The Prompt
Write a story about someone who has just completed a huge challenge. What have they learned? What did they sacrifice? Was it worth it?
Go deeper with enhanced content, videos, & training from StoryADay’s Julie Duffy
The Author
Julie Duffy has hosted 12 StoryADay Mays and almost as many StoryADay Septembers. That’s quite a lot.
Read A Book, Support An Indie
This year’s StoryADay May official bookseller is Reads & Company, a privately-owned indie bookseller in Pennsylvania. Any purchase from the site this month supports Reads & Co.
Leave a comment and let us know how you used the prompt, and how you’re celebrating!
Julie, this version of the Story-a-Day Challenge was both a challenge AND a success for me!
I used a couple of the prompts to get my brain started thinking, and between those and other ideas I already had, I wrote 5 flash fiction pieces, AND outlined 2 short stories. (I didn’t add comments to the individual prompts, but overall this was a great set of prompts.)
Thank you!
Chuck B.
YES!! I’m so glad to hear this.
I hope these stories bring you joy!
This was a challenge! Finally completed a short story 3240 words about a woman in her seventies who has an operation which carries a huge risk of causing her to lose the use of her legs. Recovery is slow and uncertain. It gives her time to think about any regrets in her life. The over riding one is not ever overcoming her fear of swimming. She longs to feel herself supported by the water. She dreams of wild swimming in all seasons. She starts reading as much as she can about overcoming fears as an adult. Eventually we follow her journey to recovery and her success as an elderly wild swimmer.
Thank you Julie for another productive and spirit lifting StoryadayMay. I loved it! đź’–
I did it! Many thanks for the prompts, Julie!!!
https://xenocandela.wordpress.com/2021/05/31/i-did-it/
Thanks to everyone who provided the prompts this month! I had a lot of fun completing the challenge. I’d set myself an additional goal of writing a 1,000 word minimum story each day, and posting them on my blog (no matter how rough they turned out).
My final tale is about a contestant in a very extreme cooking challenge. And if anyone’s interested, you can find all my other stories from the challenge here, too:
https://philipfolk.com/2021/06/01/story-a-day-may-31-a-cut-above/
Well, I really petered out these last two days. Didn’t even attempt the prompts. I did write 1200 words in my trilogy wip today. Ready to move on to a new month. I might or might not come back to the prompts I missed this month (only missed six– not too bad).
One final link share– my compilation for the entire month:https://slforrester.com/storyadaymay-a-writing-challenge-from-julie-duffy/
Thank you, Julie, and all the writers who contributed prompts for this fun and rewarding challenge 🙂
Bob Whittling finishes his final novel in FOR THE AMUSEMENT OF THE MUSE. It took him 10 years of really hard work, but now that he’s done, he can no longer hear the voice of his tormentor in his head dictating what he should and shouldn’t write. He made a pact with a muse he dug up in a sandbox when he was only five. He’d only been allowed to write what she commanded him to write, resulting in his complete failure at school. Now that his latest bestselling novel is done, the muse is quiet and he can rest because he knows his death is near. He sits watching movies based on his books while drinking beer. Hi sleeping daughter tosses and turns in the next room. He’s gifted her the muse for her 16th birthday present and he recalls the muse’s last words to him, “Tomorrow is a good day to die.”
I used the idea of looking forward and back for the name of my character today!
31 stories/31 days + reflection of my process for all 31 too! WHOO HOO!
https://tammysreadinglife.wordpress.com/2021/05/31/day31-storyadaymay2021/
Now it is onto the next challenge – I am using the Bradbury self-directed MFA of a poem, story, and essay for revision in the month of June. I will continue to blog about it throughout the month!