INTERMEDIATE (B1) LEVEL ARTICLE
Super-short fiction
For the source of this tweet, click hereOnly once, in a dream, did he say those three soft words—then jerk upright, panic-stricken, as if somebody heard.
— Nanoism (@nanoism) 17 January 2018
Reading fiction is an absolutely fantastic way to improve your language skills. However, students often feel
overwhelmed
by the length of novels.
In this case, short stories are a great alternative. Nowadays, the shortest of the short can fit in a single Tweet... 140 characters (average 5.1 letters per word, plus spaces; so the whole story must be 23 words or fewer)
Such super-short stories go by several names: Twitter fiction, flash fiction, nano-fiction, micro-fiction, six word stories, etc. The most famous such story is of uncertain authorship, and goes like this:
For sale: baby shoes, never worn.
In this case, short stories are a great alternative. Nowadays, the shortest of the short can fit in a single Tweet... 140 characters (average 5.1 letters per word, plus spaces; so the whole story must be 23 words or fewer)
Such super-short stories go by several names: Twitter fiction, flash fiction, nano-fiction, micro-fiction, six word stories, etc. The most famous such story is of uncertain authorship, and goes like this:
Because the story is so short (6 words - OMG!), there is no character description, there's no scene. In fact, it is really just a suggestion. The story telling happens in your imagination.
What happened to the baby?
Why are the parents selling the shoes?
When you think this, you come to the sad conclusion. that the baby died before it was born, so the parents have abandoned. their dream of having a child. Can you imagine how they felt?
All that from just 6 words!
If you'd like to read some other great six word stories, check out this site .
I decided to do a few for myself. Here are three of them. What do you think?
What happened to the baby?
Why are the parents selling the shoes?
When you think this, you come to the sad conclusion. that the baby died before it was born, so the parents have abandoned. their dream of having a child. Can you imagine how they felt?
All that from just 6 words!
If you'd like to read some other great six word stories, check out this site .
I decided to do a few for myself. Here are three of them. What do you think?
Valentine's is my favourite day. I always get a card from my mother. #flashfiction
— The Full English (@FullEnglishMag) 17 March 2018
A spaceship came to Earth.
— The Full English (@FullEnglishMag) 17 March 2018
An alien descended.
It was honoured to meet with President Trump,
then the human race was ended. #flashfiction
In 2018 Dr Libby Long discovered the cure to mortality. 426 years later, she shot herself. #flashfiction
— The Full English (@FullEnglishMag) 17 March 2018
If you are interested to see more Twitter Fiction, check out
Nanoism.net ... It won't take long!
