Horrific Flashes

Thanks to feedback received through our first Scribble Poll, as of August 18, 2026, Horrific Scribes is accepting flash fiction, or narratives 1000 words or shorter.

As for payment, we wish we could be completely egalitarian, but to include flash, we have to offer less than we do for general submissions: $10 for an accepted flash submission. As with our rate for general submissions, we’d do more if we could; your work is worth it. But, alas, reality. The site is free; we don’t sell ads. We’re not making money.

In other ways, we’ll treat an accepted flash piece (and its author) the same as any acceptance for Horrific Scribes (author page, listings on main page, category pages, etc.).

Simultaneous submissions are okay, but please let us know if your submission is accepted elsewhere.

As for multiple submissions, that’s a matter of perspective. We define a single flash submission as a single document containing up to 1000 words of narrative (total count does not include titles). Therefore, you may choose to send multiple flash pieces in one document as long as your total “submission” is not longer than 1000 words. However, without regard to the number of pieces in the document, we’re still paying $10. (Little known fact: when we get bundled submissions of poems as general submissions, we sometimes accept only some of them. Same could happen with flash. Pay’s still the same.)

DRABBLE ALERT! Your humble Editor-in-Chief L. Andrew Cooper only recently became aware of the drabble, the glorious example of “micro-fiction” that is exactly one hundred words long. We’re especially keen to see drabbles.

Drabbles, like virtually all good flash fiction, develop like longer-form fiction: while the author might not linger on any part, the piece has a beginning, middle, and end. A character or characters face conflict(s) that result(s) in change. Conflict might be internal, external, or both. Of course, a different approach to flash fiction might be the “flash” of an image like a camera flash, the image itself suggesting story and/or emotion, atmosphere, etc. Other approaches are possible, too. When such approaches work, magnificent! But they usually fail. Flash is still narrative, which means it has to tell a story.

So, how do you submit?

Submit flash fiction through Google Forms at this address: https://forms.gle/u1oqyM4KYNm2vbGQA Note that general submissions submitted through this link will be rejected.

The form will prompt you for the information we need and provide a place to upload your submission, which should be in .doc or .docx file format.

We average two to three weeks for responses and are sometimes freakishly fast. We include updates on submissions progress in our newsletter (sign up on this site!). Also watch our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/horrificscribblings

We don’t typically offer feedback on submissions. Again, Horrific Scribes doesn’t make money, so hiring the staff to provide the work hours for writing feedback is unrealistic. Sorry.

Submissions will stay open unless/until we’re overwhelmed and unable to respond in a timely manner.

What if we’ve published you? Do you have to wait to submit again? While we have special love for the authors we refer to as “Returning Scribes,” we don’t typically publish the same author twice during a two-month period. Why? Because the front page of Horrific Scribes (which happens to be horrificscribblings.com) shows two months of published works at a time, an author photo beside each work, and we prefer variety over showing the same author’s picture repeatedly. So, though we don’t have a strict cooldown period, if we’ve just published you, we prefer for you to wait a bit before submitting again because if we accept a second (or third, fourth, etc.) submission from you quickly, we’ll just make you wait anyway, and the record-keeping is a bit of an extra headache.

Having trouble submitting or submission-specific questions? Please write to horrificscribsubs@gmail.com

Want to know more about how we evaluate submissions? See how we score.