[Writing Prompt] Set Aside An Hour

Today we’re going to try something new. I’m not assigning a word count, but rather a time limit.

The Prompt

Set aside a full hour to write a short story. Start and finish the story during that time.

Tips

  • Some people work really well with deadlines. Maybe this is yours.
  • Don’t panic if you can’t start writing at 00:01. Sketch out some ideas, try on a few characters. An hour is quite a long time if you focus on one moment, one instant (the perfect milieu for a short story). As long as you’re writing by 00:30, you’ll probably get a decent draft out of this exercise.
  • Pay attention to how you deal with the pressure of the hour finishing up. Is your story’s pacing clearly influenced by the deadline? (If it is, don’t worry, you can always clean things up in the rewrites).
  • Assess this exercise. Did you finish? Did you have to ‘cheat’ (i.e. write stuff like [put details in here], [move characters across town] etc.)?
  • Did the time limit work for you better than the word count as an exercise? Could this be something you use every day?

Go!

Don’t forget to comment about your writing day below or in The Victory Dance group.

[Guest Prompt] Angela Ackerman – Shame

The Prompt

Shame is a powerful emotion, and one of the most wounding experiences a character can face.

Write a story where your character does something that they feel shame for (maybe a failure, making a mistake [through one’s own carelessness or by accident] that hurts someone else, or letting someone down, poor treatment of someone, refusing to help, etc.) and how they redeem themselves in the aftermath.

Angela Ackerman is a writing coach and co-author of the #1 bestselling resource, The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression as well as the bestselling pair, The Positive Trait Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Attributes and The Negative Trait Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Flaws. When she isn’t teaching or building innovate tools for writers, she writes Middle Grade and Young Adult mysteries represented by the Jill Corcoran Literary Agency. You can find her at Writers Helping Writers, a hub for all things description.

[Writing Prompt] Twitter Fiction

OK, so that was a fairly large story you wrote yesterday and you’ve probably got some ‘life’ that you’ve been neglecting while you wrote. So today you’re getting a bit of a break.

(And remember, the prompts are always optional)

The Prompt

Write a story of no more than 140 characters

Tips

  • Bonus credit: post it on Twitter and follow up with a Tweet explaining to everyone that you’re taking part in StoryADay May and that they should really think about joining in, yes, even now, even though they’re late to the party. That’s when all the people who like to think they’re cool turn up anyway…
  • Remember that with a story this short, most of the story is untold, implied, imagined by the reader.
  • This story will not be quick simply because it is short
  • Use one of your favorite story sparks for this tiny story. Yes, I mean it. Use up a really good story idea on this. That way you’ll be forced to look around today, for more Story Sparks.
  • Are you starting to notice that, after five days of writing, you’re seeing Story Sparks all around you? Are you listening harder to what people tell you? Are you reading more carefully when you get the chance? Are you starting to do that wonderfully creative thing and see connections all over the place?
  • If you’re having second thoughts about writing (especially if you’re drawing from your real life) remember that you don’t have to show these stories to anyone. Even if you write a blistering portrait of your boss, no-one has to ever see it — especially not in the first draft. Worry about disguising your sources later, when we talk about revision next month!

Go!

Post about your writing day in the comments below or join the Victory Dance group in the community for more accountability.

[Writing Prompt] 2000 Words

It’s Sunday, but it’s no day of rest for we writers.

The Prompt

Write A Story of Around 2,000 Words

Tips

  • This is a common length for editors to request from new writers in fiction publications. It’s a length that allows you to display some style and character development, without getting too carried away and lost in the woods.
  • Remember that, even at this length, you’ve only got a maximum of around 1600 words to tell the actual story. Try to get to the first really interesting event by the time you’ve written 500 words.
  • At this length, it might be helpful to do some planning. Take your idea, think of a character and their defining characteristic, pop them into a setting and think about how you might give them some conflict (that relates to their character strengths/flaws).
  • You have room for some supporting characters at this length, but remember that word ‘supporting’. They are there to teach the reader something about the main character, not so much about themselves. This isn’t a novel, with subplots and fans who’ll create a wiki…

Post a comment below to let us know you’ve written today, or join the community and post in the Victory Dance Group, for extra support and accountability!

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[Guest Prompt] Heidi Durrow – Passions

[Ooo, I’m particularly excited about this one. This is a challenging prompt but one that should yield some great stories, since character and conflict are at the heart of the story – JD]

The Prompt

The Energy of Passions & Obsessions

You become what you think about all day long.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Passions and obsessions are great starting points for stories. So what if a character has a passion or obsession but the character has extreme difficulty fulfilling that dream. For example, a character could have an extreme passion with exotic birdwatching, but he can’t fulfill his greatest wish because he is a poor child living in a big city. What does the character do to fulfill his obsession? What happens to the character when he can’t? What does the fulfillment of the obsession or passion mean to the character?  


Heidi Durrow is the New York Times best-selling author of The Girl Who Fell From the Sky (Algonquin Books) which won the PEN/Bellwether Prize. She is the founder of the Mixed Remixed Festival, an annual film & book festival in Los Angeles.

[Guest Prompt] Mary Robinette Kowal

The Prompt

Work the words vermillion and musky somewhere in the next 250 words you write.

Mary Robinette Kowal is the author of the GLAMOURIST HISTORIES series of historical fantasy novels, and the 2011 Hugo Award-winning short story “For Want of a Nail.” Her short fiction appears in Clarkesworld, Cosmos and Asimov’s. Mary, a professional puppeteer, lives in Chicago. Visit her online at maryrobinettekowal.com.