The Truth about Drabbles

[louiselux]

I want to know what you all think about drabbles. For me, the best drabbles have an impact that is inversely proportional to their size-- they hit the reader round the face with the all the force of a large well-swung haddock. That's what I aspire to, anyway, one day. I also tend to think that to do that they require a lot of time and effort.
[Poll #385199]

Comments

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

My answer to the second question was necessarily incorrect. I wanted to say, "No, I don't enjoy writing drabbles," but that wasn't available as a choice. The only thing available was "No, I never write them." Which is not true. I do write drabbles. I just don't like it much. But then I don't get a lot of pleasure from writing, only from having written.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

I actually had that option, but then cut it out because I thought it was redundant. I think I was wrong! Actually, it's funny you should comment because a comment of your about drabbles was partly ther inspiration for this post - you said something about how drabbles took you hours to write. They take me hours to write too, but I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

[cicerothewriter.livejournal.com]

My advice would not fit in the comment box, so I decided to put it here (I hope you don't mind *g*).

I tend to not worry about the length so much. If I start to write a drabble, and find out that my idea is too long, then that just means that I'm writing a story, which is just as good. If I run out of idea at about 100 words, then I go back and tweak the phrases, words, etc. If I don't think that the drabble has a point or is very interesting, then it is either trashed or (more likely since I never throw anything away) I will keep it until it can be continued. I tend to prefer drabbles that don't hang about in the nothingness - although in all fairness I've probably written some drabbles that have no context. To solve that, I usually explain the context in the author's notes.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Context is a tricky thing - I always feel that having context in the notes means that the drabble has beaten me. If I have to do that I tend not to post the drabble, but, like you, leave it until I can think of a way to fix it.

[kindkit.livejournal.com]

I think the best drabbles are like poetry: they're language in concentrated form. I'm going to recommend one in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel the Series fandom, which I'm not sure if you even read. But it's a lovely drabble. Open (http://www.livejournal.com/community/sunday100/609831.html), by glossing.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Exactly my thoughts! Thanks for the rec, too.

[proteinscollide.livejournal.com]

True Love's Kiss (http://www.livejournal.com/community/snape100/131561.html) by Bernice (HP)
Billet-Doux (http://prillalar.com/fic/stories/000209.php) by Prillalar (HP)
Almost (http://ellaminnow.dombillijah.com/almost.html) by Ella Minnow (lotrips)

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I already know and love True Love's Kiss, but it's always worth a reread. *g*

[luthien.livejournal.com]

I didn't answer 'as deserving of effort as long stories' simply because drabbles never take me long to write. I find they're either there, or they're not. The bones of them come to me with the idea, and most of the actual writing involves refining the initial draft. I want them to be as close to perfect as I can make them because I'm always pretty exacting about any fic that I write, but that's not quite the same thing as effort.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think you have a good point - it's not effort as in time expended, but as in the need to make it as good as you can, even if it's only 100 words.

[lisa-bee.livejournal.com]

In the Event of a Fire (http://www.livejournal.com/community/fuda_100/61648.html) Yami no Matsuei, clever use of postit notes. Hysterically funny.
Rewritten on the Body (http://www.livejournal.com/users/untrue_accounts/13999.html) Yami no Matsuei again. One of the best drabbles I have ever seen.
Holocaust (http://www.livejournal.com/community/fuda_100/158838.html) Yami no Matsuei. As painful as the first one is fun. Pure ouch, not a wasted syllable.

And I like browsing through wk_100 because good stuff pops up there a lot.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Ooh, Yami drabbles - thanks for these!

[lexin.livejournal.com]

You haven't allowed an option of 'I write them very rarely indeed, but occasionally an idea will strike which doesn't need 40,000 words.'

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Heh. Yes, good point.

[mizbean.livejournal.com]

I like my drabble to be 100 words. This is usually how I write my drabbles. After I come up with a concept, I sketch it out briefly with a few sentences and I always write my last line early, so I don't sacrifice it when I'm trying to get to that 100 word count. Sometimes I write my drabble backwards and sometimes I build them from the middle.

And crazily, the last drabble I wrote came in at 100 words in its first draft.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

I just tried writing a drabble backwards, and it was surpringly useful. Thinking about where you want your drabble to get to helps, I find, because you have so few steps to get there.

[mizbean.livejournal.com]

Oh good! I'm glad that worked for you. And I'm glad you understood my comment, it was rather late.

Thinking about where you want your drabble to get to helps, I find, because you have so few steps to get there.

Yep, I totally agree.

Here's another rec: http://www.livejournal.com/community/malfoy100/43712.html

[tears-of-nienna.livejournal.com]

For my own purposes, drabbles have to be 100 words. And really, if that's the only way the OCD chooses to manifest itself, that's fine with me. But I don't hold other people to the same scrutiny--I don't go counting words and then sneering at people whose drabbles are 102 or 175 words long.

I recced my favorite HP drabble in the poll itself, but Losseniaiel (http://www.fanfiction.net/u/232618/) writes beautiful Tolkien drabbles, as well.

And this (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2015049/1/) is my favorite drabble wot I wrote. /self-promotion

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

I can't tell just by reading if a drabble is bit more than 100 words, so really it doesn't matter to me as reader, but as a writer, like you say, OCD takes over and I hold myself to the 100 word limit compulsively.

*Squee*, drabbles: one of my favorite subjects¹ (so I have much to say, beware)

[skuf.livejournal.com]

I said 30-45 mins for how long it takes me to write a drabble - I don't actually know, as I have never timed it. But I do know there are often things I have to look up, or even research (Egyptian names for spices, for example…). And the tweaking to hit exactly 100 words.²

And I voted "as deserving of your effort as a long story" and "an amusing writing excercise": I do put as much thought and effort into a drabble as into a longer story - but of course given that they are short things, it doesn't take as long to write. "An amusing writing excercise" sounds a bit shallow (I don't know how you meant it?), but I do enjoy them and the challenge of making 100 words read-worthy.

And drabbles definitely have to be 100 words exactly - not that you can't write 134-word mini-fics ("non-drabbles" in my vocabulary, for lack of a better term), they're just not drabbles :o) !

Do you have any advice to give about writing good drabbles?
One characteristic of the drabble is definitely the impact you mention - that they pack a punch. Another very important characteristic to me (though I don't I've seen this discussed much/ever), is the amount of reader inference: the reader should have to work for it in a drabble, and preferably each re-reading³ adds a little more understanding of what's going on.

It's perfectly possible to have non-drabbles that do this, too - but it's a challenge, and therefore an accomplishment to be able to do it in 100 words, no more, no less.

So when writing a drabble, one should write toward "the punch" - but subtly - and in 100 words :o)

Recommend me an excellent drabble
Wah, I really have to clean up my Favorite Drabbles list (http://www.livejournal.com/users/skuf/13815.html)! I collected a bunch of wonderful drabbles, only to discover that most of them weren't actually 100 words exactly. But then I got lazy and put them all together, anyways. And have been much remiss in separating them since then :o( ! For now, though, I know these are exactly 100 words:

Severus looks in the mirror (http://www.livejournal.com/community/hp100/19325.html) (Snape[/Remus], PG) by isiscolo
(Don't miss brevisse's "comic" (http://isis.arithmancy.net/slm.htm), beautifully illustrating Isis's words).

The Soft Drink Offensive v.2.0 (http://www.livejournal.com/users/dorrie6/238771.html) (Draco, [G]) by dorrie6
(Scroll down)


¹gblvr was nice enough to put up a poll on drabbles for me back when I didn't have a paid account. Results/discussion (http://www.livejournal.com/users/skuf/28424.html#DrabblePollResults) (At this point I'm still referring to non-drabbles as "vignettes" at times - I didn't know better. Though to this day I still don't know what to call non-drabbles, either :o) !).

²Or 50/150/200. I consider these valid, though lesser relatives of the drabble.

³Up to a certain point - it's only 100 words, after all, so at one point there'll be little more to wring out of it (but then I don't believe in fictional text as being open to endless interpretation - if you keep going long enough, you are no longer reading, but mis-reading, in my opinion).

Re: *Squee*, drabbles: one of my favorite subjects¹ (so I have much to say, beware)

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Another very important characteristic to me (though I don't I've seen this discussed much/ever), is the amount of reader inference:

It's interesting that this point has come up in what other people say - obviously people don't like their drabbles to be merely an easy read, and that for me ties in with the idea of it having impact-- a drabble should have implications, and those implications should grow on you. Well, I say 'should', but there's clearly no right way to write anything.

As to what to call non-drabbles - I tend to call them very short stories or vignettes. The purist in me says that people shouldn't call anything over 100 words a drabble, but in reality I can't make myself to care too much.

I really like the point you make about stopping at some point. I think I spend too long on drabbles and probably should learn to drop things if they're not working, but it's similar to 'how long is a piece of string'. How long do you spend before you give up.

[skuf.livejournal.com]

Vignettes are a specific genre, too, though - just because something is short, it's not automatically a vignette.

I really like the point you make about stopping at some point.
I meant as far as interpretation goes: I don't believe in infinite interpretation of a text - and certainly not of a drabble. But it's also true that if a drabble is not working, one should let it go :o)