Drabbles are up

[madeleone]

This week's drabbles and the voting post are both up over at hogwarts_ldws. Eleven to choose from this week and it's not any easier to choose just three than it was last week.

If you need an HP drabble fix go check it out. This week's prompt was: Someone gets caught out in a lie. It had to be exactly 400 words. Vote for your top three favorites

Comments

[too-dle-oo.livejournal.com]

toblass is cruel with these exact word counts! I'll have you know that I told her she could give us either an exact number OR a range (i.e. 300-500 words, 100-199 words), and she chooses the exact number TWICE IN A ROW.

[toblass.livejournal.com]

I’d like to think Professor Snape would be a stickler for rules as well...

Okay, fine...so we aren’t making potions. Perhaps Toby is just as cruel as you say. 😬

*cackles*

[too-dle-oo.livejournal.com]

Ha ha ha ha! NO WORRIES, Toby! It's your call!

Truthfully, I'd rather have an exact 400-word assignment than a flexible 100-199-word assignment. Those super short drabbles are HARD!

[toblass.livejournal.com]

But that's the beauty of The Drabble...to be as succinct as one possibly can and still tell a complete story.

[too-dle-oo.livejournal.com]

UGH, I know. But it's brutal!

You know Hemingway's 6-word story? That's hard to top for concision: For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.

[toblass.livejournal.com]

Yikes. I've never heard of that one. It tells a story, yet begs a story. There's a whole story within the story and it could be any number of things.

[too-dle-oo.livejournal.com]

Yep. It's a story I think I never want fleshed out more fully.

[toblass.livejournal.com]

Also, I really love how The Drabble challenges a writer. All too often, I've seen random folks on various social media platforms talk about (or practically brag on) how many words they wrote in a day. My question for them though would be whether that was a matter of quality vs. quantity and which they value more.

[too-dle-oo.livejournal.com]

AGREED! Mark Twain once wrote a letter to a friend with something in it like, "I only had a little time, so I wrote this letter. If only I'd had more time! Then my letter could have been shorter!"

This is why I'm missing out on a lot of the great epic fanfic; I refuse to read anything above around 150K. I'm a huge fan of short stories and novellas, but epics just turn my brain right off!

[toblass.livejournal.com]

It's difficult for me to say how I feel about epic fics. Some of my favorites have been epic-length, while there have been some I've had to abandon mid-read. In the end it really depends on the story and the writing itself for me. If it's a compelling story but badly written, I will attempt to soldier through...until I can't.

[too-dle-oo.livejournal.com]

I think everyone gravitates towards what works for them, and that's okay. I'm primarily a reader of poetry and short stories these days, although I'm trying to become a novel reader again!

[madeleone]

Although I know I complain about having to hit a certain count exactly and how difficult that is, honestly, I think in this case, I prefer having that specific word count to hit. That's what makes the challenge so sweet.

When I first started writing fanfic, I hadn't written anything in years (decades, actually). Then I started shipping ss/hg and one of the first places I started posting was grangersnape100. It seemed like it should be easy using a weekly prompt and writing a single 100-word vignette, (or in my case it often ended up being a series with 100 words each). But having to tell a brief story with a finite amount of words is incredibly challenging. I think it makes better writers of us, learning to choose our words with the utmost economy to tell the tale.

[toblass.livejournal.com]

I think it makes better writers of us, learning to choose our words with the utmost economy to tell the tale.

Yes yes yes!!! And I think Professor Snape would award 20 points to your House (Hufflepuff, yes?) for this comment.

I absolutely love GS100 and the 100 word series format is the best! GS100 is also the place I dipped my toes into writing.

[madeleone]

Hufflepuff, yes. So sweet of you to remember.

I kept telling myself I would start doing the GS100 challenge again but I am such a procrastinator these days. This drabble fest was the perfect chance to jump back in. And thanks to Too_dle_oo for running the fest, and to you for providing the excellent prompts. ;-)

[toblass.livejournal.com]

I’d like to think Professor Snape would be a stickler for rules as well...

Okay, fine...so we aren’t making potions. Perhaps Toby is just as cruel as you say. 😬

*cackles*