A drabble is 100 words

[beatrice_otter]

If you mean “a short fic of less than 1000 words” you can say “ficlet” or “vignette,” but a drabble, properly speaking, is 100 words.  Anyone who doesn’t think you can do anything worthwhile with 100 words should go read “By the Water Cooler" by tielan .  It is hilarious and true to the characters and 100 words is exactly the right length.  (Captain America, post-TWS, Maria Hill, Pepper Potts, Sam Wilson, Steve Rogers)

Comments

[theladyscribe]

That drabble is perfect. (And I am with you on the rant about what constitutes a drabble! SO MANY PEOPLE GET IT WRONG.)

[genarti]

Ha! What an excellent drabble. And yes, I totally agree with you about the pedantry of the term.

[schneefink]

I used to be active on a writing forum solely for drabbles. 100 words exactly, we spent so much time on it, but you can do such beautiful things with that form; more words are just wrong. (I'm out of practice, but actually I could try again...)

[beatrice_otter]

I occasionally contributed to the tth drabble community on LJ.

Drabbles require a shared vernacular. Characters and situations have to be already known to your audience. So,fandom is perfect, or Lois Bujold used them quite well as epilogues to her novel Cryoburn.

They're the haiku of fiction.

[schneefink]

I don't think they do. You can sketch new characters and situations sufficiently in a drabble; of course that means you might have a bit less space for other things, but it's definitely possible. But it's convenient to be able to assume that your audience knows a lot of the background already.

[monanotlisa]

Oh my God, thank you so much. (Kids. Off my drabble-y LAWN! :)

[beatrice_otter]

You're welcome!