You’ve all seen nanofiction before (which must, of course, have no more than 55 words of text plus no more than 7 words of title in it), as is used in games like Chrononauts and some of the other Geek Night favourites, but I’ve only recently discovered the idea of a drabble – a work of fiction totalling exactly 100 words.
I thought I’d share with you all a drabble written by a friend of mine (she’s put it only in places it’s hard to find, so I’m duplicating rather than linking).
WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN
From the day we were born, my twin sister was always the one people noticed. In our first photograph, just hours after our birth, she looked rosy, while I looked pale, like a wax doll. She grew into a beautiful and talented young woman – her singing voice was quite something to behold. I have no doubt that my mother loved me – although my father’s discomfort and disappointment in me was fairly blatant – but I remained something that was discussed as little as possible. I didn’t want to envy my beloved sister. If only I had been born alive, too.© Faye L Booth 2005 – used with permission – no unauthorised reproduction, in whole or part
Fabulous, I thought, and so I got permission to share it with you lot, too.
We had a mini-saga contest at school when I was in Year 7. You had to write a story in 50 words exactly. I won from out of the whole school (yeah, I used to be talented once….). It went something like this:
He was free! Free from his long imprisonment. Behind him, he could hear some kind of booming noise. He ran towards a dark space (a cave?), huddling away out of sight. Then suddenly, the booming stopped. Light flooded his surroundings, and a mighty voice said ‘Mum, I’ve found the hamster’.