I weirdly love that there are crotchety fandom elders around who say shit like “in my day, (insert fandom term) meant this specifically, but now you kids just use it to mean any old thing.”
It seriously gives fandom such a sense of heritage and family, like yes grandma, tell me more about how you had to write fic uphill both ways in the snow when you were my age.
I’m approaching crotchety old grandma.
No but this is me.
DRABBLES ARE EXACTLY 100 WORDS NO MORE NO LESS AND DON’T FUCKING TRY TO TELL ME OTHERWISE.
This is me also. A crackship is NOT the same as a rarepair and the two terms canNOT be used interchangeably.
YOU CAN ONLY HAVE ONE OTP.
It’s literally right there in the name. It is your ONE true pairing.
I get around this one by have one OTP for each fandom. It’s my OTP for that fandom.
I am a crotchety old fandom grandmother and I approve this message
the drabble thing irks me SO MUCH it makes me feel like an old lady yelling at kids on her lawn
#oh fandom #THE DRABBLE THING #DRABBLES ARE 100 WORDS #ONE GODDAMN HUNDRED WORDS EXACTLY #jfc that’s what made them such a fun and interesting challenge #was getting it to exactly 100 words #and the rush of FINALLY getting there after picking and poking #or the sheer dumb joy of nailing it within a word or two on the first shot #so you only had to do the most minor editing #do not give me a fucking 8000 word fic and call it a drabble #ThAT IS NOT A DRABBLE (via @wasoncedelight)
IF IT IS MORE THAN 100 WORDS IT IS A FICLET NOT A DRABBLE OMG WHY DON’T YOU JUST CALL IT A HAIKU WHILE YOU’RE AT IT???
I WILL DIE ON THE DRABBLE HILL!!! GET OFF MY LAWN!!!
WHY DON’T YOU JUST CALL IT A HAIKU WHILE YOU’RE AT IT
YES YES YES and age has nothing to do with it. The whole point of a drabble is that it is a strict literary form. Poets are used to these – haiku, villanelles, sonnets, sestinas, etc. – but fiction writers don’t get to play with them as often.
The strict format is the whole point of the drabble – challenging yourself to say something meaningful within a very specific limit. It forces you to edit, rephrase, whittle down until you are exactly there.
Now, 100 isn’t the only form I’d recognize as a drabble – take the Sherlockian 221B drabble – which is exactly 221 words and the last word must end with B. That’s a legit type of drabble, because it’s still a very short story in a strict form.
There are lots of other words and terms that refer to a “short story under 1000 words”: flash fiction, ficlet, minific, short-short etc. Please don’t take away the VERY SPECIFIC word “drabble,” because we don’t have another word that means that.
Yes, language changes, but it shouldn’t become less useful as it does so.
I also hear that the kids these days don’t use the word “plotbunny” anymore?????????? WHAT DO YOU CALL THEM, THEN?
Published
the moon is beautiful 