10 Places to Submit Your Micro Writing
The Lost Word
Hello Writers! I’m sure you’ve all heard of flash fiction and micro fiction, but what do those terms really mean?
Dictionary.com tells us that micro fiction means “extremely short stories, generally no more than a few hundred words in length.”
Also, according to Dictionary.com, flash fiction means “very short works of fiction that are typically no longer than a couple of pages and may be as short as one paragraph.”
There are tons of publishing websites with varying word counts for their micro or flash writing pieces. The best bet if you want to submit your work, is to carefully read the submission guidelines of the publication and follow them.
The other option is to set yourself a word count goal and write your story to meet it. My favorite goal is exactly 100 words (not including title) and I have had one of these pieces accepted by an online publication.
Whichever you choose, this type of writing requires many revision passes to create a concise and engaging piece.
I love writing micro fiction and micro memoir. I prefer to have a word count to guide me and usually write with a particular publication in mind.
If you’re stuck for ideas, many online publications list topics they do or do not consider for submission. This can guide you. Also, read some of what has already been posted. You may find these stories inspiring.
Here are 10 places that publish micro writing -
365 tomorrows — A daily online publication for science fiction stories of less than 600 words.
Flash Fiction Online — A monthly online publication for complete stories of 500–1000 words. They will consider fantasy, science, fiction, and horror, as well as cross- and sub-genres within those categories.
Fairfield Scribes — A monthly publication of micro fiction/nonfiction and poetry. They will consider work of 90–110 words with 100 words as the ideal. They pay $1 per accepted piece.
101 Words — A publication for fiction of exactly 101 words. New stories are posted every Wednesday. If your fiction piece is accepted to be in Flash Fiction Magazine Anthologies, they will pay $10 for the piece.
Microfiction Monday Magazine — An online publication for fiction of 100 words or less. New stories are posted, of course, every Monday.
miCRo — The online publication from The Cincinnati Review that accepts micro fiction and literary nonfiction of 500 words or less. They accept poetry of 32 lines or less. It appears they post new micro stories and poetry once per week.
Memoir Magazine — Accepting longer works of creative nonfiction at 3,000 words or less, as well as visual and sound art. This is not really micro but I enjoyed what I read here.
Five Minutes — An online publication for micro memoir of exactly 100 words. They accept pieces that show one identifiable moment ( approximately five minutes) as the core of the story. I had one piece published here — Kismet.
Wigleaf — An online publication for fiction under 1000 words. They post new stories at least once per week except for June through September. Once per year they post an award annual, The Wigleaf Top 50 Very Short Fictions.
X-R-A-Y — An online publication for fiction and nonfiction of up to 7500 words. Their preferred word counts are 500–1200 and 3000–6000. They seem to appreciate the weirder tales as much as more standard types.
In Conclusion — Micro writing is an exciting style that has gained popularity recently. The challenge of micro writing is learning to be concise without losing the crux of the story. Since I started writing micro pieces, I feel I’ve improved my overall writing skills.
Feel free to give micro or flash fiction/memoir a try. It doesn’t have to be great, it just has to be yours. There is no rule saying you must write to publish. Write it for yourself and if you opt to send something in for submission, that’s up to you.
Let me know what you think about The Lost Word so far and/or micro writing.
QOD — What is the most challenging style of writing you have tried?
Thanks for reading!
-Amos
