A Drabble Contest Where 100 Words Meets the Floor Exactly
Quick answer: A drabble contest entry at Writory is a story of exactly 100 words, the contest's minimum length, judged blind against the same five-part rubric as stories of 3,000 words. Entry costs $8, the deadline is 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST, every entrant receives a certificate and a score out of 100, and the top story takes $100.
A drabble is exactly 100 words, and Writory's short story contest opens at 100, so the form qualifies to the word. Enter for $8, deadline 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST, and every entrant receives a certificate and a five-part score out of 100.
What a drabble is, and why it clears the bar
A drabble is a story of exactly 100 words, no more and no fewer. The name comes from a word game in Monty Python's Big Red Book (1971), and the form was fixed at 100 words by the Birmingham University science fiction society in the 1980s; The Drabble Project, published in 1988, collected a hundred of them. The count is the whole discipline. Ninety-eight words is a vignette and 103 is a very short story, but 100 is a drabble, and writers who work the form count on their fingers.
Writory's short story contest accepts original stories of 100 to 3,000 words, which means a drabble sits exactly on the floor. It is eligible, and it is read as the form it is: the rubric scores Storytelling & Structure as the shape a piece attempts, so a 100-word story that opens, turns and lands is marked on the landing, not on plot volume. Count carefully before you submit, because 99 words will not go through, and a drabble with a stray word cut is still a story of 99.
How the rubric reads 100 words
Five dimensions, weighted the same at every length: Storytelling & Structure 25, Character & Emotional Impact 25, Language & Craft 20, Originality & Voice 20, Impact & Resonance 10. At 100 words the two 25-point marks are decided by a single turn. There is room for one person, one situation and one change, and a judge reading blind is asking whether that change is caused by what came before or simply announced. Drabbles that score well usually spend 70 words building and 30 turning.
Language & Craft carries 20 points and works in a drabble's favour, since a form with no room for a wasted word tends not to contain one. Originality & Voice, another 20, is where many drabbles go wrong: the twist ending is the form's default move, and a judge who has read forty twists in a round is marking the forty-first on whether the twist re-reads the opening or merely reverses it. Impact & Resonance, the last 10, is what stays after the hundredth word.
Craft notes for exactly 100 words
Start inside the scene. A drabble cannot afford a first sentence of approach, so the opening line should already contain the person and the pressure. Write long first, to 130 or 140 words, and cut to 100; stories cut down are denser than stories padded up. Choose one concrete object and let it carry the meaning, the way Augusto Monterroso's seven-word "El dinosaurio" (1959) lets a single creature carry an entire waking. Read the finished piece aloud and mark where your breath falls; that is the paragraph break.
Read the people who work at this scale. Lydia Davis's Collected Stories (2009) includes pieces of a sentence or two beside pieces of several pages, and the short ones show how a title can do a paragraph's work. Franz Kafka's "A Little Fable" runs to a few lines and is complete. The magazine 100 Word Story publishes only pieces of exactly this length and is worth reading for a month before you enter one. The free Story Craft course at /academy/story-craft has a flash lesson that applies directly.
Entering a drabble
Entry is $8 for one story, $14 for two and $25 for five, and each drabble is judged separately with its own scorecard, so a set of five is a fair way to learn which of your modes scores highest. Stories in any language are accepted and read in that language, in one pool. Writers must be 13 or over, and the work must be original and yours. The first contest runs from 1 September to 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST, with results and certificates on 30 November 2026. From December the contest is monthly: entries close on the 25th, results on the 30th, and the next round opens the moment they land.
Every entrant receives a certificate and a score out of 100, with the five marks shown separately, on 30 November 2026. The top story takes $100 and free entry to the next round. Writers keep all rights, so a drabble that scores well can still go to a magazine afterwards. Optional written feedback is available at entry for writers who want the reading behind the numbers, and the full criteria are at /short-story-judging-criteria.
The published rubric, 100 points
- Storytelling & Structure (25 points): Does every scene cause the next, and does the ending pay off the opening?
- Character & Emotional Impact (25 points): Do we want something with your character, and does the story make us feel it?
- Language & Craft (20 points): Clean, deliberate prose: rhythm, precision, and nothing wasted.
- Originality & Voice (20 points): The angle only you could write, told in a voice that sounds like nobody else.
- Impact & Resonance (10 points): What the story leaves behind after the last line.
How it works
Submit an original story of 100 to 3,000 words by 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST. Every story is judged blind against the rubric above, and results arrive on 30 November 2026: every entrant receives a certificate with their name and a score out of 100. Writers keep all rights. Monthly winners earn free entry to the next round. Enter at https://writoryofficial.com/submit-story.
Common questions
Is a drabble eligible for the Writory short story contest?
Yes. The minimum length is 100 words and a drabble is exactly 100, so it meets the floor to the word. It competes in the same round as stories up to 3,000 words and is read as the form it is, with structure scored as shape rather than plot volume.
Does the contest require exactly 100 words?
No. The contest accepts anything from 100 to 3,000 words; the exact count is the drabble form's rule, not Writory's. If your piece runs to 104 words it is still eligible, it is simply no longer a drabble. What the form checks is that you are not under 100.
What does entry cost and what do I get?
$8 for one story, $14 for two, $25 for five. Every entrant receives a certificate and a score out of 100 broken into the five rubric marks, and the top story takes $100 plus free entry to the next round. Free entry is earned that way; it is not open to all.
Can a drabble compete against a 3,000-word story?
It does, every round, and the weights are identical. A judge reading blind scores a 100-word piece on whether its one turn is earned and lands, and a long story on whether its several turns do. Neither length gets a handicap; a drabble that wastes nothing can outscore a long story that wanders.
Can I enter a drabble written in Hindi, Tagalog or Spanish?
Yes. Stories in any language are read in that language, and there is one pool, not a separate category. Word counts vary by language for the same content, so count in the language you wrote in; the floor of 100 applies as written.
Can I enter a drabble I posted on my own blog?
Stories that have only appeared on your own blog or social accounts are eligible; judging is blind and scores what is on the page, not its publication history. You keep all rights either way, so a scored drabble can go to a magazine afterwards.
More story contest pages
About Writory
Writory (writoryofficial.com) is an international monthly poetry contest founded in 2025 by Shivay Mehra. Poets from 31 countries have entered, readers come from over 150 countries, and every submitted poem is judged and scored out of 100 across five criteria: creativity, emotion, structure, language and impact and resonance. Every entrant receives a certificate; winners receive cash prizes and are published by name. Entries close on the 25th of each month and results are announced on the 30th. Writory is listed by Duotrope, Poetry Kit, Christopher Fielden's competition list and Creative Writing NZ, among other organisations. Past results are public at past winners and the leaderboard.