February 24, 2004
To Drabble, Not Dream
Cyberspace has never felt this empty.
It's 3 am, and I only have three instant messaging contacts online. Two of them are set to away, and the other one is the house mate in the room directly beneath mine. This is unheard of. I normally have between 6-8 contacts online at this time in the morning. People are either supposed to subscribe to the same brand of insomnia as I do, or to live in a completely different timezone. Preferably both. Whether the people online are people I regularly talk to or not, having only three of them present is unnerving.
I might be so distraught that I may have to resort to eating the strawberry-chocolate body paint out of the tub using a nailfile again. Just when you thought I couldn't get much more pathetic... I'm a woman. It is chocolate. What part of this does the world not understand?
So. Insomnia. It's not something serious, it's not full-blown, it's more of a subtle flavour. Something that either strikes every now and again for about a week, or that I choose to invoke for a particular purpose, normally in connection with either dvds, reading, or care of non-specific drunk persons.
I had a really stupid idea the night before last. Like, more stupid than usual. Insomnia here I come.
I intend to embark upon a drabble marathon. For those of you who have not been paying attention, a drabble is a piece of writing exactly 100 words in length. I love drabbles. They can be both exacting and liberating, demanding a level of focus often discarded when attempting longer pieces. Drabble discipline allows for a certain demand for precision of language that simply isn't possible most of the time, and the mentality involved in phrase and word selection is simply the closest to poetry writing as most prose is likely to get. It feels justified, somehow, to agonise over practically every other word when you've only got a hundred with which to make your punch.
Strange, then, that I should decide to crucify my shyly idolised medium in the manner I intend.
This weekend. 100 words an hour. For as long as I can stay awake.
Posted by Missiedith at February 24, 2004 3:23 AM | TrackBackFantastic! If it goes well you could do it all again in five months for charidee...
Posted by: Cathy at February 24, 2004 6:55 PMOh, yeah. I want a piece of this. I've written so many drabbles that I find myself automatically going to "Word Count" even when I'm not writing drabbles.
Posted by: Aralinde at February 26, 2004 12:28 AMi have never heard of drabbles before i feel deprived. *drools over the sharpe wallpaper*- where did you get it? please could you post up a link? *drools a bit more*
Posted by: rachel at February 26, 2004 12:54 PMCame from the wonderful Gunbunny, over here: http://www.kabukivice.com/wall.html... And you'll certainly be hearing more about drabbles if you keep reading!
Posted by: Missiedith at February 26, 2004 2:02 PMBah, insomnia i didn't get to sleep to 6am.
Posted by: Richard at February 26, 2004 2:40 PMYou see, I already knew that, because I noticed exactly when you went offline on msn. Which tells you what? That I was also up at 6 am.
Posted by: Missiedith at February 26, 2004 3:03 PMmuchos thanks :)
Posted by: rachel at February 26, 2004 6:22 PM