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A drabble is a short work of fiction of precisely one hundred words in length. [1] [2] [3] [4] The purpose of the drabble is brevity, testing the author's ability to express interesting and meaningful ideas in a confined space.
The concept is said to have originated in UK science fiction fandom in the 1980s; the 100-word format was established by the Birmingham University SF Society, taking a term from Monty Python's 1971 Big Red Book . [1] [4] In the book, "Drabble" was described as a word game where the first participant to write a novel was the winner. In order to make the game possible in the real world, it was agreed that 100 words would suffice. French writer Félix Fénéon may be considered as a precursor with his nouvelles en trois lignes (three lines short stories), inspired by new items.
In drabble contests, participants are given a theme and a certain amount of time to write. (For example, Wilfrid Laurier University conducted a "100 Words Centennial Drabble Contest" in commemoration of its 100th anniversary in 2011, in which contestants were asked to write about "inspiration, leadership or purpose". [1] [5] ) Drabble contests, and drabbles in general, are popular in science fiction fandom and in fan fiction. Beccon Publications published three volumes, The Drabble Project (1988) and Drabble II: Double Century (1990), both edited by Rob Meades and David Wake, and Drabble Who (1993), edited by David J. Howe and David Wake.
Published science fiction writers who have written drabbles include Brian Aldiss and Gene Wolfe (both of whom contributed to The Drabble Project), [4] Lois McMaster Bujold (whose novel Cryoburn finishes with a sequence of five drabbles, each told from the point of view of a different character), [6] [7] and Jake Bible (whose novel Dead Mech was written entirely in drabble format). [8]
100 Word Story is an online literary journal that was co-founded in 2011 by Grant Faulkner and Lynn Mundell. [9] It publishes stories that are exactly 100 words long.
The web has also enabled a rapid spread of the genre, with publishers such as The Third Word Press using the web to collect drabble stories. [10]
A similar concept is 55 Fiction, which is a form of microfiction that refers to the works of fiction that are either limited to a maximum of 55 words or have a requirement of exactly 55 words. [11] The origin of 55 Fiction can be traced to a short story writing contest organized by New Times, an independent alternative weekly in San Luis Obispo, California, in 1987. [12] The idea was proposed by New Times founder and publisher Steve Moss. [13]
A literary work will be considered 55 Fiction[ citation needed ] if it has:
The title of the story is not part of the overall word count, but cannot exceed seven words.
Lois McMaster Bujold is an American speculative fiction writer. She is an acclaimed writer, having won the Hugo Award for best novel four times, matching Robert A. Heinlein's record. Her novella The Mountains of Mourning won both the Hugo Award and Nebula Award. In the fantasy genre, The Curse of Chalion won the Mythopoeic Award for Adult Literature and was nominated for the 2002 World Fantasy Award for best novel, and both her fourth Hugo Award and second Nebula Award were for Paladin of Souls. In 2011 she was awarded the Skylark Award. She has won two Hugo Awards for Best Series, in 2017 for the Vorkosigan Saga and in 2018 for the World of the Five Gods. The Science Fiction Writers of America named her its 36th SFWA Grand Master in 2019.
Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or fandom of people interested in science fiction in contact with one another based upon that interest. SF fandom has a life of its own, but not much in the way of formal organization.
Ethan of Athos is a 1986 science fiction novel by American author Lois McMaster Bujold. The title character is Dr. Ethan Urquhart, Chief of Biology at the Sevarin District Reproduction Centre on the planet Athos, who is sent to find out what happened to a shipment of vital ovarian tissue cultures. Set in the fictional universe of Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga, the novel mentions but does not feature her usual protagonist Miles Vorkosigan. To date, Bujold has never revisited the settings of Athos or Kline Station in her many subsequent novels, but the events of Ethan of Athos are later referred to indirectly in the novels Borders of Infinity (1989) and Cetaganda (1995).
The Wind's Twelve Quarters is a collection of short stories by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin, named after a line from A. E. Housman's A Shropshire Lad, and first published by Harper & Row in 1975. A retrospective of Le Guin's short stories, it collects 17 previously published pieces of speculative fiction. Four of these were the germs of novels she was to write later, and a few others shared connections to Le Guin novels. At least four stories are set in the Hainish Universe, and two others in Earthsea. Many stories share themes and motifs, including time and utopia: certain images and characters also recur, including isolated scholars or explorers seeking knowledge in a hostile world.
Flash fiction is a brief fictional narrative that still offers character and plot development. Identified varieties, many of them defined by word count, include the six-word story; the 280-character story ; the "dribble" ; the "drabble" ; "sudden fiction" ; "flash fiction" ; and "microstory".
The 62nd World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), also known as Noreascon 4, was held on 2–6 September 2004 at the Hynes Convention Center, Sheraton Boston Hotel and Boston Marriott Copley Place in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
NESFA Press is the publishing arm of the New England Science Fiction Association, Inc. The NESFA Press primarily produces three types of books:
The 66th World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), also known as Denvention 3, was held on 6–10 August 2008 at the Colorado Convention Center and the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel in Denver, Colorado, United States.
Lillian Stewart Carl is an American author of mystery, fantasy and science-fiction novels.
Jason Sanford is an American science fiction author whose 2022 novel Plague Birds was a finalist for the Nebula and Philip K. Dick Awards. He's also known for his short fiction, which has been published in Interzone, Asimov's Science Fiction, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Year's Best SF 14, InterGalactic Medicine Show and other magazines and anthologies.
SFera is a science fiction society from Zagreb, Croatia. It was founded in 1976, thus marking the beginnings of organised science fiction fandom in the region.
Cryoburn is a science fiction novel by American writer Lois McMaster Bujold, first published in October 2010. Part of the Vorkosigan Saga, it explores the long-term societal effects of cryonics. Bujold has called it "an extended meditation on death."
Hannu Rajaniemi is a Finnish American author of science fiction and fantasy, who writes in both English and Finnish. He lives in Oakland, California, and was a founding director of a commercial research organisation ThinkTank Maths.
A Civil Campaign: A Comedy of Biology and Manners is a science fiction novel by American writer Lois McMaster Bujold, first published in September 1999. It is a part of the Vorkosigan Saga, and is the thirteenth full-length novel in publication order. It is included in the 2008 omnibus Miles in Love. The title is an homage to the Georgette Heyer novel A Civil Contract and, like Heyer's historical romances, the novel focuses on romance, comedy, and courtship. It is dedicated to "Jane, Charlotte, Georgette, and Dorothy", novelists Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Georgette Heyer, and Dorothy L. Sayers.
Jessica Marie FreyFRY is a Canadian science fiction and fantasy author. While she is best known for her debut novel Triptych, Frey's work encompasses poetry, academic and magazine articles, screenplays, and short stories. Frey calls herself a "professional geek".
Komarr is a 1998 science fiction novel by Lois McMaster Bujold. It is a part of the Vorkosigan Saga, and is the twelfth full-length novel in publication order. It was included in the 2008 omnibus Miles in Love. It won the Minnesota Book Award (1999).
Grant Faulkner is an American writer, the former executive director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), the co-founder of the online literary journal 100 Word Story, the co-host of the podcast Write-minded, and an Executive Producer of America's Next Great Author.
This is the complete list of works by American science fiction and fantasy author Lois McMaster Bujold.
The 76th World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), also known as Worldcon 76 in San Jose, was held on 16–20 August 2018 in San Jose, California, United States.
100 Word Story is a literary magazine that was founded in 2011 by writers Grant Faulkner and Lynn Mundell in Berkeley, California. It publishes stories and essays that are exactly 100 words in length ; each piece is published with an accompanying photo.