At Dayjob Publishing we host on-going drabble competitions. We love drabbles. A good drabble is a work of art showcasing an author’s talents, skills, and abilities. What is it exactly? What makes a good drabble? What makes it special?
The Definition of a Drabble
A drabble is a fancy name for a work of writing containing exactly 100 words. It can’t have 99 words, 101 words, or 2,322 words. Only 100 will do.
Why 100? I don’t have a good answer for that. I do know that we like it. We see it as the present and the future of creative writing. Have you tried to watch a moving with a teenager lately? How about gathering the family around to watch a reality show or sitcom? It doesn’t happen very often. Society has changed and all entertainment is given out in shorter doses.
YouTube, TikTok, and many streaming services offer video and sound in small pieces, which is what people are becoming more accustomed to. People lose interest in any video or song lasting longer than 3 minutes.
Why should reading be any different? Granted, there are still those of us who curl up with a book and read for hours, but we’re getting more and more scarce. Gone are the days of sitting in a waiting room and being 1 of the 10 or 15 people holding up books. Those dimestore romance novels may still be some of the last holdouts, but they are much more rare than they used to be.
Enter the drabble.
A drabble is short enough for anyone to read. It is the bite-size that people want to read. Short and to the point. It is the latest food for the masses.
And when the reading fanatic, like us, comes upon a good drabble? Hopefully, we see more than the average reader. We should be able to see the talent it took to tell a story in only 100 words. Like fine wine enthusiasts, we should be able to smell the notes of certain influences and taste the word choices that convey the perfect emotions.
What is a drabble?
A drabble is a 20,000-word story with the unnecessary 19.900 supporting words removed.
A drabble is an artist being able to show what can be done with a limited palette.
A drabble is a complete story told in exactly 100 words.
How to Write a Great Drabble
There are as many writing styles and methods as there are authors. I always snicker when I come across articles about how to write and they spell it out step by step. Braistorm, write a first draft,…
I guess it’s fine to lay it out like that for someone that hasn’t figured out how they write best, but most of us skim through those articles looking for something we are missing or can improve upon. You’re not going to tell me when to write my first draft or edit for details. How many words should I cut? Whatever words aren’t fitting perfectly. That’s how many.
Having said that, there are people that want it spelled out. They want somebody to tell them when to do what, for how long, and how to hold their tongue while they’re do it. For those people, I’m going to outline how I write a drabble.
- Read the prompt provided and grab one of the hundreds of random thoughts floating around my head
- Write (this may be close to a hundred words, or it may be closer to 1,000)
- Look at what I’ve written and figure out what I’m trying to say
- What section of the story says that best?
- Rewrite that one section as the new story, or write a new story based on what the story is trying to say
- Take out anything that doesn’t enforce the main idea of the story or add value in another way
- Get it to 100 words. Make every word count.
That’s how I do it. I may only do that process once, or I may do it a few times and pick from multiple ideas and stories.
A drabble can also be thought of as one event out of a story. Maybe you have a great story idea that is brought on by a prompt or random thought. This story already has 5 characters, 3 heart-pounding chases, and a talking dog. Your drabble is never going to hold all of that. The scene in your story where the antagonist first figures out the dog can talk? That may fit.
Take any great story and wrap one event into a pretty bow and you could have a great drabble. Your reader doesn’t need to know any backstory, or character arc. What is happening during one event? How is it exciting, scary, or funny?
You’ll find advice saying that your drabble must have a beginning, middle, and end. Your story must follow all forms and functions… blah, blah, blah. Don’t get bogged down in that. But, it must make sense! All that other junk is what can be used to make sure that it makes sense, but I never worry about what rules I’m following.
Read it. If you don’t know the characters or any of the story going outside of your drabble bubble, does it make sense and stand on its own? If you walked up to somebody and said it out loud would it feel like a good conversation or a random statement? You know that guy who walks up to you and finishes conversations he was having with someone else? Don’t be that guy!
I hope that all helped!
Now that you know what a drabble is and how to write a great one, enter one of our drabble contests!