1. Zypher

    Zypher Active Member

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    Micro vs Flash Fiction

    Discussion in 'Genre Discussions' started by Zypher, May 2, 2013.

    So I have noticed the terms Micro-Fiction and Flash-Fiction pop up a few times. I was curious as to what the differences are. They both just seem to be short fictional pieces, however I am not well versed in these things.
     
  2. erebh

    erebh Banned Contributor

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    Flash - Micro - Nano, size of piece from biggest to smallest I think - find Blackstar and ask him, he's our resident fiction flasher...
     
  3. NigeTheHat

    NigeTheHat Contributor Contributor

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    I don't think there's set definitions - people just call tiny stories different things. I've certainly had people refer to the 100-worders I write as both micro and flash. Not nano, though - maybe that's reserved for the 6-word stories people do when they're playing Hemingway.
     
  4. blackstar21595

    blackstar21595 New Member

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    From smallest to largest
    Nanofiction,Micro Fiction,Flash Fiction, Short story,novel.
    The terms are given to pieces that contain a complete story,but have a certain wordcount.
    Nanofiction is 55 words or less.
    Micro fiction- 300 words or less
    Flash fiction-500 words or less
    Short story-at least 1000 words.

    Be aware that the word limits for each form are arbitrary, but those word counts give you an idea of where a literary piece might fall under.
     
  5. blackstar21595

    blackstar21595 New Member

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    lmao fiction flasher. :)
     
  6. Anthony Martin

    Anthony Martin Active Member

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    Bingo.
     
  7. squishytheduck

    squishytheduck New Member

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    Lol well for the record, metric system standard is as follows:
    Nano = 10^-9
    Micro = 10^-6
    Flash we'll equate to
    Mili = 10^-3
    And short story is then
    10^0
     
  8. blackstar21595

    blackstar21595 New Member

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    But I live in the US. :(
    Nah jk I know the metric system
     
  9. squishytheduck

    squishytheduck New Member

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    @Blackstar: LOLz
     
  10. minstrel

    minstrel Leader of the Insquirrelgency Supporter Contributor

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    So, given that an average short story is about 5,000 words, then:

    Flash fiction (millifiction): 5 words
    Microfiction: 0.005 words
    Nanofiction: 0.000005 words

    Clearly, even on high-res monitors, nanofiction would take only a fraction of a pixel. Beat that for economy, Blackstar! ;)
     
  11. squishytheduck

    squishytheduck New Member

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    Didn't somebody etch the Lord's Prayer on a pinhead once?
     
  12. minstrel

    minstrel Leader of the Insquirrelgency Supporter Contributor

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    I seem to remember that IBM once spelled "IBM" in individual atoms, and took a photograph of it with an electron microscope.
     
  13. squishytheduck

    squishytheduck New Member

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    Oh snap! IBM for the win.
     
  14. blackstar21595

    blackstar21595 New Member

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    LMAO. I need you as my economic adviser.

    @squishy I still need that conversion rate for all the U.S. writers. :(
     
  15. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    That's cruel and politically incorrect.
     

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