In this week’s podcast I ask: What if the thing standing between you and writing success is your unwillingness to risk looking a little foolish?
In this episode I make the case for embracing your inner fool. And, since I take metaphors seriously, I donned the greasepaint and grabbed my juggling balls, to illustrate the point! (You’re welcome.)
Warning: it’s that time of year when your inbox is about to be flooded with Black Friday sales rubbish.
In my house, we use the Black Friday sales emails to remind us of all the email lists we’ve subscribed to over the years and forgotten to unsubscribe from. It has become it’s own holiday and I invite you to share in it.
Block Lists And Crap. Keep Friends & Relevant Information Day.
Clean out your future inbox
Lighten your psychic load.
Create more time and space for creativity.
Happy BLACKFRIDay!
P. S. If it’s time for you to unsubscribe from StoryADay emails, too, that’s OK. I understand!
I’m taking a moment to share some last minute details and FAQs.
If you have signed up for the challenge, you should start receiving writing prompts by email just after midnight (Eastern US). If you haven’t, you can sign up here.
If you haven’t been through the prep tasks, don’t fret. You can dip into them any time you get stuck, to shake things up. Find them all here.
Each day, you should read the prompt and decide if you want to play with it or write something completely different. Try to start and finish a story every day that you’re writing. (If you ‘miss’ a day, don’t try to catch up. Just keep showing up.)
Come back to the prompt when you’ve written and leave us a comment, letting us know how it went. Don’t post your story, but do feel free to share a line you loved or tell us what you learned.
Something New
A couple of years ago I provided an optional Challenge Handbook, with daily warm up and brainstorming exercises, tailored to each prompt and I’m doing it again this year.
Here’s what people have said about these exercises:
“The brainstorm exercise in the Handbook rocketed me directly into a draft of the story (thanks, Julie!)”
The Warm-Up helps me get the page “dirty”….
The Brainstorming page is where a lot of my ideas are generated. If I already have an idea, then it helps me flesh out my plan…
This year the Handbook is available as a private podcast with written transcripts. It’s just a dollar a day during the challenge, with the option to donate more if you like. (The price will go up in June.)
Get the StoryADay Challenge Handbook for 2026 – custom warm-up and brainstorming exercises for every prompt, delivered as a private podcast with transcripts. SUBSCRIBE NOW
There’s a lot going on in the world today. AI, publishing worries, the world…the feeling that writing is somehow not as ‘important’ as any of that.
Bah!
In this week’s podcast episode I make the case that it’s absolutely the time you should be writing — not because I can guarantee you publishing deals, awards, cash, or screaming fans, but because the act of creation matters.
And then, because it’s October, I’m giving you pointers on how to write a spooky story (and no, you don’t have to like horror, for, or long, dark staircases.) I’ll show you how to take an extremely ordinary premise and make it deeply unsettling, by changing just a few details.
In This Episode
00:00 Why “a good idea” can stop you before you start
00:17 October, spooky stories — and why I want you writing
01:03 Why writing still matters when the world feels noisy
03:30 Why external success won’t sustain your writing life
07:10 Writing as an antidote to cynicism 10:09 Why finishing stories matters
10:09 StoryADay November is coming 11:30 The trap of waiting for a good idea
13:30 How to turn an ordinary idea into a spooky story
15:30 Use setting, isolation and sensory details
17:00 Make one thing feel slightly wrong
18:00 Repetition, unease and psychological spookiness
19:00 What has your character done to deserve this?
20:00 Your spooky story challenge If you’re inspired to write, don’t go and try to learn anything else.
