Flash Fiction vs. Short Story

A great way to exercise your writing muscles is to experiment with flash fiction. But what is flash fiction? That term may not be as familiar to you as short stories or novels are. I believe, through my own interaction with the genre, that flash fiction is no less important than short stories. The following article will explain how flash fiction differs from short stories and where its strengths lie.

Flash Fiction vs. Short Story Length

Short stories are longer than they sound, with an average word count of 1,000-7,500. Flash fiction, on the other hand, averages anywhere from 100-1,000 words. That may sound like much, but 100 words is less than half a page single-spaced.

The most important difference between a short story and flash fiction is time. What I mean by “time” is both how long it takes to write the piece and how long it takes to read it. The two forms’ differing lengths, of course, play into this difference. But why is time such an important factor? It is this time or length factor that fundamentally differentiates flash fiction from a short story.

Short Story

Short Story Structure

Short stories are like carefully constructed houses with rooms for lengthier creative endeavors. Having space to breathe and stretch your creative skills without committing to a longer form like a novel is excellent practice for a young writer who needs to thoroughly understand plot and character arc before embarking on a longer work. Think of short stories as the spine of a novel. Short stories essentially contain a novel’s most basic structural parts, like a build to a climax with a distinct beginning, middle, and end. The short story could also end abruptly with the climactic event, forcing the reader and the character to mull over the consequences, as in O. Henry’s famous The Cop and the Anthem.

Short Story Plot

Short stories have longer, more developed plots than flash fiction. This plot, however, may rely on just a few pivotal scenes and characters while focusing on one interesting event that is built over the course of a few pages. Thus, short stories are like abbreviated novels with the same character development and plot trajectory, only shortened.

Short Story Character Development

Short stories, therefore, have more time to develop characters with detailed descriptions of both their appearance as well as their past and present circumstances. These characters usually follow a character arc, accomplishing or experiencing something that both teaches the reader and changes the character or his circumstances.

Short Story Subtext

Short stories can develop and hash out meanings without having to heavily imply them, if the author chooses. This freedom directly results from the author’s ability to put more physical words on a page and, thus, to construct an entire plot to draw out meanings and teach them more openly. The author can also include a brief backstory or weave it in through dialogue, giving the plot and character even more depth.

Short Story Content

In a word, short stories have the luxury of time. The writer can flex vocabulary skills and plot and character skills on a less grand scale than what a novel requires. Much has already been hinted at about how short stories should be used, such as when you have a fully developed character or a more involved plot, but not enough of both for a novel with hundreds of pages.

Because the short story does not have the luxury of hundreds of pages, it is excellent for practicing quick, tight, and clean arcs within a matter of pages and for balancing action with dialogue and description.

Another important lesson a short story will teach you is how to pare back unneeded scenes and backstory to prevent them from overwhelming your real purpose. It is also this real purpose that you will be forced to stick to because, unlike novels that can explore multiple themes, short stories generally explore only one. Thus, short story form demands that you stay on course in building your metaphorical house and holds you to a rigorous focus on how physical actions, descriptions, and characters themselves both support and illuminate a theme.

Flash Fiction

Flash Fiction Structure

Flash fiction, on the other hand, is like one room of a carefully constructed house with barely enough space for theme, vocabulary, and plot to squeeze in together. Flash fiction is a fine balance that takes much practice and forethought to strike.

Flash Fiction Plot

You see, a short story has the gift of the gab. An author can ramble on (to an extent) and keep the reader entertained if they also deliver a good plot and a lesson. But flash fiction is forced to condense an entire story, an entire plot, even an entire life into one single moment. Whereas the short story can both develop and contain the equivalent of a novel’s climax, a flash fiction piece focuses on the climactic scene only. Flash fiction, as far as plot goes, is like breaking down a door into a scene you have no context for and being forced to understand, appreciate, and remember it all at once.

Flash Fiction Character Development

Similarly, flash fiction does not have room to wax eloquent on characters. Now, characters may be what drive flash fiction because this short form requires you to get to the point quickly. But you may never tell the reader what the character looks like, yet you will have to pick out certain characteristics that most strongly hint at your theme or at the scene occurring.

You can use a character to convey an entire emotional range, such as one with scars on their hands. Again, do not get bogged down in describing characters. Think about what best fits your purpose, and only make room for that. Similarly, flash fiction could include some dialogue, but it should be chosen very carefully.

Flash Fiction Subtext

A truncated plot and character development mean that whatever theme or point you are trying to get across will have to be heavily implied. Flash fiction is where the time-old principle of “show, don’t tell” comes into play. Decide what a scene’s or character’s most important details are and use them to imply what is happening in the emotional moment as well as why it is happening. Your theme will have to be equally implied through curated details. Really, only the author can have a true sense for what will drive their flash fiction piece home to the heart of the reader.

But carefully observe the walls of your flash fiction room and decide which pieces of furniture fit best and work most in sync. Do you want the room to look like a library? Think about how armchairs and shelves could fit in there. Do you want the room to look like a kitchen? Think about how clean colors like whites and blacks would give the space a wider, fresher feel that is as inviting as any kitchen should be. The same thought that goes into filling a physical room should go into the flash fiction room.

Flash Fiction Content

Because it demands perfection in compression, flash fiction is similar to poetry. Because of this similarity, flash fiction relies on poetry’s intense emotional moments that come in a flash but remain forever—or at least, that should, if done well. In fact, I believe flash fiction is the only prose that is least like prose and most like poetry. What this means for flash fiction writers is that, just like poets, they must have one solid theme in mind or an emotional moment they wish to convey. Then, they must select specific, telling words that support the theme and sweep readers into a full, breathtaking understanding of the scene. Readers must live a lifetime in a few moments.

Again, the “time factor” differentiates flash fiction content from short stories because flash fiction’s length demands a quick, percussive scene developed over a paragraph or more. Authors should practice with flash fiction to strengthen their “show, don’t tell” skills and to understand what is most important to include in their scenes. In fact, because of its heavy implication skills, flash fiction is good practice for poetry itself as well as for screenwriting, where subtext (or meaning underneath what is actually being said) is heavily relied upon.

Conclusion

Flash fiction is not better or worse than short stories. It is more difficult to pull off in a way that touches the reader. But it brings the writer multiple benefits, including the strong power of observation and the ability to practice restraint and even patience in making a point. Don’t forget to have fun when playing around with flash fiction, although it is intimidating at first. And the more you do it, the better you will be, as will your writing in general.

About the Author

Alaina Suttles is a senior at Pensacola Christian College where she is studying for a bachelor's degree in professional writing. When she was still in high school, Alaina discovered Write the World and fell in love with its welcoming community. She won runner-up for a Write the World fantasy competition and later won first place for her college's creative fiction competition. As a young writer, Alaina was grateful to discover Write the World's community of fellow writers, where she could share her work and experience constructive and kind criticism that helped her grow her writing skills. Now, as a summer intern, she hopes to build that same confidence in other young writers and to encourage them to put their talents to the best use.