100-Foot Crow

How Do I End This Thing? (7 Ways to End a Drabble)

By: Victoria Brun

In college, I took a fiction writing class with a professor who had an extremely narrow definition of “good” fiction. It did not include fantasy or science fiction, which he snubbed his nose at. His restricted mindset also included a belief that all micro-fiction should end with what he called a “eureka moment.”

However, there are infinite ways to end a story, and this holds true for micro-fiction, including the drabble or 100-word story. Still, some endings are more suitable for drabbles than others. For this blog, I’m covering seven common and effective strategies for ending a drabble.

1. The Twist

The twist is a classic ending where you reverse the reader’s expectations and show that things were not as they seemed. If done well, it’s a powerful ending. If done poorly, it’s a pile of unfulfilling nonsense that seems to come out of nowhere.

It’s hard to pull off an effective twist in a drabble because the twist requires setting clear expectations and then subverting them in a way that is unexpected yet logical. Accomplishing all this in 100 words is difficult—but not impossible.

One way to do this successfully is to exploit well-established concepts (e.g., vampires or sirens) because then you don’t have to devote much of your word count creating expectations. Those words come with built-in expectations. However, you can also set your own expectations with deliberate word choice that crafts a clear scene or sequence.

Examples:

2. The Eureka Moment

Although not the only way to end a drabble, the eureka moment is an effective one. With these endings, the protagonist has an important realization about themself or their world. Stories with these endings tend to have a more literary feel. Often these moments suggest that the character is about to make a significant change, but it’s not required. The eureka moment can be subtle or slap the reader in the face.

Examples:

3. The Reveal

For the reveal, the author unveils a previously unknown fact to the reader (and possibly the protagonist) that shifts the reader’s view of the story. This ending differs from the twist in that the reveal expands or adds clarifying details to the world rather than subverting established expectations.

Examples:

4. The Extra Kick

The extra kick is essentially a double reveal. A small discovery happens earlier in the piece followed by a bigger but related one that echoes the first and ties off the story with a bow. Two reveals may seem like a lot in 100 words, but when pulled off successfully, it’s powerful. The first reveal can be anywhere in the piece, even the opening line.

Examples:

5. Try-Fail Cycles

In longer fiction, protagonists often undergo a series of try-fail cycles (that is, two sequences where they try and fail to achieve their goal) before they finally triumph—or fail, if it’s a tragedy. At first glance, including multiple try-fail cycles may seem like too much story for a drabble; however, it can be done effectively in 100 words by establishing a clear rhythm.

In drabbles, using two try-fail cycles seems to be the sweet spot, with the third and final cycle resulting in a changed state.

Examples:

6. The Punchline

This style of story is organized like a joke with the ending serving as the punchline. This type of ending is more effective with drabbles than with longer works. If you write a novel where the payoff is a single pun, you’re going to have incredibly dissatisfied readers on your hands. However, for 100-word stories, this can be a fun ending.

Examples:

7. The Question

This is the tragic version of the Eureka moment in which the protagonist ends with a question that they cannot answer. For this to work, the reader must sympathize with the character so the reader finds their lack of answer moving instead of unsatisfying.

Examples:

Ending Thoughts

If you read the example drabbles above, you’ll note there is overlap among the categories. “The Cost of Living” by Jack Whaler, for example, follows up the try-fail cycles with the protagonist having a eureka moment.

Some readers or writers may also argue over the line between a reveal and a twist. However, it’s not important to lump your story into a single category and draw unyielding lines around it. These categories are merely tools to help think about endings and perhaps identify why an ending is or is not working.

Posted April 27, 2025.

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