Dribble Examples: Three Original 50-Word Stories and How to Double One
Quick answer: Three original dribbles at exactly 50 words each, notes on the form (also called the minisaga), and a worked example of growing one into a 100-word story.
A dribble is a story of exactly 50 words, half a drabble. The same form is sometimes called a minisaga or a fifty-worder, and it appears in newspaper competitions as often as in fandom. Fifty words is enough for a situation and a turn but rarely for a second beat, so the ending usually arrives as a single reversal. The three original dribbles below are each exactly 50 words. After them, notes on what the count allows, and one of the three grown into a 100-word story so you can see what the extra fifty buy.
Three originals
Encore. The pianist played the wrong final chord, held it, and let the silence go on. In the third row her old teacher, eighty-one, sat still. Backstage, he said nothing about it. He kissed her forehead and said, 'You kept your hands still after.' She had not known he was watching.
Visa. Kemi's interview lasted four minutes. The officer asked why she wanted to study in Leeds and she said the truth, which was rain, and he looked up for the first time. He stamped it. Outside, in the Lagos heat, she stood on the steps holding the passport open to see.
Keys. Lewis found his father's van keys in the freezer, behind the peas, where his father had hidden them from himself. The doctor said to expect this. Lewis stood in the cold light of the open door for a while. Then he put them back, and shut it, and said nothing.
What fifty words allow
One location, one exchange, one turn. Encore gets a second character into its fifty by giving him a single line, and the line is the whole story: the teacher noticed the recovery, not the mistake. Visa turns on a single word, rain, and lets the ending be a gesture. Keys does the most in the fewest moves: a frozen object, a diagnosis in one sentence, and a decision to leave things as they are. None of the three has room for backstory beyond a clause, and none needs it.
Note the punctuation of the count: numbers written as words, hyphenated terms as one word, and the one-word title excluded. Different competitions treat these differently, so check.
Growing Keys to 100 words
Here is the same story at exactly 100 words. Watch where the extra fifty go.
Lewis found his father's van keys in the freezer, behind the peas, in a sandwich bag with the twist tie done properly, the way his father did everything. Hidden from himself, then. The doctor had said to expect this, and said it kindly, and Lewis had nodded as though kindness were the point. He stood in the cold light of the open door until the motor kicked in. Upstairs the shower was running. His father would come down in ten minutes asking about the van, and Lewis would say it was in for a service. He put the keys back.
The additions are a detail that characterises the father (the twist tie), a memory of the doctor's tone, a sound that fixes the moment (the motor), and a plan for the next ten minutes that shows Lewis deciding. The ending is the same act. The story is now eligible for a contest with a 100-word floor and has lost nothing of its shape.
What writers can take from this
- Fifty words is one turn; do not attempt two.
- Spend the first sentence on the situation and the object together.
- Give a second character one line at most.
- To reach 100, add a sound, a detail that characterises, and the next ten minutes.
- Never pad with feeling words; pad with things.
Try it yourself
Write a dribble of exactly 50 words in which a character finds an object where it should not be. Then write the same story at exactly 100 words, adding one sound and one plan, and compare the endings.
Questions
What is a minisaga?
A minisaga is a story of exactly 50 words, popularised by a Daily Telegraph competition in the 1980s. It is the same form as a dribble; the name depends on which community you learned it from.
Is 50 words too short for a real story?
No, but it is too short for a plot with more than one move. A dribble is a situation and a reversal. If your idea needs a second reversal, it is a drabble or longer.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working writers. Updated September 2026.
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