Flash fiction is a fascinating — and difficult! — genre: the ability to create fleshed-out characters and complex emotions in just a few hundred words is an impressive skill.

We asked three writers to create their own little worlds for us, with a few caveats: each story had to be 300 words or less, and each one had to start with the same opening line: “The fresh skid marks — a little brown, a little sticky — trailed from the front door straight through to the back.” Below, explore their tiny, distinct universes.

“His World Beneath the Cabbages”

Anna Lea Jancewicz is Senior Editor at literary magazine Cease, Cows. Her writing has appeared in Hobart, Necessary Fiction, and Pithead Chapel; been chosen for The Best Small Fictions; and was longlisted for The Wigleaf Top 50. Read more at annajancewicz.com, or follow her on Twitter at @AnnaLeaJancewic.

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