drabble
Traditionally, a drabble is a piece of fiction that is exactly 100 words long. Thank you Google.
I was completely unaware that a drabble was a thing, especially a fiction writing thing. I'd heard of flash-fiction, and micro-fiction to describe short pieces, but not a drabble. Until, that is, I happened upon a Blogger blog, 101fiction, entirely dedicated to the drabble. They run a monthly drabble writing competition - the prize is publication in their download magazine. They ask for stories of 100 words, and they allow only a one word title, hence the 101 of 101fiction, and they set a different theme each month, this month it's Invention.
The whole idea intrigued me. I've never tried writing such a short piece of fiction before, and there was something about that title of Invention that was a great writing prompt for me. So, for that past week I've been writing a drabble. I've really enjoyed the process, the constraints that such a small word limit imposes. Words are my thing, I love words, the exact right words, with the exact right meaning, and when you have only 100 words available to tell a story you had better be sure that you choose the exact right ones. This has been a really enjoyable challenge for me. And I chose to set my story in the Victorian era, because it's one that I love, and know a fair bit about, and the word invention leant itself to the idea of both mad/bad scientist, and steam punk. If I'm honest I don't think I've entirely kept to the theme as outlined in the rules, but I'm still going to enter the story because, well, why not? If it's unsuccessful in this competition then I can enter it in others, because I have found other sites that specialise in drabbles, and run similar competitions. I'm also having lots of ideas for further stories, because this format really inspires me.
I was completely unaware that a drabble was a thing, especially a fiction writing thing. I'd heard of flash-fiction, and micro-fiction to describe short pieces, but not a drabble. Until, that is, I happened upon a Blogger blog, 101fiction, entirely dedicated to the drabble. They run a monthly drabble writing competition - the prize is publication in their download magazine. They ask for stories of 100 words, and they allow only a one word title, hence the 101 of 101fiction, and they set a different theme each month, this month it's Invention.
The whole idea intrigued me. I've never tried writing such a short piece of fiction before, and there was something about that title of Invention that was a great writing prompt for me. So, for that past week I've been writing a drabble. I've really enjoyed the process, the constraints that such a small word limit imposes. Words are my thing, I love words, the exact right words, with the exact right meaning, and when you have only 100 words available to tell a story you had better be sure that you choose the exact right ones. This has been a really enjoyable challenge for me. And I chose to set my story in the Victorian era, because it's one that I love, and know a fair bit about, and the word invention leant itself to the idea of both mad/bad scientist, and steam punk. If I'm honest I don't think I've entirely kept to the theme as outlined in the rules, but I'm still going to enter the story because, well, why not? If it's unsuccessful in this competition then I can enter it in others, because I have found other sites that specialise in drabbles, and run similar competitions. I'm also having lots of ideas for further stories, because this format really inspires me.
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