FOREWARD

What Is A Drabble Novel?

Since writing the novel and podcasting it to over 6,000 subscribers, the number one question I am asked is: what is a drabble novel?

Well, to understand what a drabble novel is, you have to understand what a drabble is. So let us start at the beginning, a drabble is a piece of micro-fiction exactly 100 words long. Not 99, not 101, but 100 words precisely.

Having to hit that kind of word count can be a bit challenging, but after a little practice it begins to flow rather easily.

So I worked on a few drabbles and became quite hooked on the style. Of course, since just writing 100 words wasn’t enough, I asked myself, “Self, could drabbles be strung together in a longer narrative?”

Thus, the Drabble Novel was born!

Well, there was a little hit and miss in the beginning…

Basically I started writing character sketches, action scenes, plot twists, really, anything that popped into my head, just to see if I even had a novel in me. After a hundred or so of these disjointed snapshots of the idea in my head, I realized I actually had something. Something that I could legitimately write and call a Drabble Novel. So I dove right in.

Now, the actual process of writing the novel wasn’t quite so free for all. Pretty much I would write 100 words, go over it a few times, then a few more times, then a few more times, until the pacing and wording was just right. Then I’d print out that page and move onto the next 100 words. I was pretty much doing what all writers say not to do: I was doing final edits as I wrote. Yep, I was polishing one piece before moving onto the next. And there really wasn’t any other way to do it.

You see, in the beginning I couldn’t hit 100 words on the first pass. Usually I would hit 183 words or 217 words then have to chop, chop, chop. Some of my best prose was axed in order to keep the story strong. As I became more experienced with the flow of the style, I would actually hit 100 words about seven out of ten times on the first try. Which actually made my job harder because I would re-read the piece and realize something didn’t work and almost have to re-write the entire thing to get the right flow and pacing and still hit 100 words.

I’ll tell you one thing, you learn economy of words when writing a Drabble Novel! There really ain’t no space for flowery description and exposition. You have to get to the meat of the matter right away and stick with it. Don’t dilly dally. Every single word counts.

So, that’s the nuts and bolts of a Drabble Novel.

I put my heart and soul into this novel and went a tad cooky writing it, but I loved every word of it.

I hope you do too.

-Cheers,

Jake Bible

February 2011