The Prompt
At this point, it’s almost impossible you haven’t encountered a piece of software that tried to convince you to use it’s new AI features.
Today you’re going to write a story that delves into the relationship between humans and technological pals…and this stuff is going to seem a lot less sci-fi than it used to!
Bonus points if you write this story in a non-narrative format. That means,
- Writing out a chat conversation, or making a list of things that your character needs to complete their project (and telling a story in the process).
- Or perhaps your character is trying to write a ‘rescue me’ note in a code that the AI won’t break.
- Or perhaps you’re writing the after-action report for your corporate overlords about how things went so spectacularly wrong.
If you don’t want to write about the tech we have today, you could have a medieval knight working with a clockwork squire; or steampunk Sherlock Holmes android invented by Dr Watson…run wild!
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Julie Duffy
Julie Duffy is a writer and the host of StoryADay. She lived in an era when humans still thought they were in charge of everything, and she thanks her Robot Overlords for allowing the relic of that time to continue to exist online.
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
In the near future we will be able to understand dogs’ thoughts. My protagonist finds out, with the help of AI, that his dog doesn’t even care about him and only sticks around for free meals and toys.
I made a list of ways technologies have been garbling or cheapening communication since Babel, including scribal errors, electronic noise, voice to text, and paperclip. Do you remember the much-hated paperclip that Microsoft offered as part of Word?
The list is bookended by birdsong and whale song, which is unfair, since birds and whales regularly revise their songs, and sometimes (I’ve often heard it in my own yard) get them wrong. This business of communication is prone to error.
I’ve finished a draft that might be fun to flesh out (or tighten, should I go towards shorter flash). I’m also walking away with other ideas. =) It feels surreal that there is only one more day left to the May Challenge! Currently examining the coming months and setting some goals. Happy Writing, all.
This one was a bit of a teeth puller for me until I had the idea during brainstorming to write from the perspective of the wall rotary phone in my childhood home. This was fun to make the phone malicious, malevolent, cruel. The poor teenager trying to dial a collect call though! They tried so many times only for noone to be home. I like this line the best ” I make sure their finger sticks on my bakelite and the zero doesn’t dial properly.” Only one more day to go! We got this!
I wasn’t sure I was going to do this one but then I got a glimmer of an idea. Ended up being 74 words, mostly book titles and a couple lines of dialogue at the end. The titles went from a guide to installing internet to ‘the AI invasion’
WOW, timing is out again, here is my response to the day 29 prompt, location as character: https://afstoryaday.blogspot.com/2026/05/hometown.html. TBH Not a super fan of this one today It needed more work/rework.
Looking at the prompt for today, I think I may give it a crack tomorrow.
One more to go!! Woo Hooo!! Have a good day.