Culture infuses everything about our world, so ‘world-building’ is an important part of our writing. Today’s prompt encourages you to build a story around a cultural oddity.
Think about a cultural norm in the world of your story and explore its ramifications for your characters.
The Prompt: Write the story of an inanimate object.
This prompt was inspired by a conversation with a StoryADay Superstar who had been waiting for a package to arrive for weeks. We speculated about what it had been up to on its travels, and now it’s your turn.
Write the story of an inanimate object
The Prompt: Write a story with a pivotal scene where your a character tastes a food they haven’t tasted since childhood.
Write a story with a pivotal scene where your a character tastes a food they haven’t tasted since childhood.
I liked this a lot.
It managed to be about magic and death and unrequited love and #metoo and revenge and yet have a lightness and beauty that I often find missing in modern stories, and which is hard to pull off with those themes.
Continue reading “[Reading Room] How The Trick Is Done by A. C. Wise”It’s not too late to meet some of your goals for 2020 (or some minimum viable version of that goal).
This article is a companion to the podcast episode 193 – Getting From Here To There
Remember: “At least I did that one thing” feels so much better than “I couldn’t even do …”
Looking back at the past year might bring in some fear, guilt or pain because of what you didnt’ achievel.
And that’s fine….as long as you don’t stay there.
Goal setting is seductive and fun because it allows us to live in that shiny place in the future where we’ve overcome all our shortcomings.
The bit in the middle, however, is the tricky part.
Here’s what I’ve learned this year: change is uncomfortable. It’s supposed to be. And it’s ok.
When we set goals and want to make changes, we know, intellectually that there are several steps we need to take.
HOWEVER…
Without a strong emotional story about WHY we are doing it, it’s much, much harder to get through that uncomfortable part in the middle. It’s much more comfortable to scurry back to the way we’ve always done things (of course it is!).
To make meaningful changes, you need to embrace the ugliness of the times you’ve failed in the past, and the emotional reason you want to move forward to a bright, new shiny place.
Use the StoryADay Annual Review Bundle to help you write that emotional story about each goal you set this year AND keep track of your motivation and progress throughout the year.
Annual Goals Overview Worksheet (set your motto and top goals for the year)
PACE Yourself Worksheet (for each individual goal – with emotions! Listen to this podcast episode to learn how to use it best)
Serious Writer’s Accountability Group monthly worksheet
Triumphs Tracker (log your successes throughout the year)
If you’re the kind of person who’s stopped setting goals because you never meet them, let’s figure out why!
Use these planners to
And more of all, keep writing!
This time last year I wrote about middles with the aim of helping you master your mindset.
This year I’m thinking more about the actual writing: how to write the middle of a story.
The inspiration for this prompt is unashamedly borrowed from James Scott Bell’s immensely readable ebook Write Your Novel From The Middle. It’s well worth the few dollars to pick up a copy of this book.
Even if you don’t have your copy yet, you can use Bell’s revelation that the middle of a story often involves a moment of introspection, to strengthen your short story writing today.
Write a literal or figurative Mirror Moment into the middle of your story.
All the prompts this month are designed to stand alone or support your novel habit! Use them to spark standalone stories or to unstick your work-in-progress.
Just because it’s short doesn’t mean a story can’t be complex.
Write a story in which the protagonist and antagonist are two sides of the same coin.
This month’s writing prompts all acknowledge the fact that November belongs to novelists. Whether you write longer fiction or you don’t you can use this month’s prompts to nudge you forward in your writing practice.
Take an idea you have thought “I could write a novel about that” and test it as a short story
I love a writing challenge. I love NaNoWriMo. I’ve taken part several times and learned a ton. It even inspired me to start StoryADay (you can read about the day I met NaNo founder Chris Baty!)
But every October the Writing-Internet becomes so obsessed with NaNoWriMo that it almost feels like you have to take part or you’re not a ‘real writer’.
In reality it’s not for everyone.
Continue reading “Should You Sign Up for that course or challenge?”Don’t try to write short stories without reading some. Here are 10 modern and 10 classic stories to get you started.
Chosen by members of the StoryADay Superstars community
The rules for novels and movies don’t apply to short stories. Part of the fun of short story writing is that the form is so flexible.But how would you know that if you’re not reading them?.
Here are 20 great short stories you should read, suggestesd by the StoryADay community.
Each story is either a classic or one that stuck in the reader’s head for years.
![[Write On Wednesday] Nostalgia Foods](https://storyaday.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/bill-craighead-rYLpb6COS_I-unsplash-2.jpg)
