Drabbles, Dribbles & Even Shorter Stories by Owen Townend

I have a new morning habit these days: writing microfiction. I take an unused title from my typically daft repertoire and use it as a prompt to generate a flash fiction.

Some titles easily inspire stories and a premise quickly forms in my mind, no matter how surprising that may turn out to be. Some titles just lead to creative false starts and dead-ends. But that's the daily discipline of writing for you.

What I do find invigorating is how I've been able to create interesting plots and characters within 300 words or fewer. Being someone who submits to competitions and submission callouts, it helps to have at least one option for every conceivable word limitation.

I have a half dozen serviceable drabbles (100 words exactly), a couple of decent dribbles (50 words exactly) and even the occasional 10-word or 6-word tale. Mind you, I do think these latter types are too short to work as self-contained narratives and even verge on poetry, but that's just my judgement.

Anyway, here are a couple of examples of how these storytelling challenges work. If you're inspired to have a go at one yourself, please feel free to share it in the comments below.

A Drabble (100 Words) - Breakables in a Briefcase

She waited for the salesman to sleep, then dashed off the train at Stockport.

            The salesman’s briefcase was surprisingly heavy but slid through the automatic doors easily enough.

            However, as her feet hit the platform, she heard several things shift, rattle, snap and thud inside the case.

            Arriving at an alcove, she opened the carry-on and looked inside. Shards of glass phone screens and fine China dust filled the cracks of a framed photo of a chipped marble statue. Everything was broken. Any worth was gone.

            Chucking the evidence in some bushes, she was finally confronted by the word ‘FRAGILE’.

A Dribble (50 Words) - Distended West End

I went to the London Theatre and saw everything.

            Plays from Ayckbourn to Zola, absurd to topical.

            Then came the musicals, toe tappers to ear-splitters.

            I even took in the ballet: mesmerised by Mendelssohn, bored with Brecht.

            Now I’m queasy from all that spinning, singing and sinning.

            A bloated stage.

10-Word Flash Fiction - The 1:40 Watch

The time is 1:40am. Expectations have been met. Not mine.

6-Word Flash Fiction - A Bookish Dustman

 

He retrieves, he cleans, he reads.