Editor’s Note: Chris Rhatigan was a reporter for The New Haven Register and the Iowa City Press-Citizen. His fiction has appeared in A Twist of Noir, Mysterical-E, Yellow Mama, Thrillers, Killers ’n Chillers, Pulp Metal Magazine, and not from here, are you? If you dig short fiction, stop by his blog, Death by Killing.
Flash Fiction Unlimited
By Chris Rhatigan
There are many things the internet has done that I hate.
Twitter.
Acronyms.
Search engine optimization (or SEO, ugh).
Causing the catastrophic collapse of the newspaper industry.
Viral marketing. (I don’t really understand what this is, but I don’t like it.) 
But there is one positive thing the internet is responsible for—the rise of flash fiction. I’m confident that flash would have remained in the dark corners of the underground if not for the ‘zines that have emerged in the last few years.
If you want best-selling novels or slick short stories, you can find them at Barnes and Noble. But flash? For that, my friend, you must go online. It’s an ideal form for reading on a computer or an e-reader—the experience should be quick and satisfying.
So what exactly is flash fiction? The attempt to define flash has a long history. And by long, I mean boring. It’s the kind of thing anyone who reads flash wouldn’t be interested in.
Personally, I’ll leave it at Sandra Seamans’ definition: “The reader is dropped right into the middle of the action and never allowed to catch his breath, rather like an afternoon quickie – fast and furious, and then break out the cigarettes.”
Damn straight.
What the ascent of the fast-and-furious form means is that writers are forced to find the best way to tell a story. When you write flash, you have to locate the story’s heart—and rip it out. No time for bullshit like what color the drapes are or what Billy’s childhood was like.
That’s why I love flash. It respects the reader’s time and delivers what I really want from the fiction reading experience—narrative.
But beyond its tasty brevity, flash allows writers to experiment in ways other forms don’t. The constraint on word count is, paradoxically, what allows for greater creativity.
Take this startling piece by Kieran Shea, In This Place. It’s in second-person, a screaming stream of consciousness.
This wouldn’t work in a novel. Even at short-story length, the voice is so intense that the effect could be overbearing. But in flash, it fits perfectly. Shea filters this moment until it’s a concentrated shot of pure insanity.
In flash, writers can choose to focus on one or only a couple of elements of storytelling. There’s less of a need to balance character, setting, and plot. (Although plenty of flash stories balance these elements as well as any novel.)
Christopher Grant’s Bus Stop is a prime example. We don’t find out much about these characters, as he concentrates on plot. He pulls a few strands, one by one, and—smack!—everything unravels as neatly as a Seinfeld episode. Any additional information would only weigh the story down.
Maybe because of its focus on narrative, many crime and horror writers have gravitated to the form. I’ve found that, amazingly enough, you can pack as much suspense in a few hundred words as in a hundred thousand. Check out Steve Weddle’s Hold You if you’re prepared to be creeped out.
Flash on the internet appears to be growing each day, with new sites and blogs popping up regularly. Many die out quickly, but those with dedicated editors and a clear vision can beat the odds.
Creating a community of writers and readers is crucial to any internet zine. There are a number of sites that managed to set themselves apart and establish a niche.
One of my favorites is A Twist of Noir. Last year, editor, Christopher Grant announced a change in the site’s format. All the stories numbered 600-700 would be the length of their corresponding number (#601 would be 601 words, etc.). Crime/noir writers rose to this challenge and have produced some startling work. The site originally entered the scene to fill the space left by DZ Allen’s Muzzle Flash, and the challenge brought A Twist of Noir back to its roots.
The Flash Fiction Offensive caters to the hardcore side of crime fiction. Here you’ll find nasty, down-and-dirty tales from a ‘zine that’s an off-shoot of Out of the Gutter Magazine. A couple of excellent examples include Michael J. Solender’s Cold Storage and Matthew C. Funk’s Choppers.
On the horror side, The New Flesh vows to “keep it weird.” And they certainly do that. From traditional, supernatural horror to the realistic-but-terrifying shorts, like Katharina by Connor de Bruler, I’ve been impressed by this site. Cool design and high-quality fiction.
Speaking of weird, the decadently bizarre Pulp Metal Magazine manages to defy genre conventions. Horror, suspense, crime, noir, surrealism—it’s all here. One of my favorites, a piece that’s somehow representative of the site, is Melanie Brown’s hilarious werewolf piece, The Wild Beast.
There are plenty of other sites producing quality work—I seem to find a new one every day. Here are a few places you should check out:
Thrillers, Killers ’n Chillers
All these sites offer free fiction you can read on your lunch break or with your morning coffee. And readers have the chance to try out a new writer with little commitment—no shelling out 25 bucks for a hardcover novel. Although the internet has propagated a lot of stupid shit, I doubt there’s ever been as much quality, free fiction available as there is now.
