A drabble is a short work of fiction of precisely one hundred words in length."Winners named in WLU drabble competition"
, ''

Waterloo Region Record The ''Waterloo Region Record'' (formerly ''The Record'') is the daily newspaper covering Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada, including the cities of Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge, as well as the surrounding area. Since December 1998, the ''Re ...

'', October 1, 2011. The purpose of the drabble is brevity, testing the author's ability to express interesting and meaningful ideas in a confined space.

History

The concept is said to have originated in UK science fiction fandom in the 1980s; the 100-word format was established by the Birmingham University SF Society, taking a term from

Monty Python Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four ...

's 1971 '' Big Red Book''. In the book, "Drabble" was described as a word game where the first participant to write a

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

was the winner. In order to make the game possible in the real world, it was agreed that 100 words would suffice. French writer Félix Fénéon may be considered as a precursor with his ''nouvelles en trois lignes'' (three lines short stories), inspired by new items. In drabble contests, participants are given a theme and a certain amount of time to write. (For example, Wilfrid Laurier University conducted a "100 Words Centennial Drabble Contest" in commemoration of its 100th anniversary in 2011, in which contestants were asked to write about "inspiration, leadership or purpose".) Drabble contests, and drabbles in general, are popular in science fiction fandom and in

fan fiction Fan fiction or fanfiction (also abbreviated to fan fic, fanfic, fic or FF) is fictional writing written in an amateur capacity by fans, unauthorized by, but based on an existing work of fiction. The author uses copyrighted characters, settin ...

. Beccon Publications published three volumes, ''The Drabble Project'' (1988) and ''Drabble II: Double Century'' (1990), both edited by Rob Meades and David Wake, and ''Drabble Who'' (1993), edited by

David J. Howe David J. Howe is a British writer, journalist, publisher, and media historian. Biography David Howe was born 24 August 1961 and established himself (in the early 1980s) as an authoritative media historian through writing articles for fanzin ...

and David Wake.

Examples

Published science fiction writers who have written drabbles include Brian Aldiss and Gene Wolfe (both of whom contributed to ''The Drabble Project''), Lois McMaster Bujold (whose novel ''

Cryoburn ''Cryoburn'' is a science fiction novel by American writer Lois McMaster Bujold, first published in October 2010. Part of the Vorkosigan Saga, it was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2011,

'' finishes with a sequence of five drabbles, each told from the point of view of a different character), and

Jake Bible Jake Bible (born Jacob David Bible) is an American science fiction and horror fiction author. He was nominated in 2015 for the Bram Stoker Award in the category of Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel (Intentional Haunting, Permuted Pres ...

(whose novel ''Dead Mech'' was written entirely in drabble format). ''100 Word Story'' is an online literary journal that was co-founded in 2011 by

Grant Faulkner Grant Faulkner is an American writer, the executive director of National Novel Writing Month(NaNoWriMo), the co-founder of the online literary journal '' 100 Word Story'', and the co-host of the podcast Write-minded. Biography Grant Faulkn ...

and Lynn Mundell. It publishes stories that are exactly 100 words long. The web has also enabled a rapid spread of the genre, with publishers such as

The Third Word Press ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

using the web to collect drabble stories.

55 Fiction

A similar concept is 55 Fiction, which is a form of

microfiction Flash fiction is a fictional work of extreme brevity that still offers character and plot development. Identified varieties, many of them defined by word count, include the six-word story; the 280-character story (also known as " twitterature"); ...

that refers to the works of fiction that are either limited to a maximum of 55 words or have a requirement of exactly 55 words. The origin of ''55 Fiction'' can be traced to a short story writing contest organized by ''New Times'', an independent alternative weekly in

San Luis Obispo, California San Luis Obispo (; Spanish for " St. Louis the Bishop", ; Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, in the U.S. state of California. Located on the Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly halfwa ...

, in 1987. The idea was proposed by ''New Times'' founder and publisher

Steve Moss Stephen Donnellan Moss (1948–2005) was an American editor and publisher who founded two major weekly newspapers in California's Central Coast and created the 55 Fiction short story contest. Moss founded the '' New Times San Luis Obispo'' with ...

Criteria

A literary work will be considered ''55 Fiction'' if it has: # 55 words or fewer, however some publishers actually require exactly 55 words – no more and no less; # A setting; # One or more characters; # Some conflict; and # A resolution. (''Not limited to the moral of the story'') The title of the story is not part of the overall word count, but cannot exceed seven words.

References

External links