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Drabble

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[edit] Introduction

A drabble is a short story. According to The Fanfiction Glossary:

Set by the Birmingham University SF Society as thus: a self-contained vignette of exactly 100 words, no more, no less, with up to 15 more words are allowed for the title. Hyphenated words are in dispute. The term originates from a Monty Python skit: "Drabble. A word game for 2 to 4 players. The four players sit from left to right and the first person to write a novel wins." Drabbles started in British SF fandom in the late '80s. A half-drabble is fifty words long; a double drabble is 200 words long.[1]

[edit] Historical Definitions Timeline

[edit] 1971

[edit] 1980s

  • The term continued to float around. By the mid 1980s, it was being used in the science fiction community, at various conventions and other fan gatherings. By 1988, the term was being used in the main stream science fiction community. There were several books of published drabbles by professional authors. Included in the 1988 book Drabble Project was one by Terry Pratchett and one by Isaac Asimov. Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction also ran a contest for drabbles.

[edit] 1990

  • By 1990, the term was being used on-line. One of the first mentions of, with the 100 word definition, it on Usenet was in May of 1990 on rec.arts.sf-lovers though there might be an earlier reference as most Usenet archives are not complete.

[edit] 1993

  • One of the earliest references to a drabble in a purely fannish context on-line was on alt.startrek.creative in July of 1993. Some one mentioned a drabble by Kate Orman, a Doctor Who and Star Trek fan fiction writer. Given the discussion, it is obvious the drabble was posted to the community earlier.
  • In September of 1993, David Howe and David Ware were the editors of the ten released book Drabble Who which contained drabbles set in the Doctor Who universe. This was a professional book.

[edit] 1995

  • Someone told me that the title doesn't count towards the 100-word form of a Drabble, (Greg McElhatton. “Another Drabble” to alt.drwho.creative. April 9, 1995. )

[edit] 1997

  • Drabbles : Stories of 100 words (precisely) (Alan Taylor. “DRABBLE: The Way Down” to alt.drwho.creative. July 27, 1997. )

[edit] 2000

  • By 2000, probably earlier, the term drabble was being used in the Swedish and Finnish fan fiction communities. The usage of the term in this community probably predates this.
  • Drabble: A story of exactly 100 words (katz. “Alt.StarTrek.Creative FAQ Posting Codes” to alt.startrek.creative. October 14, 2000. )

[edit] 2003

[edit] 2004

  • Appalling thought, that, since it means yet more people are going to be wandering around with this misconception of what a drabble is. Generally speaking, I try to be an "anything goes in fandom" kinda gal, and just take people's individual definitions in stride. The thing is, let's say you've got someone who declares she doesn't like drabbles, and you get someone who agrees with her, and someone who doesn't, and these two someones start debating with each other, and one or the other of them mentions the 100-word limit, and the original poster pops up and says, "Oh, I define drabble as anything under 500 words." (http://www.trickster.org/symposium/symp162.html)
drabble = A short story that is exactly 100 words long. (50 words is a half-drabble, 200 words a double drabble.) [2]

[edit] 2005

  • For this we use a looser definition of drabble, 100-150 words in exact multiples of 5. [3]
  • A vignette which is exactly 100 words long, no more, no less. The term may have originated in Doctor Who fandom, certainly it's the first place I encountered it, and I couldn't find it in my dictionary. From this people also refer to a double-drabble (200 words) and a half-drabble (50 words) [4]
  • Any piece of fanfiction between 100 and 500 words. [5]
  • The following definition dates to May 2005 in the slash, Westlife, and Lord of the Rings fandoms:
Drabble - Story which contains exactly 100 words, no more, no less. [6]

[edit] 2007

The following definition dates to March 2007 in the Pokemon fandom:

drabble - A drabble is a fanfic (I hesitate to call it a "story") of exactly 100 words. More commonly, "drabble" is used to refer to any very short story that, rather than having a plot, displays an emotioinal snapshot of some character. Because I believe that the drabble is really a very lame variety of story, I do not use the term or recognize the form. Instead, for very short stories, I have developed my own term, the "über-short," as discussed further in Chapter 11: Story Length - The Long and the Über-short of It. [7]

[edit] 2008

The following definition dates to 2008 in the Superman fandom:

Drabble - A fan fiction that is self contained and is no more than 100 hundred words. A half drabble is a fan fiction of 50 words and a double drabble is a fan fiction of 200 words. OR A drabble can sometimes mean a very short fic that is not exactly 100 words but extremely short, for instance, it is not incorrect to call a 500 word fan fiction a drabble. [8]

[edit] Timeline of Usage

Below is a timeline of usage in a fandom of the word drabble, meaning a 100 word piece of fan fiction, in a particular fan community. The dates are based on zine publishing dates, LiveJournal community starting, mailing list and Usenet postings and story publication dates. Because of these many different factors, actual usage may predate the year listed.

[edit] 1988

[edit] 1990

[edit] 1995

[edit] 1996

[edit] 1997

[edit] 1998

[edit] 1999

[edit] 2000

[edit] 2001

[edit] 2002

[edit] 2003

[edit] 2004

[edit] 2005

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://www.fanhistory.com/wiki/Drabble"
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