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 Short Stories: June 06, 2018 Issue [#8935] |
  Short Stories This week: A dribble, a drabble, a flash of fiction Edited by: Kate - Writing & Reading   More Newsletters By This Editor   1. About this Newsletter 2. A Word from our Sponsor 3. Letter from the Editor 4. Editor's Picks 5. A Word from Writing.Com 6. Ask & Answer 7. Removal instructions 
 
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For example, 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.’ Even tighter, a complete story of 10-300 words has been dubbed 'micro-fiction.' But these are not merely a scene, or an anecdote. Flash fiction and micro-fiction have all the elements of a novel: beginning, middle and end. They can be a mystery, adventure, horror, comedy, … - that incites the Muse Creative to write. These shorts generally have 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. (
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. Or, even measured in characters, yes, a tweet. 
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. 
