How did you get on yesterday? Did you write a story?
Remember, set your own rules, and stick to them. If you miss a day, don’t try to catch up. Just keep moving forward!
The Prompt
ENDING LINE: As the sun went down that night, I knew it would rise, tomorrow, on a very different world.
Think about this line and what kind of mood you would like it to convey. What kind of mood do you want your story to take today?
Sometimes our stories can veer off track: we feel like writing a funny story and suddenly we’re crying over our keyboards; or we want to write Gothic Horror and somehow end up with Clueless.
Starting with the end in mind, can help with that.
(Feel free to change the syntax and pronoun in this, to fit your story.)
Go!
So how’s it going this week? Are you tired or have you caught your second wind?
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September Day 28
Closing Line
This prompt inspired me to write a chapter of a novel I am in the process of writing based on the life of a young girl growing up in rural Herefordshire. This chapter describes her life as she journeys from school leaver to young wife.
She whispers the closing line to herself as she slips into bed in her marital home for the first night.
This prompt has demonstrated to me the value of knowing how you want your story to end. This realisation has really helped me with structuring my stories.
6750 words
Day 28 and still hanging in there.
I made a plan to get me to that closing line. I dreamed a story that partly followed the plan. Then pen to paper and the plan went away and the dreamed story went away and the written story went the direction it wanted to go – I was the scribe, and the “story” told itself. This piece is one I may go back to and flesh out. It’s been an interesting morning.
It sounds like it was an exciting process today!
That sounds fab!!
Thanks Julie.
Only 700 words but it flowed really well. I think it has shown me that I need to focus on the end I want or at the very least the direction I aim to take the story. I enjoyed this prompt enormously and with more time I would expanded it.
Oh yes, it’s sooooo easy to get lost and forget where you were going. The writing feels good, but you end up wiht something that’s now quite a story, which is less than satisfying. Hopefully this exercise will help.
This one resulted in two different stories again. Could have been a third story but logic/ sleep kicking in.
I went with the prompt and realized at the very end I should’ve written in first. So instead I had my 30-something drunk recite the line while she stumbled out of her last bar since she was planned to change her ways.
Here’s the end bit:
“Night all,” she slurred as she threw her last twenty on the bar. No one acknowledged her.
Street lights flashed on in an uneven display that hurt her eyes. It had nothing to do with six empty beer bottles. Lara couldn’t remember the last time she left the little bar at dusk. It was a little scary to see her routine already changing.
So this was it, Lara mused while stumbling down the hill to catch an early train. So many changes. Could she survive it?
Sun sinking, casting purple and orange rays across the sky made Lara warm and hazy as she took in the sight. She ignored the horns and shouts from cars as she lurched into the middle of the road to see the same street she walked every week in a whole new way.
Mesmerized she whispered one of her favorite lines; “As the sun went down that night, I knew it would arise, tomorrow, on a very different world.”
So last week, didn’t go well for me. One sick kid, very little sleep and a trip to the ER with oldest son after an epipen for his shellfish allergy. I did no writing, but I looked longingly at the prompts each day. I hope I can go back and use some of them another day.
But this morning before the kids were up, before I even got out of bed, I put my mind to this one and wrote more than I have yet this month. 1500 words. So since I wrote it in google docs, I’m going to try to share it. Let me know if the link doesn’t work. I’ve never tried to share one before.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/10m1_6YcTcNP8mGWb-vW1JTwPQ4uAvFoZeT_Y_vlJIhA
I’m so sorry for all your troubles!
Good job on that story! That’s extraordinary, and fits perfectly with the last line.
Oh wow, Sherri!
What an intense story!
I’m sorry it’s been such a tough week. Hope your son is recovering!
Oh dear! What a night.
Well done, you for getting up and rewarding yourself with some writing time.
The prompts will still be here, whenever you need them!
I didn’t use the prompt because I felt lazy today. I did a short-short, I guess, but it’s a story! http://marianallen.com/2019/05/the-dessert-that-failed/
Oh my gosh! I laughed at the last line!
Oh that was so deliciously funny!