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 Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario, Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada, including the cities of Kitchener, Ontario, Kitchener, Waterloo, Ontario, Water ...

'', 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 The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

SF Society, taking a term from

Monty Python Monty Python, also known as the Pythons, were a British comedy troupe formed in 1969 consisting of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. The group came to prominence for the sketch comedy ser ...

'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 an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

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 Félix Fénéon (; 22 June 1861 – 29 February 1944) was a French art critic, gallery director, writer and anarchist during the late 19th century and early 20th century. He coined the term '' Neo-Impressionism'' in 1886 to identify a group of ...

may be considered as a precursor with his ''nouvelles en trois lignes'' (three-line short stories), inspired by news items. In drabble contests, participants are given a

theme Theme or themes may refer to: * Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos * Theme (computing), a custom graphical appearance for certain software. * Theme (linguistics), topic * Theme ( ...

and a certain amount of time to write. (For example,

Wilfrid Laurier University Wilfrid Laurier University (commonly referred to as WLU or simply Laurier) is a Public university, public university in Ontario, Canada, with campuses in Waterloo, Ontario, Waterloo, Brantford, Ontario, Brantford and Milton, Ontario, Milton. The ...

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 Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or fandom of people interested in science fiction in contact with one another based upon that interest. SF fandom has a life of its own, but not much in the way of formal organization (although ...

and in

fan fiction Fan fiction or fanfiction, also known as fan fic, fanfic, fic or FF, is fiction typically written in an amateur capacity by fans as a form of fan labor, unauthorized by, but based on, an existing work of fiction. The author uses copyrighted ...

. 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 and David Wake.

Examples

Published science fiction writers who have written drabbles include

Brian Aldiss Brian Wilson Aldiss (; 18 August 1925 – 19 August 2017) was an English writer, artist and anthology editor, best known for science fiction novels and short stories. His byline reads either Brian W. Aldiss or simply Brian Aldiss, except for oc ...

and

Gene Wolfe Gene Rodman Wolfe (May 7, 1931 – April 14, 2019) was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He was noted for his dense, allusive prose as well as the strong influence of his Catholic faith. He was a prolific short story writer and no ...

(both of whom contributed to ''The Drabble Project''), Lois McMaster Bujold (whose novel '' Cryoburn'' finishes with a sequence of five drabbles, each told from the point of view of a different character), and Jake Bible (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 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 using the web to collect drabble stories.

55 Fiction

A similar concept is 55 Fiction, which is a form of microfiction 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 ; ; ; Chumashan languages, Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Located on the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly halfway betwee ...

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

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