Write What Your Heart Desires

This is the final guest post by Claudette. I hope you learnt something from the other posts by her. Did you try the exercise in the last post? If not, give it a go, and do let me know if you learnt anything from it. Enjoy!

One of the trends in contemporary writing is a category of flash fiction called “Drabble.” This 100 word wonder encompasses an entire story, complete with plot, beginning, middle, and end. Such tiny stories are difficult for many writers to master.

Like using poetry for story concentration, utilizing the “Drabble” format can force the writer to eliminate all but essential flavorful word usage. For example: instead of saying “The elegant simplicity of her gown focused the admirer’s attention on the young woman’s excited gaze.” someone working in “Drabble” form could say “Flashing eyes animated her innocent face, belying her simple elegance.”

Sixteen words drop to ten and shows the reader the main character, but which also reveals more about that character. The reader is shown the girl’s innocence, excitement, and elegance. This revised sentence goes a bit further to show that the girl’s elegance is understated. Her excitement is evident to onlookers by how it “flashes” from her eyes.

Further experimenting could bring the word count down more, but you get the idea.

Creating the Story

Let’s add to the story.

“Flashing eyes animated her innocent face, belying her simple elegance. Only her confidante recognized Cindy’s mischievous hand gesture and waited for her campaign to begin.”

The next sentence added informs the reader about a confidante’s presence at this formal event. (The event’s formality is inferred from the phrase “simple elegance” in the previous sentence as well. It defines the Main Character of the piece—Cindy, and the narrator of the story—the confidante. A gesture made by Cindy is mentioned, which forces the reader to wonder who was meant to see the gesture and why it appears mischievous to Cindy’s friend.

A major plot element is also introduced in this second sentence. The narrator speaks of Cindy beginning a campaign. Supposition does much for both the reader and the writer here. One can safely surmise that Cindy isn’t going to work on a military campaign. The reader is left with the idea that she’s interested in l’amour instead. If that is the case, who’s the lucky man?

So far only 27 words have informed the reader about this story. How about another sentence to move things along?

“Flashing eyes animated her innocent face, belying her simple elegance. Only her confidante recognized Cindy’s mischievous hand gesture and waited for her campaign to begin. Dancers parted to reveal the princely giant as he spoke to his advisors at the buffet table.”

There is dancing—another hint at formality. The reader in introduced to a princely giant. A question arises. Is the giant a prince, or does he merely look like one? One doesn’t have to be a prince to have advisors, it’s true. The reader is set up to question the situation from a mild mystery perspective. This could also be a retelling of “Cinderella.”

Reading further should answer the questions that keep surfacing. Another sentence or two is needed to set up the simple plot.

“Flashing eyes animated her innocent face, belying her simple elegance. Only her confidante recognized Cindy’s mischievous hand gesture and waited for her campaign to begin. Dancers parted to reveal the princely giant as he spoke to his advisors at the buffet table.

Cindy gasped. For the first time she saw her fiancé’s formative size. She witnessed the gentle smile on her prince’s lips. ”

The reader learns that the MC hasn’t seen the giant before. His true size surprises her. Beyond that fact is the answer to a previous question. The man is a prince and he is her fiancé. Since one knows that she’s not met him before, one can assume with confidence that this is an arranged marriage. The reader can predict something else, as well. Since Cindy perceives gentleness in his smile, she should be predisposed to look favorably toward him on a personal level.

Now we need to create a conclusion that may or may not be expected by the reader.

“Flashing eyes animated her innocent face, belying her simple elegance. Only her confidante recognized Cindy’s mischievous hand gesture and waited for her campaign to begin. Dancers parted to reveal the princely giant as he spoke to his advisors at the buffet table.

Cindy gasped. For the first time she saw her fiancé’s formative size. She witnessed the gentle smile on her prince’s lips.

The young princess glided to the buffet table where she curtsied with exactitude. While bowed, she twisted the large ruby ring on her maiden hand. She wobbled upon rising. The prince caught her outstretched hand.

Her ring presents its deadly gift from the assassin bride.”

Da-Da! Surprise tackles the reader who thought to read a short fairy tale of love conquering even that arranged marriage problem. A sudden twist brings the reader to a full stop and asks for some regrouping. Nothing was ever said about the prospective bride accepting this decision made for her. The reader learns something about assumptions, too.

And to keep things straight, this story comes in at an even 100 words.

Why Write These Stories?

The object of the “Drabble” is to eliminate description by using concrete nouns and verbs that show more than enough to allow the reader to fill in the descriptive necessities as suits them. That is the charm and the challenge of this form. One of the fortunate results of this form’s popularity is that there are markets for finished products.

If the writer can come to grips with the demands of this format, many avenues open up for later use. Many picture books, depending on language level, require as little as 100 words. Back cover blurbs used for publishers seldom use more than 100-150 words to tell the essence of the book and to hook the potential reader. Television journalists use that few words every day for news teasers between news programs.

Elevator pitches need only two to three sentences to hook an agent or publisher.

Why do so few words have so much clout? It’s simple. The ability to compress information into tight packages shows publishers that the writer knows the value of time, words, and intent. Those three components can help determine how fast a writer makes it in the publishing business.

Writing good drabbles can bring about acceptances by specialty websites that obtain them for sending on hand-held devices such as iPhones, etc. The reader only needs a few seconds to read the story and can either ponder it or chuckle over it later. They’re fun, fast, and sometimes surprising.

Once you try to write these tricky little gems, you may get hooked yourself. Try it a few times as an exercise, if for no other reason. Remember—there is a market out there for them, too.

Well, all that remains now is to say thank you to Claudette for taking the time and trouble to send me these great posts. I hope to have more guest bloggers soon. If you would like to be a guest blogger, please let me know.