[Writing Prompt] Becca Puglisi – Ending Line

The Prompt

Write the story that accompanies this ending line:

I clicked off the safety, swearing that if she showed her face here today, my room would be the last one she ever entered.


Becca Puglisi is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others. This is one of her reasons for writing The Emotion Thesaurus, The Positive Trait Thesaurus, and The Negative Trait Thesaurus. A member of SCBWI, she leads workshops at regional conferences, teaches webinars through WANA International, and can be found online at Writers Helping Writers (formerly known as The Bookshelf Muse).

[Writing Prompt] Writing In Bits And Pieces

The last of the content-less prompts today!

Today I’m sticking with the theme of timed-writing but trying something a little different.

The Prompt

Pick Three Times Today When You Will Write Parts Of A Complete Story

Tips

  • Try to start earlyish in the day and write the opening of your story.
  • Pick a time a few hours later to write some more, and then again, later in the day to finish up.
  • Notice how easy or hard it was for you to get into the writing at different times of the day.
  • Think about professional writers on deadline, on book tours, who teach, who have ‘real jobs’. They have to find a way to write whether or not life is getting out of their way. Practicing squeezing a story into different parts of your day can be a useful skill.
  • Pay attention to whether or not one of the times of day worked best for you (tip: it might not. You might simply find you need to get the flow going, or that you’re ace at writing in fragments any time of the day. Be open to experimentation here).
  • Finish the story!

Go!

Don’t forget to comment here about your writing day or join The Victory Dance Group and let us know how you got on today.

[Writing Prompt] Elizabeth Spann Craig – The Unexpected Guest

[Here’s another scenario ripe with opportunities for character development, comedy, tragedy…in other words emotion — that thing that all readers are looking for! – JD]

The Prompt

Your protagonist opens the door and finds an unexpected guest–a friend from high school who hasn’t been heard from in many years.

This friend has fallen on hard times and wants to stay with your protagonist a few days. As your protagonist and friend sit in the kitchen, the friend reminisces about the old days…and stirs up trouble by recalling some unhappy teen moments, too.

How does your protagonist react and what are those good and bad times in the past? 


Elizabeth writes the Southern Quilting mysteries for Penguin/NAL, the Memphis Barbeque mysteries for Penguin/Berkley, and the Myrtle Clover series for Midnight Ink and independently. She blogs at ElizabethSpannCraig.com/blog, which was named by Writer’s Digest as one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers for 2010-2013.

[Writing Prompt] Set Aside An Hour

Today we’re going to try something new. I’m not assigning a word count, but rather a time limit.

The Prompt

Set aside a full hour to write a short story. Start and finish the story during that time.

Tips

  • Some people work really well with deadlines. Maybe this is yours.
  • Don’t panic if you can’t start writing at 00:01. Sketch out some ideas, try on a few characters. An hour is quite a long time if you focus on one moment, one instant (the perfect milieu for a short story). As long as you’re writing by 00:30, you’ll probably get a decent draft out of this exercise.
  • Pay attention to how you deal with the pressure of the hour finishing up. Is your story’s pacing clearly influenced by the deadline? (If it is, don’t worry, you can always clean things up in the rewrites).
  • Assess this exercise. Did you finish? Did you have to ‘cheat’ (i.e. write stuff like [put details in here], [move characters across town] etc.)?
  • Did the time limit work for you better than the word count as an exercise? Could this be something you use every day?

Go!

Don’t forget to comment about your writing day below or in The Victory Dance group.

[Guest Prompt] Angela Ackerman – Shame

The Prompt

Shame is a powerful emotion, and one of the most wounding experiences a character can face.

Write a story where your character does something that they feel shame for (maybe a failure, making a mistake [through one’s own carelessness or by accident] that hurts someone else, or letting someone down, poor treatment of someone, refusing to help, etc.) and how they redeem themselves in the aftermath.

Angela Ackerman is a writing coach and co-author of the #1 bestselling resource, The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression as well as the bestselling pair, The Positive Trait Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Attributes and The Negative Trait Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Flaws. When she isn’t teaching or building innovate tools for writers, she writes Middle Grade and Young Adult mysteries represented by the Jill Corcoran Literary Agency. You can find her at Writers Helping Writers, a hub for all things description.

[Writing Prompt] Twitter Fiction

OK, so that was a fairly large story you wrote yesterday and you’ve probably got some ‘life’ that you’ve been neglecting while you wrote. So today you’re getting a bit of a break.

(And remember, the prompts are always optional)

The Prompt

Write a story of no more than 140 characters

Tips

  • Bonus credit: post it on Twitter and follow up with a Tweet explaining to everyone that you’re taking part in StoryADay May and that they should really think about joining in, yes, even now, even though they’re late to the party. That’s when all the people who like to think they’re cool turn up anyway…
  • Remember that with a story this short, most of the story is untold, implied, imagined by the reader.
  • This story will not be quick simply because it is short
  • Use one of your favorite story sparks for this tiny story. Yes, I mean it. Use up a really good story idea on this. That way you’ll be forced to look around today, for more Story Sparks.
  • Are you starting to notice that, after five days of writing, you’re seeing Story Sparks all around you? Are you listening harder to what people tell you? Are you reading more carefully when you get the chance? Are you starting to do that wonderfully creative thing and see connections all over the place?
  • If you’re having second thoughts about writing (especially if you’re drawing from your real life) remember that you don’t have to show these stories to anyone. Even if you write a blistering portrait of your boss, no-one has to ever see it — especially not in the first draft. Worry about disguising your sources later, when we talk about revision next month!

Go!

Post about your writing day in the comments below or join the Victory Dance group in the community for more accountability.

[Writing Prompt] 2000 Words

It’s Sunday, but it’s no day of rest for we writers.

The Prompt

Write A Story of Around 2,000 Words

Tips

  • This is a common length for editors to request from new writers in fiction publications. It’s a length that allows you to display some style and character development, without getting too carried away and lost in the woods.
  • Remember that, even at this length, you’ve only got a maximum of around 1600 words to tell the actual story. Try to get to the first really interesting event by the time you’ve written 500 words.
  • At this length, it might be helpful to do some planning. Take your idea, think of a character and their defining characteristic, pop them into a setting and think about how you might give them some conflict (that relates to their character strengths/flaws).
  • You have room for some supporting characters at this length, but remember that word ‘supporting’. They are there to teach the reader something about the main character, not so much about themselves. This isn’t a novel, with subplots and fans who’ll create a wiki…

Post a comment below to let us know you’ve written today, or join the community and post in the Victory Dance Group, for extra support and accountability!

Don’t forget you could be receiving these prompts every day by email, if you’re not already. Sign up here.

[Guest Prompt] Heidi Durrow – Passions

[Ooo, I’m particularly excited about this one. This is a challenging prompt but one that should yield some great stories, since character and conflict are at the heart of the story – JD]

The Prompt

The Energy of Passions & Obsessions

You become what you think about all day long.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Passions and obsessions are great starting points for stories. So what if a character has a passion or obsession but the character has extreme difficulty fulfilling that dream. For example, a character could have an extreme passion with exotic birdwatching, but he can’t fulfill his greatest wish because he is a poor child living in a big city. What does the character do to fulfill his obsession? What happens to the character when he can’t? What does the fulfillment of the obsession or passion mean to the character?  


Heidi Durrow is the New York Times best-selling author of The Girl Who Fell From the Sky (Algonquin Books) which won the PEN/Bellwether Prize. She is the founder of the Mixed Remixed Festival, an annual film & book festival in Los Angeles.

[Guest Prompt] Mary Robinette Kowal

The Prompt

Work the words vermillion and musky somewhere in the next 250 words you write.

Mary Robinette Kowal is the author of the GLAMOURIST HISTORIES series of historical fantasy novels, and the 2011 Hugo Award-winning short story “For Want of a Nail.” Her short fiction appears in Clarkesworld, Cosmos and Asimov’s. Mary, a professional puppeteer, lives in Chicago. Visit her online at maryrobinettekowal.com.

[Writing Prompt] 640 Words

So how did you get on yesterday?

Did you write? Did you leave a comment on the blog post, or do your Victory Dance?

Hooray, you’ve made it to Saturday. I hope you’re one of those lucky people for whom Saturday means a break from the regular responsibilities of the week. But likely you’re not. So: tough. We’re writers and we write whether we’re on ‘vacation’ from real life or not 😉

Today we’re striking a happy medium between the lengths of story we’ve played with already.

The Prompt

Write A Story of 640 Words

Tips

  • This is about the length of a newspaper column (remember them?). Enough room to tell a story but not much room for florid language.
  • Pay attention as you write, to how long it’s taking you to write, on average. This will help you set realistic goals about how much time you really need to set aside to produce good creative work.
  • Pay attention to your writing style as you write today. Which length of story has felt more comfortable to you?
  • Make sure you finish all your stories this week. Even if you have to write “[FILL IN DETAILS HERE LATER]”, try to get to the end of the story every time. Have you been finishing your stories? What has this taught you about getting to the meat of the story quickly?

 

Go!

(And don’t forget to celebrate when you’re finished, by commenting below or doing your victory dance.)

[Guest Prompt] Therese Walsh – Magnetic Words


THERESE WALSH is the author of The Moon Sisters and the cofounder of Writer Unboxed. She lives in upstate New York with her husband and two children.

The Prompt

Imagine your protagonist has just opened a large magnetic poetry kit. Which words call to him/her? Will s/he put these words on the refrigerator in a random scattering or compose a sentence? Share your words and sentences here.

Tips

  • If you don’t have a magnetic poetry set (what?!) you can play online
  • You can write a whole story based on the words you select or you can show the scene where they select words.

GO!

[Writing Prompt] 100 Words

So how did you get on yesterday?

Did you write? Did you leave a comment on the blog post, or do your Victory Dance?

Whatever you  managed yesterday, congratulations and I’m glad you’re back for more!

Continuing the theme of ‘assuming you have more than one idea of a time’ this week, I’m giving you another length-based writing assignment.

The Prompt

Write A Drabble (A Story Of Exactly 100 Words)

Tips

  • Just because you’re limited to 100 words, don’t think this is going to be any less a creative exercise than any other story you write this month.
  • Allow as much time for this as you would for a longer story.
  • Don’t be surprised if you find yourself writing more and then paring the story back.
  • It’s very common to cut out lots of words from the start of short stories. Sometimes we have to write a lot to figure out where the story really starts. Don’t be afraid to ‘start late’.
  • You can’t explain much in a 100 word story. Allow the reader to fill in some blanks. Stories of this length are very much a collaboration between reader and writer.

Go!

[Writing Prompt] Guest Prompt from Neil Gaiman

The Ocean At The End of the Lane by Neil GaimanFortunately The Milk by Neil Gaiman
Welcome To StoryADay May 2014!

To kick off our 5th Year of writing a StoryADay in May, I have a special treat for you: a guest prompt from the fabulous Neil Gaiman.

On the day I contacted him he was, sadly for him, stuck in an airport. The prompt he suggested for us was pretty heartfelt:

The Prompt from Neil Gaiman

Getting Home

Tips

  • This is a wide-open prompt. You could use it to write tragedy, comedy, satire, slapstick, sci-fi, fantasy, realistic fiction….anything you want.
  • Think of a character desperate to get home. What is stopping them? What is their most basic reaction? (Frustration is a wonderful way to strip away a character’s layers and show us what they are like at their core. In Mr Gaiman’s case I would suggest that he is basically a generous and decent human being. Instead of responding to my request, he could just as easily have cursed, deleted my email and put me on a list of spammers… What will your character do?)
  • For the first day of StoryADay May I always suggest writing a really short story. It’s a great way to warm up, and it’s all too easy to get lost in the beginning of a story and find yourself heading into a 3,000 word behemoth. You’ll never be able to sustain that pace for the whole month, so start small. Start with a victory.
  • Aim to write no more than 1200 words. That gives you 300 words to establish the scene and your character, 700 words to make things happen, complicate things, create a crisis/climax, and 200 words to wrap it all up.

GO!

When you finish your story today, leave a comment below, or join the Victory Dance group in the community and share you thoughts about the first day, there. (Haven’t joined the community yet? Join here

Thanks again, Mr Gaiman. I hope you got home all right…

 

[Writing Prompt] 1200 Words

Welcome to StoryADay May.

It’s Day 1. You’re nervous, you’re excited, you’re full of ideas…(you are, aren’t you?), so I’m not going to tell you WHAT to write, only how much.

(And of course, you should remember that these prompts are entirely optional. If you want to write a 10,000 word novella today, you go right ahead. Just remember to save some juice for tomorrow!)

engine start by Norlando Pobre
photo used by permission of Norlando Pobre

The Prompt Continue reading “[Writing Prompt] 1200 Words”

A Month Of Writing Prompts – The eBook!

writingprompts2014coverlarge

A Month Of Writing Prompts 2014


Writing a story a day for a month is a crazy endeavour, but one that hundreds of writers have signed up for every May since 2010. During month of courageous creativity, writers learn how to write every day (not ‘someday’), how to craft a story, how to write in different forms, how to fail and dust themselves off, and write again.
Are you ready to join them?
The StoryADay Month of Writing Prompts book shares the daily writing prompts for StoryADay May 2014: 31 writing prompts, meditations, lessons and pep talks to accompany on your journey to becoming a more prolific, creative and fulfilled writer.
Use these prompts during the StoryADay challenge, or any time you need a creativity boost.