In the beginning was the Internet. And the Internet was without form and void, and darkness moved across the face of plain, poorly-styled hypertext documents.
That was then. A decade and change later, CSS2 and the developing CSS3 have given web designers and writers powerful tools to control the appearance of web pages and screen text. In the interval were spawned the curious entities known as fictional weblogs, interactive writing sites, web magazines, and Hypertext Fiction.
Additionally, a number of writers have grown with the web, choosing HTML over paper, and creating personal sites to showcase their writing and web design talents. Two of the oldest and best known of these are Ftrain and Fireland.
But the computer screen is not paper. The oscillating light tears at the eyes. Short fiction, the kind that can be read and enjoyed in a few hundred seconds, has become the popular form on the world wide web for that reason. And so the short story, the scorned older brother of the novel, has seen a resurgence in popularity in recent years, especially among those who surf the web on a regular basis. And if short is good, then ultra-short is even better! Another factor leading to the increase in the level of recognition for Micro Fiction was the print publication of Micro Fiction: edited by Jerome Stern.
The purpose of this site is not to provide a comprehensive history of web fiction. Instead, it is mainly an attempt to provide a clearer definition of Micro Fiction, to list some resources and examples, and in general to work to differentiate it from the more commonly known term Flash Fiction. In doing so I hope to provide some separation for the two sub-genres and help the Micro begin to emerge as a distinct form all its own.
Is there any real difference between the two forms? You must be the judge: Flash Fiction is generally considered to be a complete story in the 1000 - 2000 word range. Definitions vary. Still, that is room enough to flesh out a story, to add details. I propose a word limit for Micro Fiction of 500 words. At that length the story must be stripped to the absolute bone. No room for flourishes of any kind. The Micro must be leaner and meaner—it has no choice.
Another difference might be that a Micro Fiction is more strictly a web phenomena, is more suited by it's very nature to the screen environment. A story that can fit on the screen without scrolling can be manipulated in many ways via CSS. For example, through font-styling, letter and word spacing, and adding borders and images. Javascript may be added to make sections of text appear or disappear—to fade in and out, change color, etc. Flash Fiction at a thousand words or more must be scrolled. But a Micro may be only a hundred words. A linked series of them might be read without scrolling.
Examples of non-scrolling stories may be found at 55 Word Fiction and at my personal site The Empty Head in a series called Microdot.
Some people might argue (with some justification) that these distinctions are minor and not worth making. I have no argument with this argument. It was mainly for those of you who find the idea of a separate sub-genre called Micro Fiction an exciting idea that this site was built. The links below will lead you to additional pages on this site. There you will find links to external websites, articles, and resources related to the Micro form. Any comments are welcome. You may contact me through the e-mail address at the bottom of the page.
The text effects and formatting of this site are best viewed through a CSS compliant browser such as Firefox which allows hover effects on non-link elements. It's a free browser.