Henneth Annûn Story Archive

I know a drabble is to be limited 100 words, but does this number include the words in the title?

 

I know a drabble is to be limited 100 words, but does this number include the words in the title? According to the official drabble rules, you have an additional 15 words for the title. The Rules "One hundred words" must be EXACTLY one hundred words: not a syllable more, not a letter less. In addition, up to fifteen words (title, sub-titles and the like) are allowed. Hyphenated-words-are-argued-about. The Drabble Project Homepage Gwynnyd - who never understood the appeal of this form until she started trying to write them

 

Well, sort of exactly 100 words. Mine are always 100 words as counted by my word-processing program, but they most always show up as a bit more in the word counts on the story summary pages here. And I was told when I started drabbling here that hypenated words count as one (which is why I like to use them a lot.) There was quite a discussion on this very topic over at the Yahoo Groups list, just last week I believe. Gwynnyd - your link is showing up an "Error 404 - Page not found" message. I'd really love to learn more about The Drabble Project, since drabbles are my chosen art form. Can you provide some additional information? Ann

 

I'd really love to learn more about The Drabble Project..(snip)... Can you provide some additional information? Same here! New link, please, Gwynnyd? ~Meril

 

Well, sort of exactly 100 words. My personal opinion is that to be a drabble, the story must have *exactly* 100 words. Because I'm a computer programmer and have written my own word-identifying algorithms, I know that you cannot rely on *any* program to count words correctly. There will always be some combination of punctuation or line breaks that will fool any given algorithm. So, the only way to get an accurate count is to do it by hand, and ignore what Word or any story archive says... Once I've finished the initial tweaking with my drabbles, I also copy them and break them up into lines of 5 words each, then count those lines, as a final check that I've counted correctly. Counting by hand is a pain, but it's worth it to have confidence that my drabbles have the correct word-count. - Barbara P.S. And Gwynnyd: I've gotten hooked on the little buggers too... it's *amazing* how fast they get their claws into you!

 

Oh....they are supposed to be exactly a hundred words long? ;-( But then not knowing what I am doing has never stopped me before... Branwyn

 

"Counting by hand is a pain, but it's worth it to have confidence that my drabbles have the correct word-count. - Barbara" I apologize in advance if this sounds snarky because I don't mean it to sound that way. Barbara, do you hand count other author's drabbles? I ask because I let Word do my counting for me. I hand counted my very first drabble. The hand count agreed with Word's count. Since then, I've trusted Word to tell me when I had 100 words. LKK

 

Gwynnyd - your link is showing up an "Error 404 - Page not found" message. I'd really love to learn more about The Drabble Project, since drabbles are my chosen art form. Can you provide some additional information? Opps. Sorry. That USED to be the right link. It is now at http://www.meades.org/drabble.html or just click here the Drabble Project Gwynnyd

 

Would it be possible to add a short explanation of what a drabble is (or isn't) to the section home for the Birthday Cards Forum? From the context, I had gathered that it was simply a short piece of prose on a given theme. Didn't know that anyone would be counting words. Regards Branwyn

 

Branwyn, there's a whole forum dedicated to the creation of drabbles, Somewhere in there there probably is an explanation--try page two, I'd guess. But regardless, much fun stuff going on in that forum. But why don't we just link Gwynnyd's site to this forum's intro? That seems easiest, I think.

 

Barbara, do you hand count other author's drabbles? Oh, my heavens, no! I wouldn't even think of it! Frankly, when I read other authors' drabbles, I just sit back and relax and enjoy the ride! My level of, ahem, obsessiveness with detail is usually limited to my own work. I provided the information as a warning for other authors who might share my perfectionistic tendencies with word counts on their own drabbles. I sincerely hope it did not come across as intolerance for anyone who chooses to obtain the same goal by a different route, or who isn't quite as, well, nit-picking. If it did, I apologize! And if you really want to know what my attitude is about word-counts, see the birthday drabble I submitted to honor Frodo and Bilbo's birthdays (the 111-word drabble challenge). - Barbara [Edit: ] P.S. And your question didn't sound snarky to me... thank you for asking it, so I could clarify that *I* wasn't trying to be snarky, either. [Edit 2: ] When I said I wouldn't even think of it, I meant that I wouldn't even think of *counting* the words in another author's drabble, not that I wouldn't think of counting *by hand*. Shutting up now... I promise!

 

According to the Drabble project hyphenated words *are* counted as one. Back when paranoidangel first started the Drabble Forum I went looking for information and decided that the Drabble Project does seem to be the most authoriative (don't think that's actually a word but hopefully you know what I mean) source, and that's what they say There was also a discussion of drabbles in Patterns of Prose. Avon

 

And if you really want to know what my attitude is about word-counts, see the birthday drabble I submitted to honor Frodo and Bilbo's birthdays (the 111-word drabble challenge). I've read your birthday drabble, Barbara. Several times, in fact. I think it's a hoot! LKK

 

I've read your birthday drabble, Barbara. Several times, in fact. I think it's a hoot! Thank you, LKK! I figured that any author who has ever struggled with the drabble format would understand... - Barbara And now, back to work: trying to get Sauron to sit still long enough to drabble on...

 

According to the Drabble project hyphenated words *are* counted as one. That's a relief! If it weren't for hyphens, I'd never meet my word count! Thanks for the info, Avon! - Barbara

 

Personally, I use Word to count (what's the point of the word count function otherwise?) My drabbles show up as 100 words here on HASA and on Stories of Arda, but are often slightly different on ff.net. I'm finally beginning to get the hang of them, and know when I'm close to the target - but the final tweaking (add three, remove four) are still tricky as someone else pointed out. The title is extra, and I often have an author's note explaining the origin of the particular drabble. I did manage the 111 drabble, though (it's not hobbitty, but no-one said it had to be!) Jay

 

But why don't we just link Gwynnyd's site to this forum's intro? That seems easiest, I think. Dwimordene-- Thanks much (I see the link is already out there), and I will pay a visit to that drabble forum, also. This will be very helpful. Branwyn

 

De nada, Branwyn. You know, I was among the skeptical when it came to drabbles. Then Nic (paranoidangel) and others at the drabble forum started a challenge. Like I could possible resist that, even though I figured I'd try it just to show myself how impossible they were to do anything with. Several pages of drabbles later, I think I can safely say that the drabble forum creators have forcefed me my own words about a hundred times over. Anyhow, have fun with it!

 

*grins* I'm still not that convinced by drabbles - maybe that's why my drabbles have been known to go two thousand words or so over the limit! I do like writing them more than I like reading them, I think. There just aren't enough words in a drabble for me, I guess: it's worse than when they used to put pictures in fanzines ;-) Avon

 

Avon, It doesn't matter to me if you're convinced by drabbles or even if you like to read them. As long as you keep writing them, that's all that matters to me! LKK *big fan of Avon's drabbles*

 

Avon, when I first started reviewing here, I declined a story because I thought it was fragmentary. I had a pleasant conversation with the writer, in which I observed that I didn't like short pieces, because I could never figure out what was going on. She must have put a curse, or a blessing (depending on how you look at things) on me, because now that I'm writing, short is what I write. (But I am so glad there are folks like you that write nice long meaty stories that I love to read!) Ann

 

As long as you keep writing them, that's all that matters to me! LKK *big fan of Avon's drabbles* I second that sentiment! - Barbara

 

Hi folks An alert for all you keen birthday drabblers (especially some of our newer members, who probably weren't around when the original sign-ups were going on): Avon and Dwim are trying to round up people to complete drabbles of the remaining chapters of The Hobbit and The Silmarillion over in the drabbles forum. Drabbling book chapters is a lot of fun (even if you end up cursing Tolkien for putting in way too much action), so get over there and sign up for the final few chapters that still need to be completed if you're interested. Cheers, Liz

 

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