Stories of Few Words

Telling tales within the boundaries of a word count

Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash

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A famous six-word story is often attributed to Ernest Hemingway. It reads simply: "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." (Hemingway didn't actually write this sentence. Versions of the story date back to 1906, during his childhood and long before he ever published anything.)

Done in the style of a brief newspaper classified ad, this brief sentence suggests a larger dramatic tale. The reader's mind is freed to imagine circumstances behind the ad. Miscarriage, a sudden infant death, infertility, a childless couple divorcing before starting a family. Numerous detailed stories can be spun off a single brief sentence.

Flash fiction and microfiction embrace a similar principle of imaginative brevity in storytelling. These types of stories seize the axiom “less is more” and run with it. Done skillfully, such stories will spark a reader's imagination through hinting at a much longer and deeper story below the surface.

I've experimented with examples of these story forms and decided to share results with readers of this newsletter.

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Microfiction

Any story under 100 words is defined as microfiction. These can take multiple forms depending on the word count.

Two-sentence stories are popular among horror writers. You tell a complete story using only two sentences. Some amateur writers will stretch the definition with a pair of run-on sentences almost long enough to qualify as their own Wikipedia article. This form of microfiction works best with brevity.

I experimented with this format in the science fiction genre and came up with this kooky two-sentence tale:

A crazed alien hitchhiker held me hostage from Albuquerque to Las Vegas. And that’s how I met your mother.

An example of a longer microfiction story is, Sanctuary, an 80-word horror tale I wrote using a photo prompt that

Miguel S.

posted in his Substack newsletter, The Fiction Dealer. The picture in question showed a white cat hiding in an open box.

Here’s how I interpreted the cat in a box prompt:

A tiny refuge. Cardboard walls on all four sides. Snowball loved this spot more than the others. Her box always makes the world a smaller place.

When the sun dipped low and shadows crawled, she retreated to the quiet box stuffed into a quiet corner.

Safe.

Hidden.

Her thoughtful humans set it aside as a gift for her. A place to play and sleep. Before shadow creatures came and stole her friends.

Only her box makes the world safe again.

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Drabble

A drabble is a story that is exactly 100 words. No more. No less. Drabbles are a challenge to write, but a good exercise for an author in learning brevity and how to make each word in their stories feel important. You learn how to eliminate passive voice and weak writing when you create drabbles.

I recently created a sci-fi/horror drabble, Starry Night, for the weekly Macabre Monday horror-themed newsletter. This offered me a chance to create a seemingly wholesome story that quickly goes down a dark path.

Here’s the drabble in question:

Other kids nicknamed her “astro-nut” because Macey talked about stars nonstop. Every weekend, she begged her parents to take twilight drives to the cornfields to give her a clearer view of those distant twinkling orbs.  

“One day, I’ll visit every star in the sky,” she promised.   

Macey wished to take back her vow. She yearned to travel to the stars, but not like this.   

Never like this.   

Repeated kicks and screams failed to release her from the alien’s burly arms as her house faded away.   

“Earth animals always fetch a higher price at market,” he said, wearing a sly grin.  

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Flash Fiction

Flash fiction is a modern term, but this story form has ancient roots. Any narrative that ranges from 101 to 1,000 words is popularly considered flash fiction. You have a few subcategories within that range for other stories (short-short, sudden fiction, microstory) but flash fiction is an umbrella term that includes them all.

The growth of the Internet in the early 2000s made flash fiction a popular form of storytelling in literary circles. Many online fiction publications are devoted to flash fiction alone. Others feature flash fiction alongside longer traditional short stories, novelettes, and novellas.

I occasionally write flash fiction in this newsletter. My favorite example is Laughter, a horror tale I first shared with the readers of Strange New Worlds back in 2022. This tale focuses on Clint hiding from unidentified dark entities seeking him.

Here’s a look at that creepy tale:

It started out as a small laugh. Not much louder than a whisper. Clint barely heard anything at first. He soon wished he hadn't heard the laugh at all.

Clint cast his eyes toward the closet door. The laugh grew louder, piercing a stillness within the bedroom. Something about it felt unnatural, almost ghoulish. No pause. Only a continued escalation from chuckle to cackle. Clint's eyes grew as wide and round as plates. He pressed his back against the wall. His knuckles tightened and each breath grew shallower.

How did they find him? Special runes adorned each wall inside and outside the closet. None worked as advertised.

His circumstances had taken a sudden dangerous turn. He lacked enough speed to evade his pursuers. Screaming for help would only make things worse. Clint could no longer deny the reality facing him.

The others discovered his final refuge and tracked him down.

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Are you a fan of flash fiction, drabbles, or microfiction?

If you answered yes to the first question, what do you like about these types of stories and which of these storytelling forms is your favorite?

Let me know in the comments.

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