Thursday, October 15, 2009

On Halloween season

My writer’s group, the Burrow, has a website where we have specialized in drabbles. Drabbles are 100 word long (short) pieces of fiction, and we like to accompany them with appropriate pictures. We’ve had a good, long summer break, but now we’re back, celebrating the fact that Halloween season really is all of October. The drabble below, along with others, can be found at http://www.the-burrow.org/ this entire month. While you’re there, you might want to check out our archive as well, where some of our earlier projects can be found.



'Twas a dark, stormy night. Delete. Setting the mood for a story was harder than he remembered. It was as though he didn't have it in him anymore. Maybe he should give up horror stories entirely and write romance?
With the cessation of the typewriter's steady clicks, the door creaked open. A girl entered.
"Daddy?" A pair of puppy eyes stared at him.
"Yes, darling?"
"Read me a bedtime ftory?"
There was no resisting those puppy eyes she was squeezing in her hand.
"Of course," he said, reattaching his head.
"I promise it'll be a scary one."
She smiled happily.

8 comments:

M.J. Nicholls said...

I am warming to drabbles. Provided they're harmless fun designed to get people's creative pistons pumping.

I've rubbed up against drabble "snobbery," believe it or not. People can be über-critical on shorter stuff. Fools.

Anyway... loved the Halloween drabble, and Viva La Burrow!

Cruella Collett said...

Thanks, Mark! I've come to like the format, even though I am not necessarily impressed with my own attempts. The Burrow have some very good drabblers, though. And it's priceless that this originally was a Monty Python term.

Natasha said...

Love the drabble Mari.

Mark, drabble snobbery? How did that come about - drabbles are the best thing ever invented, but maybe I am a bit biased.

Hart Johnson said...

*ponders* what would that be then... Drabbery? Drobbery? Or do we just call them DrabSnobs? Snobbles? HA! I like that. Snobbles, they are! I think it's true though, that people see a short piece and it is easy to think "ah, I can do that!" (which they can) and then add a 'better' at the end, thereby losing the point...

Amber T. Smith said...

I too love drabbles, though I think I might be biased as well. *shifty* And Mari, I've always loved your drabbles, they're just so perfectly you! I was going to put one of my drabbles in my blog today as a matter of fact, but it was a depressing one and I didn't want to scare anyone.*snort*

M.J. Nicholls said...

Mwahaha! I love snobbles! Well, I love the word. Not the snobbles themselves.

What I meant by snobblery was the tendency for drabbles to be dismissed as either "Pass" or "Fail."

In a short story there can be many wonderful things, even if the whole thing doesn't hang together. Drabbles HAVE to work... or else!

Cruella Collett said...

*is a snobble* (Kidding!)

Natasha - thank you! I believe this kind of bias is good bias... ;)

Tara - I guess not scaring anyone is a good idea, though I would be happy to see the drabble (do like Natasha - add a "this is a work of fiction" label to it). And thank you - I am happy to hear that my drabbles are perfectly me (even if that makes them digressionary nutcases).

Mark - I sort of agree with you (or rather, with your explanation why there are snobbles out there). There is little room for weak spots in a drabble. Then again, that is probably the reason they are challenging despite the seemingly easy format.

Cruella Collett said...

That wasn't really a "then again", actually. It was more of a "further on". Or a digression leading nowhere. Like a space shuttle gone wild. I want to see "Where the Wild Things Are". But it is raining and I need to tidy my room. And tomorrow I think I shall have to go coat shopping. Why am I writing this? Because I am the space shuttle.

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