hi narcis!

i see you asked this to a few people, and have received a few different answers. i think that points to my personal feeling, which is that its really more up to you how you define these terms. its fan content, i think rigid rules don't really make sense with that imo.

all i truly know of the top my head is that a drabble is supposed to be 100 words exactly. i think almost no one follows this rule. i personally use drabble for something that i have written out properly, not just a messy explanation of my brainworm, but that doesn't feel substantial enough to be a fic. like glow or lavender morning, basically just one or two scenes.

i use snippet for a small section or quote from a larger work. usually i just do this for a wip wednesday, or otherwise as a preview for that specific fic.

i know ficlet is smaller than a flash fiction. i think flash fiction is supposed to be sub-1500 words. these kinds of distinctions, 'ficlet', 'drabble' ect., made more sense previously when fanfic archives didn't look the way they do now. now we can simply see the full word count of a fic, so these labels to give an idea of how the size of a fic are sort of redundant.

I have seen people use the term 'threadfic'. you could have a section on your pinned post called 'threads' where you could save the fic and any other threads you wrote?

ultimately its you online space so organise it however you want/makes sense to you, i've read some pretty long thread fics. for my drabbles i usually give them a title and a cover image and a rough breakdown of the work similar to how i do with fics. then i simply post ss of the doc under it. for threads or long rambles about brainworms i'm way less structured with it.

i hope you do write it out and enjoy that process, i know what its like to have big ideas that require a lot of commitment to finish 🙃 you never know you could write the thread and feel so energized and inspired you end up writing way more 🤍

hiii!! i saw posty replied with all the definitions and everything with was perf!! but i can just add that i think that u dont have to worry about it too much or anything,,, i also kinda mix between some of the terms, in my head a drabble is just a short little story of a scene in your head, and a snippet is more like a short section taken from a longer piece of work!! i didnt really know much about flashfic/ficlet but it sounds very similar to a drabble, just something that's complete to you of a scene or lil storyline!! but if ur making it a thread, ive usually seen ppl call it a thread fic or maybe a drabble!! those both can fit into what ur writing!! like cloud mentioned, i don't think u necessarily even have to name them if u dont like,,, its all personal preference!! hope ur writing goes well <33

Hi Narcis!

This is a great question. I definitely tend to use terms interchangeably so I am using this as an opportunity to investigate these terms for myself too. :) These definitions are my understanding of the terms although others may use them differently.

Flashfic/ficlet: Flashfic comes from "flash fiction" which is a short story of a few hundred words although typically under 1k. Even though it is short in length, it is usually a completed narrative. It looks like ficlet is also used in this capacity from what I can see online (and also from personal experience).

Snippet: Any excerpt from a completed or ongoing work, whether an entire page, just a few paragraphs, or even just a line of dialogue.

Drabble: According to a brief internet search, a drabble is a work of exactly 100 words. I definitely did not actually know that haaha and instead have used it to refer to any brainworms/more open-ended musings or thoughts on a particular concept or idea. This is very good to know.

If you're looking to post stories in thread form on twt, you could consider labeling them simply as 'thread fics,' although like you mentioned, you can also abstain from labels entirely and let people engage with your work as is :) I guess the difference in how I view the terms with relation to my own work is usually the "completeness" of the idea. That is, whether I'm discussing the concept of a story and how I might write it vs. actually writing it out or sharing a snippet from an ongoing draft, etc.

I'm definitely not the authority on fanfic terminology, but I hope that is helpful! Maybe others can chime in too if they see this. Thanks for your question and happy writing! <3