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About this tool
Write to a strict 50, 100, 500 or 1000 word limit with live counting, over-budget warnings and a list of words to cut first.
A live word counter built around the fixed limits flash fiction actually uses — 50 words for a dribble, exactly 100 for a drabble, and 300, 500 or 1000 word ceilings for competitions. It counts by the standard submission rule (a hyphenated compound is one word, numerals count as one), then flags the intensifiers, hedges and filter verbs that are usually the first thing to cut when you are over budget.
Open Flash Fiction Word Limit Trainer on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Paste or type the text you're working with.
Choose how it should be transformed or analyzed.
Copy the finished text into your document or post.
Hyphenated compounds count as one word by default, with a toggle for guidelines that say otherwise.
Groups every flagged word as an intensifier, hedge, filter verb, empty adverb or throat-clearing, with the reason.
For a drabble or dribble the tool demands the precise number rather than treating it as a ceiling.
There is no single number, but the common bands are 50 words (dribble), exactly 100 (drabble), up to 300 (micro fiction) and up to 500 or 1000 words for most competitions. Anything above roughly 1,000 words is usually called a short story rather than flash.
Most competitions count a hyphenated compound such as 'well-lit' as a single word, which is the default here. A minority split it, so read the guidelines and flip the toggle if your target publication says two.
Usually not — the majority of journals and competitions exclude the title and any byline from the count. Paste only the body of the story here, and check the specific guidelines because a few competitions do include the title.
About three and a half to four minutes at an unhurried 130 words per minute, which is the pace this tool uses for its read-aloud estimate. Silent reading is much faster: roughly 238 words per minute for English fiction, the average reported in Brysbaert's 2019 review of reading-rate research.