How to write a drabble: nailing a story concept in exactly 100 words

A writer’s workshop on how to approach the ultimate short story, under the expert tutelage of author, teacher and British Fantasy Society secretary David Green, as well as author and drabble writer extraordinaire Nicolette Ward. In a world of increasing brevity, the drabble short story form is rising like a phoenix. An increasing number of magazines and story competitions are asking for the drabble format. But nailing a complete story in 100 words is difficult–some might say impossible. How does one even approach the concept? How does one execute it? David Green will run you through the basics in this online workshop and Nicolette Ward will take you through her process of how to get to the perfect 100-word limit.  (This paragraph is 19 words over the drabble limit btw. Just saying…)

David Green is a neurodivergent writer of the epic and the urban, the fantastical, the cosy and the mysterious. David’s Path Of War was nominated for Best Novel at the 2023 BFS Awards and Beyond Sundered Seas and At Eternity’s Gates were both nominated for best novel in 2024. He alse runs creative writing writing classes. https://www.davidgreenwriter.com/

Nicolette M. Ward is the author of The Handy Little Book of First Lines and over 500 stories both original and in fandom, many of them delightfully dark, twisted, or both. She’s had numerous drabbles published in Horror Tree’s ‘Tremblling with Fear’ and is currently crafting an anthology of original drabbles and and is working on her first fantasy novel.

This event will take place online on zoom. Details to follow after sign-up.

Some notes on our workshops:

• New members are absolutely welcome – please feel free to come say hello and take part in the workshop, even if you’ve never been to any of our events before. Attendance of a workshop does not count towards full member eligibility, however.
• Registrations will close 1 hour before the meeting start time. Please be advised that spaces are limited due to venue capacity, so make sure to register your interest and keep it up to date if you find that you can no longer attend, so someone else can take your spot. Please see our Attendance Policy linked below the form for more info.
• Waiting lists are managed through Discord. If the event is full up, please put your name down in the appropriate thread on the #workshop channel on the Discord server (you can find it in the channel itself or as a sub-topic on the channel list on the left), and if a spot opens up an organiser will ping you to let you know so you can sign up. You can also keep checking the website ahead of the event, with a maximum 1 hour buffer, in case any spots open up.

As always, we are asking for a small donation towards the group’s annual running costs at each free session. If you are able to donate, you can pay online on our Ko-fi page, where you can even make your donation monthly. Monthly Ko-fi donors get a special ‘Monthly Benefactor’ role on our Discord, as well as discounts on any Spectrum-branded merch and special events tickets. So grab your spot while you can, and we look forward to seeing you there!