In Praise of Drabbles

Novels are five-tier wedding cakes, built of layers of chocolate cake filled with Mexican-vanilla Swiss buttercream icing, covered in hand-painted rolled-fondant and decorated with sugar icing roses gilded with 24K gold. There's an internal structure of rods and separator plates, and an excessive amount of planning to create the perfect result.

Short stories on the other hand, are more like hand-made croissants, worth the time, the commitment of days, and the gradual building of skills while you learn to laminate the butter and roll and roll and roll some more. Learn how to be patient with the process, and trust the result.

Drabbles are the cookies of your writing life. Maybe its Toll house Chocolate Chip, Macarons, or Gingersnaps.... small, and sweet. They don't ruin dinner. Or distract you from a longer project. They let you experiment, try something out - an idea, a style - with no long term commitment. But just because they're short and sweet, it doesn't excuse you from paying attention. A gathering of random items won't hold together, won't tell a story, or keep the integrity of a cookie. Let the restriction of ingredients and word count keep you on your toes. And then play!