Two characters. One location. There’s one problem and they can’t agree on how to solve it.
Mary Robinette Kowal
Mary Robinette Kowal is the author of The Spare Man, Ghost Talkers, The Glamourist Histories series, and the Lady Astronaut Universe. She is part of the award-winning podcast Writing Excuses and a four-time Hugo Award winner. Her short fiction appears in Uncanny, Tor.com, and Asimov’s. Mary Robinette, a professional puppeteer, lives in Denver. Visit at maryrobinettekowal.com.
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
It is the year 2995. Six hundred years after First Contact with an alien species, life on Earth has been greatly transformed. You live in the bustling space port of Mogadishu, where humans and numerous other species now call home.
The bar you own is nothing special, though you cater to the eclectic taste in beverages from over two hundred worlds. Life is mundane–as mundane as anything ever gets in this teeming metropolis of over 40 million, of which more than a third claim descent from distant star systems. Or dimensions.
That is, until the night you find a very important and powerful alien dignitary slumped over, tentacles still writhing after taking a sip of his drink–poisoned. And quite dead.
P. Djeli Clark
Phenderson Djéli Clark lives in a small Edwardian castle in New England. And he writes stuff.
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
Take one to two minutes to jot down a list of common idioms, metaphors, or similes–any phrases you might consider overused or cliché.
A quick search yields examples like “paint the town red,” “playing the world’s smallest violin,” and “love is a battlefield.”
Select one and literalize it. Write a story, for example, in which your character(s) really do paint the town red. Why do they do this? What are the expected or unexpected consequences?
For bonus points, try setting challenging limits on your drafting time for this one. Can you get from an opening to an ending in two 25-minute sessions? How about in just 30 or 20 minutes?
F.E. Choe
F.E. Choe is a Canadian and Korean-American writer whose work has been published in adda, Augur, Clarkesworld, Fractured Lit, and The Moth Magazine. She is a 2023 alum of the Clarion West and Viable Paradise workshops, and an Editor at 100 Word Story. You can find her online at www.fechoe.com.
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
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.
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
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)
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.
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
Want to learn how to write Flash Fiction that really flashes?
