[ SECRET POST #2462 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2462 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 057 secrets from Secret Submission Post #352.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 2 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

05. http://i.imgur.com/IdqZgWe.png

[(Anonymous)]

ILU, please marry me.

Seriously, why is it so hard to just call it something else? Drabbles are 100-word stories; if it's got more or less call it a snippet, a ficlet, *anything* -- you wouldn't call any randomly metered poem a sonnet, either.

(If you do, you're an illiterate hack.)

[kaijinscendre]

Meh. Words change meaning. Drabble these days just means, "really short snippet fic". More importantly, let's call out those people who post 20 drabbles at once as individual stories. Those people need to be trapped in a room full of legos while barefoot.

[(Anonymous)]

It's not just you. I've seen stories over a thousand words long described as "drabbles," and I snort every time. The word they're looking for is either "flash" or "microfiction." I do not understand why this is such a difficult concept.

[(Anonymous)]

I get that might have been the original definition, but I don't think it really means that anymore. Drabbles are just really short fics today, and that's okay.

Seriously.

It's not a big deal.

[(Anonymous)]

+1, OP.

[(Anonymous)]

Because English is a living language so words in it can, and do, change meaning? And that dictionaries are usually pretty far behind on it [sometimes with good reason]?

Also, it doesn't help that most people have never heard of the other terms that can be used for it.

[(Anonymous)]

There are different ways of counting words, though -- and even more if you look at computer word-counters.

[(Anonymous)]

HUh. I had no idea a drabble had to be exactly 100 words. I don't care what people call them, just so long as I know that it's short, because I prefer o avoid short fics.

[forgottenjester]

...am I the only one who thinks this secret is making fun of people with similar beliefs by taking it to an extreme? Because I've seen people say it needs to be around 100 words and others who are like, "fuck that" but never anyone who has said it has to be 100 exactly.

So I just- am I the only one who thinks they're exaggerating to emphasize their disagreement?

[queerwolf]

I don't mind too much as long as they aren't using that term for stories over 1,000 words. Then I start twitching. Anything under 500 words is good with me for using drabble to describe it.

[loracarol]

Drabble has a specific meaning? O_O

I thought it was just a stand-alone short fic, approx. under 1000 words. Weird.

And I'm still going to keep using it "wrong", because why not. I'll make someone on the internet not read my fic? ...That's a problem why, exactly?

[(Anonymous)]

That's one word limit used to define the word. Others are 150, 200 and 300. All have been called drabbles in various fandom places online for the last almost 15 years. Before that, fanzines and BBSes often classified anything 500 words or less as a drabble.

tl;dr: there is no end all, be all word count to classify a work as a drabble

[blunderbuss]

Aww, bless you OP, I'm gonna wake up in the morning to see a massive wank that is hilarious and yet not rage-inducing. After the past few days that'd be a nice change of pace.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't really like drabbles that keep the 100 words rule. They are always just to short to be interesting to me.

[dancing_serpent]

I'm with you on that to almost a 100%. Almost, because there are several writers I like too much, who use a looser definition of "drabble" for various different reasons.

But yeah, for me a drabble will always be 100 words exactly. I even posted a link to the Wikipedia page you used for this secret in the rules on a comm I run *cough*

[augustbird]

i came in with a comment along the lines of "lol ok" but the number of people who have +1'ed this make me scratch my head. in the grand scheme of things does it really matter that much? everything is constantly evolving, including language.

[(Anonymous)]

AS a young fan... going on 15 years ago at this point. >.> A drabble was a short story that didn't necessarily have a conclusion/closure. It was more than a plot bunny but less than a fully formed fiction.
In recent years, I know drabble become a 100 word fic... but as I'm not the only long-term fan in existence I'm sure there are some writers who subscribe to the (theoretically) original meaning of the word.

[type_wild]

One the most powerful pieces of fanfiction I ever read was a drabble. Telling a story in 100 words means that the writer has to be VERY careful when choosing those words, so the writing and reading of good drabbles is often close to the same of poetry. Of course 95% of all drabbles are just churned out to be cute while keeping the word count, but the remaining 5% is the reason why I personally use the "drabble" label by word count, and not by relative length.

I don't usually bother with this debate, but I very much think that the "traditional" definition of the drabble (100 words) is a useful idea and, yeah, I don't understand why it's difficult to use a different word for "really short fic that might or might not have been written in twenty minutes because I was bored".

different wording

[(Anonymous)]

Shouldn't the secret rather be worded: "how do you expect me to take you seriously as a writer when you can't even meet a single challenge about form?"

Because the meaning of "drabble" has changed in recent years, but the above is what bothers me with people who go over their world-limit. It is an art of it's own to write a meaningful text with exactly the number of words given (be that 100, 200, 103, 75, whatever). Not one more, not one less.

[lady_songsmith]

Preach it, OP! A drabble is a form just like a sonnet or haiku, and part of the artistry in writing drabbles is dealing with that constraint. 'Any length you want as long as it's short' removes the need to choose words with care -- not that short fic isn't very good (subject to Sturgeon's Law like all else) but they shouldn't be called drabbles.

I mean, I'm not going to quibble about, say 98 or 103 word fics, because of the many ways to count words, any more that I quibble about the abuse of em-dash and parentheticals in a 3-sentence fic, but there should be at least an aweness of the form's limitations.

[cecilegrey]

I know I have occasionally broken this drabble "rule" at times (having written tons of flashfic over the years), but ultimately I can't help but come back to it. :) Drabble, to me, also means 100 words. And I enjoy the restriction. I don't quite feel right putting that label on anything else, so I use flashfic (or shortfic or ficlet) to label other size little fics. I'm not too bothered by other people using the word drabble however they want, but it still retains the 100 word definition in my head.

A drabble means "a paragraph not worth reading"

[(Anonymous)]

Seriously, I don't read that shit. Drabbles are just very short stories, and some people are into that, some people aren't. Only people who are really anal absolutely refuse to deal with a drabble that isn't 100 words.

[(Anonymous)]

I agree so much, OP! I get kind of irrationally irritated whenever I see someone call something a drabble that isn't 100 words. Ficlet! It's a ficlet! It isn't difficult.

[(Anonymous)]

Just out of curiosity, are there any reputable sources that recognize this very specific definition of drabble? Like, more reputable than wikipedia or urban dictionary?