Hal’s Ladder won the Mystery Women Crime Story competition in March 2011. The first sentence was provided: ‘Poor Hal. I knew him well – like a brother …’ The story had to be under 1000 words and crime. This was the first real monetary prize I won for a short story and it set me on the road I’m still walking. Find it here.
A ‘Drabble’ is a 100 word story, generally science fiction.
Like a Haiku, the best Drabbles have a twist at the end. The best way to approach writing a Drabble is to write a longer story, with the usual beginning, middle and end and pare it down (with a cleaver rather than a filleting knife). And finally, invest in (or bookmark) a thesaurus. It will help you to reduce your word count and yet allow you to say so much more.
Drabbles by Sue Dawes can be found on the Specklit website. For some prompts see here.
This photo was taken of the short-listed authors of the Debut Dagger competition in 2013. The creative writing competition was for the first 3000 words of a crime novel. Sue Dawes is the last author on the right.
