We hope you’ve had a chance to read our previous article about flash fiction. If not, then you should know that flash fiction (also sometimes called micro-stories or microfiction) are works of fiction of 1,500 words or less.  They’re currently popular on Instagram, with more than 174,000 hits for the #flashfiction hashtag.

We talked to some current writers of the genre from around the globe to share their inspiration for creating their micro-stories that resonate largely. Here are the stories submitted for publication by those writers. Be sure to read till the end, because we’re also announcing an exciting flash fiction contest!

Nik Bennett

Dec got there early before work. He didn’t want a repeat of the weekend’s fiasco when he arrived to find the car park rammed with superannuated garage sale enthusiasts.

He was going to shoot the place up with his iPhone and an empty parking lot added to the feeling of abandonment and imminent demolition that gave him a semi.

The lot was almost empty. There was a grey minivan, with a paint job that looked like it’d been left too close to a driving range, parked up by the boulevard. The engine was running. The driver’s side window was cracked a hair and occasional tentacles of smoke wafted out.

Dec walked towards the vehicle. He needed to stand almost next to it to get all of the building into the shot.

The window wound completely down. The guy was alone at the wheel. Dec approached. There was a whiff of white supremacy, shitty coffee and rez smokes. Merle Haggard was on the tape deck.

The guy was maybe Dec’s age, maybe 60, 65 but he had Google Earth’s satellite map of The Hammer on his face.

He’d been crying, too.

Dec asked him if he was okay.

The guy nodded yes and took a drag before telling Dec that his wife used to work there and now she and the Bingo Hall were gone.

The man showed Dec a photo of a woman who was a ringer for Mamie Van Doren. She hadn’t lost all her charms. She was calling a game.

Dec said sorry for your loss, man.

The man looked up balefully at Dec and said she ain’t dead, no sir, she fucked off with some moneyed up midget Elvis lookalike with a walker. Can you believe that shit? A fucking walker.

He took a long last drag on his smoke and flicked the butt. It cut the air like a distress flare.

Meanwhile Merle sang Mama Tried.

Read more flash fiction micro-stories on Nik’s Instagram.

Robert Klurfield

Prematurely bald, belatedly and suddenly single, Eugene had the rest of his life ahead of him at just 42. Perhaps Jeanine had done him a favor divorcing him. A fresh start. He was scared shitless.

Maybe it was time for a makeover. It seemed the Hall and Oates look was in for 1982. He wondered if this store had a wig that would make him look like the tall blond one (he wasn’t sure if that was Hall or Oates) rather than the short dark one with the porn star mustache. If not, he’d settle for one of these.

He could trade the Plymouth Fury for one of those Firebirds with the bird decal on the hood. Ditch Queens for LA. No doubt they needed accountants out there too. He could even start going by Gene rather than Eugene. Maybe the porn star stach wasn’t so bad after all.

Read more flash fiction micro-stories on Rob’s Instagram.

Ella Ward

Three squeezes: “I. Love. You.”

Four squeezes: “I. Love. You. Too.”

Always crossing a road. Often outside her school.

Then. When she was too tall to need a hand to cross both lanes, the squeezes happened whilst seated.

Theatres.

Sofas.

Cabs.

. . .

Hospitals.

At a defined but unmarked point, she graduated from second-squeezer to first. The baton had been passed.

And now – with her mother’s papery, translucent hand in hers – she squeezed.

“I. Love. You.”

– – – 

Read more flash fiction micro-stories on Ella’s Instagram.

Flash Fiction/Micro-Stories Contest!

Here’s the deal: Submit an original, previously unpublished flash fiction story – inspired by the image above – of 1,500 words or less by July 11th! Titles are not required. Our panel of judges will look over these micro-stories and choose the best of the best micro-stories!

Since CulturePledge is spending a lot of time on the crypto-social network BitClout these days, our prizes are in that platform’s native cryptocurrency. Prizes in $Clout are equivalent to: US$200 for the winner, $100 for 2nd, $50 for 3rd, and $25 for honorable mentions. All winners’ entries will be published on our site in the near future.

Send your finished micro-stories to jeff@culturepledge.com.

Here are the judges:

Jeff Hayward is the CulturePledge editor and has been a writer for many years, long before people paid him for it. He is a big fan of flash fiction and consumes a fair bit of it, but has only dared writing it once or twice himself.

Nick van Osdol grew up bilingual in a house full of books, instilling a love of languages in him from an early age. He studied Creative Writing at UCLA under great writers like Mona Simpson and Justin Torres, and was awarded the Clara Rusk Hastings award for the most accomplished English student at the school in his sophomore year.

Erin Hawkins is a writer and photographer based in Dundas, Ontario. She enjoys day-dreaming, exploring dirty alleyways, and mud larking.