Drabble Thursdays #5

Only six drabbles this week--I had a lazy day Wednesday.

DISCLAIMER: Drabbles may suck.

Drabble Thursdays #4

Finally back on board with this.

DISCLAIMER: Drabbles may suck.

Drabble Thursdays #3

Wow, this week's stories are overwhelmingly dark. Maybe next week I'll have some happier ones.

DISCLAIMER: Drabbles may suck.

Drabble Thursdays #2

Time for a few more of these!

DISCLAIMER: Drabbles may suck.

Drabble Thursdays #1

Today we get some of the first drabbles I've written. In the beginning I obviously had no idea what I was doing, but then I started warming up to it. Have a look!

DISCLAIMER: Drabbles may suck.

Warm-Ups: Daily Drabbles

A drabble is a story that's exactly 100 words. Simple as that.

A friend of mine encouraged me to start writing them as a possible way to ease into writing communities. I don't usually write short stories, and I know a lot of people aren't going to invest their time in looking into a full-length novel unless they're sure about the author. That's where this started out: just a source of a few little stories.

I changed them into something else: a warm-up for my real writing. As I mentioned a few days ago, my intention for the next couple of months is to write a chapter of The Third Face every single day (except maybe Christmas). That mission is going rather well, and part of it is that I have started each writing day by writing a drabble.

Because each story is very short, I rarely invest a lot of time or thought into them (today's was rather silly in fact). They're just enough to say I have some amount of writing done for the day, and they get that part of my brain going just a little bit. They don't intimidate me the same way 1000 words does, and once I've done them I can't exactly say I'm taking a vacation from writing for the day!

This is a fun little thing that I definitely won't mind making a more long-term habit of. In fact, I've decided to post the results of it each week here on the blog, in a new event called Drabble Thursdays. (I chose Thursday simply because that's when I wrote the first one.) I hope to see you all here for the first week's worth!

Sudden Fiction

The crazy thing about this November is juggling NaNoWriMo with work, school, and my other responsibilities. For one of my classes, I've been asked to write a short piece of "sudden fiction" based on the prompt: "Your character reveals his or her secret." I then got a second part to that prompt, the secret itself. Hopefully that will come through when you read the story below (which has no title at the moment).

The writing revolves around the concept of body language as a big part of communication. I wanted to see if I was capable of using that effectively. If I was successful, then you should be able to piece together a couple of things that the characters aren't actually saying.

“Why are you telling me this?” he said.
She stared at his eyes, which were fixed on the window. His mouth was covered by his clasped hands, muffling his words.
“Because I thought…” She choked on her words.
She looked down and drew back, hugging herself. She let out a breath, and brought one back in. One more time she looked up at him. Eye contact.
“I thought you would give me a chance,” she said. Her tight fists trembled.
He held her gaze for a long time. “Why would I?”
“Maybe I could be better for you. I know she’s making you happy, but maybe I could...”
When she said she’s making you happy, he finally looked away, down to the side.
There was a long silence, and her gaze fell too.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.
“Huh?” She leaned close towards him.
He didn’t respond for a minute, lost in thought, it seemed. Then he stood up, looking down at her, frowning. “Don’t throw the word love around. It’s a mistake.”
With that, he turned away and walked out the door.
Once he had left, she let go and cried.