The Prompt
Your prompt today is to find a way to use all of the following words in a story. (The words are taken at random from Mary Oliver’s “Upstream: Selected Essays”):
- poems,
- winged,
- faith,
- bog,
- darkness,
- summer,
- more,
- many,
- course,
- equally.
The point of this is to lower the stakes for you, so that you can write something without worrying about making it a work of art. With these constraints in place, it’s a triumph to simply write a coherent story. In the process, you’ll be practicing all the skills you need in your storytelling life: showing up, puzzling out the story, staying at it until you reach ‘the end’; character creation; putting obstacles in their way; creating conflict; resolving the puzzle; putting some sort of ending on the piece…
You’ve already given yourself permission to write. Now give yourself permission to write something imperfect. (It’s a valuable skill!)
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Julie Duffy
Julie Duffy is a writer and the host of StoryADay. You can find her most recent story in the May/June 2026 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact. If you’re struggling with your writing or your writing practice, Julie offers coaching sessions (One-off troubleshooting or multi-session packages):
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