And don’t you dare call these stories tiny.

Some of my blog readers have asked about my Drabbles or short fiction stories. Here is my answer.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

I usually start with a photo.

Ask a question about someone or something in the picture.

This question often produces an imagined conversation.

That includes Fiction Short’s daily random word.

My last two Drabbles, here and here, illustrate this technique.

As does this one.

Today’s random word is tiny.

Drabble

Me: “Do you like being tiny?”

Benji: “I’m not tiny. I’m small. Humans are always calling me little. I’m bigger than a rabbit. You’re not so big for a human.”

“Yesterday, we met another Terrier on our walk around the pond. But you were standoffish.”

“I’m a Biewer, purebred. She was not.”

“You seem to have a bit of an attitude — my mother called it feisty.”

“My mother called it knowing who we are.”

“Is it hard being a dog?”

“Would you like to wear a collar and be led along at the end of a leash?”

“Some days, yes.”

My Drabble History

I started writing Drabbles on January 22, 2024. Sixty-four of my 388 Medium stories are Benji-sized. Somehow, luckily, I found my way to Fiction Shorts. Before that, I didn’t know what a Drabble was.

At first, I wondered whether I could write fiction.

But then I realized nothing is ever really made up. Every work of imagination is projected biography — even War and Peace.

“What’s that Benji?

I’m just finishing a story. But you pooped two hours ago. Oh, sometimes I get those barks mixed up. You say that in that story, Tolstoy had diarrhea from the quill.

Too many adjectives and adverbs. Big is not always the best.

Like the Mastiff.

Thanks, Benji.”