Steal from yourself!
Retell a story you’ve told before, in a new way
This exercise opens up opportunities in future, when you have a piece that isn’t quite working. You can cast your mind back to today and remember that yeah, there’s more one way to tell this story, too.
Let us know how you got on today, in the comments below!
Steal, borrow, it’s all good…
Have some fun today: Steal something from a favorite published universe
Remember, you can’t sell a derivative work without permission, or a license, but that’s not the point today. Today is all about having fun in a world you know well, or with characters you already love.
Leave a comment to let us know which world you played in today!
Never miss out on news from StoryADay:
Catch the replay of me and Marya Brennan from NaNoWriMo’s Young Writer’s Program answering questions about short story writing!
Sometimes limits can be good…
Set A Timer For 40 Minutes, Write A Story
Spend 10 minutes brainstorming and starting the story, 20 minutes complicating your character’s life, and the final 10 minutes reviewing what you’ve written, making notes and writing an ending.
Leave a comment, to tell us how you got on today.
(Don’t budget too little time for this. Shorter doesn’t always equal faster!)
Leave a comment to let us know how you got on!
Yesterday’s awesome prompt was written by one of the authors who contributed to the Signature’s 2018 Compact Guide To Writing Short Stories. I can’t recommend it enough.
For Day 2, here’s a sneak peak of what you’d be seeing all month if you were a StoryADay Superstar. Join us!
(For the rest of the month, the prompts here will be text-only and not as detailed)
Superstars get videos like this, a private forum, guided meditations and a weekly video hangout. Join us?
Use this story formula to to create an interesting character, give them a desire, kick off some intriguing action and plan the kind of resolution you want.
Once you have that skeleton, you can start filling in colorful details…and soon your creative brain will be demanding you start to write!
A _______ (adjective) ________(noun), who _________(verb) ___________(subject), then _________(related verb) __________(resolution)
Today’s guest post comes from Tadzio Koelb. I love this prompt, because it provides a great roadmap for a strong start to StoryADay May but you can also use it to craft a longer, more leisurely story any time you want.
Take it away, Tadzio!
For more advice for burgeoning short story writers, download
Signature’s Compact Guide to Writing Short Stories!
This prompt, while a bit complicated, is useful because, by pushing you to see one person through the eyes of multiple other people, it makes you use methods of storytelling that many writers often overlook.
Write a story about someone who leaves the house for work, and on the way has some kind of accident. Continue reading “May 01 – Seen from the Outside, Guest Prompt from Tadzio Koelb”
A 6-part journey through the short story.
Starts July 28, 2023