Writing.Com General Discussion

I have to agree with KenF here: you've been reading some less than excellent flash fiction, it seems.

A flash fiction piece is as much a story as any other short story or novel only more condensed. There's not a lot of room to show the setting and emotions, but it's almost always there (I won't say always, since the only thing that's certain is that there are exceptions to the rule).

So the author often rely more on "telling" and less on "showing", on character and genre tropes and cliches. Usually, there's only one or two scenes as well, very few characters, and the scenes start right in the action and cut away early (it's actually a great thing to practice for novelists as well, if you ask me).

If you like science fiction/fantasy (or at least don't mind it), then I would suggest heading over to http://dailysciencefiction.com/; it's perhaps the best place to read professional flash fiction. If one a wider variety of genres, then there's https://everydayfiction.com/, but their stories aren't nearly on the same level. Both sites offer their stories for free.