The power of 100 words – The Drabble!

One of my favorite forms of fiction is called the drabble (not to be confused with the author Margaret Drabble). Basically, it’s a very short story that is exactly 100 words long. Not a word more, or a word less. You can write in any genre you like, using any style, and all the other elements of fiction are there – you just have to keep it to 100 words.

Yes, it’s very challenging. Trying to have a beginning, middle, and end of a story, plus character/s in such limited space, really forces you to make every word do as much work as possible. But it can be done, and I’ve written quite a few of them. Here’s the lowdown on the drabble!

History of the drabble

While there is no definitive source on the history of the drabble, I managed to find a few good nuggets of information by poking around the intertubes a little. According to this article, the drabble started out as a game, and got it’s name, of all places, from a Monty Python sketch:

Did you ever hear of the great Drabble craze that swept over (bits of) British sf fandom in the late 1980s? Literary historians have traced the name back to the 1971 Monty Python’s Big Red Book: `Drabble. A word game for 2 to 4 players. The four players sit from left to right and the first person to write a novel wins.’

The article continues and mentions how there was initially some confusion/disagreement about the proper length and what really counted as a "word" (ie. do hyphenated words count?).

Others — notably the Birmingham University SF Society, who are to blame for what follows — reckoned that 100 words was the most comfortable figure. This, gentle reader, is the Drabble. (Once again the word count must be precise, though up to 15 extra are allowed for a title. ‘Hyphenated-words-are-argued-about.’) One dark day in 1987 I wandered into the Novacon convention hall to find it crammed with people scribbling and counting obsessively on their fingers. Drabblemania had begun.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Why should I write a drabble?

Why write a drabble when you can write much "sexier" things like novels? First and foremost, writing drabbles is fun and challenging (at least I think so). But here are a few other reasons to write these mini sagas:

• They don’t take very long to write. You can probably knock several drabbles out in a day without much effort. Aside from keeping your creative juices flowing, it will also help you feel productive.
• You can write a drabble on just about anything. No computer required. If you can fit 100 words on it, then it is suitable for drabble writing (ie. napkins, notepads, the back of your hand, etc.).
• Drabbles will challenge your creativity and your skill at keeping write short and to the point. This will help you in all your other writings as well.

Tips on writing drabbles

While I wouldn’t consider myself a drabble expert, I have written enough to give all you newbies a few pointers:

• When you first start writing, don’t worry about keeping it at exactly 100 words. Get your story on paper first, then edit it down. Usually, about half a page of college-ruled notebook paper will get you close to the 100 word mark.
• Write drabbles like you do any other piece of fiction. Do you have a good plot? Are your characters believable? What about setting? All these questions (and more) need to be considered before and during the writing process, and even while you’re editing.
• Edit, edit, edit! Keep in mind that word phrasing becomes increasingly important with drabbles. Since each word needs work extra hard, so does each sentence. Keep things as simple as possible.

Remember that drabbles should be a fun way to exercise your creativity without having to write an entire novel. Keep the finished ones in a folder, until a later date, when you publish them after reaching literary stardom (or until your mom accidently throws them away while cleaning your room).

Related posts

• A drabble a day…
• Words I hate
• Words are the way to your reader’s heart
• What’s your writing medium?
• Trimming the fat: Avoid redundancy in your writing

Read More: Writing, Writing Tips