Day 14- The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts by Neha Mediratta

We’re diving into structure and character today with this prompt from Neha Mediratta

The Prompt

Write a short story about an accident from the PoV of three different characters:

  1. involved in the accident (e.g. as a passenger or driver of a cart or cycle/bike or car/plane or spaceship),
  2. witnessing the accident ( e.g. as agent who tried to avoid or confront the accident as it happens),
  3. trying to put pieces of what really happened when investigating (e.g. could be a public figure like a police officer or a person just coming to terms personally with this incident).

The playing rules here are to

a) develop our practice muscles to inhabit different perspectives.
b) dig deeply into a small but decisive moment.
c) convey a final impression of the whole (i.e. The End) with the help of three different characters in the compact space of a short story.

And most of all, have fun writing!


Neha Mediratta

Neha is a generalist currently obsessed with stretching, mind-body-world connection and the spirit’s dwelling place. She writes fiction, non-fiction, takes on editing assignments and works with people she admires. She lives by a lake in an overcrowded coastal city with her family and some wildlife. Check out her writing here

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Day 13- Disappointment & Delight by Meghan Louise Wagner

Let’s get emotional with today’s prompt from Meghan Louise Wagner

The Prompt

Imagine a character who is older (interpret that as you like!) who returns to a place they visited once when they were younger.

There should be some emotional importance to the place, but this prompt works best if it’s a place the character only went to one or two times (not anywhere they’re super familiar with).

Start the story with the character returning to the place. When they arrive and see the place in its present state, have them either be:

a) greatly disappointed or

b) greatly delighted.

Then weave in memories of the place (or memories associated with the place) from when they were young.

Try to jump back and forth between them in the present and the past. By the end of the story, try to show a change in how the character views the place, either in the past or present. (for ex: if it started with them being delighted, have the story end with them being disappointed–or vice versa.)


Meghan Louise Wagner

Meghan Louise Wagner lives in Northeast Ohio. Her work has recently appeared in such places as Nashville Review, Cutleaf, Story, AGNI, Okay Donkey, and The Best American Short Stories 2022. More about her can be found at: meghanlouisewagner.com

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Day 12- Listening for ideas by Monique Cuillerier

Sound can be stimulating…in today’s writing prompt from Monique Cuillerier

When I’m having a hard time falling asleep, when my mind won’t stop throwing up new worries or old memories or random fears, I listen to white noise tracks, preferably nature sounds. (Here’s a short playlist of some of my favourites)

In doing this, I unintentionally discovered that listening to these soundscapes provides me with lots of ideas for stories (or further developments for works in progress).

(It is not, however, particularly helpful in getting to sleep!)

The Prompt

Choose one of the tracks on the playlist (or find one on YouTube, Spotify, or a website like Ambient Mixer ).

Listen for a while. Maybe 5 minutes, maybe more. (I will warn you that some of the tracks are many hours long…)

Let your mind wander as you immerse yourself in the sounds. What do you think of? What images come to your mind? How do you feel?

Then write a story based on your reaction and the ideas that have come to you.

It might be something quite literal (like rain falling on a roof inspiring a story of being inside a cabin during a storm) or less so (for example, the feelings of isolation or coziness that arise).


Monique Cuillerier

Monique (she/her) is a lesbian science fiction writer living in Ottawa (Canada), with her cat Janeway and many (many) plants. Her latest story, “Touching Mars,” can be found in Bicycles & Broomsticks: Fantastical Feminist Stories about Witches on Bikes (January 2023). She can be found at notwhereilive.ca

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Day 11- Food Fight by Marta Pelrine-Bacon

Food is more than nourishment .in today’s writing prompt from Marta Pelrine-Bacon

The Prompt

Food!

People have strong feelings about certain foods.

Have your characters battle over food. There are so many ways we fight about food.

Or have a character who refuses to love their traditional food and suffers the consequences.


Marta Pelrine-Bacon

Marta is an author and artist making stuff up as she goes along.

More from Marta

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Day 10- A Mysterious Start by Fallon Brown

Fallon Brown invites you into a mystery

The Prompt

When I opened the door, I never expected to be hit by *that*.


What is *that*? An idea, a smell, a sight, a sound? Something else? How does the protagonist react to it? What do they do next? Start your story with this line and see where it takes you.


Fallon Brown

Fallon Brown is a nonbinary writer from Northwestern Pennsylvania. They write mostly romance and cozy mystery novels, with some fantasy and historical in there as well. When they aren’t writing(rarely), they tend to devour books or let their mind unwind with crochet or cross-stitch projects. The first two books in their Jax of All Trade mystery series are available. You can also find them at stitchingastory.substack.com or on Instagram and twitter: @frbrown906

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Day 9- Kingdom in a Jar by CH Schoen

CH Schoen created a graphic prompt for today

The Prompt

A glass jar containing a fantasy and including a forest and a path to a castle with turrets

Write a story, and after 5 minutes of writing, this jar appears in your character’s world.

or
.
Write 100 words about meeting the ruler of this kingdom.

Or whatever you would like.


CH Schoen

C.H. Schoen is a late-night writer hailing from the midwest. Her passion include studying the different belief systems of the world and walking the land with her dogs. She can be found most nights crafting weird little stories and posting visual prompts to https://www.savvywordslinger.com.

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Day 8- Take over the story from here! by Lisa Thornton

An intriguing premise for a story from Lisa Thornton, today

Let your mind wander. Any genre works. Make it your own. Have fun!

The Prompt

“She wrote it on the back of the list she had been keeping of the best neon signs she’d seen so far. There was no way to know if he would ever read it, but that wasn’t the point.”


Lisa Thornton

Lisa Thornton is a writer and nurse living in Illinois. She has words published/forthcoming in SmokeLong Quarterly, Roi Faineant Press, Bending Genres, Fiery Scribe Review, Bivouac Magazine, Cowboy Jamboree and more. She was a finalist for the 2022 SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She can be found on Twitter @thorntonforreal.

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Day 7- Opening Old Label Scars: Setting and Character Prompts From Closed Stores and Restaurants by Amy Barnes

Amy Barnes wants you to fill in the gaps

The Prompt

Old Label Scars: Setting and Character Prompts From Closed Stores and Restaurants

Think about your favorite childhood store, attraction or restaurant. Did you sing the Woolco song and chase “blue light specials?” Did you cheer the drums and ice cream at Farrell’s? Can you spot a Whataburger a-frame building even when it’s been turned into a bank? A Toys-R-Us turned into an electronics store with the familiar front intact but painted over? A more recent Payless Shoes that is empty but still has remnants of the sign. A wooden roller coaster standing guard over a city with no visitors.

With many businesses closing due to Covid and entire malls being abandoned across the country, there are often “label scars” where businesses have left, leaving only the shadows of their names behind. As you shop or eat, watch out for those label scars that may trigger memories of shopping or food locations that are newly or long-gone.

Prompt

  1. Write about your childhood memories of stores and restaurants that are no longer open. Did you visit a Stuckey’s on a family vacation? Eat at a Woolworth’s lunch counter?
  2. Write about your first job working retail or as a restaurant server in a place that isn’t open anymore. What do you remember about the experience, good and bad? What did your uniform look like?
  3. Imagine the employees and shoppers at the same places. Invent characters based on those people. Write about their interactions. Does the manager fall in love with an employee? What was the bestselling item when you worked there?
  4. Make a list of the sensory details you remember from these closed businesses. The smell of Wicks and Sticks. Tastes from food court stores that don’t exist anymore. Colognes in department stores. The sound of those Farrell’s drum beats. The smell of mall bookstores. Sounds of mall piano stores or dogs barking in the pet store. Shoe stores where they x-rayed your feet and fit your shoes.
  5. If you find a label scar on a storefront, take a picture of it and create your own ekphrastic prompt. Write about the emotions you feel when you see it. What decade does the remaining font shadow feel like it belongs to? Who hung the sign? Who took it down? Was it a family business that failed?
  6. Do some research. Go online and see when/how the business closed. For example, the history of Chi Chi’s closing is well-documented but you might learn about your own regional favorite shuttered store. Write about how the community felt when the business closed. Did a little girl cry because Chi Chi’s wasn’t there with a sombrero and fried ice cream for her birthday?

For further research, visit online sites that explore dead malls and abandoned stores. Write about those locations by imagining what happened to them.


Amy Barnes

Amy Barnes is the author of three short fiction collections: AMBROTYPES published by word west, “Mother Figures” published by ELJ, Editions and CHILD CRAFT, forthcoming from Belle Point Press in September, 2023. Her words have appeared in a wide range of publications including The Citron Review, JMWW, No Contact Mag, Leon Review, Complete Sentence, Gone Lawn, The Bureau Dispatch, Nurture Lit, X-R-A-Y Lit, McSweeney’s, SmokeLong Quarterly, Southern Living, Allrecipes and many others. She’s been nominated for Best of the Net, the Pushcart Prize, Best Microfiction, long-listed for Wigleaf50 in 2021 and 2022, and included in Best Small Fictions 2022. She’s a Fractured Lit Associate Editor, Gone Lawn co-editor, Ruby Lit assistant editor,and reads for Retreat West, The MacGuffin, Best Small Fiction, The Porch TN and Narratively. You can find her on Twitter at @amygcb.

Mother Figures:
Ambrotypes:
Child Craft: preorders May, 2023:

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Day 6- Unnamed by K. B. Carle

K. B. Carle invites you to leave your character unnamed

The Prompt

When writing or brainstorming the beginnings of a story, one complication that paralyzes the writer is what to name their character?

Some have a placeholder name such as “John Doe,” waiting for the character to reveal their name once the story is complete and will add this new name while editing.

Others, like myself, go to Google for unique, unusual, or rare names. But what if we made the decision not to name our characters at all?

For this prompt, resist the urge to name your main character. Instead, consider characters such as

  • Cathy Ulrich’s, “The Astronaut’s Wife,” who is simply known by her wife’s job title and role in their marriage.
  • Hema Nataraju’s “middle-aged commuter,” or
  • Eric Scot Tryon’s “Wife #2.”

How do names identify our characters? Are they defined by their job title, feelings, or their role in the world around them?

DO NOT be afraid to experiment and, as always, have fun! Afterall, someone dared to create villains such as Polkadot Man and Condiment King.

Examples:

After the Thrill by Amy Lyons

Compound by Noa Covo

You Were Only Waiting for This Moment to Arrive by Kathy Fish

Rumors from the Castle by Cathy Ulrich


K. B. Carle

K.B. Carle lives and writes outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her flash has been published in a variety of places including Lost Balloon, Five South Lit., The Rumpus, JMWW, and elsewhere. K.B.’s stories have been nominated for The Pushcart Prize, and her story, “Soba,” was included in the 2020 Best of the Net anthology. Her story, “A Lethal Woman,” will be included in the 2022 Best Small Fictions anthology. She can be found online at kbcarle.com or on Twitter @kbcarle.

Listen to her episodes of the StoryADay podcast: episode 279 and episode 280

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Day 5- Tell a scary story by Nathan Ballingrud

Nathan Ballingrud sets up the scene for a horror story (perhaps?)

The Prompt

Molly heard her mother’s car pull into the driveway. She closed her math book and ran to the front door. The two hours she spent between the end of school and the time her mom came back home from work were always lonely.

She met her mother at the front door.

“Hi Mom!” She gave her a hug.

“Hey sweetie.” She set down her purse and her keys. “What are you doing?”

“Homework!”

“Well go finish it up and we’ll watch a movie when you’re done, okay?”

Molly was about to head back to her room when the door opened again. Her mother came in, again. “Hi, Molly!” She joined the first in the kitchen — two carbon copies of each other. They didn’t see each other or seem to know the other was there, but they kept talking cheerfully to her. And then a third came in. And a fourth.

Molly crept slowly back to her room. The kitchen was full of their happy talk, all their words running over each other. She hated nights when this happened. She slid under her bed and put her hands over her ears. She hated what came next.


Nathan Ballingrud

Nathan Ballingrud is the author of The Strange, Wounds, and North American Lake Monsters
Find him on Twitter at @NBallingrud

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Day 4- 100 Word Story by Julie Duffy

Julie Duffy encourages you to keep things short


After the meaty, narrative stories of the past few days, I have a fresh challenge for you today: write something extremely short that still can be defined as a ‘story’

The Prompt

Write a story in exactly 100 words

Beware don’t expect this to be fast, just because it’s short.

Writing a complete story in 100 words takes a lot more time than any average 100 words in the middle of a longer story.

Crafting a complete story in 100 words is not easy. It is, however, quite satisfying.

Tips

  • Super-short stories have to pack an emotional punch in very few words. Concentrate on one moment, one incident, that holds huge significance for a character: the moment they first made eye contact with their baby; seeing the first crocus of spring after a hideous winter full of drama and despair; standing on stage in the moment of silence before the applause starts…
  • You’ll want to save the majority of your words for the build-up to the climax. Think about how many words you can afford to spend setting the scene (maybe 25?) and how many you want for the resolution (10?). Can you create a resonant story in 65 words?
  • Choose adjectives carefully. You don’t have much room.
  • Make words do double duty. Instead of saying ‘he walked across the room, shaking with rage’, say ‘he stalked away’, saving five words. You might even be able to cut it further by making “Stalked off” a complete sentence.
  • Don’t feel you have to hit 100 words on the first pass. Write the story, then go back through and intensify things by making your verbs more active and pruning as much dead wood as you can.
  • Imply as much as you can. Leave gaps. Let the reader work a bit.

As you may have noticed by this point, it’s a different kind of challenge to write a story every day than it is to work on the same story every day for a month.

If you haven’t started collecting Story Sparks yet, now would be a great time to start writing down stray thoughts and observations as you about your day.

You’re doing great, but we have 27 more ideas to come up with, before the month is over.

Future-You will thank Past-You as they browse through all the ideas you’ve collected along the way, while away from your desk!

Julie Duffy

Julie is the founder and host of StoryADay May. She creates challenges, courses and community for writers at StoryADay, on podcasts and conferences. She often relies on Past-Julie. Sometimes it even works out well…

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Day 3- Character Pulls Focus by Tommy Dean

Tommy Dean leads your character through a story

The Prompt

Start a story with a character in the middle of a conversation, where everyone knows something the main character doesn’t know.

Allow the main character to ignore the people around him. Use the setting to reveal something about the main character.

Let the main character gives us snippets of who the characters are around them.

Eventually, let one of the other characters get through to the main character!

Let the main character know seeing the room around them differently.

How does this added context force the main character to act/react?

How do they better understand the other characters in light of this revelation?


Tommy Dean

Tommy Dean is the author of two flash fiction chapbooks Special Like the People on TV (Redbird Chapbooks, 2014) and Covenants (ELJ Editions, 2021), and a full flash collection, Hollows (Alternating Current Press, 2022). He lives in Indiana, where he currently is the Editor at Fractured Lit and Uncharted Magazine. A recipient of the 2019 Lascaux Prize in Short Fiction, his writing can be found in Best Microfiction 2019, 2020, 2023, Best Small Fiction 2019 and 2022, Monkeybicycle, Moon City Press, and numerous other litmags.

His interviews have been previously published in New Flash Fiction Review, The Rumpus, CRAFT Literary, and The Town Crier (The Puritan).

He has taught writing workshops for the Gotham Writers Workshop, the Barrelhouse Conversations and Connections conference, and The Writers Workshop.

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Day 2- A Pocket Sized Prompt by Mary Robinette Kowal

A question from Mary Robinette Kowal, to prompt today’s story

The Prompt

The thing that I want you to think about is is just the answer to a question :

What’s in your character’s pocket?

  • So is there a thing that they carry with them all the time?
  • Is there something that they have put in their pocket specifically just in that moment?
  • Do they not carry anything in their pocket? How can they get away with that?

What’s in their pocket?


Mary Robinette Kowal

Mary Robinette Kowal is the author of The Spare Man, Ghost Talkers, The Glamourist Histories series, and the Lady Astronaut Universe. She is part of the award-winning podcast Writing Excuses and a four-time Hugo Award winner. Her short fiction appears in Uncanny, Tor.com, and Asimov’s. Mary Robinette, a professional puppeteer, lives in Nashville. Visit at maryrobinettekowal.com or visit her Patreon

Catch Mary Robinette Kowal on the StoryADay podcast here:
Part 1| Part 2

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Day 1- Expand, Narrow, Explode the Frame by Rachel Swearingen

Write a story using this helpful structure from Rachel Swearingen

The Prompt

Expand, Narrow, Explode the Frame

Write a scene in which a character is looking for something or someone that has been lost. Use all the senses to describe the setting. Give us a sense of the body and include the following “moves” in any order:

1. Allow the details of the scene to feel close, contained, even constricting.
2. Describe the thing that has been lost, a brief memory perhaps that has been triggered by its loss.
3. Look down. Zoom in on something very small.
4. Bring in a distant sound.
5. Draw attention to an opening of some sort, a window, a door, a hole in the wall or in a dense wood or in a thick covering of clouds, for example.
6. Can your character see or sense what is beyond that opening?
7. Allow your character to climb down or up or into for to a new vantage point.
8. Is your character alone? Invite a stranger to the scene. What happens now?


Rachel Swearingen

Rachel Swearingen is the author of “How to Walk on Water and other short stories” which received the New American Press Fiction Prize. Find out more at RachelSwearingen.com

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StoryADay May 2023 Is Almost Here

Read this tips for the StoryADay Challenge…and get your gameboard!

May is almost upon us!

Here are some tips on how to participate fully in the challenge:

Gamify your Experience

Each day of the challenge I’ll post a graphic you can save and share to chart your progress. Keep it secret or share on social media using #storyaday

OR If you’d like to get away from the screen and do some handi-crafts, print out this version of the game board and pieces. Cut out a piece for every day your write and paste it onto the game board. Proudly display it in a public space or take pictures and share on social media, using #storyaday

Set your own rules

You don’t have to write every day but you should push yourself to do as much as feels a little intimidating…and then review every week to see if you want to change your commitment)

Set up your workspace

Pick a notebook or create a folder on your computer to house all your StoryADay related writings

Always Put a Date on Your Work

Especially if you’re hand-writing. You won’t be sorry!

Do Your Victory Dance

Every day, come back to the blog and post to let the community know how you got on…yes, even if you didn’t get on well!

The support you’ll get is well worth the effort!

Don’t Catch Up

I mean, if you are highly motivated by streaks, you can.

For the rest of us, I strongly recommend closing the door on days when you didn’t write.

Part of the point of this challenge is to learn about how write, long-term. Do you tend get crushed by set-backs? Learn to keep going during this challenge!

(Use the community to help keep going. Post if you need a word of encouragement)

Keep It Secret, Keep It Safe

I do encourage you to post about your writing, but I don’t encourage you to post your actual stories.

For one thing, the idea of having to write AND polish a story every day is paralyzing (trust me, I always try to find ways to circumvent this truth, and I never succeed). Just write. Play in the mud. Make a mess. Enjoy yourself.

The second reason is more practical: if you ever want to have someone else publish your piece, they likely won’t take it if it has been published somewhere before, even on your blog or social media.

Keep Track of Your Progress

Not just whether you wrote or not, but how you’re feeling, how the effort is going, anything else that will help you build your writing practice, after the challenge is over.

Printable Weekly Log

I’ll send you a ‘debrief form’ at the end of the challenge, but make sure you keep notes as you go along.

You’ll learn a lot this month. You think you will remember all the lessons but you won’t. Keep notes!

Have Fun

This is a ridiculous challenge.

Part of the point is the have fun with your creativity and part is to help you lower your expectations and fight procrastination.

Just keep moving forwards.

Talk to other people in the comments.

Notice when you write a line you like.

Notice when you exceed your expectations (but just don’t raise them again

Check your email later today for an invitation to our kick-off party (bring your questions, nerves, and suggestions to help others).

Keep writing (and writing, and writing).

Julie

3 Short Stories To Read Before May Begins

As we warm up for StoryADay May 2023, it’s always useful to read great examples of the kind of short fiction we might end up writing during May.

Here are three great (and a little weird) stories I’ve read over the past few months, to inspire you.

If you’ve ever thought “I can’t write a whole a short story,” maybe it’s because you haven’t seen all the weird and wonderful ways a short story can be built. It’s almost impossible to get it wrong!

Keep writing,

Julie

P. S. The free WRITER Code Masterclass is underway. If you want to write, but keep getting derailed, watch Lesson 1 now: in which I present a framework for a writing life that works for you, today, not ‘some day’.

If StoryADay May Was Cancelled

What if StoryADay went away?

If the month of May rolled around and there were no prompts, no daily email encouraging you to write, no friendly community to welcome your “Yay! I did it” posts at the blog, would there be a gap in your writing practice?

Would you have fewer first drafts to work on the rest of the year?

Would another month go by without a focus on your writing?

And, if this is your first year contemplating the challenge, what do you hope to get out of it?

Leave a comment below, and let me know!

Should I Do This, Again?

Every year, as the organizer of StoryADay May, I face the question: am I going to do this again?

(It’s a lot of work!)

And every year, I look at the comments and emails from past years to help me make my decision.

Comments like:

“I noticed something this month that’s been scarce while I was focused on my novel, story sparks! Sparks just started popping up out of no where…I feel like I’ve been freed!
Thank you, Julie, for the inspiration!! Yay for May!”

Christina

“My heartfelt thanks …for letting me enjoy every single one of the prompts for the last month.”

Rathin

“I have loved all the story prompts this month, especially the flexibility and possibilities they have, meaning I can return to them many times to write new and varied stories into the future.
I step towards more writing, more creativity and more ideas.”

Ran

“You’ve helped me hold my faith in my writing.
This is a spectacular achievement for me as I struggle to prioritise time for myself. Thank you for the motivation. It’s been awesome.”

Wendy

“I have learned so much not just about short stories, but writing in general.”

Calla

“I feel proud of myself!”

Grace

“ I discovered … how easily I could come up with new story ideas. Also, I feel more motivated to go back and revise the stories I wrote. I… feel more motivated to continue writing.”

Natalie

“I didn’t write for forty years…The horrible part was that I knew writing was my calling, and that I was capable of it. But I just didn’t do it…This has been a truly life-altering experience. It is huge. A titanic breakthrough. A door opening, chains falling away. I’m shocked and humbled and amazed, … I’m telling you the truth. This has changed my life.”

Dawn

And that’s why, every year, I find myself I find myself arguing with my coach about what is and is not a good investment of my time 😉

I’d love it if you would take a moment to think about what you hope to get out of the StoryADay May challenge, what rules you are setting for yourself (will you write every day? Once a week? Only on weekends?) and how you hope to feel at the end of the month.

Then leave a comment here. It’ll help crystalize your goals, which will, in turn, help keep your motivation high.

(And I can show them to my coach!!)

If you have questions for me, post them here, too.

Here’s to another May of ridiculous, glorious creativity!

Keep writing,

Julie, writing
Julie (signed)

Julie Duffy

P. S. If you want me to send writing prompts to your email inbox every day of the challenge, make sure you’re signed up here (yes, even if you’ve signed up in the past)

What If You ARE A Good Enough Writer?

Therefore all should work. First because it is impossible that you have no creative gift. Second: the only way to make it live and increase is to use it. Third: you cannot be sure that it is not a great gift – If You Want To Write, Brenda Ueland

If You Want To Write, Brenda Ueland

We hold ourselves back.

We hold ourselves back because, what if our writing isn’t good enough?

What if we put in all this effort and we fail?

(First question: have you defined success for yourself, yet?)

Is Your Writing Any Good?

It’s hard to know the quality of our own work.

We’re too close to it.

That’s when critique groups and writing buddies can come in handy.

Sometimes the word ‘critique’ scares us, but in my experience sharing work with writing friends often means they spot the parts of my writing that are working…and that I take for granted.

Why are we so critical of our own work?

Lots of reasons.

  • When you’re in your own head all the time it’s hard to know when you’re being insightful or entertaining. Familiarity breeds contempt, as they say.
  • You were probably told not to brag about yourself by someone who loved you and wanted other people to like you. Who wanted you to be safe.
  • We are comparing our first draft with someone else’s 20th!
  • It’s safer to aim low than to aim high and risk failure.

What If Your Writing Is A Gift?

Today, I’m challenging you to ask yourself:

  • What if my writing really is good?
  • What if my words are exactly what someone needs to hear today?
  • Isn’t it a little bit arrogant to assume you know how your writing will affect others?

Isn’t it a little bit selfish for you to hold back?

↑↑↑ If that were true, what would you do, today? ↑↑↑

Casper by Gwen Kirby

It made me want to come back for more stories from this anthology…

The Reading Room is a log of my “writer-as-reader” reactions to the short stories I’m reading now.

The author captures the voice and interior voice of teenage girls really well. In this story three teens are working at a store that resells items from lost baggage — the major industry in their town (!).

These girls don’t work at the most popular lost bagagge store, the one that draws all the visitors. Their is a down-market, knock-off version of it.

Each girl has her own place in the social pecking order, her own dreams for the future, and all this unspools quite naturally.

Interestingly, Kirby ignores the common wisdom that a story has to have a strong point-of-view character and that shifts in perspective must be clearly offset; that an omniscient narrator is a no-no….and it works. I’m going to have to go back and read this again to see why.

OPENING LINES


Kirby is a master of pulling me into the story.

“The girls of the Unclaimed Baggage Dept—Greenleaf, Alabama’s second-best and only other unclaimed baggage story– found Casper in a lime green suitcase.”

Look at the details!! It’s not just a store, it’s the “Unclaimed Baggage Depot–Greenleaf, Alabama’s second best and only other unclaimed baggage store.” It’s not just a suitcase, it’s a lime green suitcase.

We don’t know what or who Casper is. We have to keep reading.

Imagine if this read

“One Monday morning in summer, the girls who worked at an unclaimed baggage store found a [SPOILER ALERT] taxidermized albino wallaby in a suitcase.”

Still an intriguing premise, but ho-hum execution. You’ll have to work MUCH harder to get me to keep reading.

THE MIDDLE

We zig zag between the girls’ hopes and dreams as they first figure out what to do with Casper and deal with the consequences of their actions.

Each scene builds up a stronger picture the girls, individually, and in relation to each other and their town.

CLIMAX AND RESOLUTION

….was a bit unexpected and I’m not sure how I feel about it. My favorite way to feel about a short story!

THE ENDING

Takes us solidly into the perspective of the girl who is most active in the climax, and gives us a really interesting perspective to chew on (from her point of view; her reaction to events) as we close the book or turn the page. I wouldn’t call it a ‘happy’ or ‘sad’ ending, but I was satisfied.

It made me want to come back for more stories from this anthology…but not yet. I want to savor this one for a moment.

Find this story in Sh*t Cassandra Saw by Gwen Kirby

Julie’s Current Favorite Writing Tools

Books On Writing

Save the Cat Writes A Novel by Jessica Brody

save the cat cover

This one makes the most sense to me of all the books on story structure. Your mileage may vary.

If You Want To Write by Brenda Ueland

This book (written in the 1930s) brought about my re-awakening as a writer, and probably still informs all my soap-box rants about your right to write.

Anything by Donald Maass

Writing the Breakout Novel, The Emotional Craft of Fiction, his new stuff…anything. Possibly everything.

Pens & Paper

I know, I know, like you I type faster than I write, but i also find I need to ‘think’ on paper/ When I’m handwriting, I like the pens and paper to be yummy. These are my current faves

Pilot Custom 823

This is a real splurge, but I used mine every day (a lot) for 8 years and never once did it feel scratchy. Because of the plastic barrel you do have to be a little careful not to drop it. Pilot will replace defective pieces, but if you break it, you’ll have to buy replacement parts!

TWSBI

This is a great mid-priced fountain pen that has the same voluminous ink reserve as the Pilot 823, one of my favorite things! I hate having to keep ink on hand or stop writing to refill too often.

Lamy Safari

A great entry-level fountain pen to try out if you’re not sure ink pens are for you. This has a really comfortable grip and you can swap out the nibs, so if one becomes worn or if you fancy a thinner/fatter stroke, you have options. They also come in fun colors. This one uses cartridges or a refillable converter. You’ll have to fill this one more often than the TWSBI or the Pilot, but sometimes that’s the fun of a fountain pen: trying out new inks!

Leuchtturm 1917

After years of mourning my college-staple (the A4 spiral-top notebook, narrow rule), which I couldn’t find in the US, I moved to side-bound spiral notebooks that always annoyed me because i caught my hand on the spiral when writing on the backs of the pages. Plus the paper was pretty thin, especially once I started getting more inky with my pens.

Then I discovered Moleskine notebooks (8.5×5.5″) and was pretty pleased with them, until someone put me on to the Leuchtturm1917.

Not only is A5 in size, which is just that little bit wider, allowing for more words per line, but it comes in all kinds of papers: blank, lined, square-grid and, my new love, dotted. The dots are faint-but-not-too-faint. The paper is creamy. The two (count ’em TWO) ribbons allow me to mark different sections. The pages are numbered and there are pages for an index at the front. It comes with a standard pocket-for-keeping-things-in at the back and labels to put on the front cover and spine, if you’re that way inclined.

Plus, did I mention the pretty colors?

I choose one color scheme for the year ahead and stock up on three or four. They are my one-notebook-to-rule-them-all and I keep everything from shopping lists to meeting notes, journal entries, mind-maps and random calculations in them. Periodically I go through and update the index so I can find things. This works MUCH better for me than trying to have topic-specific notebooks which I inevitably leave somewhere or put somewhere ‘safe’ and never have to hand when it matters.

I create a few blank pages at the start of every month for an overview of what I have coming up and for me to log my daily achievements. I usually get about three months’ out of one notebook.

Washi Tape

A brilliant artist friend told me about this trick: line the edges of important pages in your journal with washi paper. It folds nicely and doesn’t need to stick out, but you can always find the right section of your ntoebook at a glance.

Tabs

Having said that, I also buy these tabs from Ink + Volt and use them too. I only really use the monthly ones (I have a section in each notebook for a daily log.)

I don’t go crazy with the tabs, because if I have to make too many decisions about the ‘right’ place to write something I’ll stall out, but I do like to have the monthly overview easily accessible.

(As I mentioned, I keep the index up to date from time to time, so that I don’t have to make those kinds of decisions every time I open the notebook!)

Planner

I use a lot of digital reminders and calendars, but I love my paper planner. The Ink + Volt Planner has been my best friend since I discovered it in about 2015. I like the way the days are laid out in the week view (morning, afternoon, evening – perfect for someone who knows they need to get to stuff ‘at some point today’ but doesn’t like to be hemmed in by specific time expectations – hey! If I decide to go for a walk at 2pm instead of writing an email, I don’t want my planner judging me).

It also has a lot of journaling prompts (which I rarely use) and goal-setting sections, including a monthly 31-ish-day challenge (which I do tend to use).

It encourages you to set goals for the year, month and week AND to review them weekly. I find this helpful.

Digital Staff

Google Calendar

I use this for scheduling everything from family stuff to writing appointments to workshops and events I have to be at. If my calendar (and phone) aren’t buzzing, I have no sense of the passage of time. I could chastise myself about this or I could learn to accept it and work around it…with digital nagging!

Calendly

Just as I cannot be trusted with times, I cannot be trusted with details or timezones, so I use Calendly to schedule anything that involves another person, like interviews for the podcast or 1:1 calls with the Superstars. It syncs with Zoom and Google Calendar, so all my digital minions can conspire to get me where I need to be, when I need to be there.

Scrivener

It’s an optional extra when it comes to writing, bit if you are interested in going pro, or keeping track of everything you’re writing, Scrivener can be a wonderful tool. I used it for one project and learned just enough to make it useful for that. Then I started asking “I wonder if Scrivener can…”. The answer was almost always ‘yes’. I use it a little less now that I’m working across Mac and PC operating systems, but i probably should bit the bullet and figure that out.

Google Docs

As a ‘work anywhere’ word processor I find Google Docs the way to go. It’s not quite as powerful as Word in some ways, but sometimes that’s a good thing. It’s a lovely, clean interface and I never have to worry about hitting ‘save’.

Timelines

If you’re interested in figuring out how long things take you, I recommend this tracking tool. YOu do have to manually start and stop sessions (if you can’t handle that, you might want something like ‘Rescue Time’ which automatically tracks all your digital pursuits), but I like the fact that I can have multiple sessions running at the same time, so for example, I can see that I’m spending 1 hr in my business (running a writing sprint) but I’m also sneaking in about 3/4hr of fiction writing time.

Trello

These visual boards are useful for planning projects and keeping tasks together. Because most of my work is project based (meaning I might do one tasks every few months, rather than every day) it helps me make checklists every time i do a thing. Then, months later, when I want to do it again, I can go back to Trello and find it!

Here’s a sample board I made to show how an author could plan their social media content

Learning

Learn Scrivener Fast

I love this course. It’s arranged in bite-sized pieces with tons of video delivered by the engaging Mr. Joseph Michael,, Every time I think “I wonder if Scrivener can…” I go here first, to figure it out. Sure, you could use a search engine and comb through years and years of (possibly out of date) free info, but sometimes it’s worth the investment to get well-curated and updated info.

Product Launch Formula

This marketing course might seem like a weird thing to put in a writers’ toolbox, but learning how to sell without feeling sleazy is a really useful life skill as well as an essential career skill, in case you want to make money from your writing. Everything I learned about how to structure an offer, so that people feel invited in to a book, course, or other experience, I learned from Jeff Walker and his Product Launch Formula Coaching team. There are lots of other people teach his methodology now, but I’ve found my home here.

Communicating with My Audience

Website

I use a WordPress site self-hosted and have used site hosts Bluehost and WPEngine. Bluehost iswas a fine starter-host, and WPEngine has better support. I also recommend Elementor and Divi if you want to build custom pages.

Email – Convertkit

I have used Mailchimp in the past, but moved on to Convertkit a number of years ago. I’m pretty happy with them. (They have a free plan for people with fewer than 2,000 subscribers, so it’s a pretty good way to try this out)

It’s important to have you own email list because you don’t ‘own’ any of the followers you’ve gathered on social media. If Facebook or Twitter decide to ban you, how will you get in touch with your fans? Easy, if you’ve invited them on to your email list.

BUT to run an email list properly you should be using a service like Convertkit, that makes it easy for people to opt in AND out of your mailings, and keeps you within the laws on these things (not to mention making your readers not hate you!)

Social Media Scheduling – Later

I do a lot of manual posting but when I want to make sure things go out regularly, I use Later.

Course Platform – Kajabi

For a while I hosted courses on my own website server with a WordPress plug in, but I decided to go with the much more slick and attractive Kajabi, after a few years. It’s pretty over-powered if you aren’t running a course for a lot of people, but for my StoryADay courses it’s a wonderful asset.

Community Chat – Slack

I never wanted to take my community onto somebody else’s platform, so no Facebook groups for me, ever! Slack is like a group-chat/message board on steroids. The free plan is fine, thought it has some limitations. I’m always looking for the next killer app (as we used to say, back in the day…)


That’s a lot, I know. Nobody needs all this stuff. All you need is your imaginations and way to record your stories (either on paper on in someone else’s ears) but since people often ask, I thought I’d make a list. And now I have.

Disclosure: Some of the links on this page are affiliate links and I may receive compensation if you make a purchase through them.

What are YOUR favorite tools? Leave a comment!

Do you know about ‘The Pause’?

I’m writing this in Rancho Mirage, California. It gets five inches of rain a year, and I think they all fell today…along with a violent windstorm that took down a tree outside my hotel room.

I watched as the maintenance crew arrived, piled out of their truck, then paused to assess the damage.

There was some milling around, some chatting, but at a certain point someone picked up a chainsaw.

Someone called for the wood-chipper.

The pause was over.

Everything was noise and motion and determined action.

If you’re finding it hard to write, perhaps you’re in the pause.

Perhaps the pause is necessary.

storyaday graphic divider

The last few years have been… a lot.

Most people are standing around looking at the damage, not yet capable of formulating a plan for what happens next.

Imagine what might happen if people like us helped lead the recovery.

Imagine what might happen if, while everyone else is trying to put back what’s been broken, storytellers stepped in to clear away the dead wood and shape the landscape of the future.

We need new stories.

Stories that allow people to imagine better futures.

We need stories written by the quiet kids, the overly-sensitive kids, the ones who pause and notice everything.

If you’re not feeling the pull to create right now, get ready.

It’s coming.

And we need you.

Download the Keep Writing Workbook and always know your next, smallest step as you chase your writing goals.

What kind of stories do YOU think the world needs right now? Leave a comment

StoryAWeek Resources – Season 1 Week 9

If you’re following along with my StoryAWeek newsletter we’re talking about location this week.

Here are some links to things I talked about in the email.

Million Dollar Outlines by David Farland

Nightmare at 20,000 Feet by Richard Matheson

All links above are Amazon affiliate links

[Reading Room] The Locked Pod by Malka Older

The Reading Room is a personal log of stories I’ve enjoyed, read through the eyes of a writer. Find more

This story plays really nicely into the idea of the Locked Room Mystery, only it’s an escape pod on a space station, and not just any space station but a cloistered world of intellectuals who have chosen a life of focus, mostly-ignoring the outside concerns of the universe.

The opening line is a doozy:

“When we opened the escape pod, the person inside it was dead.”

The mystery in the story is a classic ‘locked room’ mystery: a seemingly impossible to explain murder, and the solution is excellently suited to the setting of the story. (Well done, that author!).

I think mysteries work best when they misdirect and distract us with a compelling human story and this one certainly does that. We have a cloistered order of intellectuals to explore, one that is suddenly confronted with an outsider, and a dead one at that, AND we have a bit of a family story as the protagonist’s teenaged daughter enters the tale (with all the usual parental issues that come along with living through your child’s teenage years: communication missteps, a growing sense of separation, an acknowledgement that time with them is finite).

This story reminded me of the best of classic sci-fi: Asimov with a bit more character development, Clarke with a bit less tech, Heinlein without the weird sex stuff.

As a mystery AND Sci-fi fan I really enjoyed this brief visit to the words of Malka Older, and look forward to the novel. “The Mimicking of Known Successes” (Tor, 2023)

Said author Malka Older:

“Living through the past year two years five years, I’ve thought a lot about the power of comfort reading, and so I packed this book with elements that bring me joy: a slow-building romance; an atmospherically Holmesian mystery; a storied academic idyll (constructed from reclaimed satellites); long train rides across the bleak landscape of a giant gas planet, and tea in front of the fire on stormy nights. At the same time, I also found myself needing to write about ecosystem loss and communities in conflict between returning to what was normal in the past and forging a new future. It’s the banter-filled, yearning comfort read I needed in my life, and I’m so happy to send it out into the world.”

Tor.com

Find this story in the Sunday Morning Transport newsletter

Day 30 – Hope

I hope you’ve had a brilliant May! Leave a comment and let me know your hopes for the future.

The Prompt

Write A Story of Hope

You can use this prompt to write about your hopes for your (writing) future or you can write a fictional story that revolves around hope.

The fun thing about playing with hope is that it raises the stakes so very high, and allows for the possibility of some real dark nights of the soul. What does it do to your character when they think all hope is lost? How do they act?

And what does it do to your reader when you whiplash their emotions all over the place and grant your character’s wish, after all?

(Can you tell I’m hoping for happy endings? You should feel free to disappoint me if you’re more of the ‘everybody dies a meaningless death at the end’ type)

Leave a comment letting me know how your month has gone, what you’ve achieved and what you hope that means for the future.

It has been an absolute privilege to spend this time with you creative souls. I hope you’ll stick around for the rest of the year and most of all,

Keep writing,

Julie

Day 29 – Duty

You’ve been writing enough, by now, that I think it’s time to set you free a little bit…

The Prompt

Write a story inspired by the theme: Duty

Write a story that grows out of your thoughts (positive or negative) as you ponder the word ‘duty’.

What does duty mean? To whom does your character owe it? Should they?

Will you write a story of sacrifice and honor or one of rebellion (an honor)?

Julie Duffy

Julie Duffy is a writer with a strong sense of justice. But that doesn’t mean she’ll do what’s she’s told. Read more about Julie and invite her to talk to your writing group.

Day 28- Tree of Life by Katie Bennett-Davies

The Welsh Government plants a tree for every new child in Wales. Write a story involving one of the trees or forests.

Would you like to join us for a writing sprint this morning? Click here at 10 AM (Eastern US) CHECK YOUR TIME

The Prompt

Since 2008 the Welsh Government has pledged to plant a tree for every new child born or adopted in Wales. Write a story involving one of the trees or forests.

You can read more about the scheme here

You could take this down a supernatural/fantasy root (pun intended).

  • What if the child’s life was linked in some way to the tree, perhaps their life is even linked to that of the tree. What would a parent do to protect the tree and ensure it flourished as it grew?
  • You could write from the point of view of the tree over a long period of time. What does it witness? How does the tree itself change/mature?
  • You could write in the genre of climate change. How does this scheme affect the planet? This could either be from a positive or negative perspective.
  • Or, from a conflict point of view, think about who might not be in favour of this scheme. This could be a developer who wanted to build on the cheap land that the Government is now using for a forest. Or someone in a community who sees farmland being bought up for tree planting and their way of life disappearing. What might someone do to sabotage the forest- arson, breaking the the saplings, etc?

Remember you don’t have to use a traditional style of storytelling. You could write your story as the minutes of a meeting, a newspaper report, a personal letter.

You might not have time to write a long story with all the background info filled in so jump straight into the action. You can always add backstory when it comes to revising.


Katie Bennett-Davies

Katie Bennett-Davies lives in Wales with her husband and cat, Didi. Living with disabilities has allowed her to see the world from a different perspective. She enjoys pottering in the garden and drinking too much coffee.

Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!

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Day 27- A Hairy Situation by Michele E. Reisinger

The possibilities are as numerous as … the hairs on a human head.

The Prompt

Rapunzel’s saved her from an enchanted prison. Sampson’s gave him unparalleled strength. Medusa’s was nearly as deadly as her eyes, and in Pope’s mock-epic, Belinda’s drives the Baron to distraction.

Tell a story about a “hairy” situation.

  • Imagine a comedy of errors between a novice hairdresser and their demanding client.
  • A mystery in which a lock provides the only clue … or a portal to another time on another planet on which everyone is bald.
  • How might things change if it were animal hair or peach fuzz or electrified?
  • If sprouted from a museum statue that suddenly came to life?
  • If you gave Medusa’s hair to Belinda or turned Sampson and the Baron into roommates?
  • Maybe plop one or more of them into a completely different genre or setting?
  • You may even have a real-life hair horror story–Now give it to a character who is your complete opposite.

The possibilities are as numerous as … the hairs on a human head.


Michele E. Reisinger

Michele is a writer and educator living in Bucks County, PA, with her family and never enough books. Her short fiction has appeared in Across the Margin, Stories That Need to be Told, Sunspot Literary Journal, Dreamers Creative Writing, and others. Find her online at mereisinger.com.

Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!

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Day 26- Like a Wrecking Ball by Brenda Rech

Choose a character to observe this scenario

The Prompt

A wrecking ball is parked in front of a 100-year old building. You are an architect, the wrecking ball operator, or a homeless person? What are your best memories and deepest regrets?


Brenda Rech

Brenda is happily married with two beautiful daughters, three dogs, two cats and a bird named Amy Farrah Fowler. Her flower gardens are forever at the beginner’s stages as she would rather hike with her husband and dogs or explore her writing. Her favorite breakfast is crispy bacon and strawberry jam on white toast. She is currently working on her first novel and has a monthly newsletter ‘Thru the Window’

Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!

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