A Question about Short Fiction

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Twilight's Chapter

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Dear Writers,

What exactly is short fiction? (I have a general idea, but I don't want to seem ignorant and all.) Could I write a whole series of short fiction stories with the same characters? Ususally how long is a short fiction story?

Curious,
TC
 

Angelinity

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there must be some threads on AW that give you the exact count, you can 'search'.

i might be wrong, but a short would be somewhere between 1000 and 10,000 words...

short shorts would be under 1000, flash around 300 to 750...? then you have the 250 flash, the 100 drabble....

...anyone??

different publications have different word-count limits for their shorts, with some going up to 12,000.
 

Jamesaritchie

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Length

Postcard fiction 50 words or less.

Micro fiction 100 words or less.

Flash fiction--Whatever length an editor says it is, but always under 1,000 words.

Short short 1,000-2,000 words,

Short story 2,000--7,500 words.

Novelette 7,500--17,500 words.

Novella 17,500 -40,000 words. (17,500--30,000 outside of SF and Fantasy.)

Novel, 30,000 on up, or anything a publisher says it is.
 
AzBobby

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And there's a limbo-novel category in here between 30K and 70-80K, right?
...too long for novella handlers but too short for most publishers to take as a novel for grown-ups?
 
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