What Now?!

Today is a particularly important day…you’ve spent the past month focusing on your writing and your life as a writer. 

I couldn’t be more proud of you!

I encourage you to download the post-challenge worksheet attached to this page and either print it out or simply use the question and answer them in your journal. 

  • What worked?
  • What was a sure-fire way to sink your writing day?
  • What surprised you?

WRITE IT ALL DOWN

While you’re in the throes of the challenge it’s easy to think you’ll never forget all the lessons you’re learning. 

You will.

So save the lessons, put them somewhere safe, then take the rest of the day off. Maybe tomorrow too. You deserve it.

Share your favorite lesson in the comments, below!

Celebrate Your Success

And don’t forget to download your Certificate of Completion. Print it out, fill in your name, and post a picture of yourself on social media with the hashtag #StoryADayMay

certificate of completion for StoryADay May 2026 with Julie's Signature

Keep Going

Feeling fired up and don’t want to lose momentum? Here are some ways you can keep going, with StoryADay:

The Superstars Group

If you know what you want to write and don’t need Just Another Course (™), the Superstars group might be for you. This dedicated group of writers drops in daily, as their schedules allow, for co-working sessions, and gets together a couple of times a month at hangouts, to simply be writers, together. We also have critique sessions three times a year and an extensive library of workshops and masterclasses to help you build your craft. 

Find out more about Superstars

I, WRITER Course

If you aren’t sure what to write next and want to keep building your practice and skills, the I, WRITER Course might be for you. A six-part course, it’ll take you through my I, WRITER Framework to help you build a regular writing practice AND you’ll write 6 or more stories, while taking pre-recorded workshops on your own schedule, to build your craft. Workshops include the ever-popular Copycat Writing Workshop, along with workshops on Flash Fiction, Character Development, Story Structure and more.

Find out more about the I, WRITER Course

StoryAWeek Newsletter

If you’ve enjoyed having me pop into your inbox weekly, and want to keep writing stories in a more sustainable way than during the challenge, my StoryAWeek newsletter might be for you. 52 weeks of lessons and prompts, each designed to nudge you to write a story, and keep showing up for you writing, week after week. 

Find out more about the StoryAWeek Newsletter

Day 30 | When The Robots Came… by Julie Duffy

The Prompt

At this point, it’s almost impossible you haven’t encountered a piece of software that tried to convince you to use it’s new AI features.

Today you’re going to write a story that delves into the relationship between humans and technological pals…and this stuff is going to seem a lot less sci-fi than it used to!

Bonus points if you write this story in a non-narrative format. That means,

  • Writing out a chat conversation, or making a list of things that your character needs to complete their project (and telling a story in the process).
  • Or perhaps your character is trying to write a ‘rescue me’ note in a code that the AI won’t break.
  • Or perhaps you’re writing the after-action report for your corporate overlords about how things went so spectacularly wrong.

If you don’t want to write about the tech we have today, you could have a medieval knight working with a clockwork squire; or steampunk Sherlock Holmes android invented by Dr Watson…run wild!

StoryADay Challenge Handbook logo

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

Julie Duffy

Julie Duffy is a writer and the host of StoryADay. She lived in an era when humans still thought they were in charge of everything, and she thanks her Robot Overlords for allowing the relic of that time to continue to exist online.

Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!

Remember: Please don’t post your story in the comments here (and I talk more about why not, here). Best practice: Leave us a comment about how it went, or share your favorite line from your story.

30

Here’s your next Game Piece. save the image and share on social media with #storyaday

Prefer paper crafts? Here’s the cut & paste version

 

StoryADay May Begins Tomorrow

It’s almost time!

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.)

StoryADay Challenge Handbook logo

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

Get The Handbook

It’s time: sharpen your pencils, straighten your notebooks, get some sleep, and I’ll see you in the comments tomorrow!!

Keep writing,

Julie (signed)

Day 30 | Granting Wishes by Julie Duffy

The Prompt

You did it! Now let’s see if your character has THEIR wish granted…

Grant your character’s deepest wish, today

You’ve done it!

You started this month with the desire to write more, write better, and build your writing practice.

With commitment (and probably some imperfect execution) you’ve arrived here, at Day 31 of StoryADay. That’s a huge accomplishment.

As you write your story today, think about how it feels to get what you wanted.

Of course, reality never quite matches up with how we imagined the perfect outcome (for example, I imagined that this year I wouldn’t crave Sundays ‘off’ from my own challenge. This did not turn out to be true…)

For your character, feel free to use the old fairy-tale caution to be careful what you wish for.

For yourself, however, I’d remind you that achievements begin with two things: a vision of how things could be; and a decision to work towards that better future. You used both to write, this month.

CELEBRATE!
Whether you wrote three stories or 31, you Imagined yourself as a writer, you Wrote, you Refined your practice, you Improved your craft, you Triumphed and, if you’re still reading this, I’m pretty sure you Engaged with the community.

You’re living the I, WRITER life.

If you’d like to keep Repeating this successful pattern, take the next steps by joining our on-going community, the StoryADay Superstars. Find out more.


Tomorrow, I’ll be back in your email inboxes one final time, related to StoryADay May 2025, to send you a self-assessment form, so you can capture what went well and what you will do differently as a result of everything you’ve learned on this journey.

This is one of the most valuable documents you’ll create for yourself and I recommend repeating the practice after every project, in future.

For now, sit back and bask in the your successes as a StoryADay 2025 Winner!

Julie Duffy

Julie Duffy
In 2010 Julie was a frustrated writer, who decided that writing a StoryADay in May would be a great way to kickstart her writing practice. 16 years later, it seems she was right. The rest of the writing world quickly caught on and now May is known as Short Story Month! Julie is the author of writing handbooks, articles, podcasts, workshops and courses, as well as a short story writer, and ‘Book Boss’ — your accountability coach for getting to ‘the end’.

If you’d like to spend six months in the writing community Julie created, consider joining our StoryADay Superstars group.

Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!

Remember: I don’t recommend posting your story in the comments here (and I talk more about why not, here). Best practice: Leave us a comment about how it went, or share your favorite line from your story.

31

Here’s your next Game Piece. save the image and share on social media with #storyaday

Prefer paper crafts? Here’s the cut & paste version

 

Day 29 | Story Starter by Kai Lovelace

The Prompt

“Ash had one more loose end to tie up before catching the 9:15 and kissing this town goodbye forever.”

Kai Lovelace

Kai Lovelace is a writer and musician born and raised in New York City. Links to his work can be found here.

Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!

Remember: I don’t recommend posting your story in the comments here (and I talk more about why not, here). Best practice: Leave us a comment about how it went, or share your favorite line from your story.

29

Here’s your next Game Piece. save the image and share on social media with #storyaday

Prefer paper crafts? Here’s the cut & paste version

 

Day 28 | Dressing The Set by Gabrielle Johansen

The Prompt

Pick one of these photos.

Use the scene in the picture as the setting for your tale.

It can be where the story starts or where it ends.

It can be for a portion of it or for the entire story, but make sure to feature the setting significantly.

Give the reader a defined view of the place using all the senses.

Tell us what your characters hear, smell, touch/feel, taste, as well as see in this locale.

Lastly, avoid the info dump! Weave your setting in as you go.

Gabrielle Johansen

Gabrielle writes fantasy and super soft sci fi from her NC home. She has been published in Haven Speculative and Across the Margin. As a regular at StoryADay, this is her fifth time participating in the challenge.

Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!

Remember: I don’t recommend posting your story in the comments here (and I talk more about why not, here). Best practice: Leave us a comment about how it went, or share your favorite line from your story.

28

Here’s your next Game Piece. save the image and share on social media with #storyaday

Prefer paper crafts? Here’s the cut & paste version