Discipline and strength (mental and physical) are just as important to writers as talent and originality. But we’ll also talk about how to become an idea hamster and why Sir Isaac Newton hates you.
Plus a fairy-tale of a writing prompt!
[Write On Wednesday] Third Grade Word List
This week’s prompt: write a story based on a (surprisingly menacing) list of words from a Third Grade reader…
![[Write On Wednesday] Third Grade Word List](https://storyaday.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/4488168535_638a4598f4.jpg)
My third grader doesn’t bring home his reading book very often, so I don’t get to see the stories he’s working on. Each story, however, comes with a spelling list. That I DO see.
While going through the list of words with him, I got a bit bored while waiting for him to laboriously scribble them out three times each. I started doodling. And made up my own story based on the words he was learning to spell.
And now it’s your turn.
The Prompt
Write a story using the following words:
- Wolves
- Knives
- Men
- Children Continue reading “[Write On Wednesday] Third Grade Word List”
[Write On Wednesday] The Catalogue Of Disasters
Write A Story Featuring An Escalating Catalogue Of Disasters
![[Write On Wednesday] The Catalogue Of Disasters](https://storyaday.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Screen-Shot-2014-02-10-at-12.51.10-PM.png)
As I woke up, I reached for my alarm clock and heard rather than felt my hand knock the full glass of water all over my bedside table – home to my iPhone, table and priceless childhood copy of A. A. Milne’s Now We Are Six. So it’s fair to say that I wasn’t in the best mood when my 8 year old declared that no, he simply wasn’t getting up or getting dressed or going to school. After that screaming match my head was pounding so I reached for some ibuprofen, only to scoop down my husband’s blood pressure medicine instead – damned blue-topped bottles! I figured I had time to drop the kids off at school before rushing myself to the ER, but of course, I had forgotten about the half inch of ice on my windscreen….
Ever had one of those days? How about your character?
The essence of story is conflict. Conflict doesn’t have to involve a bad guy. Sometimes the antagonist is simply your character’s bad mood, or the universe, or her lack of preparation.
The Prompt
Write a story that features a character going through a catalogue of disasters
Tips
- You can start this story at the beginning or the end. They can wake up and start the day off badly, ending up at the wrong end of a loaded gun; or you can start with them strapped into the electric chair, thinking ‘now, how did I get here?’
- Likewise, the action can all by mental: you start by offending your cat and end by quitting your job in a blaze of glory, burning bridges as you go.
- This story can be humorous or tragic, but make sure your readers are feeling what your character is feeling.
- Keep piling on the disasters. Leave us breathless.
- Give the reader occasional breaks by pausing for moments of backstory, if you like. See how that feels to you, as a writer. Does it cause the story to slow? Could you, instead, include backstory in conversations or pithy one-line asides.
- Make this more immediate by writing in first person.
- Or write this in close-third person (no-one else’s thoughts get used, but you’re still writing about your main character as ‘he’ or ‘she’). Remember not to use phrases like “she thought”, “she wondered”, “he looked”. Just tell us a thought. We’re smart enough to figure out that it’s your main character’s thoughts we’re hearing. (e.g. “Well, that wasn’t right” instead of “well, that wasn’t right, she thought”. Much more punch!)
- Use this exercise to practice putting action into your stories. It doesn’t have to be ‘running from the law’ action. It can be all psychological (think: Jane Austen), but make sure you can have things happening in your writing at any time.
Go!
Photo: Barry Skeates
[Reading Room] Golden by James Scott Bell
Author James Scott Bell, as well as being a successful lawyer, novelist and writing coach, has been a good friend to StoryADay (giving us both an interview and a writing prompt for last year’s StoryADay May).
So of course, I wanted to like his new story, which veers from his usual style. No mysteries here, no fast-paced action, just the story of a guy dealing with the legacy of something in his past that he’s not proud of.
Writing (and publishing) this story was a big leap for Bell (as he explained when he announced it). he was nervous. It wasn’t like anything he’d ever written before and he was worried that he might fall flat on his face.
Don’t you feel like that, a lot of the time when you sit down to write? I know I do.
So I went into this story wanting to like it. but I wasn’t sure I was going to. I mean, what do I care about a middle-aged, middle-class divorced father on a playdate with his son?
Well, Bell quickly made me care. He does it by using all the craft available to him. Within the first paragraph I’ve learned a lot about the guy, his divorce, the ex-wife. Look how much information he packs into sentences 3 & $ of the story — and not just information, but attitude, character background, exposition, the whole shebang:
“Judy and I reached an amicable settlement on custody, mainly because I didn’t want to fight her anymore. Her family is well off and were not shy about retaining the biggest shark tank in L. A.”
The story is about more than just a bitter divorcé, though. Rather it is about a father reliving something that happened when he was a kid, a little older than his son.
One of the things I noticed about this story (and all of Bell’s writing) is the strength of the narrator’s voice when he’s writing in first person. It is always dipping with character, attitude and is firmly rooted in wherever the character is from (usually L. A.). In this story, even when he takes the character back in time to his teenage years, the voice is distinctive and unmistakably the voice of a teen,
“That’s what got him in bad with Robbie Winkleblack…”
“I ran away, too, but I wasn’t laughing. I was thinking it was all over for me now. I’d be kicked out of school, maybe thrown into juvie.”
How can you make readers care about your characters whether or not they think they are going to?
Read James Scott Bell’s article on why he wrote this and why short stories are so awesome
Best Of The Web for Short Story Writers April 2014
Every month or so I bring you my favorite links from around the web, that touch on creativity, productivity and writing (from the perspective of a short story writer. I tend to stay away from articles on novel structure, ‘getting an agent’ and other publishing-related questions. We’re here to write, right?)
Here are my favorites from my past month of studying this craft: Continue reading “Best Of The Web for Short Story Writers April 2014”
WEDNS – 1.01 – The Importance Of Writing Every Day
Why not wait, and write “some day”? Spend 15 minutes with Julie Duffy, write and host of the StoryADay May challenge (storyaday.org) and find out why you should be writing NOW, not later.
Don’t Wait! Write Now!
This week’s writing assignment mines your memories of life at different stages.
[Write on Wednesday] Eons
Write a story that takes place over eons
![[Write on Wednesday] Eons](https://storyaday.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Screen-Shot-2014-02-10-at-1.49.51-PM.png)
Source: Hubblesite.org
Last week we talked about writing a story in the moment before a car crash: everything in the story took place during a few seconds in the brain of your main character. This week we’re going to the opposite extreme
The Prompt
Write A Story That Takes Place Over Eons
(or just a really long time)
Tips
- Obviously, since humans don’t live for eons, you’re going to have to choose something else as the thing that provides continuity in this story: it might be a location on the earth; a multi-generational spaceship crew traveling through unimaginable reaches of space; an alien; a centuries-old mollusk; a tree.
- You can write a narrative story if you like, but this might lend itself to some different forms: letters, tweets, journal entries, a string of news articles; a faux-holy book written in different styles in different eras. Have fun with this.
- Thing big thoughts. Eons give you a lot of scope to investigate big ideas.
- Don’t make the story too long. Big ideas don’t necessarily mean high word count.
- Don’t forget to include small details, mundane moments, things your readers can hang their emotions on.
Go!
[Reading Room] There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury
A house stands alone in a post-nuclear-strike landscape. It is one of those Tomorrowland kind of houses that people dreamed of in the 1950s: the stove is cooking eggs and bacon, the mice-robots are scurrying out to clean, the automatic systems are trying to entertain the absent occupants. Absent? Yes, and we find out what happened to those occupants in a shocking moment that is less shocking nowadays, because we’ve seen it before. But Bradbury was writing when these ideas and fears were new.
The story continues without a single human in it and yet it we come to know the former occupants of the house, their culture and also the character of the house.
Dig Deep And Find Your Unique Voice
Ray Bradbury’s writing is deeply poetic and thoroughly unique. It is a wonderful example of how you can find your voice only be being unapologetically yourself. Written by anyone else, this kind of lyrical writing would be overblown and possibly embarrassing. In Bradbury’s handling, it is just….well, Bradbury.
How To Write A Story Without A Human Protagonist
It’s also a wonderful example of how you can write a story without a traditional protagonist and yet still have a character.
In this story the house is definitely the protagonist, if a protagonist’s job is to guide us through a story and show us a new world in a new way. The house in this story is very much that protagonist. It tells us about the world that humanity has created for itself. It tells us what we have done to ourselves and points out the folly of the story’s human race: concentrating all its creative energies on making gadgets to make life comfortable instead of on solving the looming nuclear threat.
The story has secondary characters too: the family that lived in the house and the former household pet (who play the classic ‘secondary character role’ by being referenced in the story only when they contribute something to our understanding of the protagonist — in this case, the house).
[Write On Wednesday] Time Slowed Down
Write A Prompt In The Moment Before An Accident
![[Write On Wednesday] Time Slowed Down](https://storyaday.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Screen-Shot-2014-02-10-at-1.35.17-PM.png)
You know that old cliché: time slowed?
Well, if you’ve ever been in a car crash or any kind of accident, you’ll know exactly what that means: the amygdala (the seat of emotion in your brain) kicks in and calmly starts recording every detail. When you go back over your memories, the moment will seem to have lasted at least 30% longer than it actually could have.
The way to recreate this in fiction Continue reading “[Write On Wednesday] Time Slowed Down”
StoryADay 2014 Participant Badges
Here are your StoryADay May 2014 Participant Badges!
Download them and use them on your websites or where ever you like.
Let everyone know you’re planning on taking part!
(Right-click to download whichever size you like) Continue reading “StoryADay 2014 Participant Badges”
Best Of The Web For Short Story Writers March 2014
Before and After: Do a Little Work, Every Single Day. « The Happiness Project
http://gretchenrubin.com/happiness_project/2014/01/before-and-after-do-a-little-work-every-single-day/
Guest blogger Caroline McGraw talks to Gretchen about how working a little every day can make big scary tasks (writing a completed work) less scary and less hard.
This guest post by Aidyl Ewoh could just as easily be called “Tips For Writers”. Great stuff here from “Surround yourself with positive people” to “Consistency trumps quantity” to “Read a lot” and “Find a writing community”… This blogger is singing my song!
A rumination on the magic of the “New Year”, which we writers can apply at any point in the calendar:
“…human belief is an incredibly powerful thing. When we believe something is possible, no matter how enormous a task it may be, if we really believe we can do it…we will. As long as we do not succumb to doubt, as long as we are willing to keep getting up after we’ve taken a fall, as long as we see these failures not as hard-stops but rather as learning how not to do that totally possible thing – we will do it.”
Yup, I’m late discovering this post, but if you’re looking for something to read (or for places to send your own fiction) this is a great starting point.
3 Writing Tips You Can Steal From Animators
http://thewritepractice.com/animator-tips/
Three great tips here. Not the usual rehashing of story structure tips or character tips or how to make your dialogue sound real. Instead, this article talks about three great ways to actually make the writing happen.
This is both a short story and an admonition to other artists, from Erin Morgenstern, author of the wildly successful novel The Night Circus. Read it slowly, then follow her advice!
When You’re Feeling Self-Doubt & a Lack of Motivation : zenhabits
http://zenhabits.net/down/
Not writing advice but great living advice that will help you get back to your writing on a day when you’re not sure you’re really a writer. (Hint: you are. Use the steps in this article to get yourself back to a place where you can be)
“In real life, it’s not what a person says that shows us who they are, it’s what they do…” Lovely short article on how to make your characters reveal themselves with subtlety.
Chuck Wendig talks about his 20-year-long overnight success, and gives hope to the most impatient among us.
What to write when you don’t have time to write 😉
Do you put off until tomorrow what could be done today?
Write Until You Die
http://killzoneauthors.blogspot.com/2014/01/write-until-you-die.html
James Scott Bell advocates never giving up on creativity, and offers some suggestions on how to do that! (Includes an adorable picture of Herman Wouk)
This is just awesome. Go and look.
[Write On Wednesday] Give Us A Hint
Yesterday I wrote about “Hint Fiction”, a book of stories told in fewer than 25 words.
The Prompt
Write A Story In No More Than 25 Words
Tips
- Remember that, in short fiction, you are collaborating with the reader. Make them supply a lot of the detail by leaving spaces for their imaginations to fill.
- Feel free to write a longer story first and cut it down
- Don’t expect this to be easy or quick: 25 words is almost nothing!
- Read this review of the book Hint Fiction to see some examples of how this can be done well.
- Choose a moment that has some ambiguity in it.
- Make the title count.
Here’s mine:
The Moment That Altered The Course Of Her Life
Her arm, casually draped across his chest, felt a sudden, pounding footrace: his brain vainly chasing the escaping heart-words. Her pause, a lifetime. Then: yes.
Go!
[Reading Room] Hint Fiction
UPDATE: Hint Fiction is launching a second anthology: deadline April 30, 2014 (thanks to Flash Fiction Chronicles for the update)
However, each story is only 25 words long.
In the introduction, editor Robert Swartwood says that short fiction,
“…should be complete by standing by itself as its own little world”
Here’s one of my favorite stories in the collection:
“Jermaine’s Postscript to His Seventh-Grade Poem Assignment,” by Christoffer Molnar.
“Ms. Tyler, the girl part was about Shantell. Please don’t tell anyone.”
Writing a 25 word story seems like it would be easy, but reading through the more-and-less successful stories in this collection three things stood out
- A lot of thinking goes into a short story
- Creating a compelling main character is essential if you’re not going for the quick, humorous, punch-line story.
- Finding ways to do that in so few words is a fascinating challenge.
To distill the essence of a moment, a person, an interaction, down to 25 words takes a lot of effort and these writers have done an amazing job!
Kind of makes you want to try it, doesn’t it?
Where Do You Write?
“…I only have to turn up at my coworking space 10 times a month to make it cheaper than a coffeeshop…and here I don’t have to ask a stranger to guard my gadgets while I run to the loo… “and other, cheaper ways to carve out a writing space
Over at my personal blog today I wrote about my love for the coworking space I rent in my town. I jokingly call the old industrial building my ‘writer’s garret’ and my post was called “Everybody Needs A Garret”.
Which got me thinking. While it’s important to be able to write everywhere and any time and in long or short increments, it is incredibly powerful to have a space or a routine that helps you focus on your writing.
Where Do You Do Your Best Writing?
Some people, like me, have the luxury of time, a hip hometown and a little extra moolah, and can rent cheap, shared office space as a writing garrett.
Other people carve out space in a disused closet or the space under the stairs, jam headphones on their ears and pound away at the keys there.
Some people write in bed, on buses, in libraries and coffee shops.
If you haven’t set up your own writing space yet, experiment with some of these ideas until you find out what works for you.
Your Own Writing Space – Some Tips
If you want to try out having a writing space here are some tips:
- Search your local area for a coworking space or a writers’ collective with desk space for rent. You might be surprised at how much flexibility you can find for relatively little cost (I worked it out. If I spend a morning working at a coffee shop I’ll buy a fancy coffee and probably a breakfast sandwich or something for lunch, to assuage my guilt at hogging one of their tables all morning. I might buy a bottle of water or a second coffee too. That’s probably $10-14 per trip. I only have to turn up at my coworking space 10 times a month to match that…and here I don’t have to ask a stranger to guard my gadgets while I run to the loo.)
Carve out a space in your home. It can be as little as an under-used corner of the kitchen, under the stairs, below an awkwardly sloped ceiling, in the space between two doorways. Pick up a cheap desk or, if you want a standing desk, pop this lap desk on top of a sideboard/buffet and call it your ‘desk’. (This really cuts down on the amount of space you need, as there is no chair to worry about). Maybe order an lightweight room divider screen that you can set up around yourself while you work and fold up when you’re finished. Get a desk lamp to illuminate (and focus) your little corner. Let everyone know that, when you’re in your writing space, this is Writing Time and tell them how long they have to leave you alone before they are allowed to have their next emergency. [2. It will probably take a long time and some persistence before this lesson kicks in at all, even with other adults.]- Carve out an Aural Writing Room by picking up a decent pair of big, obvious over-the-ear headphones [3. Make them big and obvious to signal to the world that you are Not Available] and a White Noise or ambient sounds generator (White Noise is ok, but I really like the Study app for iOS, which has soothing spa-like music and birdsong that is supposed to make you smarter).
Remember, a Writing Garrett isn’t an office. You don’t have to have filing cabinets and lots of shelves [4. You already have books all over your house, don’t you?]. I keep my essential writing supplies for the major current projects together in a backpack. I grab that, and go – whether my writing space for the day is the Garrett or ‘back under the covers’.
Do you have a space where you write? Post a comment (or share a picture) below.
[Write On Wednesday] The Glitterati
Writing prompt: what if a bunch of glamorous and exciting people came to your podunk hometown?
![[Write On Wednesday] The Glitterati](https://storyaday.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Screen-Shot-2014-02-10-at-12.31.58-PM.png)
Does your everyday life seem pretty unglamorous? What about your town?
What if you walked down the street one morning and discovered that a whole bunch of glamorous, exciting people had come to town for a spell?
The Prompt
Write a story about a small town invaded by glamorous/exciting people
Tips
The exciting people could be movie or pop stars on a location shoot, or high-profile politicians in town for a rally, or scientists flocking to study an unnatural phenomenon (think: Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver), just as long as it upsets the status quo.
Who are they? Why are they there? Who do they meet?
What do the local people think about all this?
What does your main character feel about them at the start of the story? At the end?
Who learns something from this visit? What?
Also, if you have only ever lived somewhere exciting, seeing celebrities at every coffee counter, write instead about someone really ordinary coming into a situation filled with glamour. Ask the same questions as above?
Go!
[Reading Room] Flax-Golden Tales by Erin Morgenstern
![[Reading Room] Flax-Golden Tales by Erin Morgenstern](https://storyaday.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Screen-Shot-2014-03-06-at-1.18.51-PM.png)
Every Friday Erin Morgenstern (author of The Night Circus) posts a Flax-Golden Tale: a ten-sentence story inspired by a photograph by Colin Farrell.
The stories themselves range from quirky to thought-provoking to funny and back again. Often the story gives a character to an inanimate object. The narrator’s voice is always strong. The writing is poetic, concise, efficient and a great model for how you might approach a short-short story, yourself.
Steal From Erin Morgenstern!
Not the words. (That would be plagiarism and that would be bad.) But we can learn from her practice.
- She is doing it week after week after week, which is both challenging and freeing. Knowing she doesn’t have to get it right this week (because there is always next week) must be freeing, even as having a weekly deadline is challenging.
- The ten-sentence format is wonderful. Knowing that she has to write ten sentences every time removes one of the many, many decisions a writer must face when sitting down to create something out of nothing (and decisions are often barriers to ‘getting stuff done’). Ten sentences is just enough space to tell a tale, but not so much that you get bogged down or lost. It is not intimidating. Setting small goals (except for during May, of course!) is a valid path towards success and fulfillment.
- She is doing this for fun and for practice. She seems to have no desire to write these for publication, other than to post them, free, on her site (and I suspect that’s more about commitment and accountability than anything else). Writing for the love of it is something easily lost once you start practicing (and reading websites that urge to to publish, Publish, PUBLISH!)
- This is a collaboration. Every week the photographer in the partnership has committed to providing a picture. Every week the writer writes a story. If one of them is having a bad week, their commitment to the other artist is a wonderful incentive to work, instead of waiting for inspiration (or putting off the act until ‘someday’).
What about you? Could you commit to a writing exercise like this? What would yours look like? Would you work with a collaborator? Leave a comment->
[Write On Wednesday] Misunderstood
Write a open letter from a misunderstood character
![[Write On Wednesday] Misunderstood](https://storyaday.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Screen-Shot-2014-02-10-at-12.10.36-PM.png)
Nobody loves the traffic warden. Or the referee. Or the person who tells you that yes, it’s going to be a root canal. But these people are, well, people, aren’t they?
The Prompt
Write an open letter to the world from an unloved character
Tips
- You can use one of society’s whipping boys, such as the traffic warden, or you can use a fictional character (such as the witch from Hansel and Gretel — try to stick to characters that are in the public domain if you’re going to publish/post this anywhere)
- The story can be a ‘day in the life’ story, where we *see* the character in a more sympathetic way, if you don’t fancy the idea of the open letter format.
- The open letter could be in the form of a list of things we didn’t know about the maligned character or it could be an impassioned defense of their kind.
- The character can be sad, angry, arrogant, pleading…whatever seems right.
Go!
Making Time To Write – Success Stories
I find it useful to read case studies from people who have actually WRITTEN books (and possibly had them published and worked on a sequel). Theory is all very well, but hearing from someone who has actually done it? Much more inspiring. They also tend to be more passionate, less forgiving and much, much more practical.
Here are a bunch of articles from working writers who answer the second-most-asked question they hear. [1. The first, of course, being “where do you get your ideas?”]
Jon Scalzi is a speculative fiction writer, Hugo award winner and creative consultant on the SyFy Network’s Stargate: Universe. He wrote an energetic answer to the time question which includes this choice paragraph,
There are lots of things I think I’d like to do, and yet if I don’t actually make the time and effort to do them, they don’t get done. This is why I don’t have an acting career, or am a musician — because as much as I’d like those, I somehow stubbornly don’t actually do the things I need to do in order to achieve them. So I guess in really fundamental way I don’t want them, otherwise I’d make the time. C’est la vie.
Jackie Kessler has written 12 novels (not all of them published, but hey, that’s a lot of writing time) and refuses to apologize for taking time to write [link no longer valid].
Screenwriter John August shares his work-a-day experience of becoming a professional writer. (“my general point is that you need to actively clear time in your day to write, which means giving up something.”) It’s not sexy, but it worked.
Jane Friedman talks about what it takes to make time to write.
Chip Scanlan talks about writing in small chunks, lowering your standards, rejecting the Soup Nazi.
And to finish things off for today:
Joanna Penn, The Creative Penn (@creativepenn on Twitter) shares this personal story, which debunks the ‘if I only had time’ myth a bit:
I once decided that I needed time to write my book. I had some money from the sale of my house, took 3 months off and tried to write every day. It didn’t work. I didn’t have anything to show for it, and went back to work disheartened at my inability to write. It was 4 years until I actually decided to try again.
Then I wrote “How to Enjoy Your Job” in 9 months of evenings, weekends and days off while working fulltime.”.
You can find the time – you just need to re-prioritise!
[updated 3/3/2020 with corrected and new links]
[Write On Wednesday] The Irritable Author
Write a story in which the main character acts on something that really irritates YOU
![[Write On Wednesday] The Irritable Author](https://storyaday.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Screen-Shot-2014-02-10-at-11.52.10-AM.png)
“Don’t you just wish…”
Have you ever said those words when something has really, REALLY irritated you?
Imagine what would happen if you followed through on all those little revenge-daydreams you have after someone scratches your car/talks incessantly on their phone in the library/dogears the corners of Volume 4 of your collectable edition of The Sandman 10 Volume Slipcase Set…
The Prompt
Write A Revenge-Fantasy Story
Pick something that really irritates you and write about a character who actually DOES the things you can only dream of doing (as a respectable member of a mostly-functional society).
Tips
- Read the opening chapters of Rest You Merry by Charlotte McLeod. It starts when mild-mannered professor Peter Shandy finally snaps after being pressured to decorate his home for the annual college Christmas ‘Illuminations’. It’s deliciously hilarious.
- Pick something that really gets under your own skin, the more mundane the better. (It will allow you to be more creative in your revenge!)
- Show us the moment when your character snaps. Give us the physical and mental fugue-state breaking point. Remember not to tell us “he was so angry he couldn’t speak”, but to instead describe the pounding in his veins, the way his tongue cleaves to the roof of his mouth. Slow down time with the details, then let ’er rip!
Go!
[Write On Wednesday] Sidelong Glances
Having trouble finishing your stories? Try this technique…
![[Write On Wednesday] Sidelong Glances](https://storyaday.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Screen-Shot-2014-02-10-at-12.08.23-PM.png)
I once read an article that suggested it’s easier to talk to men/boys when you’re doing something else at the same time than by trying to sit down and have a deep and meaningful conversation with them.
[Update from 10 years after I wrote this post: Gender politics aside, this observation turned out to be super-valuable as I negotiated the tightrope walk of ‘raising’ teenagers. The conversations we had in the car, while not-looking-at-each-other have been some of the most, ah, enlightening!]
Some serious research hours went into this study that showed men (and I assume some women) find it easier to have more meaningful conversations when engaged in an activity together, than if encouraged to sit and talk things out.
Maybe they’re hiding something, or maybe they’ve just been socialized to believe feelings are icky.
Either way, it struck me that this is perfect guidance for writers: assume your characters are always hiding something (from themselves or others). Write your scenes with them as if you were a parent trying to have a heart-to-heart with a seventeen year old!
- If you want to ratchet up the conflict, sit them down for an earnest conversation
- If you want to have a breakthrough, give your characters a physical problem to solve together and let the conversation flow while they do it.
In this week’s prompt, I’m building in the activity. You get to pick the characters, the conflict, and how deep you go.
The Prompt
Write A Story Where the Characters are Engaged In A Hobby/Group
Tips
- Don’t pick a hobby you’ll need to research. Pick something you like to do, so you can easily include all kinds of realistic details.
- For example, I might pick knitting or gardening or singing in a choir. Having done all these things, I can easily conjure the personality clashes in a group of enthusiasts
I could also talk about the tiny details that will make it more realistic: like the adrenaline rush when you think you’ve dropped a stitch, or the physical power it takes to belt out the chorus from “O Fortuna”, along with all the bizarre warm-up tricks choral directors have subjected me to over the years, from ‘ma-meh-me-mo-moo” to group shoulder massages!) - This is a great opportunity to work on character-building. Have your main character interact with all kinds of different characters in the group. See what shorthand you can use for each secondary character in the story, without descending into cliché.
- Try including some tiny, here-and-now moments in the group that echo a larger issue for your main character. This strengthens the theme of the story. (e.g. if you discover that your main character’s issue is that she can’t seem to keep relationships together, allow one of the group’s participants to have issues with commitment to something in the hobby: one month he’s all about cacti, the next month he’s revamping his greenhouse to hold nothing but palms; maybe someone can’t ever seem to knit more than one sock in a pair before moving on to another project; perhaps the newbie on the sports team has been through 14 different sports before this one and can’t settle on one…).
Mine other people’s reactions to this micro-problem to illuminate the answer to your main character’s macro-problem. - Linking your theme to an in-story event, transforms a character sketch or vignette into an actual story that goes somewhere.
- If you feel you’re missing the mark on this as you write your first draft, don’t worry. Make notes as you go to help you flag this stuff on a future rewrite. (e.g. [“link this to her issue with Dave?’].
The most important thing today, is to get a first draft finished. Get to the end of your main character’s story and set a date to come back and beef up all the theme/image/foreshadowing stuff later. (Pro tip: Put it on your calendar!)
Come back and leave a comment to let us know how you got on, this week!
[updated: 11 March 2024]
Win A Trip To WANACon 2014
WANACon (run behind the minds behind the We Are Not Alone Tribe for writers) is coming!
The World Wide Writers Conference You Can Attend In Your PJs runs February 21-22, 2014 and it is going to be great.
I say this, in all modesty, as one of the speakers 🙂 I’ll be speaking with Gabriela Pereira of DIYMFA.com on “A Simple System To Rock Your Revisions” that works for novels AND short stories.
You can WIN a FREE pass to the conference here:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
[Write On Wednesday] Things You Should Know About Me
This idea for a story is ripped from the song “Them’s The Vagaries” by Half Man Half Biscuit (thanks, guys!). The narrator says, near the start of the song, “Now we’ve kissed I’ve prepared this list, I thought you ought to know…” and goes on to tell his new love about all his quirks starting with “I’ll not sit backwards on the train” and proceeding down to the most bizarre of pet peeves.
The Prompt
Write a story that begins “Now that we’ve kissed, here are some things you ought to know”
Tips
- Write this as a monologue or a dialogue, whichever works for you.
- This has the potential to be funny or tragic.
- Feel free to write this as a list (like the McSweeney’s lists) or as a series of tweets, or as an oral history (which will make it more like a traditional short story in form).
- Even if you go with the non-traditional forms (lists etc) there is still a lot of scope for the beginning, middle, end structure.
- Only the journey you take your readers on will be emotional, rather than literal (from flippant to poignant; from innocent to creepy…).
- Think of the most colorful people you have ever met or the worst date you were ever on. Imagine one of those people writing this.
[Write on Wednesday] That Wasn’t There A Minute Ago
Your character is at work, in a place they know well. Suddenly they notice something that wasn’t there last time they looked…
This week I’m giving you a fairly specific prompt, and guiding you through the story opening with a series of questions. Use this prompt in any setting, any genre, any time period. Use it again, in a completely different setting. In fact, why not bookmark it now (do people still bookmark things?) and come back to it whenever you’re stuck.
The Prompt
Your character is at work, in a place they know well. Suddenly they notice something that wasn’t there last time they looked.
Tips
Don’t try to answer all these questions at once. Write a sentence or two before you look at the next question:
- What is your character seeing/experiencing/smelling/touching/thinking about as part of their daily grind?
- What do they notice, that is out of place?
- Why does it suddenly stand out?
- How does it relate to the character? (Pause here to think about your character’s backstory. Don’t put this in the story yet, but in your own head give your character a reason to connect/recoil from this new thing.)
- Describe the object, bearing in mind how your character feels about it (but don’t tell us how your character feels about it or why)
- What does your character want to do? What will you let them do?
- What happens next?
- How does it end?
Go!
[Write On Wednesday] Family Drama
Oh families. The source of so many off the stories we whisper to friends, but are afraid to commit to paper for fear of offending anyone. Today’s prompt encourages you to dig into that vast repository of family stories for a ‘cheap’ way to find a plot.
The Prompt
Write a story about a stranger at a family gathering.
Tips
Think about a family gathering you’ve been to (yours or someone else’s) – preferably one where one of your most colorful relatives was on great form.
What would that look like to a stranger? (Uncle Bob’s new girlfriend or the lonely new neighbor someone invited as a nice gesture)
Take that real-life story as a jumping-off point.
Decide on a protagonist: is it your stranger or the person who invited them? Think about the protagonist’s history. What’s in their past that’s going to make this situation especially hilarious or poignant or tragic? (You don’t have to explain this in the story, but if you know about it, you’ll be able to make this character richer as you write.)
Pick one tiny incident — someone storms out, someone smashes a plate in frustration, someone swears inappropriately. Illustrate the moment and/or the ripples around the room after it happens. (Remember, this is a short story. You can’t tell too much.)
Concentrate on making the reader feel something: make me cringe with embarrassment, make me love the old grandpa, make me feel your protagonist’s regret when he misses a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to say what he really feels…
Go!
Publish Your Own Short Story Collection
Around here we’re all about creativity. I don’t talk much about publishing because:
a, there’s plenty of material online about how to publish/get published and
b, Worrying about the publishing part before the writing part seems like putting the cart before the horse.
However, many of you have come along on the StoryADay May creativity binge a few times now and are starting to wonder “What Next?”
I strongly advocate trying many different things to get your work into the hands of readers, from submitting to traditionally-published magazines, publishing online, and yes, even self-publishing.
This summer and autumn I focused on putting together batches of stories that could be packaged together and sold as ebooks. Then I published them myself.
I’ve never felt more inspired, so I wanted to share the steps with you.
Why Write & Publish A Short Story Collection eBook?
- It imposes deadlines and a finite end to each project
- It can inspired you to finish and polish your stories
- Setting my own them and writing my own ‘themed anthology’ helped me focus on what to do every time I scheduled a writing session.
- Because I was sick of only writing to someone else’s specifications and then spending weeks waiting to hear back to hear that I hadn’t quite hit what they needed [1. I won’t stop submitting to magazines and online publications. I just needed another outlet too!]. I wanted to feel like I was spending more time writing than researching markets.
- To build an audience of readers, not just other writers (much as I love my online writing buddies, we all need readers!).
- To build a track record of publications with reviews and feedback.
Was It A Success?
A resounding success.
My experiment is still a bit of a work in progress as I have only released a few things, and my marketing is designed to produce results over the long haul. But I can tell you that I have never been more inspired or productive in my writing life. Just the thought of taking control, seeking feedback from trusted writing friends, polishing and releasing these stories, has filled me with drive and broken through any number of writing blocks in the past few months.
Because my marketing plan isn’t fully in place yet (and relies on more collections being released over the next year), I’m not going to talk about sales figures yet.
Get The Blueprint – Free!
I am, however, going to share how I got the books out into the world, created mechanisms for gathering reader feedback and began to share my stories with the world.
If you’re already on the StoryADay mailing list you should have received a copy of the lesson I put together, sharing what I did (check your email).
It contains everything from:
- How (And Why) To Write & Polish a Themed Batch Of Stories
- My Timeline For Putting Together An eBook
- Preparing for Publishing (including preparing the text and cover, and what you must include to ensure readers connect with you)
- Working with Amazon to Create A Kindle Edition (including a walk-through of the publishing process)
- Working With Smashwords To Create Other eBook Formats (including technical details and tips on how to use Smashwords to increase your book’s reach)
- What I Did To “Release” The Book (includes how I sought reviews, spread the word and gathered feedback)
- What Next? (Includes tips for ongoing marketing, and planning the next collection)
- Your Turn (A pep-talk on the three most important steps you must take if you’re going to try this)
- Resources (includes links to all the services I use for publication and promotion.
If you’re not on the mailing list you can add yourself now and receive your free copy of my detailed guide to Publishing Your Own Short Story Ebook Collection
Writing Through The Holidays
You’re busy. Or you’re sad. Or you’re conflicted. Or over scheduled. Or delirious with excitement.
Whatever the holidays mean to you, this time of year can be a killer for your writing productivity.
Depending on what you’re working on, that can be OK. Or perhaps you will need to continue to carve out some serious work time even though the 12 Tribes of HisFamilyAndYours are descending on you, daily.
Here are some encouraging words from me to you, on how to keep your inner writer and your outer productive-member-of-society happy together at the year’s end.
What Do You Need?
We’re used to asking what our characters need, but for once, let’s look at what YOU need, as a writer.
If You’re In The Middle Of A Project
If you have an ongoing project like a long short story, a story you’ve just started or a novel, you really will have to make time every day to write. The good news is you don’t have to do much. Even 250 words a day will keep your head in the project and your characters in your head. The even better news is that getting back to your imaginary world for even this little time every day, will be an incredible mood booster. Sneak off to a spare room for 30 minutes, come out smiling (and get the extended family talking about what on earth you keep in there!).
If You’re Between Projects
If you don’t have an ongoing project, my best advice for you is: don’t worry.
- Don’t worry about trying to craft stories when you’re temporarily overwhelmed with commitments.
- Don’t worry about writing stories when you have people you enjoy hanging out with.
- Do keep a notebook or your smartphone nearby and make notes. Capture moments, turns of phrase, jaw-droppingly inappropriate comments by in-laws (note: you may have to excuse yourself and run to the bathroom so people don’t know you’re writing about them). Use this time of enforced activity and sociability to capture all these things and call them Story Sparks.
- Don’t worry about what these Story Sparks might or might not turn into, just yet. Write them down. Keep them safe.
Keep Yourself Sane By Journalling
We write because we need to get the voices out of our heads, or because we need to know how we feel about things.
Just because you don’t have time to craft short stories over the holidays, don’t let that drive you insane.
Take a pretty notebook with you (keep it safe) and your favorite pen, and just write. At the start or end of the day, or in any stolen moment, write about your day.
- Write about what pisses you off.
- Write about what delights you.
- Write about what scares you.
- Let your handwriting reflect your mood. Write tiny letters or huge scrawls or in jagged, stabby motions.
- Try to write at least one sentence in there that uses some of your writerly skills, but mostly, just let the voices out.
You don’t need ever look at this journal again (though it might be useful to drag it out in July when you are both thinking of writing holiday stories for submission to winter holiday markets and making your own Christmas plans for next year!)
Here’s wishing you a peaceful and fruitful holiday season. I hope you get some rest, and manage to keep your inner writer healthy, wealthy and raring to go in the New Year.
Best Of The Web for Short Story Writers – November 2013 Edition
Every so often I post lists like this (like a real, old-fashioned ‘weblog’) of recommended reading from around the web, especially curated for short story writers. Here’s the latest. You can read more like this here.
Write Every Day
http://www.salon.com/2013/11/25/nicholson_bakers_best_advice_writers_must_write_every_day/
Nicholson Baker says you should write every day
(And provides a few ways you can cheat and still succeed!)
Four Reasons To Write The Hell Out of What’s Left Of 2013
http://blog.pshares.org/index.php/four-reasons-to-write-the-hell-out-of-whats-left-of-2013/
by Ploughshares Literary Magazine
A funny-serious look at productivity in December (and why not to wait for Jan 1)
It’s Alive! When Your Hibernating Story Wakes Up
http://www.everydayfiction.com/flashfictionblog/its-alive-when-your-hibernating-story-wakes-up/
by Sarah Crysl Akhtar …because flash stories don’t prey on your mind the way a novel would, writing them is refreshing rather than exhausting…
Finding Focus
http://zenhabits.net/finding-focus/
By Leo Babauta Do you ever have one of those days when you just can’t seem to find focus? When you fritter away your time on nothingnesses, distractions, wandering without really doing something important? Or one of those weeks?
Shared Storytelling Challenge
http://isawlightningfall.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/shared-storytelling-advent-ghosts-2013.html
by Loren Eaten
Advent Ghosts seeks to recreate the classic British tradition of swapping spooky stories at Yuletide. However, instead of penning longer pieces, we post bite-sized pieces of flash fiction for everyone to enjoy. It’s an open call for anyone interested, so why not join us? December 20 is Ghost Day!
From Novels to Shorts and back again
http://womagwriter.blogspot.com/2013/11/guest-post-sam-tonge-from-novels-to.html
by Sam Tonge. How writing short stories after writing novels helped her become a better (more marketable) writer.
The Rule of Three
http://thewritepractice.com/the-rule-of-three/
Part of storytelling is creating something memorable… One of the most effective ways to enforce memory is through repetition, and so one of the most common storytelling techniques was born: the Rule of Three.
What Every Writer Must Know About “Hero Fact”
http://storyfix.com/what-every-writer-must-know-about-hero-fact
A guest post by Jennifer Blanchard In my work as a writing coach, I come across a lot of stories where the hero isn’t being heroic. Either the hero is being saved by someone else or there’s not enough conflict to force the hero to actually step up and earn the title.
Secrets of The Phantom Tollbooth: Norton Juster and Jules Feiffer on Creativity, Anxiety, and Failure
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/10/04/the-phantom-tollbooth-documentary/
“Failure is a process … you have to fail over and over and over again to get anything that’s worthwhile.”
A Little Bit of Me In All My Stories
http://womagwriter.blogspot.com/2013/09/guest-post-lynne-hackles.html
by Lynne Hackles – When someone asked Lynn for her secret ingredient, she told them…
Peruvian Writers Face Off in Lucha Libro
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/peruvian-writers-face-off-in-lucha-libro_b78563
Could you write a story in five minutes? In front of a live audience? While wearing a mask?
The Big List Counts 1,500+ Literary Magazines
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/the-big-list-counts-1500-literary-magazines_b78692
Looking for the ideal place to publish your writing? Check out The Big List, a collection of 1,500+ links to literary journals around the world.
Don’t Apologize For Wanting To Be Paid, Flannery O’Connor Didn’t
(But that doesn’t necessarily mean expecting to be paid while you’re still learning your craft)
For writers having a hard time
“Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what…
[Write On Wednesday] Word List Stories
It’s back: the ever-popular (no really, it is!) exercise where we all write stories using the same list of words.
It’s silly, it’s low-stress, it is, frankly, ridiculous and it makes for a great way to break blocks or take a break after a longer or more serious project.
So here goes:
The Prompt
Write a story containing the following words
Monthly
Cute
Shortest
Wolfish
Plot
Master
World
Valuable
December
Go!
[Write On Wednesday] 100 Words For Thanksgiving
It’s almost Thanksgiving here in the US (for those non-US people: it’s a Big Deal with lots of travel and turkey and non-productivity).
So, in an effort to keep you writing but not overwhelm you, this week I’m assigning a Drabble, a 100 word story.
The Prompt
Write A 100 Word Story
Tips
- 100 word stories sound like they won’t take up much time but they will take more than you think.
- Remember that you don’t have much time/space to create your story. This stops you from including too much backstory, any rambling, or losing your way in the middle. Keep your mind firmly on the end.
- Do write more than 100 words if you need to, then trim.
- If you find yourself writing fewer than 100 words, look back and see if you can beef it up with pointed dialogue, expressive description or more of your main character’s emotions.
- You can make the theme of the story ‘Thanksgiving’, ‘gratitude’ (or lack thereof), or something completely different if inspiration strikes.
Go!
Short Story Bootcamp
It’s November and the writing blogs have all turned their attention to the novel. What’s a short story writer to do?
For while we love our novel-writing fellows, we lovers of the short story don’t always want to write novels in November. Or maybe we’re just not in a novel-place right now. Sometimes we just want to write stories. Sometimes it’s just as hard to sit down and write a short story as it is to sit down and write a novel. And we get grumpy in November, when we’re forgotten about.
Well grump no more.
The StoryADay Warm Up Course is back, but this time it’s personal.
Seriously.
I’ve beefed up the course with personal coaching calls and expanded materials, without losing any of the awesome results-driven focus of the original course. This time you get at least one personal call with me as well as a Q&A teleseminar. You also get worksheets to keep track of your progress (and I’ll be asking to see them!)
That’s right, it’s a Bootcamp and I’m your drill sergeant, only friendlier. A friend-sergeant. A drill-friend. Something.
Interested?
The course starts on Monday November 18, 2013. Three weeks later you’ll have:
- 10 completed stories under your belt,
- More story ideas than you can use in a month, and a method for generating them forever, so you need never again fear the blank page,
- The confidence to know you can make writing an on-going part of your life,
- Practice and discovery of your best working habits.
- Coaching that cuts through your excuses and helps you find a way to write every day, not someday.
$147 $97
(until midnight Sunday, 17, 2013)
But wait, there’s more
(Yeah, I said it)
Bonus Coaching Sessions
You can also add on four additional coaching sessions (one for each of the second and third weeks of the course, one at the end to launch you into the next phase of your writing life, and another one a few weeks later to make sure you’re still on track).
During these 45 minute sessions we can tackle:
- Productivity
- Creative blocks
- Time management
- Story points
- Your plan for developing your writing career
And I will critique one of your stories each week, to review your progress and help with your writing development.
If you’re really serious about getting your writing life in gear, this kind accountability will make the difference between wishing and doing.
Just the course? $147 $97
Add on the Bonus Coaching now? $147
[Write On Wednesday] Unseasonal Valentine
The Prompt
Write A Valentine’s Story
I know, you think I’m crazy, right? But if you’re a sick as I am (already) of the Christmas music in the mall (it’s early NOVEMBER!) and the magazine articles about ‘holiday entertaining’, then why not strike back, by skipping the festive season altogether and writing a Valentine’s story?
The bonus here is that, should you happen to write a story draft that has promise, you’ll have plenty of time to polish it and submit it well before the Valentine’s magazine deadlines roll around (end of Nov/early Dec). If you’re more of the Do-It-Yourself-er, then you’ll still need time to polish, format and market your story before February strikes.
And if you’re just writing for fun, what could be better than letting your story take you away from the present day?
Tips
- Put on some love songs and “think romantical thoughts”.
- Try writing a love story with a twist. Everything gets kind of sickly sweet around Valentine’s Day. Write a story for the people who really NEED a love story that day! This might include revenge, someone asserting their independence, someone walking away from a relationship, or a good old-fashioned farce.
- Ever watched a soppy movie or read a romance and hated the way it ended? Create some similar characters and give the story a better ending.
- Remember that story comes from character. Know your character before you start writing — what does she want? What does she need? How are these different? That’s where your story happens.
Go!