Discovering Microfiction

How to write a full story in fifty words.

What it is? Can I write it?

Microfiction is something I discovered early in my Medium journey. Something I wanted to write but didn’t know whether I could. 

At cafe sat a timid woman. She kept looking at her watch as if she didn't quite believe the time. When anyone walked in she looked up. The blow was fleeting on her face. When he came in, she looked up smiled and left. - SamHArnold

What is microfiction?

Microfiction is the art of writing a story in as few words as possible. Most short stories are between 1000 and 2000 words. Microfiction tends to be a story with a much smaller word count. Sometimes as low as 50 words. I have set myself the challenge of writing microfiction in 280 characters or lower. To work in conjunction with Twitter. 

The History of Microfiction 

Originally called flash fiction.  Word counts then decreased further and guidelines grew tighter.  Microfiction was created. It is now a well established in literature.

They walked sideways like crabs as they looked into each other's eyes. As they sat down they kissed, others turned away. She saw the face at the window and turned pale. With that, she got up and left. He started to cry big silent tears. - SamHArnold

Structure of Microfiction

Microfiction is written the same as any fiction it has a start and middle and an end. Characters need to be attractive to the reader. It is best to keep the characters name as short as possible to save on character count. Authors of microfiction must be strict in their writing. Every single word has to have a purpose. Where possible only one word is used to explore or describe something.

Journey into Microfiction

If you have an interest in fiction I implore you to try writing microfiction. It will help condense your writing skills. It will make you a better writer. I am publishing microfiction stories on twitter. Follow me at @samharnold

Jack looked at the winning lottery ticket in his hand. He thought about what this meant. He thought about his girlfriend. The wind ruffled the ticket. He screwed it up and threw it away. No jackpot was worth that much trouble. - SamHArnold

Share your Microfiction in the comments.