Get Started on Settings

Today’s Tiny Task in preparation for StoryADay May is to make another list, this time of places where you might set your story.

Answer these questions quickly, without thinking too hard:

  • List 5 Big-Picture Settings (e.g. Contemporary USA, Mars settlement in the early days, cargo ship in the age of sail, cargo ship in the far future when space travel is relatively routine, fantasy kingdom with dragons…)
  • List 5 Close-Up Settings (e.g. the engine room, an open-plan office, the back of an Uber, the throne room, walking the Yorkshire dales).
  • For each, write down what thrills you about that setting, what possibilities do you see (could be: ‘I don’t have to do any research, or ‘I can mash up Star Trek and The Expanse’ or ‘I finally get to hang out with Heathcliff’)
  • For each, write down one physical detail that springs to mind about your setting
  • For each, write down one detail that might not be so obvious on a first glance.

Circle (or highlight) the three that you think will work best for the fast-drafting world of StoryADay May (hint: the ones that require lots of research might slow you down too much).

P. S. Check out this roster of wonderful writers who have already given us writing prompts for StoryADay May, with more to come!

with writing prompts from guests: P. Djèlí Clark, Mary Robinette Kowal, John Wiswell, Lori Ostlund, Kim Coleman Foote, Sasha Brown, R. S. A Garcia, Jennifer Hudak, Tim Waggoner, Rachel Bolton, Julia Elliot, Kai Lovelace, Anglea Sylvaine, Rich Larson, F. E. Choe,Emma Burnett , Patricia A. Jackson, Allegra Hyde, and more...

Guest prompters include: P. Djèlí Clark, Mary Robinette Kowal, John Wiswell, Lori Ostlund, Kim Coleman Foote, Sasha Brown, R. S. A Garcia, Jennifer Hudak, Tim Waggoner, Rachel Bolton, Julia Elliot, Kai Lovelace, Anglea Sylvaine, Rich Larson, F. E. Choe,Emma Burnett , Patricia A. Jackson, Allegra Hyde, and more…

DISCUSSION

Did your choices have more to do with your current life, or your current reading tastes?

Story Moods

There are so many decisions to make when you start to write a story.

Narrowing down your choices is a great gift you can give yourself. Today I’m giving you an exercise that will help you narrow down your choices when you sit down to write.

Story Moods

There’s more to story than genre, character, plot, and dialogue, happy or sad endings, and pacing.

There’s also what I call ‘mood’ – whether a story is a romp, spooky, upbeat, thought-provoking, depressing, scary, inspiring, uplifting…

Tiny Task

Today, set at timer for 5 minutes and

  • Write a list of the types of moods you enjoy reading and might want to aim to write, during May.
  • Choose examples (from short stories, novels, TV, movies, music, visual arts) that capture the mood you’re trying to describe
  • Make a few notes about what elements contribute to the mood.

Keep this somewhere safe.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

What moods do you gravitate towards? Is there anything you definitely don’t want to be feeling much of, during the challenge? How can you remind yourself not to write stories that trend that way?

Start Collecting Story Sparks

Writing a story a day for a month is exhilarating…and a little exhausting.

That’s why I send you writing prompts, but the prompt is just the start.

You have to take that idea and develop it into something that interests YOU, and hat can be hard to do every day, when you’re in a time-crunch.

So let’s do some prep this month.

Start Colleting Story Sparks Today

What is a Story Spark?

Read all about it and download your free Story Sparks Catcher here.

Start collecting three Story Sparks a day today, and you’ll have enough details to draw from throughout the whole month of May

Discussion questions: have you used Story Sparks in past challenges? Did they help? What advice do you have?

Making the Challenge Work For You

Welcome to a new series of tiny tasks to help you prepare for the StoryADay Challenge.

  • If you have signed up for this year’s challenge these tasks will automagically appear in your inbox every morning.
  • Each task should take 5-8 minutes to complete.
  • You can do them as they come in, or save them up and do a couple at a time, if you miss a day.

This challenge—this whole StoryADay venture—is about helping your writing trend towards being a bigger part of your life than you’ve been able to allow it to be, until now.

Miss a day? Don’t despair! Just keep opening the emails. The trend is what matters.

Today’s challenge is to read the Creative Commute lesson and give it a try today.

tl;dr Version:

  • Transitioning from daily life to ‘writing time’ can be hard.
  • Long warm-ups (like my beloved Morning Pages) can steal your time and not prepare you for creative work
  • Set a timer for no more than a third of your available writing time and use it to write about something that you noticed/delighted in over the past 24 hours. Be as writerly as you can.
  • Move on to your project of choice.

For more (including notes on an Evening Commute along with a pretty PDF download) click here.

Then come back and leave a comment: did you try the Creative Commute? Did it work for you? Will you try the Evening Commute?

April Warm Up Tasks

If you’re signed up for StoryADay May I have good news:

Starting tomorrow, I’m planning to send out tiny tasks, every week day in April, to help you warm up and get ready for a fantastic May. They’ll be here on the blog and, if you’re signed up for the challenge, in your inbox too.

They’re optional, should take less than 10 minutes, and can be done in batches at the weekend, if your week gets busy.

Not signed up for May yet? Sign up now: