155 words
| Synonyms: | |
| See also: | Story Length, Drabble, Ficlet, 221B |
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The 155-word fic craze hit X-Files fandom in November 1998, after Brandon D. Ray posted 155 Words, OR The Shortest MSR Ever Written. The story was just what it said on the box—a Mulder/Scully Romance parody exactly 155 words long—and was one of the first short fics of its kind in the X-Files fandom. The challenge and novelty of writing such short stories appealed to many fans, and fic communities were suddenly inundated with 155-word fics.
Not everyone loved them, though, and the community was divided over whether or not they were "real" fics. Like the disagreements over drabbles and fics of 100 words or less, some people were irritated by what they saw as all flash and no substance.
The 155-word format didn't travel far outside The X-Files fandom, if it left at all.
External links
- Brandon Ray's 155 Words, OR The Shortest MSR Ever Written (the very first)]
- An archive of 155 word stories (copy of defunct Geocities site)
- List of 155 word stories, Archived version
- In December 2001, the list administrator, Jill Selby, issued a challenge: write a 155 word story about Dana Scully. See the entries at Scully in 155.