The Best Drabbles of 2020

A drabble is a micro-story of exactly 100 words. As a writer, I love the format as a test to see how much imagination you can pack into a short space. For over a year now, I’ve been dropping art-inspired drabbles on my Instagram feed most weekdays. They’re a fun way to keep active on social media without resorting to selfies or food shots. A lot of people seem to love them too. So, I thought I’d wrap up my top 3 for the year here, going by likes and comments. There’s a very solid chance the number of likes is more for the art than the story itself, but seemed like the best way to figure out the best drabbles of 2020 on the feed.

Here they are in order.

Best Drabble of 2020

They came at dawn - the Fallen and their shadow master.

At first I thought it was a trick of the light, my eyes adjusting to the morning mist.

Then, the bodies emerged, suspended in mid-air like dark marionettes.

By then, it was too late to run. I tried, but something tugged me back.

An invisible string wrapped around the core of me. Wove inside my mind.

I was pulled into the sky, back to join the others. My mouth smiled with dark delight. Together we would take over the town.

Deep down though, I screamed to be let go.

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This 100-word micro story was inspired by the epic art of Abhay Parmar who you can follow on Instagram here.

It received 11.1K likes and 40 comments.

#2 Drabble of 2020

Everybody wanted to live in The Shade. The cool district.

Every morning I’d wake up to the scorching sun in the city and look over. They hadn’t woken yet. Didn’t know the meaning of tropical insanity. The inability to sleep because you lay all night in a pool of sweat.

Their air-conditioning took the remaining power that didn’t go into irrigation pumps. Said we were lucky we could eat. We had shelter. Had lives while the rest of the world was a desert.

The Shade was the place to be, but only because of us who worked in the sun.

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This 100-word microstory was inspired by the insane scifi concept work of Inward Sound who you can follow on Instagram here.

It received 7.8K likes and 46 comments.

#3 Drabble of 2020

The stories go that our land was carved by the gods. Really, it was scratched out by their kids.

A sandpit to play in. A paddle pool to splash in. This world was designed for them to learn the ropes of destruction before they tried their hands at creation.

Yet what they created was beautiful. Swirling rivers dug with sticks, sweeping mountains that were their fortresses, rainforests teeming with tiny playthings.

We have the god children to thank for that past. Just as we have our own to thank for the future.

Never underestimate what some innocent play can create.

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This 100-word microstory was inspired by the always playful art Ian Mutch who you can follow on Instagram here.

It received 7.1K likes and 47 comments.

You can my more of these art-inspred microstories over on Instagram here or on good old Facebook here.