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Category: 500 Word Stories

Apples and Oranges Are Both Fruit

Hey stranger how are ya.

I have disappeared off the face of the internet for quite some time, focused on my family and getting through the darkness of the pandemic, if I’m being honest. It’s been busy. And difficult.

But I haven’t ever stopped writing.

I’m currently chugging away–ever so slowly, but chugging nonetheless– on the rewrite of Super Us.

YES! I’m still working on it. And YES it will–at some point– be published. I owe it to the characters that have a story to tell and who have yet to make an appearance– HELLO Destiny, Faye’s spunky daughter.  I’m still in love with the story and can’t wait to get it finished so that I can share it with you.

As a little side note, I’ve recently written something that I’d like to share today, called “Apples and Oranges Are Both Fruit,”  a very serious piece about comparing the two. I’m planning on including this in the second volume of “Twenty Five Hundred” my collection of 500 word pieces.

I hope very much that you enjoy this today. And I hope that you — whoever you are, where ever you are, if you are here reading this– I hope are doing well.

<3 Jessica

You know that expression, “It’s like apples and oranges?” Meaning they’re great in their own ways, but you can’t compare the two because they are way too different.

You can’t compare apples to oranges because one is fruit and the other is… also fruit.

That’s my problem with the expression. Why wouldn’t you compare apples and oranges? They’re actually very similar. They’re types of food. Both from fruit trees. Each are round. And are sweet. A delicious fruit either way.

So why is the expression about comparing apples and oranges? Why not opposite things? Like apples and… sardines? “It’s like apples and sardines” That’s better. They are nothing alike but both are good, in their own right.

Although, that’s a matter of opinion, isn’t it? I happen to like sardines even though I know most do not. The majority would surely say apples are much better than sardines and that there is no comparison between the two. And I might agree, depending on my mood. But maybe I want a little protein. Then I would say sardines are better than apples because apples don’t have any protein. Neither do oranges for that matter. Oranges do have vitamin C though, and apples don’t. But apples do supply other vitamins. Let’s just say there are health benefits to all of these options.

I’ve lost track of my point. Where was I? Apples and oranges and sardines. All types of food and each healthy and also relative to one’s taste. But they’re not exactly opposites, are they?

You’d need to compare things that weren’t types of food. Like apples and… rocks? “It’s like apples and rocks.” Does that work? Well, isn’t the point that they are different but also good– or valuable– in their own way? What’s good about a rock? Not much. Depending on the rock, of course. What kind of rock are we talking about here? Gold? Diamond? “It’s like apples and diamonds.” Well, anyone would choose the diamond–even if you were hungry because the diamond could be sold for many, many apples or sardines or whatever you wanted to eat. No one could say that apples and diamonds are equal but different and that’s the key to fixing the expression.

So what has exactly the same value as an apple but is also the opposite of an apple? An apple represents sustenance. What else is vital to survival? Breathing. Okay. What about, “It’s like apples and air.” Ooh, I like that. Both are essential. Eating and breathing. Apples and air.

Good. Now that I’ve fixed the expression I need to go find something to eat. All this talking about food has worked me up an appetite. Now I need to decide what I should eat for lunch. I’ve got a tin of sardines and some fruit. Wouldn’t you know? Apples and oranges.

Hmmm. Apples or oranges. Apples or oranges? Do I want tangy or crunchy? How do I choose? Looks like I need to make myself a fruit salad.

“Resolutions” a 500 word story

Happy new year.

Today I’m sharing a story that will be published in this month’s issue of Prairie Times. It can also be found in my short story collection, “ Twenty-Five Hundred .”

Resolutions

The sun woke me. A stream of light that hit me right in the eyeball. Rude. I yanked the covers over my head, burrowing, but flashes from the night before made it impossible to return to sleep. There’d been a lot of loudness—music . . . laughing . . . clinking of glasses . . . many glasses. Celebrating . . . what were we celebrating? Oh, right. The New Year and crap.

I pulled the blanket off my face. Squinted at the clock. It was way too early to be getting up on a day off. But whatever. I slid my legs off the edge of the bed. Rubbed my eyes. Buster’s collar jingled as he got up, stretched, and plopped his big ol’ head in my lap. I yawned. Scratched him behind the ears. A bright pink sticky notepad on my nightstand caught my eye. ‘BE BETTER,’ it said in my sloppy handwriting. Be better?

As I brushed my teeth to relieve my breath of the ick, I remembered some more from the night before—the later and much less fun part. The part where I’d released my liquid dinner in bursts of heaving and vowed to make changes—to ‘be better.’

Okay, I could do that. I went back and snatched up the notepad. First, breakfast. A healthy one. I scribbled ‘EAT HEALTHY’ and stuck it to my box of pop tarts. Not a bad start. I grabbed myself an energy drink, downed it, then attached a ‘DRINK MORE WATER’ to the can. Then added a ‘RECYCLE’ note as a positive afterthought. So far, so good.

Then it was time to take Buster out. I snapped on his leash. We went downstairs and into the apartment courtyard. After doggie did his business, I went to grab a bag. There were none, as usual. Talk about needing to ‘be better,’ but I knew how to handle this. I stuck a ‘REFILL THESE BAGS’ note on the canister as an expansion of my positivity. You are welcome, apartment management staff. As Buster and I walked on through the neighborhood, I noticed many instances where others could ‘be better’ and was kind enough to leave notes such as ‘WASH YOUR CAR’ and ‘RAKE THESE LEAVES.’ I also left some helpful ‘MOW YOUR LAWN’ and ‘REPAINT YOUR HOUSE’ stickies.

After such a productive walk, I rested at home for the remainder of the day. Later, I ordered pizza. The delivery guy seemed surprised by my ‘CUT YOUR HAIR’ which I attached to his ugly jacket. I then generously handed him a ‘BUY A NEW JACKET’ and wished him a Happy New Year as I closed the door.

That night, I reflected on all the bettering I had done. It was a lot of work but it was worth it. Before I switched out the light I had one last note to write. On my last sticky I wrote, ‘BUY MORE STICKY NOTES.’

It was going to be a great year.

“Changes” a 500 word story

A short story I wrote a couple of years ago called “Changes” was published this month in the Colorado magazine, “Prairie Times.”

I thought it would be fun to share it here as well.

Flying down the path, sneakers skimming over the pavement as my favorite running playlist blasted in my ears. I was high on adrenaline. Riding the rush of endorphins. It was always the best part of my day. I’d run that trail a thousand times. Wasn’t paying attention. Wasn’t watching where my feet landed as I took the free-feeling for granted. That’s when I tripped.

One second, I was speeding along the trail, wind rushing past me, and the next I was skidding to a halt. Slamming into the pavement, knee first. It burned immediately and I cried out, yanking my headphones from my ears and rolling to a stop on the grass on the side of the trail. The ground was wet from the recent rain. Cold seeped through the seat of my shorts. And my ankle—oh my ankle hurt bad. It must have twisted on my way down. Maybe it was sprained. Or broken.

Blood was beading up fast from the gash on my knee. I covered it with my hand, pressing, as I looked wildly around me. I was in the middle of nowhere. Hadn’t seen anyone on the way up. Was miles from my car. The sun was low in the sky and sinking fast. I’d skipped lunch and my post-run power bar was in my car along with my water bottle, which I’d left at the last minute.

No food. No water. And no one knew I was even here. I didn’t even tell my cat—though a lot of good that would have done anyway. Silly. Cats can’t call 911. Even clever ones like my Chloe. It could be hours before anyone found me. Days even.

All I could do was sit there. Think about my life. All the crappy parts of it. The way I always joked about that awkward girl at the office, what’s-her-name. The way I was rude to the girls that did my nails the other day.

But I could be a better person. Volunteer or something. Go to church.

Eat fewer doughnuts.

I could do that. I would, if I were only to be rescued. All I needed right then was a tall, dark, and handsome someone to come running up the trail. Someone to swoop me into his arms and carry me down the hill to safety. If only my hero would show up. Well, I would change my life. I would.

And then—footsteps! The thud of shoes hitting pavement. Coming my way! I fixed my pony tail and scooted, turning, to see a group of girls running up the path.

“You okay?” the tall one asked, judge-y eyes looking me up and down.

I stood. “Fine,” I answered to her back. The herd of them had already bounced past.

I looked down at my unbroken ankle that didn’t even hurt anymore. At my knee that was no longer bleeding. I plodded down the hill to my car.

Oh well, looked like a doughnuts-for-dinner kind of night.

“Changes” is one of 20 short stories in my book Twenty-Five Hundred ( available here !)

Twenty-Five Hundred on Amazon, Super Me Sale, and More…

Twenty-five hundred is available now.

I’m past due announcing that Twenty-Five Hundred is now available on Amazon! 

Paperback $4.99 and Kindle/Ebook  1.99

Also available on Kindle Unlimited.

20 short stories, 500 words each. A fun mix of humor, contemporary, fantasy, and magic.

These stories have been a work in progress for the last few years. I have loved the challenge of making them exactly 500 words and am so thrilled to have them available. If you haven’t gotten your copy yet, head on over and snag one!

Baby #3 coming in a few weeks

In other news,  I’ve reached the final month with baby #3 and am just so excited over here, it’s pretty much all I can think about.

Last week, I went to my 36 week appointment and confirmed that baby is head down. They had a little handheld ultrasound unit to check and we got to see his little profile (both my girls got to go with me!) I’m just so anxious to meet our little guy and can’t believe it’s going to be so very soon! Time to pack the hospital bag…

Marigold and Nox

In the meantime, I’ve been working on getting to the end of the first draft in my middle grade adventure book, Marigold and Nox. I’d hoped to get this draft finished before baby gets here and I’m still hanging onto that–fitting in time here and there and when I can to try to make that happen. The story is progressing nicely, and I’m simply loving getting to know the characters, Marigold and kitty Nox as they go on their adventure together. The friendship that they create is really special to me, as is the fun characters they meet along the way. It’s been such a blast to write and I can’t wait to see it through to the end.

“Faith is nice and all,” I said, “but I want to know HOW it’s all going to work out, you know?” -Marigold and Nox

Super me sale.

One last bit of news . . .

Sale coming up for Super Me! The majority of the story happens leading up to, and on, Valentine’s Day. So what better time to hold a book sale?

If you haven’t yet read Super Me, now’s your chance! Just .99 for the kindle version, starting Feb 14th and running for one week only.

Twenty-Five Hundred Release Date!

New Year, New Book

Starting off the new year with some BIG NEWS.

The wait is nearly over. My short story collection, Twenty-Five Hundred, now has a release date! This book of stories will be available on January 17th.  AND pre-orders for the kindle/e-book version are available now for 1.99!

I’ve been collecting these short stories for the last several years and I can’t even tell you how excited I am to finally be able to share them!

Description:

“A delightful mix of humorous, lighthearted, and more serious contemporary stories and those woven with fantasy and magic. Each piece is exactly 500 words.

Inside these pages . . . A woman resolves to begin a new year on the right foot, with the help of sticky notes … A poem in which a woman in red rushes through an airport to try to catch a plane . . . An excerpt from the novel “Super Me”: an unfortunate interaction with a crush at a coffee shop . . . Two workers of magic meet to perform a secret ritual . . . At a desert marketplace, a child is yanked aside by a mysterious man with an important message . . . While running solo on a trail in the mountains, a woman injures her ankle and thus reflects upon her life’s choices . . . While being held captive by frog-like creatures, a girl makes a high-staked impossible decision . . . A sneak peek at the novel “Run”: a teenage girl is trapped inside a neighbor’s house while zombies take over the world around her . . . and much more.”

Happy New Year! It’s going to be a great year.

Writing Update: Current Projects

I’m working on the first draft of a new novel.

Caroline’s Baby

This is an idea that has been kicking around in my head for years now. Caroline’s Baby is a contemporary drama about a couple suffering from infertility, something I have firsthand experience with. I decided to give myself the month of November to explore the idea and see if there’s something to this that’s worth pursuing further.

So far, it’s going really well! I wrote an unheard of (for me) five thousand words in one day last weekend and the story is progressing nicely. Every time I sit down to work on this draft, I feel like the story flows out and it becomes more real.

A promising start!

Twenty-Five Hundred

In other news, the short story collection I’ve been working on is getting close to publication. Twenty-Five Hundred needs a description and a couple of final touches and then it will be good to go. I’m so excited to share these stories!

In case you missed it, here’s a sneak peek at the cover.

I completed another 500 word piece this week. “Date Night” is about a teen whose life is turned upside down with an unexpected pregnancy. I’m planning to include this story in Twenty-Five Hundred, volume two.

Prairie Times

A couple more of my short stores have been accepted for the local magazine, Prairie Times.  “Scrambled” is a fun little piece that will be printed in the January issue. This story will also make an appearance in Twenty-Five Hundred, Volume I.

“Leo and the Carrot” was accepted for the March issue. It’s actually a true story about our sweet Australian Sheppard Mix from about 11 years ago, when Leo and I had a battle of the wills over a baby carrot. I’ll be posting the story here as well.

The Prairie Times also has a page up for books written by authors who have contributed to the magazine and “Super Me” is now included.

Yes, there’s kind of a theme here today. Pregnancy and babies are on the brain as I’m due with my baby #3 in February. I’m getting close to the third trimester and my two girls are looking forward to meeting their baby brother in a few short months!

During this month of gratitude, I am thankful for my busy and fulfilling days, creating stories in-between and around caring for, nurturing, and enjoying my family. I’m grateful for the opportunity to share my words with you and so happy that you are here to read them.

Thank you, always, for your support.

Oh, and if you’re on instagram, you can now find me there for the latest writing updates @jessica_dazzo_author

Wishing you a wonderful and joyous Thanksgiving filled with love and abundance <3

“High Tea” accepted for Colorado Magazine, “Prairie Times”

For the last several years, I’ve been a member of a writing group that meets once a month, The Longmont Writers Club. I’m currently the secretary, which is a position I’ve been enjoying.  (I’ve also been the vice president, but I like the secretary position more. Reminiscent to my days as an admin, I guess.)

Anyway, the club has been in existence since the early 1930’s. The premise of the club is that the members are given a topic to write on ahead of time. On the day of the meeting, we bring our pieces to read to the club for feedback. The rule is that the writing pieces cannot exceed 500 words.

As you may know, I LOVE the exercise of writing from prompts. When I heard about the club, I knew it was going to be a good fit for me. I have taken the 500 word limit as a personal challenge, and always bring a piece that is exactly 500 words. I love this because it forces you to really hone in on which words are going to tell the story best.

When I set out to write a 500 word piece, I start with an overabundance of words. Then I trim  until I have a more reasonable amount. And then I pick and choose. Replace and rephrase. Until I have exactly 500 words in the end. To me, this feels like really digging into the writing piece. Like I’m sifting and molding as I sort through the words. And the process is highly satisfying.

“High Tea” a short story

The first piece I took to the club was titled, “High Tea”. Fun fact, I was told about the writing club over the phone and misheard the prompt topic. The prompt was actually “The Key” but I heard “The Tea” .

…eh, I guess that’s not a very interesting fact.

Anyway, “High Tea” is a sweet little piece about seeing yourself through the eyes of your child and, ultimately, self acceptance.

I recently sent the story to the Byers, Colorado based magazine, “Prairie Times,”  and it was immediately accepted for the August 2019 issue.  They loved it and encouraged me to submit other stories.  Exciting!

 Read the story online here: http://www.prairietimes.com/Aug2019.pdf

They also sent me a copy of the August issue.

“High Tea” is on page 9

New Publication in the Works

I’ve been working on a compilation of short stories from some of these  prompt pieces, from various writing exercises, and from my other works. The book will be entitled “2500” and will include 20 short pieces, all 500 words each.  Look for this soon! I’ve finished putting the manuscript together and will be sending it off to my editor to get all polished up and ready for publication. I’m pretty excited to share these stories. Some may be familiar, such as Faye’s unfortunate coffee shop scene from the beginning of “Super Me”, or short stories posted on this site. Others will be brand new.

Oh, and hey,

Just for fun, this post contains…

EXACTLY 500 words

500 word story: a roll of the dice.

Please note: this story is a stand alone piece and has nothing to do with the young adult novel, Super Me, or A Super Series whatsoever. Just a little piece written from a writing prompt.

The prompt: Rolling the Dice. Sticking to my 500 word challenge, it is exactly 500 words.

-A Roll of the Dice-

It was a routine call…. nothing to be nervous about tonight. I cracked my knuckles looking, again, at the clock.

Five more minutes until midnight. Four.

How much longer would he make me wait? The dice had gone warm in my hands. I rolled them around, careful not to drop them. They clicked together in the otherwise silent house. I moved my shoulders, trying to loosen the grasp tension had on my neck. Two minutes until midnight. Maybe he wasn’t coming. No, he would.

The room was dark. Blinds closed. The room empty. I heard his steps before seeing his face. “You’re here,” he said, sounding almost surprised. Like he didn’t think I would show up. As if I had ever let him down.

“You’re late,” I answered.

“Made it before the bell.” He took this too lightly. If they knew how much he joked…

But he knew I’d never say anything. Anyway, we had a job to do and best get to it.

“Let’s just get this done,” I said, grabbing his gloved hand. Of course he would wear gloves. He was so dramatic. Probably had his cape on as well. I smiled to myself but made sure he didn’t see.

“Do you have the dice?” he asked me.

“What do you take me for, an amateur?” I snapped. Then took a breath. “Sorry, just a stressful week. Here.” I set one of the dice in his gloved palm. “Please don’t drop it.”

He raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Instead, set his free hand over his die and closed his eyes, leaning back slightly. Feeling the moment.

I rolled my shoulders again. Blew out a breath and copied his stance, cupping my own die in my hands. I’d never wear gloves. Loved the feel of the dice heating up too much.

The clock struck. Then again. Again. I counted in my head along with the chimes, like I knew Grenaldo was. Ten. Eleven.

Following the twelfth bell, he cleared his throat.

I felt the die glowing in my palm. Yearned to peek but didn’t dare.

“Zanafran,” he said. “Aralduous. Abibulous. Braticine.”

“Zinique Cayan,” I said with him. I couldn’t help it. Almost felt his glare, but I ignored it.

The tingle up and down my forearms told me the spell had worked.

I silently counted to three then opened my eyes to meet his.

Together, we tossed the dice into the air.

When I flipped the light switch, I saw he’d worn not only his cape, but also a mask. I grinned to myself.

He blew out a breath. Brushed his hands together. “Let’s go before we’re found.”

“Agreed,” I answered.

I always stole a glance before leaving. Mine read six. His, a four. “We’ve an interesting year to look forward to,” I mused aloud.

“Ciara, you know it’s bad luck to peek.”

I laughed as we exited, slipping into the shadows of the alley and on to the next location.

A Fortune Keepers’ work is never done.

500 Word Story: Trouble

Please note: this story is a stand alone piece and has nothing to do with the young adult novel, Super Me, or A Super Series whatsoever. Just a little piece written from a writing prompt. The prompt: A Police Encounter. Sticking to my 500 word challenge, is exactly 500 words. Here’s what I came up with:

I was driving my Chevy on the county road, stuck behind a beater puttering along slow as can be. It was kicking up clouds of dust at me and I was grinding my teeth and gripping that wheel so tight my knuckles went white. My head was already in a spin and that was the last thing I needed.

The first time I saw her… when she walked in the bar the night before, I knew I was in trouble. Me and Alicia played some pool, had some fun, and she stayed over. Thought everything was fine ‘til morning when everything changed. It happened just like that, over nothing.

I guess I shouldn’t have laughed at her, but she looked so cute when she got angry. Guess I shouldn’t have told her that either ‘cause that’s when she grabbed her stuff. Said she was leaving. I’d tried to pull her back to talk about it, but she gave me that look that said she weren’t playing.

I thought the whole thing was funny ‘til it wasn’t. Left me scratching my head, watching her drive off down the road and out of my life. It was like a punch to the gut.

So, being stuck on that dang road behind that dang idiot that afternoon was the last thing I needed. Felt like he was doing it on purpose just to get a rise out of me, trying to make me later than I already was. That’s how I saw it anyhow. And that cigarette butt he threw out the window… when that landed on my windshield? That was the end of it, far as I was concerned. My left eye started twitching and all I was seeing was red.

Ten years I’ve been driving down that road. Never once before saw a cop on it, not ever. Not until the one time I lose my cool. I’m a decent guy. Not a single tick on my record. Turns out, that don’t matter too much when it comes right down to it.

I guess I shouldn’t have raced up next to that car. Guess I shouldn’t have rammed into it with the side of my truck. And I know I should have pulled over quicker when the trooper’s lights flashed at me.

But, I was too busy thinking about how hard dating was. That I might just give it all up ‘cause women are crazy. When we woke up that morning, I told her to get her makeup on to cover her morning face and to go make us some breakfast quick. Thought we could spend the day together.

I was ready to tell that officer off soon as he got to my car. I guess Alicia never did tell me what she did for a living and last thing I expected was for her to be the one to get out of that cop car.

Turns out, I was right from the beginning. ‘Cause I was in trouble, all right.

500 words of Random Story: “Choose Correctly”

Please note: this story is a stand alone piece and has nothing to do with the young adult novel, Super Me, or A Super Series whatsoever. Just a fun little piece written from a writing prompt. The prompt was: Glass Half Full or Glass Half Empty. Here’s what I came up with:

-Choose Correctly-

“I’m sorry,” I said, tears threatening. “I’m telling you. I don’t understand the question.”

“You don’t understand the question? How can you not understand the question?” The creature in front of me was large and round with slime-like drool dribbling down its green chin as it leaned in to squint down at me with frog-like eyes.

“Because they look the same to me!” I blurted. “They look exactly the same!” I was sick of these games. Sick of being stuck there while they tortured me with these ridiculous questions. I squirmed in the uncomfortable chair and grasped edge of the table in front of me even tighter.

“Impossible,” the smaller of the two croaked from his perch across the room. “She’s being difficult. Ask her again.”

I leaned my head back and closed my eyes. It was too bright in there. And stuffy like a sauna. How did they stand it?

“Which glass is it?” Frog Man asked me again. I sighed and watched as he, again, tapped first one glass of water on the table and then the other, painfully slowly, with his bulbous yellow-spotted pointer finger. “This one?” he asked. “Or this one?”

“What does it matter?” I groaned.

Frog Man ignored my question and grunted, his belly pushing against the table. The whole thing shifted and the contents of the glasses sloshed close to the lipped edge, but didn’t spill over. “One is half full….” he said, “and one is half empty.” He crossed his arms. “Answer correctly and then you may have a drink.”

I licked my chapped lips with my sandpaper tongue. Half full or half empty? I looked from one glass to the other. Which was which? I leaned forward to look at the waterline from eye-level, as if that would help me out. These guys were nuts. Why couldn’t they just let me go? I needed to get out of there.

I ventured a peek at the locked door, where the other one slouched on his tall stool, beady eyes never leaving me for a second. If I tried to run, they’d have me in an instant. I closed my eyes and shook my head. No, the only way out of this madness was to play their game. I had to guess.

But which was which? Both glasses were the same! The SAME!

I put my forehead down on the surprisingly cool table.

“She don’t know,” sang a voice I didn’t recognize. Someone I couldn’t see. “We’s wasting time, we is. She don’t know!”

“Ugh,” I said, pulling my head up. I lifted my finger to point at first one glass and then the other. Eenie, meanie, mine-ie… “That one is half full,” I said, my aim landing on one of the glasses. Fifty-fifty is pretty good odds right? “And, so that makes that one,” I continued, “half empty.”

I gave the creatures in the room a winning smile, raising my eyebrows.

“Congratulations,” drawled the large looming creature. “You get to live.”

• 500 Word Stories (10)
• Super Me (14)
• Author Interview (1)
• Author Reading (2)
• Book Review (2)
• Book Signing (3)
• Magazine Article (5)
• Marigold and Nox (3)
• Berries for Bruno (1)
• Twenty-Five Hundred (5)
• Uncategorized (5)
• Writer's Corner (1)

© 2024 Jessica Dazzo

4 Micro Stories: MicroFiction Examples (500 Word Short Story)

• Post author: Neel Rana
• Post published: September 10, 2020
• Post category: Fiction

So you are on a small break or on a short journey and want to read some fiction that can easily be completed in no time, then there can’t be a better option than reading Micro or Flash Fiction which is even shorter than any short story and can be finished in just a few minutes.

Related: Flash Fiction Examples

What is Microfiction?

Microfiction is the shortest form of a story, sometimes as low as 50 words in length, but typically, a short fiction written between 100-500 words is considered M icrofiction .

By the way, there is no official definition of microfiction and whatever we know about this short work of fiction is basically it’s flash fiction, but when shorter works of fiction appeared with fewer word counts they started getting a new name and so our microfiction.

Now, according to Wikipedia, a 100-word long short fiction is called a drabble , aka microfiction. 

Related: 101 Flash Fiction Writing prompts

A well-written work of these short fiction can also impact and entertain the readers same as they get amused by reading a short story or a lengthy novel.

Examples of MicroFiction

The toilet paper.

(500 words)

Little Lilly was so upset after the loss of Pluto, her beloved pet dog.

She was missing him so much, and in grief, she didn’t even come for dinner and went to sleep without eating.

But later at midnight, something very strange happened, Lilly got awake after hearing a loud peculiar sound.

She soon got shocked to hear the bark of Pluto coming from her wardrobe.

She slowly approached the wardrobe in fear.

Now the bark had stopped.

With her trembling little hands, Lilly opened the wardrobe.

The bark of Pluto had started again.

Soon afterward, she heard a strange voice, “Don’t be scared Lilly it’s me your friend Pluto”.

“Please just come inside the wardrobe, we will have lots of fun together”, the voice said.

Lilly got shocked to hear all this and asked in her trembling voice;

“Are you the ghost of Pluto and how can you speak?”.

“I really don’t know what I am, just trust me and come inside the wardrobe and close it from the inside, then you can see me”, the voice replied.

Somehow, Lilly dared and came inside the wardrobe.

As soon as she closed the doors, she found herself in a completely different world where everything was extremely beautiful and made of colors that she had never seen before.

“Am I in heaven!”, Lilly exclaimed.

“Maybe, but we call it the good world”, a young boy standing behind her replied.

“Who are you now? ”, Lilly asked.

“I am Pluto, my dear Lilly”, the boy replied. 

“How you can be my Pluto? He was a dog”, she asked.

“No, it is really me, right now I’m a boy so I can talk to you as you know dogs just bark, they can’t talk”, the boy replied with a heavenly smile on his face.

But Lilly was yet not convinced.

She said, “I won’t believe it, If you are Pluto then tell me what was his favorite playing toy?”.

“It’s toilet paper my favorite”, Pluto replied.

“Oh my god! It’s truly you Pluto, my Pluto”, Lilly exclaimed with excitement.

“Now you know”, Pluto replied, “Let me take you to a special place, come with me”.

Lilly started following him, but soon got stopped. 

“I know it’s you my Pluto, but yet I’m missing my real Pluto, my dog”, said Lilly.

“Oh!, so I need to turn into a dog again, ok, just put your hands on your eyes, cause I’m feeling a little shy doing it”, said Pluto.

“I’ve closed my eyes, Can I see you now? ”, just after a while Lilly asked.

“No, wait, it’s happening”, Pluto replied, but this time with a strange dog-kind of voice. 

“I can’t wait for more, can I open my eyes now”, Lilly was barely holding herself from looking.

“Lill baby got up, you are late for school”, Lilly heard her mom’s voice and promptly opened her eyes but found herself on her bed.

“Was this all a dream?”, she asked herself.

Lilly got up and went inside the wardrobe and closed it again, but this time nothing happened.

“So it was all an amazing dream”, Lilly said to herself in a sad voice, she closed the wardrobe and was leaving the room.

But soon the wardrobe got opened itself and a toilet paper roll dropped with a written message-“Tonight”.

Lilly smiled.

Genre- Children’s Literature

The Graveyard Guy

Alex was on a long road trip outside the city to reach his project  site.

Later, on the way his car got a breakdown, he tried hard but couldn’t restart the car.

But soon a young man with a peaceful grin on his face knocked on  his car window and said,

“Brother do you need any help”

Alex was first surprised to see the young man suddenly appearing from nowhere on the dark lonely road.

But he promptly said “Yes, yes, please help”, and elaborated on his situation that he is getting late to reach somewhere where his  presence is very crucial.

The young man smiled and said,

“Some years back, he also got late in reaching a place, but now he always reaches everywhere in time as he reached here to help him”

Alex giggled but found the words of that man a little strange.

Soon the sweet, but strange man opened the car bonnet and started repairing it.

Alex couldn’t see him, but he started talking to him.

Alex said that he is very kind, and no one helps a stranger these  days then asked what he was doing there alone at night, Is he works or lives somewhere nearby, and what his name is?

The man didn’t answer anything and just asked Alex to restart the  car.

Soon the car got started, but Alex found something strange, the car’s  bonnet was yet opened.

Alex got down from the car to at least say thank you to the young  stranger for his kind help but he found no one outside.

Alex already had gotten so late for the meeting at the site that he  didn’t even care much about the young stranger and left the place.

The next day when he was returning back home, he got shocked  and frightened to see the place where his car had broken down had nothing except a graveyard.

Genre – Horror Fiction

George and Mr. Green In the Time Machine

(400 Words) 

Once there was a little boy, George Harper, who was living with his Uncle, Johnny, and his aunt, Nancy after his parents went missing.

George’s father Henry and his mother, Jean, were geologists and never returned from an adventurous expedition trip and were believed to be dead.

Little Harper was loved a lot by his uncle Johnny as he and Nancy had no child, so Johnny always took good care of George as his own son but yet his aunt Nancy never liked him.

Nancy always had an argument with Johnny sending him to boarding school, but Johnny never listened to her.

George was very shy and barely used to talking with anybody.

But he had a friend from his neighborhood, Grace Green the daughter of a renowned and weird physics professor.

Mr. Green was a weird man and wanted to build a time machine.

After doing his day job as a head lecturer at the famous city university, he spends his whole night doing weird experiments in his home laboratory.

The neighborhood of Mr. Green was fed up with watching every night colored-flashy lights and smoke coming from his house.

His weird experiments were the main reason that let Mr. Green’s wife Rebecca, leave him and started living with her parents, but Grace decided to live with his dad.

But George was very fond of watching the colored lights coming from Mr. Green’s house.

He was the only person whom Mr. Green had allowed to enter his house and even his laboratory as George never doubted Mr. Green’s ambitions.

He used to ask many questions related to their experiments.

Very happily, Mr. Green used to answer every question curious George and told George about his secret time machine project on which he was working for many years.

Mr. Green had also promised little George that one day soon he will take him to his parents in his time machine.

Then one day the whole neighborhood gathered after Mr. Green’s house.

Everyone was shocked to see the house of Mr. Green missing its place along with Mr. Green, Grace, and little George.

Genre – Science Fiction

The Fat Queen

(500 Words)

Once upon a time, there was a queen named Alina, who was the fattest woman in the whole kingdom.

Queen Alina was normal before, but because of an unknown disease her weight rapidly increased and she became very fat.

The queen tried every possible way to cure her disease, but she failed.

Now some people of the kingdom had started making fun of the queen, behind her back they used to call her the fat and ugly queen Alina. 

Wherever Queen Alina used to go anywhere, everyone stared at her with surprise and like they were watching a creature.

When King John got to know the behavior of his people toward her queen, he got very angry and ordered every person in the kingdom to eat more and look fat so that no one will make fun of her.

The queen tried to stop the king’s order, but he listened to no one.

King John even ordered his guards to throw everyone outside the kingdom who was not following his orders.

Afraid of the king, most of the people, including children started eating more. 

For those people who were poor and couldn’t afford to eat more, the guards of the kingdom used to provide extra food to eat.

Every month, some guards used to measure the weight of every person in the kingdom, and who were not found increasing their weight, the guards used to destroy their houses and displace them from the kingdom. 

After a year and a half, everyone in the kingdom, including children was fat and overweight.

But now the teenager turned princess Bella had started feeling abnormal and odd as whomever she saw in the kingdom looked fat and even all her friends were so chubby and overweight but she was not.

The princess said to her mother that she also wants to look like everyone else.

Her mother told her that it was a punishment given by her father to the people of the kingdom, not to us.

The princess replied that now all her friends make fun of her as she doesn’t look like them.

The queen didn’t know what to do for her daughter.

Soon depressed Bella also started eating more to look like everyone else and like her friends.

The king and queen tried everything to stop her, but the princess never listened to them and one day she got very ill because of her new overeating habit.

Looking at his own sick and overweight daughter the king realized his great mistake. 

Finally, the king revoked his order and asked everyone to stop overeating.

The queen apologized on behalf of the king to her people and said that just because some people made fun of her obesity, the king punished the whole kingdom.

The people of the kingdom also apologized for their mistake and said now they know how it feels to be fat and overweight and asked the king and queen to forgive them.

After a few months, some became successful in turning themselves into what they looked like before, but for most people, it was so hard to leave their new overeating habit.

The king and the whole kingdom learned the hard truth – “you reap what you saw”.

All Micro-fiction and Flash Fiction Examples are by Neel Rana, author ”The Drunken Ghost” .

Copyright © Neel Rana

(This literary work can be used for academics purpose only.)

About the Author-

Neel Rana is a YA short story author, flash fiction writer, literary enthusiast, and the founder of Pandora Post. Neel holds a degree in BA Honours in English Literature and has been writing since 2017. Neel’s magnum opus YA short storybook, “ The Drunken Ghost ” has been well received by the readers.

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Flash Fiction Examples (1000 Word Short Story)

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75 Short Short Stories

Stories to enjoy when you have five minutes to spare, grouped by category to suit your mood: Witty Stories , Introspective Stories , Morality Tales , Other-Worldly Stories , Feel-Good/Love Stories , Dramatic Stories , and Political Farce Stories

Had a rough day? Cheer up with 50 Great Feel-Good Stories and a generous helping of comforting Foodie Stories

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Free Short Stories

We believe that the key to writing good short stories is reading good short stories.

Below, we have provided an ever-expanding selection of old and new short stories that are free to download.

Short story writers are listed alphabetically.

In 2020 we’ll be adding a wide range of new stories to read online.

Recently added stories will be fund at the top of the page.

Recently added

Aiken, Conrad ‘Silent Snow, Secret Snow’ (online read: c. 6000 words)

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That’s because we’re a very small, but passionate team who spend hundreds of hours curating resources such as these classic short stories. But we don’t just focus on the old. We’re also a paying market, publishing brilliant new work of fiction and non-fiction. Please do consider supporting us in whatever way you can, so we can maintain the work we do. Thank you.

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Anderson, Sherwood ‘The Dumb Man’ (c. 500 words)

Ade, George ‘The Collision’ (c. 1500 words)

Ade, George ‘The Divine Spark’ (c. 1000 words)

Ade, George ‘The Juvenile and Mankind’ (c. 500 words)

Antsey, F. ‘Marjory’ (c. 8500 words)

Baldwin, James ‘Bruce and the Spider’ (c. 500 words)

Baldwin, James ‘The Bell of Atri’ (c. 500 words)

Baldwin, James ‘Casablanca’ (c. 500 words)

Baldwin, James ‘Antonio Canova’ (c. 1000 words)

Baldwin, James ‘Arnold Winkelried’ (c. 500 words)

Baldwin, James ‘Doctor Goldsmith’ (c. 500 words)

Baldwin, James ‘The Endless Tale’ (c. 1000 words)

Balzac, Honore de ‘The Conscript’ (c. 6000 words)

Balzac, Honore de ‘Innocence’ (c. 1000 words)

Balzac, Honore de ‘The Devil’s Heir’ (c. 6500 words)

Bierce, Ambrose ‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek’ (c. 3000 words)

Bierce, Ambrose ‘Oil of Dog’ (c. 1500 words)

Brown, Alice ‘Bankrupt’ (c. 7500 words)

Brown, Alice ‘Heartease’ (c. 3500 words)

Brown, Alice ‘The Advocate’ (c. 4500 words)

Brown, Alice ‘The End of All Living’ (c. 7000 words)

Chekhov, Anton ‘The Bet’ (c. 3000 words)

Chekhov, Anton ‘The Lottery Ticket’ (c. 2000 words)

Chekhov, Anton ‘About Love’ (c. 4000 words)

Chekhov, Anton ‘An Actor’s End’ (c. 2500 words)

Chekhov, Anton ‘Art’ (c. 2500 words)

Chekhov, Anton ‘An Avenger’ (c. 2000 words)

Chesterton, G. K. ‘The Blue Cross’ (c. 7500 words)

Chesterton, G. K. ‘The Bottomless Well’ (c. 6500 words)

Chesterton, G. K. ‘The Eye of Apollo’ (c. 6000 words)

Chesterton, G. K. ‘The God of Gongs’ (c. 6000 words)

Chesterton, G. K.  ‘The Hammer of God’ (c. 6500 words)

Chesterton, G. K. ‘The Purple Wig’ (c. 5500 words)

Collins, Willie ‘A Fair Penitent’ (c. 4500 words)

Conrad, Joseph ‘An Anarchist’ (c. 8500 words)

Crane, Stephen ‘A Desertion’ (c. 1500 words)

Defoe, Daniel ‘The Apparition of Mrs Veal’ (c. 3500 words)

De Mille, James ‘The Artist of Florence’ (c. 7000 words)

De Quincey, Thomas ‘Love-Charm’ (c. 13,000 words)

De Quincey, Thomas ‘The Avenger’ (c. 19,000 words)

Dickens, Charles ‘The Black Veil’ (c. 4500 words))

Dickens, Charles ‘Criminal Courts’ (c. 2000 words)

Dickens, Charles ‘Down with the Taid’ (c. 4000 words)

Dickens, Charles ‘The Ghost of Art’ (c. 2500 words)

Dickens, Charles ‘The Baron of Grogswig’ (c. 4000 words)

Dickens, Charles ‘The Child’s Story’ (c. 2000 words)

Dahl, Roald ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ (c. 3000 words)

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor ‘The Dreams of a Ridiculous Man’ (c. 8500 words)

Eliot, T. S. ‘Eeldrop and Appleplex’ (c. 3000 words)

Eggleston, Edward ‘A Basement Story’ (c. 6500 words)

Eggleston, Edward ‘Adventures in Alaska’ (c. 1500 words)

Eliot, George ‘Brother Jacob’ (c. 17,000 words)

Field, Eugene ‘Daniel and the Devil’ (c. 3000 words)

Field, Eugene ‘Death and the Soldier’ (c. 1500 words)

Flaubert, Gustave ‘The Dance of Death’ (c. 3000 words)

Freeman, Mary ‘A New England Nun’ (c. 5000 words)

Galsworthy, John ‘The Knight’ (c. 13,000 words)

Galsworthy, John ‘The Stoic’ (c. 30,000 words)

Goldsworthy, John ‘The Silence’ (c. 8000 words)

Goethe, Johann ‘New Paris’ (c. 5500 words)

Gogol, Nikolai ‘The Clash’ (c. 4500 words)

Gaskell, Elizabeth ‘An Accursed Race’ (c. 6500 words)

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ (c. 6000 words)

Greene, Graham ‘The End of the Party’ ( c. 3500 words)

Gissing, George ‘A Capitalist’ (c. 5500 words)

Gissing, George ‘The House Of Cobwebs’ (c. 8000 words)

Gissing, George ‘The Salt of the Earth’ (c. 4000 words)

Hardy, Thomas ‘The Grave by the Handpost’ (c. 4000 words)

Hardy, Thomas ‘The Three Strangers’ c. 8500 words)

Harte, Bret ‘An Heiress of a Red Dog’ (c. 5500 words)

Harte, Bret ‘Under Karl’ (c. 6500 words)

Harte, Bret ‘Who Was My Quiet Friend?’ (c. 3000 words)

Hawthorne, Nathaniel ‘The Wedding-Knell’ (c. 3000 words)

Hawthorne, Nathaniel ‘The Ambitious Guest’ (c. 3500 words)

Henry, O ‘The Gift of the Magi’ (c. 2000 words)

Irving, Washington ‘Conspiracy of the Cocked Hats’ (c. 2000 words)

Irving, Washington ‘Little Britain’ (c. 5000 words)

Irving, Washington ‘The Bermudas’ (c. 2500 words)

Irving, Washington ‘The Birds of Spring’ (c. 2000 words)

Irving, Washington ‘The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow’ (c. 12,000 words)

Ing, Charles ‘Tight Squeeze’ (c. 6000 words)

Ingelow, Jean ‘A Last Want’ (c. 8000 words)

Ingelow, Jean ‘The Prince’s Dream’ (c. 3500 words)

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Jacobs, W. W. ‘The Monkey’s Paw’ (c. 4000 words)

James, M. R. ‘Lost Hearts’ (c. 4000 words)

Jerome, Jerome K. ‘The Man Who Did Not Believe In Luck’ (c. 3000 words)

Joyce, James ‘Araby’ (c. 2500 words)

Joyce, James ‘A Little Cloud’ (c. 5000 words)

Joyce, James ‘After the Race’ (c. 2000 words)

Joyce, James ‘An Encounter’ (c. 3500 words)

Joyce, James ‘Counterparts’ (c. 4000 words)

Joyce, James ‘Eveline’ (c. 2000 words)

Joyce, James ‘The Boarding House’ (c. 3000 words)

Kipling, Rudyard ‘How the Leopard got his Spots’ (c. 2000 words)

Kipling, Rudyard ‘Wireless’ (c. 6500 words)

Kipling, Rudyard ‘A Bank Fraud (c. 2500 words)

Kipling, Rudyard ‘Beyond the Pale’ (c. 2000 words)

King, Charles ‘Starlight Man’ (c. 9500 words)

King, Charles ‘Van’ (c. 8000 words)

Lawrence, D. H. ‘Odour of Chrysanthemums’ (c. 7500 words)

London, Jack ‘Aloha Oe’ (c. 2500 words)

London, Jack ‘The Story of Keesh’ (c. 3000 words)

London, Jack ‘How to Build a Fire’ (c. 7000 words)

Lovecraft, H. P. ‘The Cats of Ulthar’ (c. 1500 words)

Lovecraft, H. P. ‘The terrible Old Man’ (c. 1000 words)

Mansfield, Katherine ‘The Stranger’ (c. 5000 words)

Mansfield, Katherine ‘The Garden Party’ (c. 5500 words)

Mansfield, Katherine ‘The Voyage’ (c. 3000 words)

Mansfield, Katherine ‘The Ideal Family’ (c. 2500 words)

Mansfield, Katherine ‘Miss Brill’ (c. 2000 words)

Mansfield, Katherine ‘The Singing Lesson’ (c. 2000 words)

Marquez, Gabriel Garcia ‘Eyes of a Blue Dog’ (c. 3000 words)

Maupassant, Guy de ‘The Kiss’ (c. 1500 words)

Munro, H. H. (SAKI) ‘The Mouse’ (c. 1500 words)

Nesbit, Edith ‘Acting for the Best’ (c. 4500 words)

Nesbit, Edith ‘Archibald the Unpleasant’ (c. 5000 words)

Nesbit, Edith ‘Billy the King’ (c. 5500 words)

Norris, Frank ‘A Deal in Wheat’ (c. 5000 words)

Norris, Frank ‘The Wife of Chino’ (c. 5500 words)

Norris, Frank ‘Two Hearts That Beat as One’ (c. 4000 words)

Orwell, George ‘The Shooting of an Elephant’ (c. 2000 words)

Osbourne, Lloyd ‘Ben’ (c. 6000 words)

Osbourne, Lloyd ‘The Golden Castaways’ (c. 3500 words)

Parker, Dorothy ‘A Telephone Call’ (c. 2500 words)

Poe, Edgar Allan ‘The Imp of the Perverse’ (c. 2500 words)

Poe, Edgar Allan ‘The Angel of Odd’ (c. 4000 words)

Poe, Edgar Allan ‘The Masque of the Red Death’ (c. 2500 words)

Poe, Edgar Allan ‘The Black Cat’ (c. 4000 words)

Poe, Edgar Allan ‘Four Beasts in One’ (c. 3000 words)

Potter, Beatrix ‘Ginger and Pickles’ (c. 1000 words)

This page receives about 10,000 views a month and we are keen to continue expanding this resource, for our users. We have limited resources, but with your help, we can continue to build and support writers and readers, past and present.

Quiller-Couch, Arthur ‘Elisha’ (c. 1500 words)

Quiller-Couch, Arthur ‘The Burglary Club’ (c. 3000 words)

Quiller-Couch, Arthur ‘The Dark Mirror’ (c. 1000 words)

Roby, John ‘The Goblin Builders’ (c. 3500 words)

Ruskin, John ‘The King of the Golden River’ (c. 9000 words)

Skinner, Charles ‘The Barge of Defeat’ (c. 500 words)

Somyonov, S. T. ‘The Servant’ (c. 2000 words)

Twain, Mark ‘Luck’ (c. 2000 words)

Trollope, Anthony ‘George Walker at Suez’ (c. 8000 words)

Trollope, Anthony ‘Returning Home’ (c. 9000 words)

Van Dyke, Henry ‘Ashes of Vengeance’ (c. 500 words)

Van Dyke, Henry ‘The Art of Leaving Off’ (c. 2500 words)

Verne, Jules ‘A Drama in the Air’ (c. 7000 words)

Wells, H. G. ‘The Crystal Egg’ (c. 7000 words)

White, E. B. ‘The Door’ (c. 2000 words)

Wilde, Oscar ‘The Birth of the Infanta’ (c. 7500 words)

Williams, William Carlos ‘The Use of Force’ (c. 1500 words)

Woolf, Virginia ‘A Haunted House’ (c. 1000 words)

Yeats, William Butler ‘Out of the Rose’ (c. 2500 words)

Yeats, William Butler ‘The Old Men of the Twilight’ (c. 2000 words)

Yeats, William Butler ‘The Twisting of the Rope’ (c. 3000 words)

Younger, Charlotte M. ‘The Last Fight in the Coliseum’ (c. 3000 words)

Zola, Emile ‘Captain Burle’ (c. 11, 500 words)

Zola, Emile ‘The Flood’ (c. 8000 words)

20 Super-Short Stories Your Students Will Love

As teachers struggle to make the most of every minute in the classroom and appeal to students’ diminishing attention spans, sometimes size does matter when it comes to reading selections. Even short stories can be daunting for reluctant high school readers. “It’s so long!” students may moan when presented with traditional anthology classics like “ The Most Dangerous Game ,” at 8,013 words or “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” at 3,768 words.

Shorter works of fiction are no less rigorous than their longer counterparts. Flash fiction is a genre of literature that demonstrates craft elements and packs thematic punches with a tight word count. While the definition varies, flash fiction most often refers to pieces under 1,000 words but possibly up to 2,000. Average readers can complete 1,000 words in approximately 3.3 minutes if they’re reading at a speed of 300 words per minute, making flash especially appealing.

Students are often more likely to completely read pieces that take under five minutes to finish. It’s also much easier to encourage and facilitate the multiple readings that are often necessary for students to fully understand and explicate a complex text.

Flash fiction selections are great as bell-ringer readings while still being rich enough to settle in for long discussions of craft and theme. You can also frontload longer works of fiction with these little pieces. Since they’re all delightfully short, they’re easy to slide into an existing lesson play, or you can build a day’s lesson around one. Finally, the brevity of these pieces will allow you to make copies on only one or two sheets of paper and work on annotating in class. Here are twenty that students will love.

20 Super-Short Stories Your High School Students Will Love

• “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin This story is popular with teachers not only because it weighs in at just over 1,000 words, but also because it’s replete with literary elements to demonstrate craft. In the story, a young wife, Louise Mallard, is informed that her husband is dead. Rather than mourning, she retreats to her room alone to quietly and joyfully contemplate a life of freedom without a man to dictate her life. The story takes a twist, however, when her husband returns home, oblivious to the news of his death. The shock brings on a heart attack and instant death, and everyone assumes the wife’s heart gave out from the happiness of seeing her husband alive and well. The readers will know better, however, what the source of the “joy that kills” actually is.

Chopin’s trim little story is a masterclass in pacing, dramatic irony, and characterization. Students from middle school up to AP English Literature can find richness and meaning in the text, even after multiple readings.

• “The Flowers” by Alice Walker The plot is simple and horrifying: Myop, the child of Black sharecroppers, goes for a walk in the forest, gathers flowers, accidentally steps on an old skull, and finds the remains of a lynched man. At under 600 words, this compact piece is perfect for repeated readings for analysis of Walker’s syntax along with other elements such as plot structure, characterization, and symbolism and themes of racism and loss of innocence.

This piece pairs beautifully with works by such authors as Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, and Alice Walker herself. Students will enjoy discussing the symbolic significance of the shift from the farm to the woods, the juxtaposition of light and dark, the flowers, and, of course, the skeleton. They can also explore how Walker creates an entire archetypal hero’s journey in less than one page.

• “Birthday Party” by Katharine Brush At a lean 312 words, “Birthday Party” is rich with elements of characterization and detail. It centers on a scene in a restaurant with a wife having a special dinner for her husband’s birthday that doesn’t go the way she expected or wanted.

There are shifting points of view within the piece that are rich for classroom discussion about perspective. It can also be used for a creative writing model in rounding out a scene and using specific details to illustrate character. This story was the 2005 AP English Literature Free Response Question 2.

• “Currents” by Hannah Bottomy Voskuil This story is just under 300 words and is told backward. It’s the story of a drowning incident at a beach, but the inverted plot makes it interesting for students to discuss narrative arcs, syntax, detail, and characterization.

Students can also try their hand at writing their own backward story, using “Currents” as a model.

• “Being the Murdered Homecoming Queen” by Cathy Ulrich “The thing about being the murdered homecoming queen is you set the plot in motion.” With that first line, Ulrich moves readers forward in a wild ride of ghosts, grief, and girls. Told in second person from the point of view of a dead homecoming queen, this story is a 428-word murder mystery. Ulrich’s use of repetition and powerful imagery make this story incredibly readable and perfect for group discussion.

Students will enjoy drilling into themes of gender roles, performative grief, teenage relationships, and the transience of memory.

• “Entropy” by Andrea Rinard At just under 500 words, “Entropy” depicts an unnamed teenager in her room, struggling with her own mental illness. The story depicts not only the girl’s waxing and waning despair and hope but also her complex feelings of love, guilt, and resentment toward her caretaking mother.

The use of symbolism and repetition will give students lots to discuss. They will also connect with the speaker’s various attempts to find ways to both ground herself and escape.

• “And No More Shall We Part” by Sutton Strother This piece is just under 1,000 words and juxtaposes an incredibly creepy situation with a tender love story. A couple, Joe and Katherine, check into a hotel and slowly experience the complete deterioration of their bodies. Is it a romance? Is it a horror story? Is it speculative fiction? At first students will wonder what the “it” is that’s coming for Joe and Katherine, but in the end it won’t matter as they focus on the relationship that endures even as the flesh dissolves.

Your students will enjoy using what they know about genre and discussing how to characterize this story. They can also talk about the incredible details of the piece and the rising tension.

• “Popular Mechanics” by Raymond Carver Carver is well-known as one of the greatest short story writers. In this story of just 495 words, Carver depicts a marriage at the moment of destruction and an ending that will have students’ jaws dropping as they discuss what might be one of the most horrifying and stunning last lines in all of literature.

Students love discussing the ambiguity of the story and trying to get closure, asking, “Did that really happen?” “Was that what I thought it was?” They can also discuss dialogue, syntax, detail, and understatement.

• “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid Kincaid’s breathless 685-word story is told in the voice of a daughter, reflecting on the perceptions and directions of her domineering mother. Told almost entirely in imperative commands, the story explores the relationship between mother and daughter and the expectations that can be too heavy a weight to bear.

This piece is a great work in which to explore how character and setting are inextricably linked. Students can consider how the spaces and places we occupy create our identity. Students will also enjoy analyzing elements of syntax, voice, and tone. If you’re looking for a creative writing activity, it’s a really fun piece for students to model in their own writing.

• “The Cranes” by Peter Meinke* Students will enjoy the beautiful language and leisurely pacing of this 903-word piece featuring a sweet elderly couple sitting and watching birds and reflecting on their marriage.

After hitting the shocking twist at the end, students can go back and trace the breadcrumbs that were there all along. Meinke’s use of dialogue is masterful, and students always enjoy reading this piece aloud.

*Content Warning—deals with suicide

• “Eleven” by Sandra Cisneros This piece is a little longer at almost 1,200 words, but it’s beloved and widely read because it’s accessible and relatable for younger and less confident readers. It’s Rachel’s birthday, and she reflects on what it feels like to turn eleven while facing an embarrassing conflict in school.

Students will enjoy reminiscing about their own dramas and traumas at the hands of teachers and classmates while also analyzing Cisneros’s craft, especially the lyrical language and effective syntax. This story is also a great jumping-off point for creating a believable young protagonist or embarking on a memoir writing activity.

• “No One’s a Mystery” by Elizabeth Tallent Tallent’s depiction of a sordid love affair between a young girl and an older married man is told in the alternating dialogue of its two main characters. In just 927 words, Tallent explores the time before a coming of age moment when a teenager still lacks the wisdom of knowing at least a little bit about how the world works.

The intersection of idealism and realism will give students a lot to talk about along with Tallent’s use of detail and narrative pacing.

• “Powder” by Tobias Wolff This is a longer piece at 1,544 words, but one that students always enjoy. It centers on a father and son trying to get home for Christmas after a day of skiing. After being deterred by a state trooper, a closed road, and heavy snow, the father decides to sneak through and drive home in dangerous conditions, telling his son on their way, “Don’t ever try this yourself.” As the journey continues, details emerge that reveal conflicts under the surface of the family.

Students will enjoy this small moment that reveals a much larger landscape in the life of the characters. The symbolism of the setting, especially the snow, is rich for discussion, and students will connect with their own relationships with parents and other adult figures.

• “My First Goose” by Isaac Babel This story comes in at just under 1,500 words and is a wonderful study in cause and effect as well as character. Set in post WWI Europe, the narrator, Kiril Lyutove is a Russian Jewish intellectual who is struggling to balance his own philosophical beliefs with the brutality of war. He doesn’t feel like he fits in with the huge but violent Cossacks he’s alongside, so he earns their respect with a fake act of barbarism.

There is a lot of ambiguity that allows students to discuss different interpretations of the events. They can also discuss the paradox of war as heroic and inhumanly brutal. The themes of sacrificing one’s values and sense of self in order to fit in will resonate with students. It’s a great pairing with The Things They Carried.

• “The Pie” by Gary Soto At 872 words, Soto’s story of a boy stealing and then facing the guilt for stealing a pie provide students an opportunity to tune their ears to tone. The pacing of this piece is masterful as the protagonist struggles with the tension between his desire to eat the pie and his feelings of shame and guilt for stealing it.

This story always inspires fun discussions of situational ethics and how easy it is to rationalize things that should be objectively wrong. There are also surprising Biblical allusions that students can unpack.

• “Wake Up” by Kathy Fish What would you do if your elderly neighbor showed up naked on your front porch in the middle of the night? The speaker of Fish’s “Wake Up” deals with this situation with details that build and build to create a rich story that will leave readers wondering how all that managed to be communicated in under 500 words.

Themes of community and connection are woven through the story. Put on Stevie Wonder’s “My Cherie Amour” while the kids read and enjoy hearing them do the “la la la la la la” under their breaths.

• “Sticks” by George Saunders Every family has its own weird traditions. In this 392-word flash by master storyteller Saunders, the narrator’s father keeps a metal pole in the yard which he decorates for different holidays and events.

The ending is poignant and powerful, and it will spark a discussion of characterization and detail. The main character’s bitterness and subsequent transformation will resonate with students.

• “Where Are You?” by Joyce Carol Oates Oates is a prolific novelist, and students may have read her longer short stories such as the widely-anthologized and creeptastic, “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?” In this 523-word flash with another question as its title, the elderly couple suffers from an inability to communicate. The husband won’t wear his hearing aids, and the wife is exhausted by his habit of wandering the house, calling out to her.

Students should enjoy considering this depiction of a relationship in all its complexity. The twist at the end is shocking and apt for lots of discussion.

• “The School” by Donald Barthelme At slightly over 1,200 words, Barthelme focuses on the lives and deaths that take place in a school classroom and its community. It starts in a normal day at school with the narrator-teacher talking about how the students are planting orange trees But trees die, just like snakes die. Mice, salamanders, gerbils, dogs, students, their parents… everything and everyone dies. The students start asking questions, and a theme emerges about the meaning of life. The casual, matter-of-fact tone of this piece makes it even more funny than the events being chronicled.

If your class is tackling surrealism or magical realism, this story can be a gateway or a backloading opportunity. Students will also enjoy talking about the big issues in life that are as ineffable as they are incomprehensible.

• “As the North Wind Howled” by Yu Hua It’s a longer story at 1,371 words, but after the slow, contemplative pace of the first couple of paragraphs in which the main character wakes up and spends time observing items in his room, things pick up with a knock at the door. “So that was how, on this lousy morning, a muscleman kicked down my door and lumbered me with a friend I had no interest in having—a friend who was about to die, no less. What’s more, the north wind was howling like a banshee outside. I had no overcoat or scarf, no gloves or hat—all I was wearing was a thin jacket as I went off to visit this friend I knew absolutely nothing about.”

It’s a strange little story that’s great for discussing plot structure, conflict, and themes of community, connection, and grief.

Some Final Thoughts About Using Flash Fiction in the Classroom

The above list includes titles that have been tried and tested by experienced English teachers, but it’s absolutely not an exhaustive list. Online literary magazines that feature flash fiction such as Flash Fiction Online, Word Riot, Everyday Fiction, and Smokelong Quarterly, just to name a few, are treasure troves for teachers to access high quality work for students to enjoy. For many students, flash fiction is a gateway to literature that they can not only enjoy in the classroom but also find on their own. As you try titles from this list in your classroom, explore others by the authors you learn to love and the online magazines that feature many other fantastic flashes.

1 thought on “20 Super-Short Stories Your Students Will Love”

I really appreciated this list. it included stories I was unaware of. I look for literature that my students may not have been exposed to before so that they don’t feel like they are reading the same texts over and over again.

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The short story is a fiction writer’s laboratory: here is where you can experiment with characters, plots, and ideas without the heavy lifting of writing a novel. Learning how to write a short story is essential to mastering the art of storytelling . With far fewer words to worry about, storytellers can make many more mistakes—and strokes of genius!—through experimentation and the fun of fiction writing.

Nonetheless, the art of writing short stories is not easy to master. How do you tell a complete story in so few words? What does a story need to have in order to be successful? Whether you’re struggling with how to write a short story outline, or how to fully develop a character in so few words, this guide is your starting point.

Famous authors like Virginia Woolf, Haruki Murakami, and Agatha Christie have used the short story form to play with ideas before turning those stories into novels. Whether you want to master the elements of fiction, experiment with novel ideas, or simply have fun with storytelling, here’s everything you need on how to write a short story step by step.

The Core Elements of a Short Story

There’s no secret formula to writing a short story. However, a good short story will have most or all of the following elements:

• A protagonist with a certain desire or need. It is essential for the protagonist to want something they don’t have, otherwise they will not drive the story forward.
• A clear dilemma. We don’t need much backstory to see how the dilemma started; we’re primarily concerned with how the protagonist resolves it.
• A decision. What does the protagonist do to resolve their dilemma?
• A climax. In Freytag’s Pyramid , the climax of a story is when the tension reaches its peak, and the reader discovers the outcome of the protagonist’s decision(s).
• An outcome. How does the climax change the protagonist? Are they a different person? Do they have a different philosophy or outlook on life?

Of course, short stories also utilize the elements of fiction , such as a setting , plot , and point of view . It helps to study these elements and to understand their intricacies. But, when it comes to laying down the skeleton of a short story, the above elements are what you need to get started.

Note: a short story rarely, if ever, has subplots. The focus should be entirely on a single, central storyline. Subplots will either pull focus away from the main story, or else push the story into the territory of novellas and novels.

The shorter the story is, the fewer of these elements are essentials. If you’re interested in writing short-short stories, check out our guide on how to write flash fiction .

How to Write a Short Story Outline

Some writers are “pantsers”—they “write by the seat of their pants,” making things up on the go with little more than an idea for a story. Other writers are “plotters,” meaning they decide the story’s structure in advance of writing it.

You don’t need a short story outline to write a good short story. But, if you’d like to give yourself some scaffolding before putting words on the page, this article answers the question of how to write a short story outline:

https://writers.com/how-to-write-a-story-outline

How to Write a Short Story Step by Step

There are many ways to approach the short story craft, but this method is tried-and-tested for writers of all levels. Here’s how to write a short story step by step.

1. Start With an Idea

Often, generating an idea is the hardest part. You want to write, but what will you write about?

What’s more, it’s easy to start coming up with ideas and then dismissing them. You want to tell an authentic, original story, but everything you come up with has already been written, it seems.

Here are a few tips:

• Originality presents itself in your storytelling, not in your ideas. For example, the premise of both Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Ostrovsky’s The Snow Maiden are very similar: two men and two women, in intertwining love triangles, sort out their feelings for each other amidst mischievous forest spirits, love potions, and friendship drama. The way each story is written makes them very distinct from one another, to the point where, unless it’s pointed out to you, you might not even notice the similarities.
• An idea is not a final draft. You will find that exploring the possibilities of your story will generate something far different than the idea you started out with. This is a good thing—it means you made the story your own!
• Experiment with genres and tropes. Even if you want to write literary fiction , pay attention to the narrative structures that drive genre stories, and practice your storytelling using those structures. Again, you will naturally make the story your own simply by playing with ideas.

If you’re struggling simply to find ideas, try out this prompt generator , or pull prompts from this Twitter .

2. Outline, OR Conceive Your Characters

If you plan to outline, do so once you’ve generated an idea. You can learn about how to write a short story outline earlier in this article.

If you don’t plan to outline, you should at least start with a character or characters. Certainly, you need a protagonist, but you should also think about any characters that aid or inhibit your protagonist’s journey.

When thinking about character development, ask the following questions:

• What is my character’s background? Where do they come from, how did they get here, where do they want to be?
• What does your character desire the most? This can be both material or conceptual, like “fitting in” or “being loved.”
• What is your character’s fatal flaw? In other words, what limitation prevents the protagonist from achieving their desire? Often, this flaw is a blind spot that directly counters their desire. For example, self hatred stands in the way of a protagonist searching for love.
• How does your character think and speak? Think of examples, both fictional and in the real world, who might resemble your character.

In short stories, there are rarely more characters than a protagonist, an antagonist (if relevant), and a small group of supporting characters. The more characters you include, the longer your story will be. Focus on making only one or two characters complex: it is absolutely okay to have the rest of the cast be flat characters that move the story along.

Learn more about character development here:

https://writers.com/character-development-definition

3. Write Scenes Around Conflict

Once you have an outline or some characters, start building scenes around conflict. Every part of your story, including the opening sentence, should in some way relate to the protagonist’s conflict.

Conflict is the lifeblood of storytelling: without it, the reader doesn’t have a clear reason to keep reading. Loveable characters are not enough, as the story has to give the reader something to root for.

Take, for example, Edgar Allan Poe’s classic short story The Cask of Amontillado . We start at the conflict: the narrator has been slighted by Fortunato, and plans to exact revenge. Every scene in the story builds tension and follows the protagonist as he exacts this revenge.

In your story, start writing scenes around conflict, and make sure each paragraph and piece of dialogue relates, in some way, to your protagonist’s unmet desires.

4. Write Your First Draft

The scenes you build around conflict will eventually be stitched into a complete story. Make sure as the story progresses that each scene heightens the story’s tension, and that this tension remains unbroken until the climax resolves whether or not your protagonist meets their desires.

Don’t stress too hard on writing a perfect story. Rather, take Anne Lamott’s advice, and “write a shitty first draft.” The goal is not to pen a complete story at first draft; rather, it’s to set ideas down on paper. You are simply, as Shannon Hale suggests, “shoveling sand into a box so that later [you] can build castles.”

5. Step Away, Breathe, Revise

Whenever Stephen King finishes a novel, he puts it in a drawer and doesn’t think about it for 6 weeks. With short stories, you probably don’t need to take as long of a break. But, the idea itself is true: when you’ve finished your first draft, set it aside for a while. Let yourself come back to the story with fresh eyes, so that you can confidently revise, revise, revise .

In revision, you want to make sure each word has an essential place in the story, that each scene ramps up tension, and that each character is clearly defined. The culmination of these elements allows a story to explore complex themes and ideas, giving the reader something to think about after the story has ended.

6. Compare Against Our Short Story Checklist

Does your story have everything it needs to succeed? Compare it against this short story checklist, as written by our instructor Rosemary Tantra Bensko.

Below is a collection of practical short story writing tips by Writers.com instructor Rosemary Tantra Bensko . Each paragraph is its own checklist item: a core element of short story writing advice to follow unless you have clear reasons to the contrary. We hope it’s a helpful resource in your own writing.

Update 9/1/2020: We’ve now made a summary of Rosemary’s short story checklist available as a PDF download . Enjoy!

Click to download

How to Write a Short Story: Length and Setting

Your short story is 1000 to 7500 words in length.

The story takes place in one time period, not spread out or with gaps other than to drive someplace, sleep, etc. If there are those gaps, there is a space between the paragraphs, the new paragraph beginning flush left, to indicate a new scene.

Each scene takes place in one location, or in continual transit, such as driving a truck or flying in a plane.

How to Write a Short Story: Point of View

Unless it’s a very lengthy Romance story, in which there may be two Point of View (POV) characters, there is one POV character. If we are told what any character secretly thinks, it will only be the POV character. The degree to which we are privy to the unexpressed thoughts, memories and hopes of the POV character remains consistent throughout the story.

You avoid head-hopping by only having one POV character per scene, even in a Romance. You avoid straying into even brief moments of telling us what other characters think other than the POV character. You use words like “apparently,” “obviously,” or “supposedly” to suggest how non-POV-characters think rather than stating it.

How to Write a Short Story: Protagonist, Antagonist, Motivation

Your short story has one clear protagonist who is usually the character changing most.

Your story has a clear antagonist, who generally makes the protagonist change by thwarting his goals.

(Possible exception to the two short story writing tips above: In some types of Mystery and Action stories, particularly in a series, etc., the protagonist doesn’t necessarily grow personally, but instead his change relates to understanding the antagonist enough to arrest or kill him.)

The protagonist changes with an Arc arising out of how he is stuck in his Flaw at the beginning of the story, which makes the reader bond with him as a human, and feel the pain of his problems he causes himself. (Or if it’s the non-personal growth type plot: he’s presented at the beginning of the story with a high-stakes problem that requires him to prevent or punish a crime.)

The protagonist usually is shown to Want something, because that’s what people normally do, defining their personalities and behavior patterns, pushing them onward from day to day. This may be obvious from the beginning of the story, though it may not become heightened until the Inciting Incident , which happens near the beginning of Act 1. The Want is usually something the reader sort of wants the character to succeed in, while at the same time, knows the Want is not in his authentic best interests. This mixed feeling in the reader creates tension.

The protagonist is usually shown to Need something valid and beneficial, but at first, he doesn’t recognize it, admit it, honor it, integrate it with his Want, or let the Want go so he can achieve the Need instead. Ideally, the Want and Need can be combined in a satisfying way toward the end for the sake of continuity of forward momentum of victoriously achieving the goals set out from the beginning. It’s the encounters with the antagonist that forcibly teach the protagonist to prioritize his Needs correctly and overcome his Flaw so he can defeat the obstacles put in his path.

The protagonist in a personal growth plot needs to change his Flaw/Want but like most people, doesn’t automatically do that when faced with the problem. He tries the easy way, which doesn’t work. Only when the Crisis takes him to a low point does he boldly change enough to become victorious over himself and the external situation. What he learns becomes the Theme.

Each scene shows its main character’s goal at its beginning, which aligns in a significant way with the protagonist’s overall goal for the story. The scene has a “charge,” showing either progress toward the goal or regression away from the goal by the ending. Most scenes end with a negative charge, because a story is about not obtaining one’s goals easily, until the end, in which the scene/s end with a positive charge.

The protagonist’s goal of the story becomes triggered until the Inciting Incident near the beginning, when something happens to shake up his life. This is the only major thing in the story that is allowed to be a random event that occurs to him.

How to Write a Short Story: Characters

Your characters speak differently from one another, and their dialogue suggests subtext, what they are really thinking but not saying: subtle passive-aggressive jibes, their underlying emotions, etc.

Your characters are not illustrative of ideas and beliefs you are pushing for, but come across as real people.

How to Write a Short Story: Prose

Your language is succinct, fresh and exciting, specific, colorful, avoiding clichés and platitudes. Sentence structures vary. In Genre stories, the language is simple, the symbolism is direct, and words are well-known, and sentences are relatively short. In Literary stories, you are freer to use more sophisticated ideas, words, sentence structures and underlying metaphors and implied motifs.

How to Write a Short Story: Story Structure

Your plot elements occur in the proper places according to classical Act Structure so the reader feels he has vicariously gone through a harrowing trial with the protagonist and won, raising his sense of hope and possibility. Literary short stories may be more subtle, with lower stakes, experimenting beyond classical structures like the Hero’s Journey. They can be more like vignettes sometimes, or even slice-of-life, though these types are hard to place in publications.

In Genre stories, all the questions are answered, threads are tied up, problems are solved, though the results of carnage may be spread over the landscape. In Literary short stories, you are free to explore uncertainty, ambiguity, and inchoate, realistic endings that suggest multiple interpretations, and unresolved issues.

Some Literary stories may be nonrealistic, such as with Surrealism, Absurdism, New Wave Fabulism, Weird and Magical Realism . If this is what you write, they still need their own internal logic and they should not be bewildering as to the what the reader is meant to experience, whether it’s a nuanced, unnameable mood or a trip into the subconscious.

Literary stories may also go beyond any label other than Experimental. For example, a story could be a list of To Do items on a paper held by a magnet to a refrigerator for the housemate to read. The person writing the list may grow more passive-aggressive and manipulative as the list grows, and we learn about the relationship between the housemates through the implied threats and cajoling.

How to Write a Short Story: Capturing Reader Interest

Your short story is suspenseful, meaning readers hope the protagonist will achieve his best goal, his Need, by the Climax battle against the antagonist.

Your story entertains. This is especially necessary for Genre short stories.

The story captivates readers at the very beginning with a Hook, which can be a puzzling mystery to solve, an amazing character’s or narrator’s Voice, an astounding location, humor, a startling image, or a world the reader wants to become immersed in.

Expository prose (telling, like an essay) takes up very, very little space in your short story, and it does not appear near the beginning. The story is in Narrative format instead, in which one action follows the next. You’ve removed every unnecessary instance of Expository prose and replaced it with showing Narrative. Distancing words like “used to,” “he would often,” “over the years, he,” “each morning, he” indicate that you are reporting on a lengthy time period, summing it up, rather than sticking to Narrative format, in which immediacy makes the story engaging.

You’ve earned the right to include Expository Backstory by making the reader yearn for knowing what happened in the past to solve a mystery. This can’t possibly happen at the beginning, obviously. Expository Backstory does not take place in the first pages of your story.

Your reader cares what happens and there are high stakes (especially important in Genre stories). Your reader worries until the end, when the protagonist survives, succeeds in his quest to help the community, gets the girl, solves or prevents the crime, achieves new scientific developments, takes over rule of his realm, etc.

Every sentence is compelling enough to urge the reader to read the next one—because he really, really wants to—instead of doing something else he could be doing. Your story is not going to be assigned to people to analyze in school like the ones you studied, so you have found a way from the beginning to intrigue strangers to want to spend their time with your words.

Where to Read and Submit Short Stories

Whether you’re looking for inspiration or want to publish your own stories, you’ll find great literary journals for writers of all backgrounds at this article:

https://writers.com/short-story-submissions

Learn How to Write a Short Story at Writers.com

The short story takes an hour to learn and a lifetime to master. Learn how to write a short story with Writers.com. Our upcoming fiction courses will give you the ropes to tell authentic, original short stories that captivate and entrance your readers.

Rosemary – Is there any chance you could add a little something to your checklist? I’d love to know the best places to submit our short stories for publication. Thanks so much.

Hi, Kim Hanson,

Some good places to find publications specific to your story are NewPages, Poets and Writers, Duotrope, and The Submission Grinder.

“ In Genre stories, all the questions are answered, threads are tied up, problems are solved, though the results of carnage may be spread over the landscape.”

Not just no but NO.

See for example the work of MacArthur Fellow Kelly Link.

[…] How to Write a Short Story: The Short Story Checklist […]

Thank you for these directions and tips. It’s very encouraging to someone like me, just NOW taking up writing.

[…] Writers.com. A great intro to writing. https://writers.com/how-to-write-a-short-story […]

Hello: I started to write seriously in the late 70’s. I loved to write in High School in the early 60’s but life got in the way. Around the 00’s many of the obstacles disappeared. Since then I have been writing more, and some of my work was vanilla transgender stories. Here in 2024 transgender stories have become tiresome because I really don’t have much in common with that mind set.

The glare of an editor that could potentially pay me is quite daunting, so I would like to start out unpaid to see where that goes. I am not sure if a writer’s agent would be a good fit for me. My work life was in the Trades, not as some sort of Academic. That alone causes timidity, but I did read about a fiction writer who had been a house painter.

This is my first effort to publish since the late 70’s. My pseudonym would perhaps include Ahabidah.

Gwen Boucher.

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Short Story

Short story definition.

A short story is a fully developed story that is shorter than a novel and longer than a fable . It typically takes just a single sitting for reading. Short Story focuses on the incidents bigger or smaller and evokes strong feelings from its readers. A short story often has a few characters in the plot .

Features of a Short Story

As a short story is mostly a short narrative and has few features. The standard features include exposition , complication, crisis, climax , and resolution of the crisis. However, it is not essential that all short stories follow the same pattern.

Difference between Short Story, Novella, and Novel

Writers do not agree on the exact length of a story but some say that it presents only one aspect of life and is reasonably beyond or within a 3,000 to 7,000-word count. However, a novelette is a bit longer and typically presents several aspects of the life of a character or some character such as Animal Farm by George Orwell and The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway . However, novels are divided into chapters, are longer, and are usually above 50,000 words. Some novels are in higher volumes like Charles Dicken’s A Tale of Two Cities or Judge the Obscure by Thomas Hardy .

How to Write and Plot a Short Story?

When writing a short story or creating a plot of a short story, keep these points in your mind.

• Create lifelike characters and move them fast in the story. It’s also called pace.
• Keep the number of characters quite limited, if and when possible. Ideally, they should be more than one and less than five. Especially when you are just in the learning stage.
• Create a conflict between characters or between a character and nature.
• Put a resolution or mystery by the end or In Medias Res .
• Use figurative language .

 Five (5) Major Elements of a Short Story

Although there are several elements and it could depend on the writer what to include or what not to include, these five are fundamental elements of a short story.

Examples of Short Stories from Literature

The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde

The Happy Prince is one of the best stories written in English Literature written by Oscar Wilde. The story shows how the elites of that kingdom neglect the poor. And the statue of the Happy Prince takes the help of a Swallow to help the poor of the city. One by one, the Prince starts losing his precious stones, rubies, and gold leaves when the Swallow starts plucking them to give to the poor that the Prince can see from his high pedestal. The dramatic irony of the story reaches the climax when the city mayor sees the dead bird and the ugly broken statue. When the statue is sent to a furnace, God invites the Prince and the Swallow to live in the City of Gold in heaven.

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

In the short story The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte sheds light on the difficulties faced by the narrator of the story, due to depression after childbirth. Her husband John, a physician, takes her to a countryside home for the cure and assumes that she is suffering from hysteria. He doesn’t allow her to do her favorite activities , like writing which helps her escape reality. She is also distant to her child. After a while, she is obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in her room and imagines that a woman, like her, is stuck in it and wants to come out. To help the imaginary woman, the narrator starts peeling the wallpaper. By the end of the story, John, sees her creeping around the room and faints. The story also highlights how many women are ignored by their spouses, leading them to depression.

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” is another wonderful example of a short horror story. In the story, the anonymous narrator tells about the murder of an old man that he has committed in cold blood because he had ‘vulture eyes’. The story is told in the first-person narrative and explores the state of mind of a person. The narrator has hallucinations after the murder when he feels guilty. He convinces the readers that he is not insane. By the end of the story, he continues to hallucinate and asks what to do to make the old man’s heart stop. This is an excellent example of a short story having a few characters and a complicated theme .

The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

This story is an extraordinary piece of its time. Louise Mallard, probably oppressed by her husband, is relieved when she sees the prospects of freedom after the death of her husband. She rejoices and imagines a bright future after receiving the news. However, Brently Mallard, Louise’s husband returns home. The pain of her failing dreams causes her to suffer a heart attack and death. The doctor assumes that she has died of heart failure as she couldn’t absorb the happiness at her husband’s arrival.

The Necklace by Guy De Maupassant

The Necklace is one of the best short stories. It revolves around the life of a clerk in the ministry of education and his extraordinarily beautiful wife, Mathilda. She borrows an expensive necklace from her friend for a ball but loses it when they are returning home. They, somehow, arrange to replace it after purchasing the original necklace with borrowed money and spend their lives in the struggle to pay back the loan. After several years, they met the same friend again. To their horror, she tells them that her necklace was fake.

To Build a Fire by Jack London

To Build a Fire is the story of an anonymous character who leaves home for a destination on the Yukon trail but faces heavy snow which makes him fall. He tries to kill his dog to keep himself alive, but the dog also senses his intentions. Later, he tries to make the fire but does not succeed and dies. His struggle and his wrong notion about his strength and thinking power prove fatal for him. This is one of the best short stories without the names of the characters.

Short Story Meaning and Function

A short story presents one aspect of the life of a character. It could be an incident, an event, a description of a feeling, or even a simple act. A short story can also impact a reader and even inspire them. For persons who cannot read novels, enjoy reading the short stories. Moreover, in a short story, the characters also share their innermost thoughts, their motives, their feelings, their emotions, and different notions.

Synonyms of Short Story

The nearest synonyms for the short story are narrative, novella , tale, yarn, story, and novelette.

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• 15 Famous Short Free-Verse Poems
• Frame Story
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• 7 Classic Story Archetypes with Examples
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• Comic Relief
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• Narrative Poem
• Dramatic Monologue
• Existentialism
• In Medias Res
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• Auditory Imagery
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Summaries, Analysis & Lists

Flash Fiction Examples: Stories Under 1,000 Words & 500 Words

This page compiles many examples of flash fiction, sudden fiction, micro stories, very short stories,  or postcard fiction as they are sometimes called. Flash fiction is perfect for when you have five minutes to fill. I don’t think any story on this page exceeds 1,000 words, and many flash stories are less than 500 words. Most of these flash stories have been anthologized, suggesting they have either literary merit or entertainment value.

While these stories weren’t written for students, I think they are a good pool of stories for teachers to choose from. Not all the flash stories are appropriate for students of all ages. See also:

• Short Stories for Middle & High School

Several stories on this page are in the anthologies  Flash Fiction   and  Flash Fiction Forward .

Flash Fiction Examples

“The Flowers” by Alice Walker

Myop is a ten-year-old girl who is out exploring the woods behind her family’s sharecropper cabin on a beautiful summer day. As she starts to head home she makes a shocking discovery. ( Summary & Analysis )

“The Flowers” is the fourth story in the Amazon preview of  The Penguin Book of the Modern American Short Story . (88% in)

“Mr. Mumsford” by Larry French

Bibs, a janitor at a school, takes a bat from the equipment room and hides in wait for the principal. ( Summary )

Sleeping | Katharine Weber

Harriet, a young girl, is babysitting Charles. His parents tell her that he won’t be any trouble, he will sleep the whole time, and she needn’t even open his bedroom door to look at him. ( Analysis )

This story can be read in the preview of  Sudden Flash Youth: 65 Short-Short Stories . (88% in)

Bread | Margaret Atwood

The narrator tells the reader to imagine a piece of bread in a few vastly different situations. ( Summary & Analysis )

“20/20” by Linda Brewer

Bill and Ruthie are on a road trip. Bill finds her conversation simplistic; she refuses to argue anything. She says what she sees along the way. ( Summary & Analysis )

The Story, Victorious | Etgar Keret

The narrator tells us this is the best story in the world as judged by dozens of experts, and gives us the reasons why.

This is the first story in the Amazon preview of  Flash Fiction International.

Please Hold Me the Forgotten Way | H. J. Shepard

A woman goes to cut a man’s long hair because he dislikes things that make him attractive. She thinks of him often.

This is the second story in the preview of  Flash Fiction International.

Prisoner of War | Muna Fadhil

Saleh was captured by the Iranians and held for seventeen years. He now lives with his daughter, Sahira, who was only five when he was taken.

This is the third story in the above preview of Flash Fiction International.

Eating Bone | Shabnam Nadiya

Disha leaves her home after hearing a new taunt from her husband. While she thinks about her life, she catches the aroma of roasting chicken.

This is the fifth story in the above preview of Flash Fiction International.

Esse | Czeslaw Milosz

A man looks with amazement at a woman’s face on a train.

The narrator seems to be contemplating existence and existing things.

This is the sixth story in the above preview of Flash Fiction International.

A Strange Story | O. Henry

When the little Smother’s girl gets sick her father goes out for medicine. He doesn’t come back. ( Summary )

Read “A Strange Story”

“Trapped” by Yukari Kousaka

Alarms ring on a vessel doing deep sea research. The divers haven’t come back.

This story can be read in the preview of  The Deep: An Anthology of Dark Microfiction .  (82% in)

“The Dinner Party” by Mona Gardner

A colonel and a young girl disagree on whether women can keep cool in a crisis. ( Summary & Analysis )

Read “The Dinner Party”

Letting Go | Pamela Painter

A woman is taking pictures at the Grand Canyon. A young couple asks her to take their picture.

This is the first story in the preview of  New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction.

“The Zebra Storyteller” by Spencer Holst

A Siamese cat learns to speak to Zebras, taking advantage of the shock of it to tie them up and kill them. ( Summary )

This story can be read in the preview of The Language of Cats and Other Stories .

“The Dumb Man” by Sherwood Anderson

The narrator knows a story but can’t tell it. He has the characters—three men in a room downstairs, and a woman upstairs. A fourth man then arrives.

This story can be read in the preview of  Triumph of the Egg and Other Stories.

Joy | Anton Chekhov

Mitya gets home at midnight, agitated and disheveled but also very happy. He wakes his parents and younger siblings. He has incredible news—he’s going to be known all over Russia.

“Joy” is the first story in the Amazon preview of  Fifty-Two Stories .

An Imperial Message | Franz Kafka

On his deathbed, the emperor imparts a message to his herald that is for you only. After confirming the message, the herald sets out on his journey.

This story can be read in the preview of The Complete Stories .

“Sticks” by George Saunders

A father has a pole in his yard that he dresses according to the occasion. He’s a stingy man and his family lives on edge. ( Summary & Analysis )

This is the second story in the preview of  Tenth of December: Stories .

“Old Man at the Bridge” by Ernest Hemingway

During the Spanish Civil War, an old man sits on the roadside, exhausted and discouraged.  Everyone is fleeing from the advancing Fascist army.

This is the fourth story in the preview of The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway .  (92% into the preview)

“Blue & Green” by Virginia Woolf

In “Green”, a chandelier (I think) reflects the light, dropping a pool of green on the marble below. The narrator’s thoughts run to other green things. In “Blue”, some kind of fish (?) spouts water from its nostrils, then submerges, and is then thrown onto the beach.

This story can be read in the preview of  The Complete Works . (74% in, or select  Monday or Tuesday  in TOC, then the story title)

“The Father” by Raymond Carver

A family is gathered around a baby in a basket, doting over him and admiring his little features. They try to figure out who the baby looks like. ( Summary and Analysis )

Read “The Father”

Flash Fiction Story Examples, Cont’d

“She Unnames Them” by Ursula K. Le Guin

Someone has been persuading all the animals to give up their names. Most accept it without much resistance. It makes them feel closer. ( Summary & Analysis )

Read “She Unnames Them”

“Cemetery Path” by Leonard Q. Ross

Ivan is known in his village as a timid, fearful man. When he walks home at night he goes the long way around the cemetery, even though it’s cold. One night he is challenged to cross the cemetery. ( Summary & Analysis )

Read “Cemetery Path”

“Life Stories” by Margaret Atwood

The narrator talks about the hunger for life stories and unflattering photos of famous people. She’s editing her own life story now.

This story can be read in the preview of  The Tent .  (50% in: Go into Paperback preview first, then select Kindle) This collection has many very short selections.

“The Night Came Slowly” by Kate Chopin

The narrator is losing interest in people and books. She prefers to lie under a maple tree at night.

Read “The Night Came Slowly” (with Summary & Themes)

“The Survivor’s Story” by Dino Buzzati

Survivors of wars and cataclysms in distant lands are returning home. They’re happy and looking forward to being home again. They especially want to tell their many stories. ( Summary )

Brilliant Silence | Spencer Holst

Two Alaskan Kodiak bears are part of a travelling circus act. They do various tricks and become crowd favorites.

Pumpkins | Francine Prose

A truck full of pumpkins collides with a car, killing the female driver. The report has an effect on several people in the small town.

The Stones | Richard Shelton

The narrator likes to watch stones grow in the desert. Young stones move more and seek adventure; old stones are sedentary and suspicious of change.

This could be an allegory for the way the young and old view life, or how older people tend to be more conservative than younger people.

Read “The Stones”

“It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book.” —Friedrich Nietzsche

Love Poems | Lon Otto

A man writes a love poem, which he is very proud of. He plans on sending it to a woman, timing it to arrive on Valentine’s Day.

Night | Bret Lott

A man wakes up in the night, thinking he can hear his child’s breathing in the next room. He gets up to check.

Read “Night”

The Appalachian Trail | Bruce Eason

A woman tells a man that she plans on walking the Appalachian Trail. He isn’t enthusiastic about it, and tries to persuade her to give up the idea.

Dinner Time | Russell Edson

An old man waits for his wife to serve dinner. She makes a lot of noise and has a hard time with it, while he becomes impatient and starts punching himself. Their behavior escalates into absurdity as they get more annoyed.

Read “Dinner Time”

Vision Out of the Corner of One Eye | Luisa Valenzuela

A woman on a bus gets fondled by the man next to her.

“When I start to write a very short story, I always imagine it as a novel. In some parallel universe, there must be a crazy writer who is actually writing those novels.” —Alex Epstein

The Colonel | Carolyn Forche

The narrator recounts a dinner in the home of an unidentified powerful man. He has an important message to give his guests.

Read “The Colonel”

Snow | Julia Alvarez

Yolanda narrates her early experiences in New York—going to school, learning a new language, and coping with the possibility of a nuclear conflict.

Read “Snow”

Subtotals | Gregory Burnham

The narrator gives us the current count on many things he’s done or experienced in his life.

Read “Subtotals”

Dish Night | Michael Martone

World War II interrupts a couple’s courtship, including their routine of going to a movie on Dish Night so they could get a complete set of crockery.

Read “Dish Night”

Vines | Kenneth Bernard

A man starts to notice some changes in his body—he smells worse, his feet are colder, and he doesn’t feel on top of things. He mentions it to his wife and a friend.

How to Touch a Bleeding Dog | Rod Kessler

A man takes a dog to the vet when it gets hit by a car. He’s responsible for it, but it’s not his—it’s his wife’s, but she’s no longer with him.

The Restraints | Robert Hill Long

A little girl dances in bars to make money for her father. At night she dreams of a fancy dress, and sometimes wanders off.

Read “The Restraints”

“A good short-short is short but not small, light but not slight.” —Ku Ling

The Burlington Northern, Southbound | Bruce Holland Rogers

A man writes a poem for a woman he is unable to talk to. He compares her to a train.

Read “The Burlington Northern, Southbound”

The Paring Knife | Michael Openheimer

While a man and woman are cleaning house, he finds a knife under the fridge. He remembers how it ended up there.

What Happened During the Ice Storm | Jim Heynen

There is freezing rain one winter. Everyone thinks it’s beautiful until it gets dangerous and the livestock have to be moved inside.

Read “What Happened During the Ice Storm”

Solstice | Richard Terrill

A man visits his elderly mother in a nursing home. She is forgetful and cynical.

Teddy’s Canary | K. C. Frederick

The narrator tells a familiar, amusing story to a group of friends about Teddy, a man who has recently died.

Read “Teddy’s Canary” (Scroll down)

Water | Fred Leebron

The narrator describes a former lover and friend who are now together. While watering the friend’s plants, he also takes the opportunity to do something else.

Read “Water”

Stockings | Tim O’Brien

Henry Dobbins is a good man and great soldier, but unsophisticated. He views a pair of his girlfriend’s pantyhose as a good-luck charm.

Read “Stockings”

A Moment in the Sun Field | William Brohaugh

Bobby, his friend, and his dad play 500—a baseball type game where you get points for catching and fielding the ball.

Corners | Sheila Barry

Mildred and Jessie look over the body of their deceased sister, Marie. Mildred is satisfied with the undertaker’s work, but Jessie gets upset.

Snapshot, Harvey Cedars: 1948 | Paul Lisicky

A man and woman—young and attractive—are on a vacation at the beach. He is thinking about work, and making a name for himself.

“Every sentence, every phrase, every word has to fight for its life.” —Crawford Kilian

Yogurt | Ronald Wallace

A couple who have been fighting a lot are walking home from a yogurt shop when they hear someone running up behind them.

Read “Yogurt”

Jumper Down | Don Shea

Henry is a paramedic who is considered the jumper up expert—he’s great at talking people down when they’re on a bridge or ledge.

The Memory Priest of the Creech People | Paul Theroux

The Creech choose one person to be Memory Priest—a man who remembers all the names and dates of the people, and entertains and informs them with their lore.

This legend seems like it could be an allegory, but I haven’t been able to figure out what it represents.

Read “The Memory Priest of the Creech People”

Sashimi Cashmere | Carolyn Forde

Two sushi chefs arrange their meals on their serving tray, which is a woman’s body.

Read “Sashimi Cashmere”

Baker’s Helper | Cynthia Anderson

A young woman goes to Jimmy’s bakery every day to look at the freshly-made products. She is very thin and never eats anything.

Read “Baker’s Helper”

Mandela Was Late | Peter Mehlman

A parole officer waits for an ex-con, Mandela, to show up for their meeting. He has a pessimistic view of the former criminals he deals with.

How to Set a House on Fire | Stace Budzko

The narrator lays out the steps for setting a house on fire.

Read “How to Set a House on Fire”

Currents | Hannah Bottomy

Gary drinks at night, and his mother tucks his daughters into bed, telling them they’ll swim tomorrow and shouldn’t be afraid of the water. A Filipino boy had drowned, and the narrative moves back in time to fill in the day’s events.

Read “Currents”

“Get in, get out. Don’t linger. Go on.” —Raymond Carver

Bullet | Kim Church

A woman tells us some of the ways a bullet can work—the obviously violent way, and more subtle ways like how her husband wore one on a chain, and how someone came into her store with one.

Read “Bullet”

The Great Open Mouth Anti-Sadness | Ron Carlson

Button lies on a bed after a wedding, slightly drunk, and uses the small distractions in the room to control his sadness.

Tiffany | Stacey Richter

The protagonist is told to divide or die, but she doesn’t want to—she wants to be intact and singular.

Read “Tiffany”

The Fallguy’s Faith | Robert Coover

The protagonist suffers a terrible fall and tries to put himself together again.

Read “The Fallguy’s Faith”

The Voices in My Head | Jack Handey

The narrator explains how the voices in his head are always telling him what to do, or second-guessing what he’s already done.

Why You Shouldn’t Have Gone in the First Place | Samantha Schoech

The narrator tells you why you shouldn’t meet up with a married man, and how you’ll feel if you do anyway.

Read “Why You Shouldn’t Have Gone in the First Place”

Mythologies | R. L. Futrell

A recently married couple are driving over the Kanawha River while the man listens to the radio and the woman reads some mythology. A new interstate is being built nearby.

Read “Mythologies”

Bullhead | Leigh Allison Wilson

The narrator’s mother likes to tell a story about the love of her life. As a teenager she fell in love with the boy next door, and one night they got some time alone with each other.

Read “Bullhead”

Accident | Dave Eggers

“You” get out of your car after a traffic accident after you ruined a Camaro carrying three teenagers. You’re worried about how they’re going to react.

All Girl Band | Utahna Faith

The narrator’s all girl band is in trouble, and she thinks about how different she is from her mother.

Read “All Girl Band”

“Omit needless words.” —William Strunk

The Peterson Fire | Barry Gifford

When the Peterson house burns down, only Bud, the seventeen-year-old son, is able to get out.

The Orange | Benjamin Rosenbaum

An orange that grows in a grove in Florida is made ruler of the world. Everyone is pleased with the arrangement.

Read “The Orange”

To Reduce Your Likelihood of Murder | Ander Monson

The narrator explains to women how they can keep from being murdered.

Read “To Reduce Your Likelihood of Murder”

Oliver’s Evolution | John Updike

Oliver was born later in his parents’ lives when they didn’t have much energy for raising him. They made some mistakes with him, and he has some close calls as he grows up.

Crazy Glue | Etgar Keret

A married couple discuss some crazy glue that the woman bought. The man doesn’t believe it could hold someone upside down from the ceiling as the picture on the box shows.

Read “Crazy Glue”

Pledge Drive | Patricia Marx

The narrator gives a pledge drive type pitch for supporting Patty, a woman who informs you of the current gossip and the minutiae of her life.

A Patriotic Angel | Mark Budman

A small angel stands in a supermarket aisle with a harp. A man asks her about playing him a song.

Read “A Patriotic Angel”

What I Know of Your Country | John Leary

A telemarketer explains what his job has taught him about Americans.

Read “What I Know of Your Country”

Guidebook | Christopher Merrill

The narrator provides a guide to an unnamed island. Among its problems are erosion, rapid population growth, and shortages of basic necessities.

“I try to leave out the parts that people skip.” —Elmore Leonard

Test | G. A. Ingersoll

This is a test about people’s challenges and how you view life and other people.

Read “Test”

The Good Life | David Ryan

The narrator is picked up at the airport by a woman he knew in high school who just happened to be there. She does a lot of reminiscing, but he can’t remember much of it.

Initials Etched on a Dining-Room Table, Lockeport, Nova Scotia | Peter Orner

A few years after a hired girl leaves their household in scandal, the owners discover her initials carved into their table.

Read “Initials Etched On a Dining-Room Table”

Three Soldiers | Bruce Holland Rogers

Soldiers face difficult situations at various stages of their careers.

Diagnostic Drift | Michael Martone

A woman who didn’t yet know she was pregnant suffers a miscarriage at home. The doctor says it happens all the time, and she needn’t worry about it.

Read “Diagnostic Drift”

The Death of the Short Story | J. David Stevens

The narrator chronicles the public reaction to the short story’s death.

“The letter I have written today is longer than usual because I lacked the time to make it shorter.” —Blaise Pascal

The Attraction of Asphalt | Stefani Nellen

A mother and daughter drive up a mountain to get spring water. The mother asks her daughter how fast she could jump out of the car if they were going to have an accident.

Read “The Attraction of Asphalt”

Love | Edgar Omar Avilés

When a little girl professes her faith in God her mother takes drastic action to ensure the girl’s eternal happiness.

Read “Love”  (Half way down, indented)

First Impressions | Ricardo Sumalavia

A young man works at a small printing press. He has long been unsettled by, and attracted to, the owner’s wife.

“When a story is compressed so much, the matter of it tends to require more size: that is, in order to make it work in so small a space its true subject must be proportionately larger.” —Richard Bausch

Fire. Water. | Avital Gad-Cykman

A mother and father are occupied with daily chores while the son and daughter have an argument that escalates.

Read “Fire. Water.”

An Ugly Man | Marcela Fuentes

A woman dumps Luis for the ugliest man in the county, Daniel Towens. The narrative goes back to show how it happened.

The Lord of the Flies | Marco Denevi

Flies imagine their god—a fly of various colors, sizes, and temperaments who will take them to paradise.

Read “The Lord of the Flies”

Honor Killing | Kim Young-ha

A beautiful young woman is hired as a receptionist at a dermatologist’s office, but she starts to break out.

Signs | Bess Winter

When Koko the gorilla makes the sign for nipple , the young researchers aren’t sure how to respond.

Idolatry | Sherman Alexie

An Indian woman auditions at a singing competition, but she is stopped after the first verse.

The Extravagant Behavior of the Naked Woman | Josefina Estrada

A woman who walks naked through the streets of Santa María provokes a variety of responses from onlookers.

Read “The Extravagant Behavior of the Naked Woman”

Night Drive | Rubem Fonseca

A man gets home from work, goes about his usual evening routine, and asks his wife if she’d like to go for a drive—knowing that she wouldn’t.

Grief | Ron Carlson

This story is a fleshing out of the illustration of plot by E. M. Forster:

“The King died and then the queen died is a story. The king died, and then the queen died of grief is a plot.”

The king dies and then the queen dies of grief. Dying of grief is technically not possible, so the narrator explains the real story.

Read “Grief”

Truthful Lies | Frankie McMillan

The narrator explains that she is an accomplished liar, able to lie every time she’s asked a question.

Read “Truthful Lies”

The Tiger | Mohibullah Zegham

On market day a man is driving his goods to a bazaar when he’s stopped at a checkpoint. He’s taken to a stronghold with armed men, and he recognizes someone.

The Baby | María Negroni

A baby is playing in the bath, getting washed, but then something strange happens.

Read “The Baby”

Little Girls | Tara Laskowski

While out hanging clothes, a woman gets a call from her father about a woman who fell on a knife in the dishwasher. He warns her to be careful before she has to hang up because of nausea.

Read “Little Girls”

The Light Eater | Kirsty Logan

While coping with a breakup at Christmas, a woman swallows a Christmas tree light. She puts the rest of them away, but then feels hungry for more.

Read “The Light Eater”

Volcanic Fireflies | Mónica Lavín

Entomologists study a new type of firefly discovered between the Metro tracks.

Insomnia | Virgilio Pinera

A man tries everything to fall asleep but cannot.

The Hawk | Brian Doyle

A former football player who has fallen on hard times takes up residence on the town’s high school football field.

Like a Family | Meg Pokrass

A secretary for an architectural firm lives in the city in a small room. She waits for an important phone call.

Read “Like a Family”

The Madonna Round Evelina’s | Pierre J. Mejlak

After a man and woman meet at a bar, she moves into his old house in a small village. They are happy in their routine, but clash over religion.

Read “The Madonna Round Evelina’s”

My Brother at the Canadian Border | Sholeh Wolpé

The narrator relates how his brother was stopped at the Canadian border after claiming he was heading to Mexico. He becomes concerned when they question him about his race.

Read “My Brother at the Canadian Border”

Amerika Street | Lili Potpara

A young girl is playing with her toys when her mother tells her she’s getting a bike for her birthday—something she’s wanted for a while.

Joke | Giannis Palavos

Stavros and Katerina are roommates. After Stavros goes to visit his sick father, he returns to find Katerina’s boyfriend, Vicente, is now staying with them.

Read “Joke”

Consuming the View | Luigi Malerba

Tourists begin complaining that the telescopes on the Gianicolo hill are malfunctioning, and the view of the Roman panorama is blurry. Experts investigate the equipment and then the view itself.

Three-Second Angels | Judd Hampton

The canyon jumpers are young people who dress and act in a way that displeases others.

Read “Three-Second Angels”

The Lament of Hester Muponda | Petina Gappah

When Hester Muponda begins losing her children she is urged by others to keep her faith and endure. The cumulative strain takes a huge toll on her, and the situation worsens.

Read “The Lament of Hester Muponda”

The Young Widow | Petronius

A young woman in Ephesus, famous for her faithfulness, is devastated when her husband dies. She follows his body into the tomb and stays there, mourning and fasting.

Fun House | Robert Scotellaro

A woman buys some fun house mirrors and puts them in a spare bedroom. When she and her husband start to get intimate in the room, he finds it unsettling.

Read “Fun House”

Indigestion | Anton Chekhov

A court counsellor sits down to a lavish meal and fills his plate with rich food.

It | Norman Mailer

Soldiers are on the battlefield.

The Shortest Novel of Them All | Norman Mailer

A courtship and marriage.

This is usually classed as a poem, but can be read as a story.

Symphony No. 2 | Daniil Kharms

A fickle narrator begins telling the story of Anton Mikhailovich but doesn’t get far.

Read “Symphony No. 2”

Blue Notebook No. 2 | Daniil Kharms

The narrator talks about a redheaded man who is missing some important things.

Read “Blue Notebook No. 2”

Portrait of a Lady | Jose Leandro Urbina

A lady is led by her jailers into an interrogation room.

Read “Portrait of a Lady”

Dearly Beloved | F. Scott Fitzgerald

Beauty Boy and Lilymary get married. They work to better themselves. They have a child and things get tough.

Read “Dearly Beloved”

What They Sell In the Shops These Days | Daniil Kharms

Two men disagree on how long one of them has been waiting for the other. The argument escalates into absurdity.

Read “What They Sell…”

Clean | Avital Gad-Cykman

A woman is being interviewed about her addictions. She is trying to get sent to a public detoxifying camp.

Read “Clean”

Caline | Kate Chopin

Caline is sleeping in a field near her isolated home when she is awakened by a stopping train. This has never happened before. She has a brief meeting with some of the passengers. She wants to find out where they’re from and where they’re going.

Read “Caline”

The Wig | Brady Udall

An eight-year-old finds a wig in the garbage. He is sitting at the breakfast table wearing it when his father enters the room. It brings back memories for him.

Read “The Wig”

My Name | Sandra Cisneros

The narrator tells us about her name—what it means in Spanish and English, its history in her family and whether it suits her.

Janice | Shirley Jackson

Janice tells the narrator that her mother said she’s not going back to school—she can’t afford it—and of her extreme reaction to this news.

The New Food | Stephen Leacock

The narrator hears that a researcher has developed a pellet with all the nutrients people need. He imagines an incident where this could prove disastrous.

Read “The New Food”

A Reflection | Kate Chopin

The narrator reflects on people who are born with a “vital and responsive energy”, and compares them to herself.

Read “A Reflection”

An Idle Fellow | Kate Chopin

The narrator is tired after years of studying. She sits on a door-step with her friend Paul. He’s an idle man who likes to observe nature and people.

Read “An Idle Fellow”

Everyone Does Integral Calculus | Kuzhali Manickavel

The narrator and Durai are outside between the highway and the sea. They talk about how they got there and tell each other some secrets.

Read “Everyone Does Integral Calculus” 

Frustration | Isaac Asimov

Herman gets a visit from the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Hargrove. He’s working on a computer program that would determine how to fight the most efficient war possible.

Read “Frustration”

The Moving | James Still

A family has their wagon loaded and is ready to leave town. There’s no work, so the father wants to take his chances somewhere else. The community is generally against their decision to leave.

No One’s a Mystery | Elizabeth Tallent

The narrator, an eighteen-year-old woman, is riding in a pickup truck with Jack, a married man. When he sees his wife’s car in the distance, he pushes her down out of sight. They talk about the future of their relationship.

Read “No One’s a Mystery”

The Two Kings and the Two Labyrinths | Jorge Luis Borges

A Babylonian king tells his guest, an Arab king, to enter his labyrinth. The Arab king gets out and tells the Babylonian king that he also has a labyrinth, and he will see to it that he gets to walk in it.

Read “The Two Kings and the Two Labyrinths”

Counterfeit Bills | Richard Matheson

William Cook decides it would be nice to be two people—he could enjoy himself while his double carried out the obligatory chores of life. He devotes his time and resources to building a duplication machine. One Sunday afternoon, he tries it for the first time.

Borrowing a Match | Stephen Leacock

Contrary to what you might think, borrowing a match on the street isn’t as simple as it sounds. The narrator relates a recent attempt of his own that turned into a hassle.

Read “Borrowing a Match”

Babycakes | Neil Gaiman

All the animals disappeared a few years ago. The world wasn’t ending, it was just the animals that went. After a short period of uncertainty, people figured out how to continue.

Read “Babycakes”

The Aqueduct | Ray Bradbury

A huge aqueduct from the North to the South is almost constructed. Citizens of the South look forward to everything they’ll be able to do with this ready water source. There’s a war between the two Northern countries.

“Running Blind” by Thomas Fox Averill

A blind man starts running with his friend. They start with one mile. He stays close, his hand at his friend’s elbow. The blind man makes progress.

I’ll keep adding flash fiction stories under 1,000 words as I find more.

by Christopher Edge | Feb 8, 2019

How to plan your 500 Words story

Is your child going to enter BBC Radio 2’s 500 Words competition? Author and creative writing expert Christopher Edge shares his tips for planning a top-tier tale.

1. Planning your story

Some authors plot their stories in intricate detail while others like to fly by the seat of their pants, making up the whole story as they go along! However, to make sure you know where your 500 Words story is heading, it can be helpful to come up with a plan.

2. Making a start

Think about the event that starts your story. This should be a scene or situation that kick-starts the plot. Maybe the hero of your story will discover a strange object or you could throw them into the middle of an exciting event like an alien invasion! Whatever idea you choose, make sure it grabs the reader’s attention.

Now think about what happens next. How will your character get out of this situation? What other problems might they face? Make a list of the things that you want to include in your story. You could draw a flow chart with arrows to help you think about how these different events link together. Remember, you want to keep your readers on the edge of their seats so try and turn up the excitement factor as your story progresses.

3. Wrapping it up

Activity sheet.

Story mountain

To plan out the plot of your story, download our BBC 500 Words story mountain activity sheet. Start at the bottom with a dramatic opening and then work out the different twists and turns your plot will take until you reach the end!

For more information about the 500 Words competition, visit our BBC 500 Words page .

More from Oxford Owl

• BBC 500 Words competition 2020
• Christopher Edge’s creative writing books
• How to write your best story ever!
• Harriet Muncaster’s creative writing challenge
• Story sparks: find inspiration for your short story
• 4 tips to inspire children’s creative writing
• 4 fun ways to develop characters for a short story
• 4 top tips for writing great plots
• How to find the perfect words for your story

My Best Short Story in 500 Words

Christopher Edge

A must-have write-in book for kids to put down their ideas, set the scene, choose their characters and craft the best short story in 500 words! With colourful illustrations throughout, it has prompts and ideas for building plot, action, characters, scenes, beginnings and endings. Top tips from Oxford word experts are included to further your child’s creativity and writing skills.

Buy on Amazon >

Written by Christopher Edge

Christopher is an award-winning author whose books have been translated into more than twenty languages. As well as writing fiction, he has created several inspirational guides to get children and teenagers writing.

Posted in Age , Age 11+ , Age 5-6 , Age 7-8 , Age 9-10 , Creative writing , Top tips , Topic

• Reading & phonics

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34 English Short Stories with Big Ideas for Thoughtful English Learners

What if you could understand big ideas in English with just a little bit of text?

You don’t need to read an entire English book to learn. A good English short story is often enough!

Stories are all about going beyond reality, and these classics will not only improve your English reading but also open your mind to different worlds.

1. “The Tortoise and the Hare” by Aesop

2. “the ant and the grasshopper” by aesop, 3. “white wing: the tale of the doves and the hunter”, 4. “royal servant”, 5. “emily’s secret”, 6. “the bogey beast” by flora annie steel, 7. “love is in the air”, 8. “the tale of johnny town-mouse” by beatrix potter, 9. “paul bunyan” adapted by george grow, 10. “cinderella” by charles perrault, 11. “little red riding hood” adapted by the british council, 12. “the lottery” by shirley jackson, 13. “the happy prince” by oscar wilde.

• 14. “The Night Train at Deoli” by Ruskin Bond

15. “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury

• 16. “Orientation” by Daniel Orozco

17. “Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu

18. “the missing mail” by r.k. narayan, 19. “harrison bergeron” by kurt vonnegut.

• 20. “The School” by Donald Barthelme

21. “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid

22. “rikki-tikki-tavi” by rudyard kipling, 23. excerpt from “little dorrit” by charles dickens, 24. “to build a fire” by jack london, 25. “miracles” by lucy corin.

• 26. “Evil Robot Monkey” by Mary Robinette Kowal

27. “The Boarded Window” by Ambrose Bierce 

28. “the monkey’s paw” by w.w. jacobs, 29. “a tiny feast” by chris adrian, 30. “the story of an hour” by kate chopin, 31. “the zero meter diving team” by jim shepherd, 32. “the velveteen rabbit” by margery williams, 33. “the friday everything changed” by anne hart, 34. “hills like white elephants” by ernest hemingway, how to use short stories to improve your english, and one more thing....

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

This classic fable (story) is about a very slow tortoise (turtle) and a speedy hare (rabbit). The tortoise challenges the hare to a race. The hare laughs at the idea that a tortoise could run faster than him, but the race ends with a surprising result.

Have you ever heard the English expression, “Slow and steady wins the race”? This story is the basis for that common phrase . You can read it for free , along with a number of other stories in this list!

This is another great story that teaches a lesson that’s written for kids but adults can enjoy, too . The story tells of a grasshopper who lounges around all summer while his friend the ant prepares for the winter. When winter comes, the two friends end up in very different situations!

The moral is that those who save up during the good times will get to enjoy the benefits when times are bad.

This very short story from India was originally written in Sanskrit (an ancient language). When a group of doves is caught in a hunter’s net, they must work together as a team to escape from the hunter’s clutches.

You can listen to a reading of the story as you read along on this website.

In this story, an old man sets out to ask an African king to dig some wells in his village when their water runs dry. But first, he teaches the king a lesson in humility by showing him how all people help each other. Read the story to see how the clever old man gets the king to do as he asks!

This is a modern-day story about a little girl with a big secret she can’t tell anyone about. When her teacher finds out her secret, they work together to fix the issue.

This story is a good choice for absolute beginners, because it uses only the present tense. It’s also written in very basic English with simple vocabulary and short sentences.

The woman in this story finds a pot of treasure on her walk home. As she carries it home, the treasure keeps changing, becoming things of lesser value.

However, the woman’s enthusiasm makes her see only the positive after each change, which would have upset anyone else. Her positive personality tries to make every negative situation seem like a gift!

This story shows how important it is to look at things from a positive point of view. Instead of being disappointed in what we don’t have, this story reminds us to view what we do have as blessings.

This modern story is about a young woman named Penny who is anxious about going to her family’s annual reunion barbecue. But despite screaming children and arguing cousins, Penny ends up happy that she came to the reunion when she starts a conversation with a handsome man.

The story is written in simple English, using only the present tense, so it’s perfect for beginners.

This classic children’s story is about two mice, one from the country and one from the city. Both mice think that the other mouse is so lucky to live in what they think is a wonderful place!

The two mice decide to visit each other in their homes. It turns out that the country mouse has a difficult time in the city, and the city mouse struggles in the country.

In the end, they realize that they believed the old English saying: “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.” In other words, each mouse thought the other had a better life, only to discover that they actually preferred their own life!

The story of Paul Bunyan has been around in the United States for many years. He’s the symbol of American frontier life, showing the ideal strength, work ethic and good morality that Americans work hard to imitate.

Paul Bunyan is considered a legend, so stories about him are full of unusual details, such as eating 50 eggs in one day and being so big that he caused an earthquake. It can be a pretty funny read, with characters such as a blue ox and a reversible dog.

This version of the story is also meant to be read out loud, so it’s fast-paced and entertaining. This website has an audio recording with the story, which you can play at slower or faster speeds.

You may already know the story of Cinderella, whether you saw the Disney movie or read a children’s book of it.

However, there are actually many different versions of “Cinderella.” This one by Charles Perrault is the most well-known and is often the version told to children.

“Cinderella” is a beloved story because it describes how a kind and hard-working person was able to get a happy ending. Even though Cinderella’s stepsisters treated her awfully, Cinderella herself remained gentle and humble. It goes to show that even though you may experience hardships, it’s important to stay kind, forgiving and mindful.

This is a story that every English-speaking child knows. It’s about a little girl who meets a wolf in the forest while going to see her sick grandmother. The wolf pretends to be her grandmother in order to trick the little girl.

This story is presented by the British Council as a video with the text clearly spoken. You can then play a game to rearrange the sentences below the video into the correct order, read the text of the story in a PDF file and answer some activity questions (then check your answers with the provided answer sheet.

This website has many other stories you can read and listen to, like “Circus Story” by Sue Clarke, which is an excellent option for learning animal vocabulary, and even adaptations of Shakespeare plays for younger readers.

Every year, the small town in this story holds an event known as “The Lottery.” During this event, someone from the community is randomly chosen.

What are they chosen for? You’ll have to read the story to find out.

You may have heard of the term “mob mentality” and how it can allow for some pretty surprising (and terrible) things to happen. This classic story looks at society, and how much evil people are willing to overlook to keep their society stable.

This is considered to be one of the most famous short stories in American literature. It’s a great example of what is known as a dystopian society, where people live in a frightening way. To learn more, check out this TED-Ed video that tells you how to recognize a dystopia.

Since the story is old, much of the English is outdated (not used in modern English). Still, if you have a good grasp of the English language, you can use this story to give yourself a great reading challenge.

14. “The Night Train at Deoli”  by Ruskin Bond

Ruskin Bond used to spend summers at his grandmother’s house in Dehradun, India. While taking the train, he always had to pass through a small station called Deoli. No one used to get down at the station and nothing happened there.

Until one day, when he sees a girl selling fruit and is unable to forget her.

Ruskin Bond is a writer who can communicate deep feelings in a simple way. This story is about our attachment to strangers and why we cherish (value or appreciate deeply) them even though we might never meet them again.

The title is taken from a poem that describes how nature will continue its work long after humanity is gone. But in this story, we see that nature plays a supporting role and the machines are the ones who have taken its place.

They continue their work without any human or natural assistance. This shows how technology has replaced nature in our lives and how it can both destroy us and carry on without humanity itself.

16. “Orientation”  by Daniel Orozco

This is a humorous story in which the speaker explains the office policies to a new employee while gossiping about the staff. It’s extremely easy to read, as the sentences are short and the vocabulary is simple.

Many working English learners will relate to this story, as it explains the silly, nonsensical moments of modern office life. Modern workplaces often feel like theaters where we pretend to work rather than get actual work done. The speaker exposes this reality that few would ever admit to.

He over-explains everything from the view out the office window to the intimate details of everyone’s life—from the overweight loner to the secret serial killer. It talks about the things that go unsaid; how people at the office know about the deep secrets of our home life, but don’t discuss them.

Jack’s mother can make paper animals come to life. In the beginning, Jack loves them and spends hours with his mom. But once he grows up, his mother’s inability to speak English keeps Jack from talking to her.

When his mother tries to talk to him through her creations, he kills them and collects them in a box. After a tragic loss, he finally gets to know her story through a hidden message that he should have read a long time ago.

The story is a simple narration that touches on complex issues, like leaving your home country and the conflicts that can occur within families when different cultures and languages collide.

Thanappa is the village mailman, who is good friends with Ramanujam and his family. He learns about a failed marriage and helps Ramanujam’s daughter get engaged to a suitable match.

Just before the wedding, Thanappa receives a tragic letter about Ramanujam’s brother. To spare them heartache, he decides not to deliver the letter.

The story explores the idea that despite the best of intentions, our actions can cause more harm to our loved ones than we ever intended. If you like this and want to read more by R.K. Narayan, check out the other stories in the author’s “ Malgudi Days” short story collection.

The year is 2081, and everyone has been made equal by force. Every person who is superior in any way has been handicapped (something that prevents a person’s full use of their abilities) by the government. Intelligent people are distracted by disturbing noises. Good dancers have to wear weights so that they don’t dance too well. Attractive people wear ugly masks so they don’t look better than anyone else.

However, one day there is a rebellion, and everything changes for a brief instant.

Technology is always supposed to make us better. But in this case, we see that it can be used to disable our talents. Moreover, the writer shows us how the mindless use of a single value like equality can create more suffering for everyone.

20. “The School”  by Donald Barthelme

And that’s just the beginning of the series of unfortunate events at the school in this short story, narrated by a teacher. The story is absurd (ridiculous to the point of being silly), even though the topic is serious. By the end, the kids start asking difficult questions about death that the adults don’t quite know how to answer.

This story leaves a lot of things unsaid, which means you’ll need to “read between the lines,” or look closer at the text to understand what’s really happening.

In “Girl,” a mother tells her daughter how to live her life properly. The mother instructs the girl to do all the household chores, in very specific ways, making it seem like that’s her only duty in life.

Sometimes the mother tells the girl how to attract attention, not to talk to boys and to always keep away from men. Other times, the mother hints that the girl will need to be attractive to men to live a good life.

This story doesn’t feel like a story. There’s no plot, and nothing really happens. But read closely, and you’ll see an important message about how girls are taught to live restricted lives since childhood.

“Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” is a classic tale about a Mongoose who regularly visits a family in India. The family feeds him and lets him explore their house, but they worry that he might bite their son, Teddy.

One day, when a snake is about to attack Teddy, the Mongoose kills it. This event helps the family accept the mongoose into their family.

This is a simple story about humans and animals living together as friends. It’s old, but the language is fairly easy to understand. It reminds us that animals can also experience feelings of love and, like humans, they will also protect the ones they love.

“Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” is part of Kipling’s short story collection “The Jungle Book,” which was famously made into a movie by Disney.

Dorrit is a child whose father has been in prison ever since she could remember. Unable to pay their debts, the whole family is forced to spend their days in a cell. Dorrit dreams of seeing the world outside their little cell.

This excerpt (short part of a larger work) introduces you to the family and their life in prison. The novel is about how they manage to get out and how Dorrit never forgets the kindness of the people who helped her.

Injustice in law is often reserved for the poor. “Little Dorrit” shows the government jailing people for not being able to return their loans, a historical practice the writer hated since his own father was punished in a similar way.

A man travels to a freezing, isolated place called Yukon with only his dog for company. Throughout his journey, he ignores the advice other people have given him and takes his life for granted.

Finally, he realizes the real power of nature and how fragile (easily broken) human life actually is.

Nature is often seen as a powerful force that should be feared and respected. The animal in this story is the one who’s cautious and sensible in this dangerous situation. By the end, readers wonder who is really intelligent—the man who could not deal with nature, or the dog who could survive?

This is a modern-day story that describes a group of children gathering around their father to watch little spiders hatch out of their eggs. But the story gets a different meaning as it nears the end. What do you think happened?

26. “Evil Robot Monkey ” by Mary Robinette Kowal

Sly is a character who doesn’t fit into society. He’s too smart for the other chimps, but humans don’t accept him. He is punished for acting out his natural emotions.

But the way he handles his rage, in the end, makes him look more mature than most human beings. Nominated for the  Hugo award , many readers have connected with Sly since they can see similarities in their own lives.

“The Boarded Window” is a horror story about a man who has to deal with his wife’s death. The setting is a remote cabin in the wilderness in Cincinnati, and he feels helpless as she gets sick.

There’s an interesting twist to this story, and the ending will get you thinking (and maybe feeling a bit disturbed!).

If you enjoy older stories with a little suspense, this will be a good challenge for you. It talks about the event that made a hermit decide to live alone for decades, with a mysterious window boarded up in his cabin. It also uses a lot of psychology and symbolism, so you may want to read the story more than once to understand everything it has to say.

Be careful what you wish for! One man finds this out the hard way when he brings a magical monkey’s paw home from India. This paw is supposed to grant three wishes to three people. People start to wish on it, only to realize that our wishes can have severe consequences.

The characters in this story immediately regret when their wishes come true. Even though they get what they wanted, it comes at a large cost!

This short story is from the early 1900s and uses some outdated English, but it’s still easy to follow. It reminds us that there are no shortcuts in life, and to be wary if something seems too good to be true.

This story centers around Titania and Oberon, two fairy characters from Shakespeare’s famous play, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The two fairies are having a rough time in their marriage when they find a human child. They decide to adopt him, hoping that he’ll help them save their relationship. However, the child develops a deadly, modern disease and the fairies have no idea what to do since they have never known illness or death.

This is a tragic tale about how they try to understand something they’ve never seen before and their deep love for a stranger who is so unlike them. The story explores the grief of parenthood and the uncertainty of knowing whether your child will ever even know you.

This story, written by a woman, is a sad look inside an unhappy marriage. Mrs. Mallard is a woman with heart troubles. When her husband dies, the people who come to give her this news tell it to her gently, so she doesn’t have a shock.

Mrs. Mallard busts into tears and locks herself in her room. At first, she’s upset by the news. But the more she considers it, the more excited she becomes about the idea of the freedom that would come from her husband’s death.

What happens, then, when her husband comes home after an hour, alive and well?

The story explores the conflicting range of the human emotions of grief and hope in a short span, and the impact it can have on a person’s mind and body.

The Chernobyl nuclear disaster was one of the deadliest accidents of the twentieth century. This is a story about that event seen through the eyes of a father and his sons, who were all unfortunate enough to be close to the disaster area.

The story exposes the whole system of corruption that led to a massive explosion taking innocent lives and poisoning multiple generations. The technical vocabulary and foreign words make this text a little more difficult. However, its plot is relatively easy to follow.

The story is divided into small parts that make it both easy and exciting to read. Its various events show what it was like to live in the former Soviet Union . And just like any other good story, it’s also about human relationships and how they change due to historic events.

A simple, stuffed rabbit toy is given to a young boy as a Christmas present. At first, the rabbit isn’t noticed, as the boy is distracted by much fancier gifts. While being ignored, the rabbit begins to wonder what it means to be “real.”

One day, a certain event brings the rabbit into contact with the boy, and changes the toy’s life forever.

Have you ever loved a toy or doll so much, that you treated it as if it were alive? This story shows the power of love from a very unexpected viewpoint: that of a fluffy stuffed rabbit. It also highlights the importance of self-value, being true to yourself and finding strength in those who love you.

Tradition is important in this school, where the boys always go to fetch water for the class. The girls are teased for being “weaker,” and are last to get other privileges, like having the first choice of magazines. One day, a girl asks the teacher why girls aren’t allowed to get the water, as well. This one question causes a big reaction and leads to a huge change.

The girl’s courage surprises everyone, but it also inspires other girls to stand up for themselves. One act from one brave person can lead to change and inspire others. The story reflects on gender equality and how important it is to fight for fairness. Just because something is accepted as “normal,” doesn’t mean it is right!

At a Spanish train station, an American man and a young woman wait for a train that would take them to the city of Madrid. The woman sees some faraway hills and compares them to “white elephants.” This starts a conversation between the two of them, but what they discuss seems to have a deeper meaning.

This is another very well-known story that asks you to “read between the lines” to find the hidden meaning behind the text. Much of the story is a back-and-forth dialogue between two people, but you can tell a lot about them just from what they say to each other.

There’s a lot of symbolism that you can analyze in this story, along with context clues. Once you realize what the real topic of the characters’ conversation is, you can figure out the quiet, sadder meaning behind it.

Short stories are effective in helping English learners to practice all four aspects of language learning: reading, writing, listening and speaking. Here’s how you can make the most out of short stories as an English learner:

• Use illustrations to enhance your experience: Some short stories come with illustrations that you can use to guess what the story is about. You can even write your own caption or description of the picture. When you finish the story, go back to your image description. How did you do?
• Explore stories related to a theme: Do you like ghost stories? Science fiction? Romance? If you’re learning about food or cooking, find a short story with a lot of food vocabulary .
• Choose the right reading level: Make sure that you always challenge yourself! One easy way to tell if a story is just right for you is to use the “five-finger test.” Hold up your fist as you read a paragraph, and put up one finger for each word you don’t know. If you have all five fingers up before the end of the paragraph, try to find an easier text.
• Practice “active reading”: Your reading will only help you learn if you read actively . You’re reading actively when you’re paying very close attention to the story, its words and its meanings. Writing with a notebook nearby and in a place with no distractions can help you focus on active reading.
• Choose only a few words to look up: You may be tempted to stop at every unknown word, but it’s actually better to try to figure out its meaning from context clues. This means looking at everything else in the sentence or paragraph to try and guess the meaning of the word. Only look up words that you can’t figure out even with context clues.
• Summarize the story: When you’ve finished reading the story, retell it in your own words or write a summary of it. This will help you to practice any new words you learned, and make sure that you understood the story well. If you’re struggling, read the story again and take notes as you read.
• Take breaks: Just because these stories are short, doesn’t mean you need to read them in one sitting! If you find it hard to focus or you’re struggling to understand the story, take a break. It’s okay to read it one paragraph at a time.

I hope you have fun with these English short stories while improving your English language skills.

Happy reading!

If you like learning English through movies and online media, you should also check out FluentU. FluentU lets you learn English from popular talk shows, catchy music videos and funny commercials , as you can see here:

If you want to watch it, the FluentU app has probably got it.

The FluentU app and website makes it really easy to watch English videos. There are captions that are interactive. That means you can tap on any word to see an image, definition, and useful examples.

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For example, when you tap on the word "searching," you see this:

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Learn all the vocabulary in any video with quizzes. Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning.

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Read the story that just won the biggest short story prize in the world.

Today, the Sunday Times named Susan Choi the winner of the 2021 Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award, which honors the best short story of the year. With a prize of £30,000, the award is the world’s richest prize for a single short story. Choi was recognized for her short story “ Flashlight ,” originally published in The New Yorker .

Choi was chosen from a shortlist of six, which included Jonathan Gibbs for “ A Prolonged Kiss ”; Rachael Fulton for “ Call ”; Laura Demers for “ Sleeping Beauty ”; Elizabeth McCracken for “ The Irish Wedding ”; and Rabih Alameddine for “ The July War .”

Said Choi herself when receiving the award via videochat , “It’s funny; I think in my writing, I often have a lot of vague and uncollated ideas floating around in my mind that I’m never sure whether they’re going to actually achieve form. And so this story, when I started it, I didn’t know it would be the story that would be about what it ended up being about. I’m really quite overwhelmed.”

“Flashlight” is available to read in full on The New Yorker ’s website . Here’s the beginning:

“One thing I will always be grateful to your mother for—she taught you to swim.”

“Why.” Not asked as a question but groaned as a protest. Louisa does not want her father to talk about her mother. She is sick of her mother. Her mother can do nothing right. This is the theme of their new life, in Louisa’s opinion: that Louisa and her father are two fish who should leave her beached mother behind . . .

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Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest . Whether you’re looking for daring space battles or chilling “what if” glimpses of the future, you’ll find what you’re looking for in our collection of free science fiction short stories.

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“ ke kulanakauhale ma ke kai, or the city by the sea ” by thomas iannucci.

🏆 Winner of Contest #244

Ke Kulanakauhale ma ke Kaior,The City by the Seaby thomas iannucci Author’s Note: In this story I use Hawaiian words, as the story is set in a post-apocalyptic Hawaii. However, I do not italicize them, as I am from Hawaii, and so these words are not foreign to me. Growing up there were many English words unfamiliar to us in school, and they were never italicized; I would like this same standard to be applied to Hawaiian, which is, for better or for worse, also now a language in the United States. Mahalo for your kokua. “The city by the sea,...

“ Echelon ” by Kris Hawkins

🏆 Winner of Contest #204

Leaning against a tarnished railing aboard a ferry, Katherine watched ocean waves curl into themselves. Close to her chest, she held a pewter urn containing her mother’s cremated remains. She breathed deeply, the taste of brine caking her tongue like damp ash. The midday sun reflected in droplets that quavered on the balusters, then trickled down like little rivulets, only to reappear from the periodic spray of waves breaking against the prow. Other ferry goers chattered around her, though Katherine was only vaguely aware of them. Her th...

“ To Plant a Garden. ” by SCOTT GEORGE

🏆 Winner of Contest #194

 Thornton Gombar lifted his gaze to the sky as a hovercraft zoomed over his home. Based on the rosy pink tints that adorned its exterior, Thornton surmised that the vehicle was a pleasure craft, likely filled with a small group of men and women engaging in gross debauchery as the self-driving vehicle propelled itself across the sky. The craft jerked and jolted in an arrhythmic manner as it flew to the heart of Homasoro C...

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“ the need to know ” by ian page.

Submitted to Contest #245

The Need To KnowA small figure emerged from a camper unit into bright sunshine. It was going to be a wonderful day. If it got started. The young male turned in irritation towards the open door of the camper.“Tass, hurry up.”“Coming, Jer.”“Have everything?”“Yes. Food, drink and this.” Tassy held up a pouch with a distinctive outline that Jer recognized.“Excellent. Your Grandpa’s camera.”“And loaded with film.”“Let’s get a move on.”“Bye Grandpa.”Tassy’s Grandpa had popped out of the camper. An amused look on his face. “Have fun. Will you conta...

“ The Well and the Tower ” by Deimantas Saladžius

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #244

As my tongue slid over my cracked lips, a gnawing saltiness invaded my mouth. Yet, my lips remained dry. I took a sip from the bottle. I held it against my lips, but kept my mouth shut. After withdrawing the bottle, I circled reachable areas with my tongue several times. What I managed to gather, I swallowed. It was probably the last few drops of water within several tens of kilometers, so without hesitation, I hid the bottle. The well offered some relief from the heat. I was grateful for that much. I checked the ground—crumbled into tiny gr...

“ The Shot ” by Joseph Keener

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #242

He didn't need to do anything. He could just sit down at his desk and wait. The waiting would be the hardest part. The shame would come, and perhaps it would never stop. The thousands of employees under his company would be blameless, they wouldn't put it together until it was too late. The blame would fall squarely on the men in this room. For the last one hundred and fifty years, the painstaking process of terraforming the exoplanet Gupta-2125 had fallen on his company: James Adelade Space Innovations. The process had been beyond revoluti...

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“ the last ceaseless ” by isabel jewell.

California, 2160 Theo’s eyes shifted uneasily to the body beside him. He’s not dead, he tried to reassure himself. Well, he’s not alive either, his conscience retorted. Guilt ate at him like a zombie. But how was this his fault? He never asked to be a dead man’s babysitter . . . Well, not dead. And he’s 700 and some years older than you. It was hard to imagine what it would be like to be frozen, asleep in a tank, even as Theo pressed his finger pads against the frosty glass. Not when the earth was burning. Dry. How bad could a pr...

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The Best New Science Fiction Short Stories

Science fiction. The term often conjures up images of epic space battles, time travel hijinks, and daring rescues in rocket ships. And while there certainly are plenty of science fiction short stories like that, the genre offers a level of variety that is, well, out of this world!

Whether they're about a young man who suddenly doubles his IQ or a linguist who encounters an alien species, science fiction stories use extraordinary scenarios to peel back the masks humanity tries to hide behind. They extrapolate the many terrifying and wondrous ways the future could go, all while answering essential questions about humanity. And... they’re thrilling adventures with space lasers and rocketships. 

In short, no subject is too serious or too escapist for this far-reaching genre. From Ray Bradbury to N.K. Jemison and more, science fiction short stories have been an essential part of the literary landscape for decades.

Looking for fresh new science fiction short stories?

Whether you want rip-roaring escapism or a contemplative exploration of humanity, you’ll find a science fiction short story to suit your tastes here. On this page, we’ve gathered the best science fiction short stories from our weekly writing contest . The featured stories, at the top of this page, have either won our contest or been shortlisted, rising above the hundreds of other submissions we receive every week.

Full of promising new writers, this is truly the place to stay up to date on the latest that science fiction short stories have to offer. Who knows, you may just discover an author destined to change the genre landscape forever!

(And if you’re a sci-fi writer, consider heading over and entering the short story contest yourself! You may just walk away with the weekly cash prize — and a shot at publication in Prompted , our new literary magazine!

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• EXPLORE Random Article

How to Write a Story in 500 Words

Last Updated: May 14, 2022

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 9 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 1,841 times.

Have you ever wanted to write a story in 500 words? This is a big accomplishment, and it takes careful thought and writing of the different parts of the story. Start from Step 1 to learn how.

• If you pick two or more settings, you need to describe them at least, but remember that you only have 500 words to write your story in, so keep it short! Give a short description of your characters and their surroundings. If you have a female character, you could describe their appearance and personality in a few words, or leave that for the reader to discover. It's totally up to you. Do not think that male characters don't need the same treatment.

• Not all stories involve conflict. A story may just explain from begging to end a series of occurrences.
• A story can also describe how a tree changes through the seasons or picturesquely describe a sunset.
• The middle is where the main theme of your story can settle in; for instance, "the girl finally slipped on her spy suit and dived for the door." In this example, the girl's actual identity is revealed, telling the reader that she is actually a spy.
• Add a little detail, and if your character is in another world or place, describe that in a few sentences.

• If you want the character trapped in the other world to not get out, and be stuck there, that's perfectly fine.
• If you do write another story in the series, (this is optional; you don't need to write a whole series, a single story is fine), then be sure to continue your character's adventures and release him/her from the other world. When you've done all that, you are pretty much done!
• Remember to decide if you want a cliff-hanger to end your story; these are especially useful for series stories. A cliff-hanger is when a writer uses suspense to pull the reader in and make the want more. For example; "the door creaked open and a dark figure emerged from the shadows." That's about it, then! Your finished story of 500 words!

Expert Q&A

• A cliff-hanger can be used at the ends of paragraphs, as well as the ending, too. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• If you add a new character in the middle or end of your story, it will become confusing for the reader. Do not add any more characters after the beginning. Create all of the characters and settings in the beginning. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Your 500-word story has to be interesting, in order to make your reader want more of the story. The best way to go would be to ask for feedback when they've done, and if they like it, well done! But if they don't, don't be depressed. Simply ask them what went wrong and what they didn't like about your story. Based upon that feedback, rewrite parts of your story, or even rewrite the story completely as you see fit. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

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2024 Creative Nonfiction (Up to 2,500 Words)

The Bacopa Literary Review is looking to publish true stories, written beautifully, and based on the author’s  experiences, perceptions, and reflections in the form of personal memoir  or literary essay (for example, nature, travel, medical, spiritual,  food writing).

Guidelines:

• You must be 18 years old or older.
• Only one submission to Creative Nonfiction, and do not submit to another genre unless this submission has been declined. Your uploaded file must contain only the title and work itself, not the author's name.
• One piece, limit 2500 words
• Double spaced, Arial 12-point typeface preferred 
• Submit the file in .doc .docx or .rtf  only
• Bacopa Literary Review does not accept previously published material

The submission process includes a text entry box titled "COVER LETTER,"  where you provide the following information:

• Name, address, email, phone, title, word count and bio of 50 words or fewe r. This is the only place where your name appears.
• Where did you hear about Bacopa Literary Review ?

Stephanie Seguin

Creative Nonfiction Editor