flash fiction

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very short works of fiction that are typically no longer than a couple of pages and may be as short as one paragraph.

QUIZZES

Set some time apart to test your bracket symbol knowledge, and see if you can keep your parentheses, squares, curlies, and angles all straight!

Question 1 of 7

Let’s start with some etymology: What are the origins of the typographical word “bracket”?

First recorded in 1990–95

The pulps brought new readers to serious fiction, making it less intimidating with alluring art and low prices.
How Pulp Fiction Saved Literature|Wendy Smith|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
There was a lot of prison fiction from movies and books to mine.
‘Archer’ Creator Adam Reed Spills Season 6 Secrets, From Surreal Plotlines to Life Post-ISIS|Marlow Stern|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The idea that January 1st initiates a period of new beginning is not a flash of Hallmark brilliance.
New Year’s Eve, Babylon Style|Candida Moss|December 31, 2014|DAILY BEAST
While politics tend to migrate toward the poles, humanity—and fiction, at its best—huddles in between.
The 2014 Novel of the Year|Nathaniel Rich|December 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST

Afterward, you can actually see her young career flash before her eyes as she makes a kind of puffed up blowfish face.
The Curious Little Shell That Restarted Jenny Slate’s Career|Luke Hopping|December 15, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The vision—it had been an instantaneous flash after all and nothing more—had left his mind completely for the time.
The Wave|Algernon Blackwood
A flash of surprise and pleasure lit the fine eyes of the haughty beauty perched up there on the palace wall.
The Red Year|Louis Tracy
"A camp-fire would hardly flash and die out like that, Sarge," he answered thoughtfully.
Raw Gold|Bertrand W. Sinclair
A true history of the Merrill Horse, and the adventures of its different members, would read like the most exciting fiction.
The Courier of the Ozarks|Byron A. Dunn
If those jaspers flash any part of the roll in the Territory before snowfall, I'll get them.
Raw Gold|Bertrand W. Sinclair