Drabbles, drabbles and more drabbles - it's amazing what you can convey in 100 words!

Today I have written 12 draft drabbles in preparation for the Fantasy Boys XXX Drabblerotic Fest in April, which is Wittegen Press joining in the Blogging From A to Z April Challenge. This is not a fiction format I've played with much, I found it quite tough getting into the mindset for writing a drabble. Being exactly 100 words, they're very immediate, covering only a few seconds in the timeline of the story and so I found those moments, and those words have to be selected very carefully.

Trying to convey something that will interest a reader in just 100 words was the biggest challenge. But, as I started developing the different themes based on the letters of the alphabet, I found it got gradually easier to step into the moment and capture it (at least I think I succeeded). The drafts are with my editor now, so I'll see if I really did get it right tomorrow ;P

All in all, it was a rather fun day stepping in and out of different worlds and providing just a glimpse. One of them was based off an existing story, so it felt a little like fanfic when I wrote that moment, but the rest are all original characters and situations. I found myself revisiting some characters more than once in different drabbles, but being true to the format, I tried very hard to make each one stand on their own, not be a part reliant on another to make sense. Again, we'll see what my editor thinks of those :). 

Dipping in and out also gave me a chance to play with different moods as well as different fantasy/sci-fi characters and settings. Some are serious, some are humorous, and some in between, and I switched it up with tone as well. I'm usually an empathic writer, in that I want my reader to be on side with my protagonist, or at the very least understand them, but I experimented in one or two with trying to generate a sense of separation, a deliberate lack of sympathy with the central character. Not sure if I pulled it off yet. I'll be revisiting the drafts myself tomorrow once I've slept on them - that always helps me review things more cleanly.

Only 1200 words today, not an excessive amount, but with all the pauses and resets to my brain for different universes, I think I am happy with that count :)

I'm really starting to like drabbles! How about you?