Drabble project?

I mentioned the blog project Skull-a-Day some time ago...it's still awesome, in case you haven't checked it out yet/recently. I mentioned at the time that I wish I could do something like that, but I really had no idea what kind of analogous project I could realistically (in terms of time and talent) involve myself in. Now, I have an idea: a Drabble project. "Drabble" is a word that describes a work of literary fiction that is exactly 100 words in length.

I have the Drabblecast to thank for this idea. The goal is for me to write, polish, and post three drabble pieces a week. 300 words a week doesn't sound like much, but coming up with an interesting idea and then conveying it effectively in only 100 words in definitely a challenge. One downside to this is that doing this kind of writing doesn't directly get me closer to my goal of submitting stories to publications as even places that accept flash fiction probably want more than 100 words. But, I'm hoping that as an exercise, writing 100-word stories will help me focus my writing...I'm rather fond of long, elaborate descriptions, and while I like the way I write descriptions, I'm hoping this will teach me word economy and the value of dialog.

So, there's the goal. I'l start sometime next week...hopefully I'll get a start on ideas and writing on m busride back to Chicago this evening. Anyway, since I'll most likely still be posting other story ideas and bits, I'll label the drabble project posts separately. Maybe I'll get really ambitious and start hand-writing them on paper with illustrations and scan them in and post them...but only time can tell at this point.

Cheers.