The Prompt
Today you’re going to dig into your memories and find one that has emotional resonance.
(Tip: it’s easy to reach for a dark memory, because those have strong emotions attached to them, but don’t be afraid to dig around for moments of joy, surprise, and happiness too. Happy stories can be deep, too!)
Put your characters into a scenario where they will feel similarly strong emotions. Then tell us that story, but practice doing it without ever naming an emotion.
Show us how they feel in their bodies, in what they notice, in any way you can. Make the scenery reflect their mood, if you want! Just don’t name the emotions.
This is excellent practice for any time you want readers to linger in the moment with your characters, or any time you want to highlight that This Is An Important Moment!
If you want more practice with the this technique, check out the One Story Challenge – Show, Don’t Tell Edition
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Julie Duffy
Julie Duffy is a writer and the host of StoryADay. She has been working with authors since 1998 and has run the StoryADay Superstars writing group since 2018. Browse some of her on-demand workshops and workshops, or sign up for a coaching session, here:
Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!
Remember: Please don’t post 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
I wrote another story re this prompt when I realized the prompt was supposed to be about revisiting a memory of mine. It was nice to be able to show emotions in the story. The memory was a sad one and the hardwood floor I slept on next to my bed helped keep my emotions from completely taking me over since the solidness of the floor provided me with more sturdiness than my bed would. The wood comforted me as if the tree it had come from was still living.
This was a great prompt for me. I used it to revisit my version of a Norse myth that I tell aloud and will be telling this weekend. It gave me a fresh perspective and helped me get closer to the tale and the characters. Very helpful, thank you so much! My story for today was about 450 words, and it is only one section of the tale I will tell this weekend.
Thanks for the prompt and the encouragement contained in the brainstorming portion of the podcast, that was super helpful today. My story is just under 500 words, and I worked some descriptive paragraphs and did a little bit of work with characters in a longer WIP. Ultimately a decent writing day.
Aw, I’m glad to hear it!
I wrote this story in about 2 hours. It’s about two life long friends. My character sits by her best friend’s death bed and ends with my character adopting her baby. I never mention emotions but hopefully the reader can imply. I may still go in and do some fine tuning.
Well done!
I wrote about seeing a face and falling in love. The characters are probably in high school, possibly college. Mostly action and visual perception, some dialogue.
Walter, thank you – you just gave me a really nice memory prompt – a story for another day.
Such an emotional time!
Took me a while to finally get this written(editing came first today), but I pushed through my initial reaction of ‘ugh, emotions, eww'(yes, I’m a romance writer. what’s your point? I can dig into fictional characters’ emotions and ignore mine, no problem. lol) and wrote 166 words that could possibly fit into Page Turners(my small town bookstore romance story). This made me laugh as I was writing it:
Kris stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and pressed a hand to eir heart. It had been pounding so hard just a few minutes ago, but now it felt warm and gooey.
Ey might want to get that checked out.
Editing first? This story or a residue of another story? TBH, I feel Story a Day frees me from the editing burden. I look back on some writing, and I’d probably cut the first sentence out of my stories; they’re sort of like clearing my throat before speaking statements, warming my fingers up, my middles are flat and could be tighter. Sometimes, I carry a really good show (description) and then blow it away by telling the reader what they just saw… I say ignore it all, storyaday rips the editing toils away.
Sorry, saw the word editing and had the shudders…
Oh, and my romance writing, my daughter also a writer, called one of my attempts trite.
Have a great story day!
The editing is for a novel. I put myself on a pretty tight deadline for it, because I’d like to publish it widely for MLB’s All-Star break(since it’s a baseball romance), but I want to get it to Kickstarter backers at least a month earlier. So I did this to myself, really.
I was just about to go “but you write romance!” When you beat me to it 😉
Lol. There’s probably a reason my character’s fight their feelings so dang hard.
I used the idea I came up with for prompt 13 but wrote it in a different way for this prompt (with senses added). I’ve always struggled with adding the senses in my stories but never found it as easy as I did in this exercise. It was fun.
“She felt blood racing through her veins so strongly it might not quit when it got to the end of her toes, it might just rush out and all over the carpet of this facility.”
I let myself exaggerate. I know I still have to work on it as you can see from this example. For instance “She felt” is still telling instead of showing, but at least I feel I’m at the starting line now.
Having decided to follow through the whole story exaggerating senses also mysteriously provided me with content I wouldn’t have thought of before, as well as some humor. A Teflon pan odor was an example that entered my mind when I had to come up with smells in the senior center facility. If I hadn’t been concentrating on this exercise I wouldn’t have thought of that.
I just reread the prompt; I was supposed to concentrate on emotions, not senses. I still feel I captured emotions by using senses. When I wrote about the woman in the story’s blood rushing through her, that was because of her emotional situation. 😉
Either is excellent, show don’t tell us something I am always striving for. In my early days of writing – I.e. when I did a course it was feedback I heard often.
AAAAAgh!!! I love the prompt – I’ve done day 14 on one of my own prompts already, a technique I’ve used before https://afstoryaday.blogspot.com/2026/05/horses-and-spreadsheets.html
MMM.. I’ve got time, do I dare try a second story for today… let me think..
Interesting though, I could almost claim the story matches the prompt, the scene described is actually a memory of an experience had and to be had with a good mate of mine.
I’m going to claim that as a Prompt met.
High five!