Million Writers Ineligible: “Flash”, “short short”, etc.

According to the rules of the storySouth Million Writers Award, eligible stories must be at least 1,000 words in length. This is an interesting requirement, given that the Internet has made “flash” fiction a much more popular genre than it was in the print-only era.

Reading on a computer screen lends itself to fits of attention deficit, so sometimes only a shouted or whispered story of well under 1,000 words can grab the eyes and mind before they click away to someplace else. And it’s easier and cheaper to dedicate virtual space to tiny, evocative pieces than it is to dedicate real paper to the same. Some of the best outlets for “flash fiction”, like Smokelong Quarterly and Flashquake, are web-only; others, like Quick Fiction, have a strong web presence. While the much-harried traditional short story is being squeezed out of print, flash fiction has experienced a flowering in the digital age.

Certainly, no one can fault storySouth for limiting the pool of eligible stories to 1,000 words or more. As a challege to the collections like “Best American Short Stories” and “The O. Henry Prize”, which implicitly limit themselves not only to print publications (and, apparently, “The New Yorker”) but to longer stories, the Million Writers Award certainly looks more credible the more like the “old guard” it appears. Still, there’s a wealth of wonderful little stories being overlooked; and because shorter is harder to write, these inelgibles may be the best of the lot.

Three stories that I had published on-line this year–Mermaid from Rumble, and Summer Reading and Haute Couture, both from Somewhat.org–fall short of the 1,000 word mark. To be honest, “Mermaid” is probably the only one I’d nominate (though the other two are fun); my goal was to come in under 250 words, and it wasn’t at all an easy thing to do.

For better examples of stories that miss the cut-off, take a look at Frost Fish by John McCaffrey and Five Minute Conversation by Sandra Novack.