A call to action!
I’m obsessed with helping you write more and feel successful in your writing life (Yes, I was watching the E! Emmy’s red carpet show this week. Thanks for the epithet, Laverne Cox!)
What are you willing to do to become the writer you know you are inside?
LINKS:
I’m obsessed with helping you write more and feel successful in your writing life (Yes, I was watching the E! Emmy’s red carpet show this week. Thanks for the epithet, Laverne Cox!)
What are you willing to do to become the writer you know you are inside?
LINKS:
Join the Superstars: https://stada.me/superstars
In today’s writing prompt will you grant your character the power to change the past?
“If only I could go back and do it over again, I would…
” How many times have we said that to ourselves?
In JK Rowling’s “The Prisoner of Azkaban,” Hermione Granger had a time turner necklace where she could turn back time to allow her to attend more classes, but more importantly, save two lives.
Whether it’s changing one seemingly small decision or a whole lifetime of decisions, there is usually one thing that we would change if we could.
Something that would make a difference in just one life or many more.
What is your character’s one thing?
Leslie Stack is a writer, musician, camper, and teacher who loves being on the water or in a museum. You can usually find her doing research behind dark glasses on a park bench. She lives in a house in Pennsylvania with her husband where the books are plotting a takeover.
Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!
In today’s writing prompt, is your character’s outward appearances showing us the truth or is it masking something else?
Write a story about a person wearing a black mask with the slogan, “NOT TODAY, SATAN” in white print, all caps.
Gabrielle Johansen is a fantasy writer who wishes she had a magic wand.
Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!
Writing in the present tense provides immediacy, as this writing prompts, and its tips, demonstrate
Tell a story in the present tense that starts when your character enters a new environment and ends when they exit.
This story could be a single episode from a larger quest, that illuminates something about your character (useful for those of you who have a longer work-in-progress on the go), or it could be a standalone story.
I’m encouraging you to tell the story in the present tense because it makes the story so much more immediate AND leaves the possibility open for absolutely anything to happen at the end of the story.
Want your character to drift off into space uncertain of their fate? Want them to die at the end? Want to keep the reader on the edge of their seat? These things are all easier to pull off when your story is in the present tense.
If you start your story “I’m walking down the middle of the road, traffic roaring past in both directions on either side of me, pulling the folds of my long gown this way and that, like hands grabbing at my dress…” the reader has no idea if this character is going to survive or not.
If the same story was told in the past tense, (“I was walking down the middle of the road…”) there is an implied ‘later’, an older version of the character who survives to tell us the story.
You don’t have to be out to murder your character, to use this perspective, but it can be very useful in stories where you want to ratchet up the suspense and the sense that anything could happen.
It’s also good practice to mix up our natural inclinations from time to time.
If you’re feeling resistance to any of these ideas, remember: I’ve lost count of the number of writers who told me they hated (HATED) a particular prompt, and write to it anyway, only to have it turn out to be the most interesting (and often published) story they wrote that year.
Julie Duffy is typing this prompt on an ergonomic keyboard. The large maple tree outside her window is being buffeted by spring storms, reaching its branches towards her windows as if it wants to come inside. Wait, what was that noise?
Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!
What would you say if I told you that, by this time next week, you could change your relationship to your writing?
The StoryADay Fun-Size Challenge is back and this time it’s a 5-Day Challenge.
Five days to write your next story, to prove to yourself that you can do this, to stop worrying and start doing.
Will you join us?
The fun starts tomorrow, Saturday, Sept 10.
Everyone who signs up will receive daily tasks by email and invitations to live events and the blog community, to inspire and support you as you perform each day’s tiny task, each of which brings you closer to a finished draft.
Did I mention that by this time next week you could have a draft of a new short story complete?!
Sign up today and I’ll send you
We’ll start with a live lesson and writing sprint (I’ll talk for a bit, you can ask questions, then we’ll do some quiet writing breaks so you can start making progress on your story straight away).
Hope to see you there
Keep writing,
Julie
PS Your link to tomorrow’s live session will go out a couple of hours before the session so sign up now!
The only qualification to be a ‘Superstar” is a desire to write and support your fellow writers.
A supportive group of committed writers, who meet virtually, support each other’s efforts, and inspire each other.
Registration for 2024 open now-June 8, 2024
A 6-part journey through the short story.
Starts Jan 3, 2025
