What is a 50-Word Story?
A 50-word story is a piece of fiction written in exactly 50 words. That doesn’t mean “roughly” 50 words; it doesn’t mean “as close to 50 words as possible”; it doesn’t mean 50 words or fewer. It means exactly 50 words.
As with any other form of fiction, a 50-word story should have a beginning and an end, a plot and character development (even if they are only implied), and a theme, meaning, or purpose of some sort. Many 50-word stories are built around twists or climactic moments.
What is This Site?
Right now, 50WS posts two reader-submitted stories every weekday. To submit your stories for possible publication, see the Submissions page. A $10 prize is available for the best submission each month: see the Top Stories page for more information.
How Did This Site Start?
The original goal of 50WS was for me, Tim Sevenhuysen, to post one new, original 50-word story every day for a year. Between February 22, 2009, and February 21, 2010, I completed that goal, with a bit of help from a few reader submissions.
I started Year Two on July 5, 2010, then came back for more with Year Three, which began on August 1, 2011. During Year Three I shared stories from guest writers on Mondays, and posted my own stories from Tuesday to Friday.
Since the conclusion of Year Three, the site has been dedicated to publishing stories from other authors around the world.
Questions or Comments
You can email tim@fiftywordstories.com to get in touch with me if you have any comments or questions about the site.
I love this idea! Assume that a hyphenated word counts as multiple words? e.g. father-in-law = three?
Hi Joanna. A compound (hyphenated) word counts as a single word.
How did you arrive at the 50-word requirement rather than 100 or 25? Also, most of them seem to be creative non-fiction rather than pure fiction. Do you have a preference or does it not matter?
Hi Jayasri. Genre doesn’t matter. Most of the submissions are fiction, but a few are non-fiction and now and then there is a poem.
There is no particular reason for the 50-word limit other than its feel and flow! There are other venues for 100-word or 101-word stories, and 6-word stories are also a popular form.