Drabblewrimo 2023

[May Kasahara]

Just remembered it's drabble-writing month again, anyone fancy it? I've had such fun the last two years, both writing and reading everyone else's stories.

To refresh your memories, a drabble is a short work of fiction of precisely one hundred words in length. The purpose of the drabble is brevity, testing the author's ability to express interesting and meaningful ideas in a confined space. Here's a pic of some one-word prompts I found on a random Instagram account - not sure if there is anything more 'official' out there, but these will do.

 

[mojo pixy]

Ponder

I stand silently contemplating two pools, both glimmering in the afternoon sunshine. One is small, brown and fringed by scrubby grass that looks unhealthy. I hear a soft plop and my gaze shifts to the other, wider pool. Its dark water ripples gently from bubbles bursting here and there, and across one edge a scattering of lily pads recline beneath an aura of tiny flies that flit and tumble in the hazy air. Yes, I muse as I peer again at the smaller, muddier pool, This could just about be called a pond. But that one there is definitely ponder.



OK sorry, I'll try and do better another day

 

[May Kasahara]

I love it!

 

[May Kasahara]

sojourner scifisam Cloo polly Oula ... just trying to think of people who have previously done it or might be into the idea

 

[Cloo]

Thanks - I googled Drabblewrimo but couldn't find the list anywhere! Might try to catch up...

 

[Oula]

sojourner scifisam Cloo polly Oula ... just trying to think of people who have previously done it or might be into the idea

Thanks. I don't think brevity is a skill of mine but I'll give it a go.

 

[sojourner]

Thanks - I googled Drabblewrimo but couldn't find the list anywhere! Might try to catch up...

I couldn't either, cheers May!

Mad busy in work lately but will have a try when I can.

 

[May Kasahara]

Thanks. I don't think brevity is a skill of mine but I'll give it a go.

The brevity becomes surprisingly addictive.

Having said that, my day 5 effort is shit so I'll tidy it up and post it tomorrow

 

[polly]

Thanks for the tag May Kasahara I haven't written anything but corporate puff for ages, really should give this a go

 

[sojourner]

6. MIRAGE

There it was laid out on the front pages of all the newspapers, ‘breaking news’ banners littering TV channels and websites, a pixelated olive branch wafting over social media, heralding a new era. A peace treaty signed by both parties, a mutually negotiated two-state solution in black and white.

I couldn’t believe my eyes and rushed to record this momentous event in my journal. Writing the date, I was suddenly overcome by a wave of nausea. Surely not. How can this even be allowed? It can’t be.

Panicking, I checked the date again. Oh god, it is - 1st April.

 

[May Kasahara]

5. PONDER

With the will read, all that's left is to go inside. I pass dark gardens and vapid lanes that once enmeshed me. Wet autumn, wet leaves, eye-rolling through endless wet dinners prepared by my wet parents while they nagged me about my wet options. No thanks.

After the last party, before they threw me out, I found Dad in his study, pondering the wreckage. "Why? Why did you do it?" Now, driving my sensible car down these sensible streets to sell off the sensible house they left me, I ask the same question, my words absorbed by the wet dark.

 

[sojourner]

FIRE

Most people don’t remember his name, when he was born or where he was from. They do remember the photograph though, taken on a cheap Japanese camera.

As a form of protest it was certainly memorable, if not entirely successful. He never moved a muscle, didn’t cry out, and his face remained calm throughout.

It’s Quang Duc, by the way, his name. 1897, central Vietnam.

One can of gasoline, one matchbook, and one calm and resolute 66-year-old Buddhist monk, making one last inflammatory stand against persecution. Self-immolation. Hardcore.

They stole his charred heart, but his courage lives on in ours.

 

[sojourner]

JOYFUL

They'd probably call it a resting bitchface these days. They’d be wrong about that too.

I was called many things in my life but enigmatic was never one of them. What knobhead thought that up? Some white male middle class twat no doubt, stealing a living as an ‘art critic’.

So let’s set the record straight shall we? There was nothing wrong with my teeth, no blunt injury to the mouth, I wasn’t being rebellious or mysterious, in fact I was feeling really happy that day, one could say joyful.

Also, my name’s not even Lisa. It’s Fanny. Fanny Haddock.

 

[May Kasahara]

FIRE

It was the show of a lifetime: the burning Earth. Everyone came, discarding their algae masks on the floor of the spa, crawling out from under the sexatarium’s kitten-skin throws, downloading themselves from the ship’s CPU one last time.

They gathered on the Musk II’s vision deck as telescopic screens picked out the dot, once blue, now blackened and raging. “10, 9…” All the way down to the loneliest number. Cheering and raising of syringes. “Here it goes!”

A flicker in the dark. Then just dark. The last 1% turned to each other.

“Is that it?”

They stared.

“So…what now?”

 

[May Kasahara]

I'm quite behind, but still ploughing on

 

[sojourner]

Love it May Kasahara ! Especially the little details like the kitten-skins throws

 

[sojourner]

CACOPHONY

And lo, the gaping maw poured forth a stream of steaming venom, thick as demonic vomit, and from it, blowflies spun to spit on every pound of peace, every ounce of hope, every quarter of quiescence in every segment of the compass. And with this eruption, a jumble of sound, discordant bawling, and unholy howls to hollow the bones of the four horsemen.

If goblins sang in separate keys, played untuned fiddles with their knees, if the heavens tore and the hellmouth roared, they would not offend the same as she.

Then Braverman’s Maw clamped up once more, cacophony concluded.

 

[sojourner]

STAR

Use the STAR method to plan answers to interview questions/show skills & experience on a CV/application form.

• Situation - the situation you had to deal with
• Task - the task you were given to do
• Action - the action you took
• Result - what happened as a result of your action/what you learned from the experience

Situation - lost in the supermarket.

Task – shop happily for a special offer: guaranteed personality.

Action – tuned in, saw programs, saved coupons from packets of tea, emptied a bottle, felt a bit free.

Result – item disappeared, so repeated chorus 6 times. Exited shop.

 

[prunus]

STAR

Use the STAR method to plan answers to interview questions/show skills & experience on a CV/application form.

• Situation - the situation you had to deal with
• Task - the task you were given to do
• Action - the action you took
• Result - what happened as a result of your action/what you learned from the experience

Situation - lost in the supermarket.

Task – shop happily for a special offer: guaranteed personality.

Action – tuned in, saw programs, saved coupons from packets of tea, emptied a bottle, felt a bit free.

Result – item disappeared, so repeated chorus 6 times. Exited shop.

Marvellous

 

[sojourner]

Marvellous

Cheers!

 

[prunus]

Cheers!

Gae me a much needed laugh this morning Of course, now I've got it going round my head...

 

[May Kasahara]

JOYFUL

When you sighed at my singing in church. When you chose brown nylon sofas. When you took my second drink away at lunch. When you apologised to the borough commander and his wife for my cooking. When you frowned and turned the radio down.

I've fallen in love. For real this time, and with a woman. She smiles at me every day, in the mirrors of shop windows and parked cars.

When I threw my ring in your face. When I told your parents. When I laughed out loud. Joyful. That's right, you miserable old sod; joyful, joyful and triumphant.

 

[Lord Camomile]

Huh, it's also ZineWiMo.

I feel like the crossover writes itself.

 

[May Kasahara]

MIRAGE

Master of refraction, sorcerer of shit. Like a reflection peeled off a greasy pint glass, his misshapen face appears wherever outrage is manufactured.

Beer-battered and belching out fumes, he bravely crusades! See the woke snowflake blizzard descend around him in all the colours of all the rainbows, only to melt away against his layers of lawyers, his dirty cash shield.

Stentorian tones and the evening hate and “appearing for balance” and shilling for fascists and “sounding the warning” and “only speaking what they're all thinking”, but were they really thinking it before you started speaking, or was it just a…

 

[sojourner]

NOCTURNAL (end-to-end encrypted)

To: Bram
Mate, been mulling. Think you should mention I’m vegan.

To: Vlad
Whut? No! We talked about this! Whole point is that you’re not!

To: Bram
I know but it really doesn’t feel right. What about vegetarian

To: Vlad
No, won’t work. Has to be carnivorous.

To: Bram
Can I be alive then?

To: Vlad
Mate, you’re an undead murderer.

To: Bram
Feels so wrong though. Huge lie. Can’t sleep at night.

To: Vlad
You don’t anyway!

To: Bram
Harsh.

To: Vlad
But fair.

To: Bram
Arsehole

To: Vlad
FFS. Do you wanna be in this book or not?

 

[sojourner]

LABYRINTH

Daedalus has nothing on me. On a good day, I can follow a list, tick jobs off one by one. On a bad day (most days), my To-Do List shreds amongst the tangled threads of half-cocked jobs, started then forgotten. I find myself rooted, legs ready, body booted, but the motorway-mind is unable to decide, body wanting everything all at once, in a monumental effort for the most efficient method to complete these sudden mountainous terrains. Perfection unattainable, boiling point reached, a good dressing down is what this knot needs.

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST! JUST PICK ONE THING THEN DO IT!

 

[sojourner]

DISH

It didn’t last long after we eloped. Is it any wonder? Jobless, homeless social pariahs, we tramped the streets looking for anyone who would take us on and in, until eventually, starving and desperate, went our separate ways. I’ll never forget our great adventure though, the music we made, and our wee doggy. We were over the moon.

Of course times have changed now, and no one blinks an eye at mixed relationships. It’s hard not to feel bitter; we could have had a fantastic life together but back then, it was considered indecent for dishes to be with spoons.

 

[sojourner]

CHRONICLE

Monday: Lovely day for exploring. Will try going up the spout, see what’s there. Might even be a foxy lady-spider!

Tuesday: Made it to the top easily. No chance to explore though. Started raining so hard, it washed me back down.

Wednesday: Tried again. Weather fine initially, then torrential rain battered me back down again. Quite despondent now.

Thursday: Why did I start this?! Happened AGAIN!

Friday: Proving to be a Sisyphean task. Absolute madness.

Saturday: Fuck it, stayed in bed.

Sunday: Made it! Sun dried up the rain AND lady spider there. Hell yeah! Incey Wincey ain’t no quitter!

 

[May Kasahara]

There's a lesson there for all of us sojourner

I am still doing this btw, just need to catch myself up! As ever

 

[sojourner]

There's a lesson there for all of us sojourner

I am still doing this btw, just need to catch myself up! As ever

I seem to be leaning quite heavily on nursery rhymes this year!! But yeh, haha

Fair enough, I just happen to be lucky enough that there's been time to write these. I missed the first 5 or 6 days anyway, will try to catch up at some point.