the two short story writing tips above: In some types of Mystery and Action stories, particularly in a series, etc., the protagonist doesn’t necessarily grow personally, but instead his change relates to understanding the antagonist enough to arrest or kill him.)

The protagonist changes with an Arc arising out of how he is stuck in his Flaw at the beginning of the story, which makes the reader bond with him as a human, and feel the pain of his problems he causes himself. (Or if it’s the non-personal growth type plot: he’s presented at the beginning of the story with a high-stakes problem that requires him to prevent or punish a crime.)

The protagonist usually is shown to Want something, because that’s what people normally do, defining their personalities and behavior patterns, pushing them onward from day to day. This may be obvious from the beginning of the story, though it may not become heightened until the Inciting Incident , which happens near the beginning of Act 1. The Want is usually something the reader sort of wants the character to succeed in, while at the same time, knows the Want is not in his authentic best interests. This mixed feeling in the reader creates tension.

The protagonist is usually shown to Need something valid and beneficial, but at first, he doesn’t recognize it, admit it, honor it, integrate it with his Want, or let the Want go so he can achieve the Need instead. Ideally, the Want and Need can be combined in a satisfying way toward the end for the sake of continuity of forward momentum of victoriously achieving the goals set out from the beginning. It’s the encounters with the antagonist that forcibly teach the protagonist to prioritize his Needs correctly and overcome his Flaw so he can defeat the obstacles put in his path.

The protagonist in a personal growth plot needs to change his Flaw/Want but like most people, doesn’t automatically do that when faced with the problem. He tries the easy way, which doesn’t work. Only when the Crisis takes him to a low point does he boldly change enough to become victorious over himself and the external situation. What he learns becomes the Theme.

Each scene shows its main character’s goal at its beginning, which aligns in a significant way with the protagonist’s overall goal for the story. The scene has a “charge,” showing either progress toward the goal or regression away from the goal by the ending. Most scenes end with a negative charge, because a story is about not obtaining one’s goals easily, until the end, in which the scene/s end with a positive charge.

The protagonist’s goal of the story becomes triggered until the Inciting Incident near the beginning, when something happens to shake up his life. This is the only major thing in the story that is allowed to be a random event that occurs to him.

How to Write a Short Story: Characters

Your characters speak differently from one another, and their dialogue suggests subtext, what they are really thinking but not saying: subtle passive-aggressive jibes, their underlying emotions, etc.

Your characters are not illustrative of ideas and beliefs you are pushing for, but come across as real people.

How to Write a Short Story: Prose

Your language is succinct, fresh and exciting, specific, colorful, avoiding clichés and platitudes. Sentence structures vary. In Genre stories, the language is simple, the symbolism is direct, and words are well-known, and sentences are relatively short. In Literary stories, you are freer to use more sophisticated ideas, words, sentence structures and underlying metaphors and implied motifs.

How to Write a Short Story: Story Structure

Your plot elements occur in the proper places according to classical Act Structure so the reader feels he has vicariously gone through a harrowing trial with the protagonist and won, raising his sense of hope and possibility. Literary short stories may be more subtle, with lower stakes, experimenting beyond classical structures like the Hero’s Journey. They can be more like vignettes sometimes, or even slice-of-life, though these types are hard to place in publications.

In Genre stories, all the questions are answered, threads are tied up, problems are solved, though the results of carnage may be spread over the landscape. In Literary short stories, you are free to explore uncertainty, ambiguity, and inchoate, realistic endings that suggest multiple interpretations, and unresolved issues.

Some Literary stories may be nonrealistic, such as with Surrealism, Absurdism, New Wave Fabulism, Weird and Magical Realism . If this is what you write, they still need their own internal logic and they should not be bewildering as to the what the reader is meant to experience, whether it’s a nuanced, unnameable mood or a trip into the subconscious.

Literary stories may also go beyond any label other than Experimental. For example, a story could be a list of To Do items on a paper held by a magnet to a refrigerator for the housemate to read. The person writing the list may grow more passive-aggressive and manipulative as the list grows, and we learn about the relationship between the housemates through the implied threats and cajoling.

How to Write a Short Story: Capturing Reader Interest

Your short story is suspenseful, meaning readers hope the protagonist will achieve his best goal, his Need, by the Climax battle against the antagonist.

Your story entertains. This is especially necessary for Genre short stories.

The story captivates readers at the very beginning with a Hook, which can be a puzzling mystery to solve, an amazing character’s or narrator’s Voice, an astounding location, humor, a startling image, or a world the reader wants to become immersed in.

Expository prose (telling, like an essay) takes up very, very little space in your short story, and it does not appear near the beginning. The story is in Narrative format instead, in which one action follows the next. You’ve removed every unnecessary instance of Expository prose and replaced it with showing Narrative. Distancing words like “used to,” “he would often,” “over the years, he,” “each morning, he” indicate that you are reporting on a lengthy time period, summing it up, rather than sticking to Narrative format, in which immediacy makes the story engaging.

You’ve earned the right to include Expository Backstory by making the reader yearn for knowing what happened in the past to solve a mystery. This can’t possibly happen at the beginning, obviously. Expository Backstory does not take place in the first pages of your story.

Your reader cares what happens and there are high stakes (especially important in Genre stories). Your reader worries until the end, when the protagonist survives, succeeds in his quest to help the community, gets the girl, solves or prevents the crime, achieves new scientific developments, takes over rule of his realm, etc.

Every sentence is compelling enough to urge the reader to read the next one—because he really, really wants to—instead of doing something else he could be doing. Your story is not going to be assigned to people to analyze in school like the ones you studied, so you have found a way from the beginning to intrigue strangers to want to spend their time with your words.

Where to Read and Submit Short Stories

Whether you’re looking for inspiration or want to publish your own stories, you’ll find great literary journals for writers of all backgrounds at this article:

https://writers.com/short-story-submissions

Learn How to Write a Short Story at Writers.com

The short story takes an hour to learn and a lifetime to master. Learn how to write a short story with Writers.com. Our upcoming fiction courses will give you the ropes to tell authentic, original short stories that captivate and entrance your readers.

Rosemary – Is there any chance you could add a little something to your checklist? I’d love to know the best places to submit our short stories for publication. Thanks so much.

Hi, Kim Hanson,

Some good places to find publications specific to your story are NewPages, Poets and Writers, Duotrope, and The Submission Grinder.

“ In Genre stories, all the questions are answered, threads are tied up, problems are solved, though the results of carnage may be spread over the landscape.”

Not just no but NO.

See for example the work of MacArthur Fellow Kelly Link.

[…] How to Write a Short Story: The Short Story Checklist […]

Thank you for these directions and tips. It’s very encouraging to someone like me, just NOW taking up writing.

[…] Writers.com. A great intro to writing. https://writers.com/how-to-write-a-short-story […]

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Trent's World (the Blog)

Random ramblings and reviews from trent p. mcdonald.

The 750 Word Challenge

People who follow my blog may notice that I get a bit verbose, am often a little wordy, I go on for too long, I…  ooops, sorry.  Yes, my posts are often too long.  I understand that a good blog should be short and sweet, concise and to the point.  I understand and yet I still go on and on.  Of course it isn’t just my blog, I tend to get a bit wordy in all of my writing.  That’s one reason I like the 750 word challenge.

I can hear you say, “750 words is a little long for a blog.”  Correct, and I have too often exceeded it.   I’m not talking about blogs, though.  The idea of the 750 word challenge is to write a meaningful and interesting short story in 750 words or less.  Those who follow the Writer’s Digest Magazine’s forums know that I didn’t invent the idea.  There is a regular contest where forum members can submit a 750 word or less story based on a given theme or idea.

I like the 750 word challenge.  I haven’t participated in the Writer’s Digest version in a couple of years but I still occasionally try it on my own.  It’s a good way to practice self-editing and to discover exactly what is and isn’t needed in a story.

My last post, “Laura’s Eyes” , is an example.  I had an idea for a story.  It was pretty simple so I decided to shoot for the under-750 words mark.  I quickly cut out large chunks of the story.  For example, I had originally wanted to introduce Laura’s mom so we could see those eyes on 3 faces: the small child, Laura and her mother.  I left the child in for the embarrassment factor, but the mother wasn’t needed.  The final story is much leaner.

Besides editing the story down to its most basic components, word choice becomes a more important issue.   Finding exactly the right word is imperative when the number of words is so limited.  You need to convey the idea in as few words as possible, yet it still has to flow and have a groove.

Back to “Laura’s Eyes”, the introduction to Laura’s father, Mr. Saunders, was very clumsy.   I changed the wording five times.  It still doesn’t flow as well as it should, but it’s an improvement.  Looking back I understand that part of the flow problem was my insistence on saying Jim had only lived in town for a year.   One reason for this insistence was vestigial from the original longer story I had in mind.  The other reason was an explanation for why Jim had never met Laura.  There were many other places where I changed the original word for something that fit my specific meaning a little better.

The challenge exposes many weak spots.  In an effort to shorten things up I made the dialog in “Laura’s Eyes” a little choppy and unnatural.  It gives me a goal for my next 750 word challenge – make the dialog flow naturally yet stay within the limits.

If you have never tried a 750 word challenge you should.  You can go to the Writer’s Digest website and participate in one of theirs or make one up one your own.  This exercise really forces you take a closer look at your writing.  But remember, although it’s a learning experience you need to have fun with it.

Note – the above was posted in December of 2013 after I put the first short story up on my blog.  I’ve posted quite a few since, including the ones in the list below which are all limited to 750 words or less.  They’re listed in the reverse order of when the were posted, newest at the top.  Enjoy!

(Most of the “ Frank ” stories are less than 750 words.  Only a few have been posted here)

(For stories with no restrictions, see my Fiction Page )

Stories Using 750 Words or Less:

• Looking for Some Quiet
• T he Ride Home
• The 15 Year Pin
• Why Haven’t You Called?
• A Gargantuan Farce
• Now, About My Cousin
• The Heavenly Pie
• For a Slice
• First Impressions
• T he Jungle of My Dreams
• And the Sky Opened
• The Stranger
• What the Beach Tells Me
• A Few of My Favorite Things
• It’s All About Timing
• Drake Skräcködla
• The Dinner Guest
• Thursday Morning Coffee Club
• On the Internet Nobody Knows You’re a Monster
• A Brief Encounter
• First Day Out
• I’ve Seen Worse
• Laura’s Eye’s

Other Posts about challenges

Challenge Me!

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5 thoughts on “ the 750 word challenge ”.

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Verbosity – I can relate to that :)

I know I’m not the only one around here whose pen runneth over. Of course seeing the haikus on your page reminds me that meaning can be distilled down to pretty small units….

Thank you. I find haiku to be a good discipline for saying much in few words.

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