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How to Find Short Short Stories

Short, short stories range from stories told in a few words or sentences, called micro-fiction or flash-fiction, to stories containing up to 1,500 words. To condense an entire plot in a minimal amount of words can show how much mastery a person has of the written language. Ernest Hemingway was a fan of very short stories. Legend has it that on a bet he crafted a six-word tale: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

Instructions

    • 1

      Read the Very Short Stories Article in Wired Magazine, available online at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/sixwords.html. This article lists six-word science fiction stories by 33 famous writers.

    • 2

      Subscribe to the Story Bytes monthly e-zine and weekly e-mail newsletter at http://www.storybytes.com. Story Bytes contains a 5-year repository of short, short fiction by promising young writers and seasoned professionals.

    • 3

      Visit Writer's Digest at http://www.writersdigest.com/short to read the winning entries in their annual short, short story competition. If you'd like to craft a very short story, you can enter the contest to win the $3,000 first prize.

    • 4

      Read Flash Fiction at http://www.flashfictiononline.com/. This site is dedicated to publishing short fiction under 1,000 words on a monthly basis. It also features themed writing, such as Christmas stories, science fiction and literary fiction.

    • 5

      Go to your library or favorite online bookseller and search for titles related to short, short stories or very short fiction. You'll find numerous anthologies of stories under 1,000 words. Select a volume based on a literary theme or favorite writer.

      A few examples include "Micro Fiction: an Anthology of Really Short Stories" and "Sudden Fiction" an anthology of the best short, short stories by famous writers such as Raymond Carver, John Updike and Ernest Hemingway.

    • 6

      Learn how people can summarize their life in six short words by visiting Smith Magazine's "Six Word Memoir Project" at http://www.smithmag.net.

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