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

*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)