These narratives tend to take a moment in time, whether long or short, and explore emotions or ideas that carry various levels of significance. In terms of how they function as fiction, the characters in each of these stories are more “essence-centric,” the reader gets an idea about the characters based on their thoughts or actions. The straightforward physical descriptions don’t seem to have the luster of these action-based descriptions. This allows the reader to perform a sort of “closure.” We get to come to these characters and their respective situations on our own terms.
Flash fiction gives the reader a greater sense of autonomy concerning characters and plot. We are allowed to use the author’s framework to construct our own personal realities within the story. Our opinions and ideas are allowed to hang loosely upon the author’s clues, and, as a reader I enjoy that aspect of storytelling.
I’m of the opinion that a story can be told in as many words as the author wants it to be told. The story should definitely have some sort of structure or baseline narrative, but the amount of words is irrelevant if a writer can effectively deliver enough of these basic narrative tools to allow the reader to utilize his/her imagination to fill out the narrative. I feel that this interaction occurs in all forms of creative writing, and fiction actually allows it to happen more frequently. The interaction is the key, however, because it allows the reader to get something out of the story. Now, depending on whether or not the reader or writer is savvy enough to hold up their end of the bargain, the story is either successful or fails. Personally, I believe that if the writer shows enough skill, the story can be amazing regardless of the reader’s level of competence. Nonetheless, a good reader can generally find meaning in just about anything. The only real example I have where this analytical or entertaining aspect of narrative is inexplicable to all but the creator is Samuel Beckett’s “Breath,” and the rules only loosely apply because it’s a stage-play and video.
Anyway, I should stop digressing though. Casey Hannan’s “Trigger Shy” was very, for lack of a better word, mysterious. Hannan really allows the reader to jump to multiple conclusions throughout the story, and the amount of conclusions I thought I was coming up with was easily in the double-digits by the time I was finished reading. Considering how short the story was, this was pretty amazing. The suspense of the story was phenomenal, and the characters were just hanging out on a porch smoking cigarettes. I feel like I could write fifty stories by simply elaborating the hints that Hannan gives in that story, and, to me, that is a good barometer to determine the potency of flash fiction.
Darrin's Blog 
This was an excellent reflection, Darrin. You’re right to note that these stories really bring out important characteristics, that really speak to who these people are. I also agree about how these stories empower the reader, or give them autonomy. The way these stories are told demand that we contribute something to the narrative and that’s a really interesting thing for a writer to do. It requires a whole lot of trust.