magic trick

Greetings, thank you for allowing me this brief intrusion into your virtual home. Just as novels come in a variety of sizes, some to fit a pocket or purse, others only a briefcase will hold; so too the short story comes in a variety of ‘sizes.’ Nope, no ‘one size fits most,’ here. And although short stories are available in a gamut of sizes, genres, voices, and points of view, they do belong to the same ‘family’ as their ‘big brother/sister’ novels.

With Nanowritemo just around the corner, you may be outlining a novel and need a bit of a breather or, perhaps, your life schedule or inclination precludes the intense immersion at this time. Explore with me an alternative; and keep writing!

Flash fiction can be drafted in a creative breath, then refined, reworded, sometimes all in a day. A short story anywhere from 30 words to about 3000 is considered ‘flash fiction.’ And even tighter, a complete story of 10-300 words has been dubbed 'micro-fiction.' But these are not merely a scene, or expository. Flash fiction and micro-fiction have all the elements of a novel: beginning, middle and end. They arise in any genre – mystery, adventure, horror, comedy, … - that incites the Muse Creative to write, with mainly a single point of view, a story to delight, incite, or inspire readers. Being that they are short in length, and each word has to be selected with care, I think they’re fun to read aloud; to embrace the actual spoken tone of the writer, savor the sound and taste of the words, the images thus evoked to convey the story.

A Drabble is one form of ‘flash,’ a complete story that is exactly 100 words in length. It challenges writers to convey an interesting and meaningful story under extremely confined parameters. Each word has to count for something. It’s gained popularity in science fiction and fan fiction over the past several decades, and mainstreamed into adventure, comedy, mystery. The term and idea originated in the ‘70s, in Monty Python’s Big Red Book, originally a word game challenging participants to be the first to write a ‘novel’ in 100 words. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drabble) Other parameters may be added to challenge or inspire the writer, i.e., a picture prompt, using a specific point of view, all dialogue, or perhaps no repeated words

A Ficlet or short-short story is also a form of ‘drabble’ that can run up to 1,000 words. These are often used in fan fiction, where brief, tight writing , vivid scenes, propel action-adventure and sometimes romance.

Going the other way, one can write a dribble, or a complete story in 50 words, or a “droubble” (double drabble) of 200 words.

All of these ‘drabbles’ and their derivatives have one thing in common – they are complete stories, plotted and driven from beginning to end by the writer’s insightful choice of words.

So, why not give it a try ~ and ‘drabble’ in vivid imagery to create a story though brief in length, replete in breadth, and a delight to read aloud And do read a few of the drabbles and dribbles and flashes offered for your reading pleasure by some of the writers in our Community.