How did you get on yesterday? Did you write a story?
Remember, set your own rules, and stick to them. If you miss a day, don’t try to catch up. Just keep moving forward!
The Prompt
Write The Story You’ve Been Waiting To Write
I’ve been making you jump through hoops all month, but there has to be one story that has been nagging at you, patiently waiting its turn.
Today is that day.
Take everything you’ve learned this month, about
- Setting limits to help you get to your writing desk
- Character
- Conflict
- Action
- Description
- Dialogue
- Openings & Endings
- The Middle
- Emotion
- Different Story Forms
- Writing to a provided scenario/external prompt
Use your favorite discoveries from this month, to set your story free today.
Go!
What did you write about today? Did you use any of the lessons from this month? Leave a comment.
Get SWAGr Reminders
Sign up here, to get an email reminder about SWAGr, once a month. Download your exclusive SWAGr Trackr form, as soon as you sign up.
I wrote 22 stories, which wasn’t bad considering I was “on the road” for two weeks. Plan to complete the other 8 in the next couple of weeks. Here is a link to some submission opportunities–I get this by email every week or more often. Recommend “Authors Publish”, which is FREE–and FREE is good! I’m not connected to it in any way, just wanted to share with those who now have a nice fat folder of stories for possible submission, thanks to Story-A-Day. https://www.authorspublish.com/21-themed-submissions-calls-for-october-2019/
September Day 29
The One
As in the May challenge, I am choosing to write another chapter in my novel about my Mum’s life. This chapter is about her journey from Scullery Maid at the age of 14 to Cook. It took her five years and four houses to get there. She worked in four very different environments with four very different families. There were stark contrasts in how she was treated and in the ethos and qualities of her various employers. It demonstrates how her own values and ambition were shaped.
7000 words
I agree. The prompts are so great, I am going to finish the ones I missed til I have all 30. Wonderful class.
Finally home from travels and still behind a bit–but all the prompts have been so great that I can’t bear to let any of them go to waste. So I’ll keep writing until they’re all done.
Day 29: Unpolished, beyond rough and fun to write .
The driver, known by no other name, is rudely awakened to deal with a family emergency involving a race to a clinic for immediate medical assistance in the middle of a raging prairie snowstorm. Conflict occurs between mother and father, driver and father, medical staff and father. A little boy’s life lies in the balance. The opening: “There’s no time to call an ambulance. Get the driver. NOW.” The ending: “If I had to, I’d do the same again. Your husband deserves much worse than hell”.
My grandmother worked in a tobacco plant in the 1920s without any type of safety requirements and faced terrible discrimination within the plant. I wrote about this for the prompt on Day 1 and it has stayed with me. Today I added a little more dialogue, a confrontation with the supervisor, and the possibility of a worker strike.
I can see its potential to develop into a real story. I don’t want to rush it as I want to give it the proper amount of time for it to come out the way that it should. Also I’ll need to do some research to get a few aspects right of the period just right.
So far, I’ve written about 15 snippets of possible short stories during the month. Without doing this challenge, I probably would not have this many possibilities at my disposal.
Thanks, Julie.
At last I think I can write more like 6000 words! It’s going well and it’s a story I’ve been wanting to tackle for ages. A fiction based on my Mum’s story. I am not rushing to finish this as I want to include more and make it longer.
For the first time this month, I shut the door in my study and wrote for 30 minutes. It was the start of a story that has been on my mind for years. I have been going through a bit of a writing desert for the past 3 months. Life has intruded a bit, together with the health of my dog, who is getting a bit elderly now. Although she is much better now, I have found that sadness kills the creative instinct.
Anyway, back to my story (which is handwritten – sorry). It has a science fiction theme and is about a face cream which is not what it seems:-) After my writing time, I was buzzing with ideas as to how to develop it. So thank you for that prompt today.
Oh I’m so glad to hear this, Maria.
It can be hard to write, and then it just gets harder. I’m glad StoryADay was able to give you the nudge you needed to get going!
And now I’m intrigued about that face cream…
My story today is short and very silly, but sweet to me. http://marianallen.com/2019/05/the-most-interesting-squirrel-in-the-world-storyadaymay-1linerweds/
Ha! I loved this.
Imagine, after all those adventures, Flapjack was bested by the most common squirrel menace we’ve ever invented!