JED's Genre Drabbles

Link to Original Story: Genre Drabbles - JED

Allow me to again reiterate my distaste for people with talent. See, writing a "good" story is so out of fashion these days. It's much more trendy to write crap. In the same sense that Paris Hilton has earned her celebrity, I too have earned accolades for these stories. I will admit that I like the idea of interlinking them. I will give myself that. And the journey isn't a bad theme to work with. The problem here is in the execution. Every single one of them comes out more as a vignette than a drabble. In my own defense, I have never actually read a drabble, and I will not repeat this mistake in the future. Still...meh. I tried to make them all a reflection of the essence of their genre. The fantasy is epic, and steals the song line from Tolkien, so that works. But it makes you wonder who these people are and what's going on. The SF is dull in it's reflectivity. It gets the "calm before the storm" feeling of a journey, but it leaves you wanting. The horror is less than horrifying, and more generally disquieting. The spec fic is specy, but I'm not sure how clear the theme is, and JP pointed out that it too left the reader feeling that the story had more to be disclosed. I was initially happy with these. But on reflection I am sorely dissapointed with them.


JED may be down on himself on this one, but I think it’s undeserved. I loved the way that he wove all drabbles into a single theme, and gave each one a place in that theme. They all play off each other, though each is different. That’s an idea I toyed with myself, before quickly dismissing it as “way too damn hard.” JED pulls it off masterfully. I do think that a couple, primarily the Fantasy one, don’t stand alone too well, but that’s a minor quibble. My favorites here are the SF one and the SpecFic one. Both do a great job of being self-contained, and have some awesome imagery. I’m especially fond of the SF one, but have to admit that the SpecFic one contains the better imagery, the cooler message, and the subtle shade of the metaphor for the creative process lingering behind it. The image of the stream running clear and pure out of the burnt forest is a powerful one.