Day 1 | Word Mining by Kim Coleman Foote

This prompt intentionally restricts your freedom of choice in what to write about. Don’t worry if it’s good; worry if it’s done! Let’s get this party started!

The Prompt

Think of a dear friend or despised enemy. Spell out their first and last names and take a few minutes to jot down as many partial or full anagrams that you can find from the letters. Tip: writing longhand might work best for this whole exercise.

Now, mull over the list of words and consider how they might relate to your person. Hold in your mind a sentence that incorporates at least one of the words. Write that sentence and build a story about your person, making sure to incorporate every single word you’ve mined, no matter how strange or quirky. Do NOT stop to edit along the way!

Kim Coleman Foote

Kim Coleman Foote is the author of Coleman Hill, named a finalist for the Carol Shields Prize, NAACP Image Award, and Audie Award, and long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Born and raised in New Jersey, Kim has been writing fiction since the age of seven(ish). In her spare time, she indulges in genealogy, dancing, singing, and word puzzles.

Website
Instagram/X/Facebook: @kimcolemanfoote

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.

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

StoryADay…?

If your year started in a blaze of good intentions, and you find yourself here, facing the last quarter, thinking, oh no, I haven’t written nearly as much as I meant to…fear not.

This year, I’m re-running the StoryADay challenge during November.

And you’re invited.

Remember, you make your own rules!

Don’t want to write and finish a story every day? Fine!

You decide what ‘story’ means to you, and your own definition of ‘a day’.

The point is to write more than you would otherwise, and to use the energy of the challenge—and the community—to help you do that.

How it works:

Commit
Decide on your rules
Use the daily writing prompts (or don’t) to help you write more than you would otherwise.
Stop by the blog to leave a comment and let us know how’re getting on each day. #OldSchool

This year’s prompts included a peek inside these authors’ heads (and more)

headshots of the authors providing guest prompts for this year's challenge and the words: with writing prompts from 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,

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

Throughout this month I’ll be bringing you warm-up tasks—tiny tasks—that will help you prepare for a successful challenge. Sign up and I’ll even send them to your inbox every week.

Here’s the first week’s worth of warm-up tasks.

Go at your own pace, but do go!

Tiny Tasks

DISCUSSION

Find any of them particularly helpful? Done something like this in the past? Share your tips with the community, below!

Keep writing,

Julie

Day 14 – Check-in with Julie

Did I write my story today? watch and find out!

In today’s video:

00:00 StoryADay Update – Limit Your Choice, Do Hard Things
04:51 Creating artificial limits for freedom
05:43 Recommit
05:46 Make It Public
06:44 Make It Smaller and More Specific
08:37 Have A Theme
09:24 Commit To The Prompts
10:13 Be There For Yourself Even When Its Uncomfortable
14:05 Quantity vs Quality