In Defense of Drabbles
Yes, this is an attempt to keep myself from going all lit-student crazy over certain spurious character studies. Deal.
I guess this has been rolling around in my mind for a while, but a recent rant over at fanficrants finally got me to put my thoughts into some kind of coherent order ( Read more... )
I guess this has been rolling around in my mind for a while, but a recent rant over at fanficrants finally got me to put my thoughts into some kind of coherent order ( Read more... )
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You are not going to get any argument from me. You might instead get pretentious navel-gazing at my own fic. Because no, duchess, you cannot over-think something I've written; most likely I've already thought of that interpretation. And I like going all squeeful (ha!) about each carefully thought-of word. Does this make me (us?) pretentious little shits? Possibly, but I don't really care. I hope to aim for literature and literature deserves to be thought about.
Drabbles are their own art forms and shouldn't be slaughtered versions of longer things or slap-dash. They are hard because you have to get the elements of a full story into 100 words.
And I say this after posting silly fluff drabble. ;-)
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I hope I make people think, every now and then. Or at least leave them staring off into space for a moment, going "Guh."
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I had a quick look at the fanficrant entry (that I assume set you off) and just... *headdesk* It'd help if she knew what she was talking about - and the few correspondents that I read in the thread, too... As you say, drabbles aren't writing exercises any more than any other writing is an exercise (or just as much so). They're supposed to tell a whole story in 100 words, and that's the challenge of them - 100 words is neither impossible, nor too easy.
I do agree with her in hating "drabbles" that aren't drabbles - that are just unfinished pieces of fic, or where the author say something like "I'm three words over, but it's just three words so I'm posting anyway" - that's so not the point ( ... )
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I do agree with her in hating "drabbles" that aren't drabbles - that are just unfinished pieces of fic, or where the author say something like "I'm three words over, but it's just three words so I'm posting anyway" - that's so not the point!
Yes! It's one thing if a drabble grows into a fic, but just randomly cropping a story into a drabble rarely works.
I mean, I don't count words when I'm reading a drabble, so if somebody sneaks an extra word or two in, and still claims it's 100 words, I'm not going to notice. But I feel like it's disingenuous in a way.
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Looking at your definition of drabble about how they are part of a larger story but can also be standalone, you could say that A New Hope was written in the same way, although obviously the script is far too long to be a drabble itself.
Also, on a related note (keeping things short). I noticed a few months ago that using Twitter has really helped to improve my dialogue. The 140 character limit really forces you to make sure you get your point across quickly.
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You write fantastic drabbles--I say post them all! If it's labeled "drabble," then people know (...approximately) the word-count they're getting into. If that's not their thing, then they don't have to read it. But I can see wanting to post a couple of them at once, especially if they're related in any way.
(For what it's worth, I like reading your drabbles, so you're not one of those who writes unsatisfactory things. *g*)
Aww. *blushy*
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