Drabble writing advice from you

[louiselux]

The results of the drabble questionnaire:

The majority of you spend between 10-30 minutes on drabbles, which frankly amazes because I know that you produce very good drabbles. A handful of people said they spent several hours on them, which made me feel better because that's how long it takes me. Quite a few people said they planned for quite a while before writing.  Most of you think they should be 100 words long. 

Your drabble writing advice was my favorite part. I wasn't gathering it specifically to use. Rather, I wanted to see the sorts of things that you thought were important and perhaps to have an insight into how you write. I found it so interesting that I've posted it all here-- there were some lovely contradictions but that's really only to be expected with any advice. However, on the whole, to each comment my reaction was always, 'oh - they're so right!'  And thanks for the recs- I read some wonderful things.



irisbleu -- Have an ending point at least hazily in mind, if not completely. Otherwise, you might end up with a fragment that doesn't say quite what/as much as you intended.

glossing -- avoid the trick ending and lame punchline

permetaform -- Think of it as a complete story packed into as few words as possible

katmaxwell -- Pick one thing you want to get across. Don't focus on portraying anything but that one thing.

gehayi -- No. I don't really enjoy writing them.

derryderrydown -- Write 200 words, then hack it down.

musesfool -- every word counts. really.

toscas_kiss -- Subtlety! Infer things, rather than state outright. Trying to be too clever or 'deep' often doesn't work so use a light touch. Leave something to your readers' imaginations. That deepens the richness of the drabble.

mistressrenet -- Get your idea in mind first. It should be a glimpse, not an essay.

cicerothewriter -- See my comment.

kindkit -- It's all about the language.

proteinscollide -- stick with one story idea only and build

luthien67 -- Be ruthless with individual words for the good of the drabble as a whole. The last line is also crucial to the impact of the drabble.

deepsix -- write it as a turning point, not a full story of itself.

isiscolo -- Aim every word at the punchline. Have the last sentence in mind before writing the first.

treetracer -- Edit, edit, and edit.

cmshaw -- you only have time for the punchline, so you need background that is cleanly implied

lisa_bee -- Re-read, re-read, re-read.

scribbulus_ink -- a narrow, concise focus is key

daegaer -- If they are serious rather than humorous, I think they are more like prose-poems than a story. Allusion works better than plot, most often.

tboy -- erm. Be succinct *g*. Write the lines, count the words, par down. Keep the impact. Repeated attempts will get you closer to the 100 mark each time until you are actually writing 100 words without editing.

cimorene111 -- there's no point in reading them, so there's hardly any in writing them.

yonmei -- Think, write, prune: think, write, prune.

enigel -- I *need* advice, how could I give any? *g* Except... a punchline that falls flat is worse than no punchline.

loneraven -- Know what your point is before you start.

I think drabbles are more like poems than anything else - the best of them are a concentration of words that produce a resonant, powerful effect. So, I spent my journey home writing a drabble and thinking about all this good advice, which was rather fun: contrary to habit, I thought about my end point or punchline, hoped that it wasn't going to be lame, fixed it in my mind and wrote towards it, I considered each word, the rhythm of the sentences, kept my focus narrow yet attempted to make the story complete, edited, thought, pruned and re-read and... it felt pretty much like any other time I write, except for the slight self-consciousness and the fretting that it only takes some of you buggers 10 minutes to write something amazing! Time: 2 hours, rewrites: about 4. What, you think I've finished it?