A question for those who write in other time settings:

What is the most efficient/effective way of establishing location, both physical and temporal? With "Nessuno" I kept redoing the beginning, because I know not everyone is going to get the clues of Borgia Popes and the French invasion of Rome and go "Ah, Italian Renaissance." I was tempted to just put "1498" at the top of the story, which I've seen used a great deal, but that always strikes me as a little lazy somehow (but I've done it myself without a quibble). But it's unfair to the reader who lacks my background in history who might be getting more and more confused.

Also, how much description is necessary to establish that folks aren't wearing jeans and t-shirts, and how much is just self-indulgence in pretty clothes?

"Florence, twenty years after the reign of Lorenzo the Magnificent ended in turmoil...."

"London, sombre under an ash-grey sky, still bore the scars of the Great Plague..."

"The news was now official: the small island in the middle of the Seine would soon become to a great Cathedral, named for the Holy Mother..."

Events and landmarks, if you want to get it down early. But really, just paint a portrait of the place, and people it with characters that are true the time in which you're writing. If the thought patterns, societal mores and physical surroundings match, the reader will walk into it.

And truly? I have no trouble with listing the date, especially if the dates in the book are changing. The prologue to Famous Flower isn't historical - it's a three-page incident involving a homeless man in London in 1979 - but the rest of the book is in the right-now. I began the prologue with:

On a raw January night in 1979, a homeless man and a small dog wandered into a nameless alley off Bouverie Street in the City, and prepared to set up sleeping quarters.

It was brutally cold. Europe was seeing one of its worst winter seasons in half a century, and Londoners were currently miserable, dealing with iced-over streets and an incessant windy downpour of sleet that needled the skin and made safe walking an impossibility. Few people willingly came outdoors in this weather, but the homeless man, a beggar of many years standing, had no choice in the matter.

First paragraph gives you the date, the scenario and the character; the second fills in some background.

A drabble - as defined - is 100 words exactly. So, are we expanding the definition of drabble? Because the poems are sensational, and they should not, repeat NOT, be fiddled with, but they're nowhere near 100 words.

Oh, my misunderstanding--I thought a drabble was under 100 words.

(grinning at Kristin in total exhaustion)

Nope - the whole reason they're such a great self-discipline tool is because they have a precise word count. The discipline comes in the "107 words! SHIT! What do I cut?" aspect.

That's why I think it would mess up some perfect poetry, trying to trim or add.

Events and landmarks, if you want to get it down early. But really, just paint a portrait of the place, and people it with characters that are true the time in which you're writing. If the thought patterns, societal mores and physical surroundings match, the reader will walk into it.

So you don't think the completely unsuspecting reader would feel adrift? Of course, most readers won't start reading something without having some clue of what's going on, be it from a summary on a web page or the blurb on the book. I don't know why I'm obsessed by the idea of a reader coming to the text completely cold and how to pull them into the story.

This, I think, is part of the phenomenon of a writer being aware of techniques that are subliminal to a reader.

See, I never drabbled before Steph started her weekly challenges, so I've been treating 100 words as a ballpark figure.

connie, I use little headers like "Gloucestershire, June 1810," all the time. It's probably a crutch, but it's such a useful one in allowing me to plunge straight into dialogue or action knowing my readers have enough basic orientation that I can work in description gradually.

Also, how much description is necessary to establish that folks aren't wearing jeans and t-shirts, and how much is just self-indulgence in pretty clothes?

I'll occasionally lavish description on something like a ballgown, but other than that I rarely describe much. Of course, for the time being I'm writing Regency historicals--if I were doing an era whose fashions are less well-known, I'd describe a little more.

Dear god, Deb, you need to sleep. Any chance you can take a nap today? On the upside, you should get your birthday prezzie (early, I'm sorry) today.

Also, I agree that a 100 word restriction on poetry would not work (for me at least) at all. I can see "under 100 words", but not 100 words precisely.

The thing I did upstream a little, "Locks", was a hundred words precisely when I finished it. But I wrote it, as I write everything, in Word, and as I'm writing, I do period word counts. That lets me know, ballpark, how much I've got left to say what I want to say.

But I sat down and crafted that deliberately as a 100-word drabble, not as Edmund Crispin described writing poetry: for a moment, you feel as though the rose or whatever it is is shining at you, and only at you.

Mine was done the way I'd do prose; I wouldn't even attempt to soul-pour and try to restrict it.

Jayzus wept, I'm tired. Empty and played out. I forgot, I wanted to answer this:

So you don't think the completely unsuspecting reader would feel adrift? Of course, most readers won't start reading something without having some clue of what's going on, be it from a summary on a web page or the blurb on the book. I don't know why I'm obsessed by the idea of a reader coming to the text completely cold and how to pull them into the story.

Well, you're quite right about the blurb (if it's a hardback, the inside of the book jacket gives the reader a tidy synopsis, designed to whet the appetite). But if it's well written, if it's clear two pages in that the writer knows their stuff, cares about their setting and their charactres and their story, is taking some joy in sharing it? The blurb or synopsis or jacket copy is icing.

Slee-eep, deb. Slee-eep.