The Prompt
You did it! Now let’s see if your character has THEIR wish granted…
Grant your character’s deepest wish, today
You’ve done it!
You started this month with the desire to write more, write better, and build your writing practice.
With commitment (and probably some imperfect execution) you’ve arrived here, at Day 31 of StoryADay. That’s a huge accomplishment.
As you write your story today, think about how it feels to get what you wanted.
Of course, reality never quite matches up with how we imagined the perfect outcome (for example, I imagined that this year I wouldn’t crave Sundays ‘off’ from my own challenge. This did not turn out to be true…)
For your character, feel free to use the old fairy-tale caution to be careful what you wish for.
For yourself, however, I’d remind you that achievements begin with two things: a vision of how things could be; and a decision to work towards that better future. You used both to write, this month.
CELEBRATE!
Whether you wrote three stories or 31, you Imagined yourself as a writer, you Wrote, you Refined your practice, you Improved your craft, you Triumphed and, if you’re still reading this, I’m pretty sure you Engaged with the community.
You’re living the I, WRITER life.
If you’d like to keep Repeating this successful pattern, take the next steps by joining our on-going community, the StoryADay Superstars. Find out more.
Tomorrow, I’ll be back in your email inboxes one final time, related to StoryADay May 2025, to send you a self-assessment form, so you can capture what went well and what you will do differently as a result of everything you’ve learned on this journey.
This is one of the most valuable documents you’ll create for yourself and I recommend repeating the practice after every project, in future.
For now, sit back and bask in the your successes as a StoryADay 2025 Winner!
Julie Duffy
Julie Duffy
In 2010 Julie was a frustrated writer, who decided that writing a StoryADay in May would be a great way to kickstart her writing practice. 16 years later, it seems she was right. The rest of the writing world quickly caught on and now May is known as Short Story Month! Julie is the author of writing handbooks, articles, podcasts, workshops and courses, as well as a short story writer, and ‘Book Boss’ — your accountability coach for getting to ‘the end’.
If you’d like to spend six months in the writing community Julie created, consider joining our StoryADay Superstars group.
Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!
Remember: I don’t recommend posting your story in the comments here (and I talk more about why not, here). Best practice: Leave us a comment about how it went, or share your favorite line from your story.
Here’s your next Game Piece. save the image and share on social media with #storyaday
Prefer paper crafts? Here’s the cut & paste version
To close out the month, I decided to use this prompt as my opportunity to finally use a character I’ve been looking to include since early November. It resulted in a silly high fantasy story (with some manga/anime elements) masquerading as a melodramatic series of journals. It chronicles the exploits of a small party of adventurers on an epic quest for magical artefacts as they welcome a mysterious new companion into their ranks, resulting in quite the shenanigans. Was their wish granted? The answer may surprise you! ^_~
Wowow the last prompt of the month! I wrote more of on the “world remade” prompt which I combined with the driving doppelganger prompt, all part of a story I’m having a blast writing. I decided that the topsy turvy world was part of a wish the MC made. I didn’t have a lot of time today but a few minutes during this morning’s sprint and a little more this evening added up to a lot of fun!
Thanks to Julie and the Superstars for a great month! It was a blast writing with everyone.
This prompt inspired a list of sparks that I look forward to developing. The one I chose today was two house pets jealous of how “spoiled” the other is so they simultaneously wish themselves into a body exchange wherein they deepen their collective understanding and learn to appreciate each other and their own approaches to live. Fun to write. =) Thanks for the great prompt!
Thank you, Julie, for a delightful, challenging, and rewarding month of story prompts.
I chose to end my stories with a birthday party and a grandmother’s happiness at seeing a young person’s–my main protagonist’s– birthday wish fulfilled. She is the embodiment of how I feel as I cap this month’s efforts today. All of my 31 short stories were related by a cast of main characters who came together in this final scene. With their wine classes held aloft, and my own sitting by my hand as I typed, we all celebrated our various wishes coming true.
Thank you, again, and cheers!
I used a sci-fi story I’ve been working on where the protagonist wants to bypass a mandate the society has. The way I had it end was that she’s still trying to get what she wants. Today I used this prompt to show how she finally does get what she wanted, which I hadn’t actually figured out before. So this prompt was helpful! I love May because of storyaday prompts. This is the third year I’ve done it. The first year I didn’t miss a day. The second year I missed less than a handful. This year I was working on another project that took all my time so I got started late. Then I got sick and didn’t feel like moving. For the past week or two I’m following the prompts and now I’m going back and doing the ones I missed because not only is that fun, but I learn a lot. I love these brain puzzles. THANK YOU, JULIE, AND EVERYONE ELSE HERE! I read everything everyone writes and that has helped me a lot. Yay!
Aw Valerie sorry you got sick partway through but it sounds like a great finish! I’m glad to be writing along with you!
So beautiful. I gave a happy ending but different as first goal of the protagonist. It was beatiful.
Thanks for your congratulation. Hope to participate next year!!!
I wrote my own personal story and the wish that my children (now grown) are happy. Both my sons are happy with their lives.
I actually started all 31 stories and finished about 27.
I usually spend June doing editing and rewriting. This is my 4th year doing this. Each year is in a binder. I haven’t shared them with anyone but I’m pretty proud of them.
I wrote a micro fiction piece about a woman whose chronic acidity vanishes the day after she gets to know that her childhood abuser suffered terribly with illness before dying.
Thank you, Julie, for STADA and for having us write with you!
I wrote a flash piece about someone (who happens to be a lot like me) who from childhood wanted the books *not to end*, and resolves the problem by – you guessed it – writing.
Woot! Done! Finished!
Thanks, Julie!
I just want to say Thank you Julie! I made it . I might have missed 2 days, I didn’t always use the prompts, but I wrote something every day. Looking forward to this last story in the Story A Day May
I love story A Day
Thanks again
Mary
Another fun prompt that took on a life of its own. I pictured a teenage girl looking at the lake. Her wish is to be like everyone else. The next thing I knew, I was trying to write an episode of Touched by an Angel. I’ve never even considered writing anything like that before.
Thank you, Julie, for a great Story-A-Day May. A big thank you to all who contributed prompts. They were a lot of fun, and I learned a lot about my writing. I enjoyed reading everyone’s comments.