7 tumblrs Full of Great, Free Fiction

Life is busy, and books are long. (UGH THE WORST.) Yet sometimes you need a dose of fiction in your busy schedule — just a little something to get you out of your own life, a little word play to make you smile or a story to help you appreciate your fellow humans instead of wanting to kill them all.

It’s times like this during which we should all be very happy we live in the age of the Internet. We’ve rounded up some fiction tumblrs to help curb your fiction cravings in short bursts to get you through the day.

Six-Word Story: For those who don’t believe short, Internet stories can be good, know that Ernest Hemmingway once said that anyone should be able to tell a story in six words or less. His example? “For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn.” Six Word Story is full of more such stories. They’re easy to read but amazing when done right.

Ad-ditional Fiction: With the brilliant tag line “Life After :30” Ad-ditional Fiction imagines what happens next in advertisements. And whether that kid from the car commercial gets a restraining order, or that cute couple turns out to be a couple of spies, each story is great.

Fifty-Five-Word Stories: Stories told in exactly 55 words, this tumblr has a huge backlog to enjoy even while waiting for updates. The length allows for more development, but keeps the stories short enough you can enjoy one on a coffee break before going back to your real life.

Sci-Fi in Six: Science fiction fans, don’t despair: the Internet has not forsaken you. This tumblr has six paragraph science fiction stories, accompanied by some pretty cool artwork. Imaginative and usually a little twisted, these stories are great for anyone who can’t deal with the real world just now.

Messages in Bottles: A collection of often bleak flash fiction of varying lengths, from a few short paragraphs to a page or two, this tumblr is one of the most consistent and consistently updated.

Song on the Page: The perfect tumblr for anyone in a love/hate relationship with pop music, this Tumblr takes the first line of pop songs and uses them as the basis for short stories. Usually short enough that you can read them in just a few minutes, they make you think of pop songs differently.

Flash Fiction Friday: Flash Fiction Friday actually publishes flash fiction all week and publishes non-fiction on Fridays. But it’s still a great name, and has some great stories. Plus, for all you writers out there, they publish a lot of submissions as long as you write on their weekly prompts.