One of the things a writer of extra short stories tries to do is to put a twist on the end that takes the reader by surprise. I think one of mine was posted on this forum a couple of years ago. It was about an astronaut flying a space ship above a strange sand covered planet. It couldn't have been more than three or four paragraphs, but the ending really brought you back to reality. Naturally, I would think it worked, since I wrote it.

The shorter these short-to-the-third-power stories are, the better I like them. Why write "Gone With the Wind" if all that really matters is the twist at the end? Every word that isn't necessary should be left out.

Another little wrinkle that I like is the one where the supposed hero turns out to be the villian and somebody else is the hero. I think there was a little of that in the story about the woman on the plane.

I also like dialogue where the he said, she said is dropped because you know who is talking anyway.

Another way to shorten a story is to throw in some indirect quotes to move the dialogue along.

Short, short, short stories are great for lazy writers.
H"doesn't always stand for Hemingway"oward