This prompt was inspired by Amy Silverberg’s story Suburbia! which you can find in The Best American Short Stories 2018
The Prompt
Write a story with some magical realism in it
[Write On Wednesday] Magical Realism
[Write On Wednesday] Childhood Trips
This prompt was inspired by Kristen Iskandrian’s short story Good With Boys, which I reviewed in the Reading Room.
The Prompt
Write a story based on a trip you took in childhood
Tips
Continue reading “[Write On Wednesday] Childhood Trips”[Reading Room] Good With Boys by Kristen Iskandrian
This story captures the intensity of pre-teen life in all its aching glory and vibrating physicality. If you’re looking for a story that’s an example of how to create a strong voice for your first-person character, read this one!
The Opening
Continue reading “[Reading Room] Good With Boys by Kristen Iskandrian”[Write On Wednesday] Alchemists
We’re all alchemists, here, turning an abundant resource (ideas) into something much more valuable (stories) and today i want you to include some alchemy in your story
The Prompt
Write a flash fiction story in which a character transforms something seemingly worthless into something valuable
Tips
Continue reading “[Write On Wednesday] Alchemists”What I Know About Flash Fiction
Since February is all about Flash Fiction around here, I’ve put together these resources for you, on the joyful thing that is Flash Fiction.
Oh, and if you haven’t read the Rose Metal Press Field Guide To Flash Fiction, you should.
Flash Fiction is fabulous way to:
- Tighten up your writing in longer projects
- Practice writing quick stories, for StoryADay May
- Rediscover the joy of finishing stories
Here are some Flash Fiction Essentials to get you started writing in this demanding, but fun form.
| Reading Flash | 4 Ways To Think About Flash | Podcasts About Flash | Further Reading From Around The Web |
Continue reading “What I Know About Flash Fiction”[Write On Wednesday] Time’s Up
This month’s focus is on Flash Fiction. Flash isn’t just short, it is urgent. And so is today’s prompt
The Prompt
Time’s Up
Tips
Continue reading “[Write On Wednesday] Time’s Up”[Write on Wednesday]Anachrony
This week’s prompt was inspired by the flash fiction story Joan of Arc Sits Naked In Her Dorm Room by Rachel Engelman
The Prompt
Write a 750 word story featuring a character from history or mythology, but place them in a different era
Tips
Continue reading “[Write on Wednesday]Anachrony”[Reading Room] Joan of Arc Sits Naked In Her Dorm Room by Rachel Engelman
This story won the 2018 2018 Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize and was performed as part of the Selected Shorts series at Symphony Space in NYC. (Be still my heart. Can you imagine?!)
I love stories like this. It’s an excellent example of what short stories can do.
There is no need to explain how Joan of Arc (and it does seem like it is the Joan of Arc) is somehow inhabiting a modern American university or college. In a short story, you can trust your readers to come along for the ride, no matter how surreal, as long as everything makes sense within the story world you create.
And in this story, it does.
Continue reading “[Reading Room] Joan of Arc Sits Naked In Her Dorm Room by Rachel Engelman”[Write On Wednesday] Good From Bad
Yesterday, I reviewed “Useless Things” by Ariel Berry, and it gave me the writing prompt for today’s Flash Fiction focused prompt
The Prompt
Write a story of fewer than 1000 words, that features a twist on a topic/event that might be seen as a disaster. Show us how your character pulls another meaning from it
Tips
Continue reading “[Write On Wednesday] Good From Bad”Feb 19 Critique Week
Three times a year I offer an opportunity to have a story reviewed by me and a group of your peers. Find out more here
While you’re here, why not subscribe to the podcast? It’s 20 minutes of free audio inspiration every other Saturday.
[Reading Room] Useless Things by Ariel Berry
Since we’re all about Flash Fiction here at StoryADay during February, I’m going to be highlighting some flash stories here in the Reading Room. This story comes from 100WordStory.com, a project from NaNoWriMo’s Grant Faulker, and partners.
Useless Things by Ariel Berry caught my eye because of its mix of big ideas and mundane moments in life. It does what short fiction is supposed to do: make us stop, figure out what’s happening, and think about how we might deal with a similar situation in our life.
Continue reading “[Reading Room] Useless Things by Ariel Berry”What I Do When The Writing Stalls
I’ve been stalling on writing this blog post for about two weeks.
Don’t worry, it’s not bad news or anything. I just couldn’t write it.
You know the feeling, right? You want to work on a project, but every time you sit down, something is wrong. You can’t find your way into the story, or you are seized with a sudden urge to research the perfect lamp for your desk…
My Favorite Productivity Hack
To get this post going, I used one of my favorite, sure-fire tricks:
Continue reading “What I Do When The Writing Stalls”[Write on Wednesday] Weather Or Not
Since everyone in my orbit is talking about it anyway, let’s write about the weather!
The Prompt
Write a story in an environment where the weather is so extreme that it shapes everything: actions, metaphors, hopes & dreams…
Tips
Continue reading “[Write on Wednesday] Weather Or Not”[Write On Wednesday] Rescue Me
If you’re writing for publication, it’s important to be aware of lead-times, (i.e. the time between when an editor says ‘yes’ to your story and the date the publication goes live). They can be long, so if you’re writing a seasonal story, you need to be submitting months in advance. That’s why today’s prompt is for October’s National Adopt A Shelter Dog month. Write your doggie story today and start pitching it now!
The Prompt
Write a story featuring a dog
Tips
Continue reading “[Write On Wednesday] Rescue Me”[Write On Wednesday] The Writing Group
Have you ever been part of a Writers’ Group? There’s good (Solidarity! Feedback! Deadlines!) and bad (Jealousy! Bitchiness! Blowhards!). This week I invite you to write the story of a writers’ group.
The Prompt
Imagine a writer’s group. Write a story about one of their meetings (or a series of meetings
Tips
- This ground seems ripe for satire and farce, to me, but perhaps that’s just the way my mind works. (I refer you to @guyinyourMFAclass for inspiration!)
- Put a writer (like or unlike) yourself into the group. Have a clear sense of who your protagonist is, what they want, what they don’t want, and what internal struggles cause them potential problems with other characters in this group. What, in their background, caused this internal flaw and how does that play into how they react to other people?
- Go to town, pitting your protagonist against people who appeal to them or who play on that internal struggle (knowingly or otherwise).
- Don’t forget to bring the story to a head over one incident, one moment, and show us how the protagonist deals with it.
Go!
Photo credit: Ondřej Lipár
[Write On Wednesday] The Group
Ever been forced to be part of a group project? Ever joined a community group because you felt like you ought to? Ever been part of a voluntary group that you loved?
Today’s prompt encourages you to mine those experiences to create a story with an ensemble cast.
The Prompt
Write A Story Centered Around a Group of People Trying To Achieve One Goal
Tips
[Write On Wednesday] New Beginnings
A new year is almost upon us. News sites and shows and all your favourite blogs are urging you to think about resolutions and goals and all the way in which Next Year will be Better than every other year that’s gone before.
Of course, that’s not exactly how it works, is it?
The Prompt
Write About A New Beginning
Tips
- Pick a character who needs a new beginning, or who wants a new beginning, and write about the moment they make that decision or embark on the new thing.
- Or, pick a character who had no interest in beginning again and force them into a situation where they must.
- This story could be tragic (new beginnings are often triggered by tragedy, because new beginnings are often too disruptive to be embarked on by choice), or it could be comedic, hopeful, dark, or joy-filled. It depends on you, your mood, your writing preferences and the character you picked.
- Make sure to show us your character’s journey thorughout the story. Let them develop If they begin the story wary and unwilling, show us a moment of hope, where things might go well (even if you decide to go dark in the end).
- Remember to make the reader (and yourself) FEEL something for the character and the struggles they’re going through. That feeling might be as difficult and safe as humor, or it might be a sentimental weep-fest. Or it might just be that glimmer of hope.
- Think about a new beginning you experienced. What emotions did you feel? How did they manifest in your body and your mind, and in your actions? What can you take from that and put into your story?
Leave a comment and let us know what you wrote about, and how it went.
Photo Credit. Dafne Cholet (CC BY 2.0)
[Write On Wednesday] Word List Redux
It’s a crazy time of year. You’re busy. You don’t have time to write. You certainly don’t have time to write anything good.
Great. Write something silly today. Write a story that can’t possibly be good because it came from a ridiculous prompt.
The Prompt
Use these words in your story:
Sea kelp, annointed, onion, flabby, twist, anachronistic, bing, fly, bauble, sun
Tips
- Write a story and highlight the words as you use them.
- Allow yourself to write something silly, ridiculous, bad.
- Set a timer if you have to.
- Marvel at how, even in this ridiculous exercise, you managed to write at least one line you were really pleased with
- Post your story in the comments if you dare (it’s fun to see what everyone else comes up with). But remind yourself, you do not have to show it to anyone.
Go!
[Write On Wednesday] Roll Up, Roll Up, Roll Up!
Today’s prompt is a kind of carnival game, a tombola, a random lucky dip.
When I was a kid, I loved going to church bazaars and village fetes and Christmas Fairs.
Aside from scanning the cheap paperbacks and making a beeline for the bakery stall to see if Carol-Anne’s dad had made his famous tablet, I loved nothing more than the Lucky Dip.
Hand over a coin and plunge your hand into a huge barrel of cold, scratchy sawdust, trying not to get any stuck under your nails. Try not to think about the unfortunate association of the smell of sawdust with all the times somebody threw up at school and the janitor came by with his trusty bucket of the stuff. Rummage around until your fingers find the smooth crinkle of something wrapped in cheap, thin paper. Pull it out and lo! you have a gift. No idea what it would be. It might be something ‘meh’, or it might be something cool like a spinning top or a plastic penny whistle, or one of those little puzzles with the balls you have to roll around until they are all in the right divots; something I could play with all afternoon then shove it in a drawer and re-discover periodically over the next few years.
Whatever I got, it was something I hadn’t expected. And it was mine, all mine!
Below, you’ll find a lucky-dip of sorts, a prompt from the archives of over 500 prompts at StoryADay. It has been generated especially for you!
The Prompt
This is your randomly generated prompt: Continue reading “[Write On Wednesday] Roll Up, Roll Up, Roll Up!”
[Write On Wednesday] Write A Holiday Story
It can be overwhelming to sit down to write a story.
When you could write about anything it can become difficult to decide what to write about. These writing prompts are meant to put limits on your choices, in order to make your creative gears grind.
The Prompt
Write A Short Story That Features or Refers To A Holiday
Tips
Continue reading “[Write On Wednesday] Write A Holiday Story”
[Reading Room] There’s No Such Place As Bedford Falls by Joanne Harris
The Reading Room is a series of posts analyzing short stories I have read, with a writer’s eye.
This Christmas story was first published in the UK’s The Telegraph newspaper in 2007.
Opening Line
It’s six in the morning, and Santa’s on the blink.
This certainly fulfills my need for an opening line to be intriguing. (The phrase ‘on the blink’, means ‘malfunctioning’ for those not raised in the UK!)
Of course, the story very quickly delivers on the line. The Santa in question is a light-up decoration (hooray, for a double-meaning for the phrase ‘on the blink’! I’m seeing blinking lights now). Continue reading “[Reading Room] There’s No Such Place As Bedford Falls by Joanne Harris”
[Write On Wednesday] Writing For Reluctant Readers
Don’t forget, the end of the month is approaching. It’s the perfect time to check out your writing commitments from last month, and start planning your commitments for December. There’s still time to do a few more things this month to reach your goals!
There’s a concept that there are avid readers and ‘reluctant readers’ (boys often get lumped into this category). It is pronounced as if it’s somehow the reader’s fault that they get bored with books. I firmly believe that anyone can be turned into a midnight-reading-story-zombie if we just find (or in our case, write) the right kind of story for that reader.
It might seem odd to challenge you to write a short story for someone who doesn’t want to read one, but this exercise will keep you focused on making your story as compelling, action-driven, and engaging as possible.
The Prompt
Write a story for a reluctant reader
Tips
Continue reading “[Write On Wednesday] Writing For Reluctant Readers”
[Writing Prompt] Write A Children’s Story
There’s no feedback like the honest feedback of trying to hold the attention of a squirmy kid. This week I want you to try (or imagine) reading a story you’ve written to a kid under the age of 8. They are too young to worry about your feelings and they WILL let you know if the story is dragging! It’s great practice for holding the attention of former-kids too!
The Prompt
Write A Children’s Story
Tips
Continue reading “[Writing Prompt] Write A Children’s Story”
[Write On Wednesday] Write To Read
This evening I’ll be going out to another short story reading event, and it’s got me thinking about the audiences we write for.
Tonight’s story is adapted from one I wrote a while ago. I’m very happy with how it reads on the page, but when it comes to reading it aloud, I found I needed to cut a lot of description, tighten up the examples, lose some of the more languid language.
This month all the prompts will encourage you to try writing (or adapting) a short story with a specific audience in mind.
The Prompt
Write A Story Designed To Be Performed Out Loud
Tips
- Take a story you wrote in the past and try to cut it down for a 7 minute reading slot. For me, this works out to somewhere around 1,000-1,100 words Continue reading “[Write On Wednesday] Write To Read”
[Write On Wednesday] 5-6-7-8
This month I’ve been encouraging you to write short stories in unusual forms and genres.
Since I’m spending today trekking back and forth to NYC to see the new Frozen musical with my kid’s school (I know, such a hardship, right?), I decided to urge you to write an outline for a musical today.
This is a bit of an odd one and if you’re not such a theater nerd as me, pick your favorite genre of movie, and imagine you’re writing an outline of all the sequences in your movie (there are probably about 8, with a big dramatic turning point at each quarter mark).
The Prompt
Write An Outline, or the Song/Scene List for a Dramatic Presentation
Tips
This isn’t going to read like a traditional narrative story
Imagine you’re looking at the program for a musical: it has a list of the scenes/songs you’re going to hear. Recreate that for your fantasy musical.
Here are some of the beats your two-act musical should hit:
- Big opening number that introduces the characters, setting, theme & tone.
- Character song – introduces your main characters desire and obstacle
- Introduction to the love interest/problem/antagonist
- Set back (probably a big chorus number)
- Comedy song (featuring a minor character, to relieve the tension – ‘Brush Up Your Shakespeare’, or ‘Gaston’)
- A serious ballad that restates the problem
- A decision song. The main character is going for it, assembling their team
- Set up for the big action of the second half. Cliffhanger! (Definitely have all characters on stage)
[Interval] - Another song restating the desire and obstacles of the main character
- Big number setting up for the climax, featuring multiple characters
- Final struggle song
- Quick charming song resolving the action
- Finale, a powerful song bringing back all the characters, even the dead ones. Probably has a similar title to one we’ve heard before.
So that’s it. Decide on a premise for your pretend musical. Figure out who your main character is, their desire, their obstacle and their antagonist. Then go to town creating song titles that fit the outline above. Have fun with this! Come up with a title for your musical and feel free to add notes to your ‘program’ with character names, suggestions for interval drinks and snacks, and perhaps even sponsorships by local businesses!
Go!
[Write on Wednesday] Tell A Noir Story
inspired by the fact that I’m reading at a Noir event tonight, I’m challenging you to write an atmosphere laden, tragedy-laced noir story today.
The Prompt
Write A Noir Story
Tips
Otto Penzler, owner of Mysterious Books and editor of the annual Best American Mystery Stories anthology, has this to say about noir.
“Most mystery fiction focusses on the detective, and noir fiction focusses on the villain…The people in noir fiction are dark and doomed—they are losers, they are pessimistic, they are hopeless. If you have a private eye, the private eye is a hero; and he’s going to solve the crime and the bad guy will be caught. That’s a happy ending, but that’s not a noir ending.”
- Now I don’t think it’s entirely true that a noir story can’t have a happy ending. It just has to be an imperfectly-happy ending.
- Your hero might escape, but it’s by doing something terrible. Or he leaves a trail of devastation in his wake. Or the bad guys still achieve their ends.
- Your hero and their love interest can achieve a measure of personal happiness at the end, but it’s not an uncomplicated, Disney-esque happy ending.
- Noir stories tend to be heavy in atmosphere and imagery, and have a distinctive narrative voice.
- The villain’s motivation is something you can explore more in a noir story than in a traditional mystery.
- Life is never simple or sweet in a noir story.
- There should be a crime, attempted crime, or mystery in the story.
- Explore the seedier side of life, and don’t forget to use all your senses, and exploit all of your characters’ passions.
- Read yesterday’s Reading Room post, for my thoughts on Dashiell Hammet’s noir story “Nightmare Town”.
Go!
[Reading Room] Nightmare Town by Dashiell Hammet
Nightmare Town is the title story in this collection by the Noir master. Having mostly watched movies adapted from Raymond Chandler stories, and pastiches of Noir by others, I wasn’t sure what to expect.
I was, however, preparing for a reading at a Noir night, and thought I ought to do some research before I wrote a story to fit the theme.
Wow.
The Story
Continue reading “[Reading Room] Nightmare Town by Dashiell Hammet”
[Write On Wednesday] What A Laugh
It’s one thing to be funny in conversation with friends, but writing comedy can seem harder, somehow. Today we’ll try out some techniques to make our funny stories funnier.
This prompt is adapted from ideas in The Hidden Tools of Comedy: The Serious Business of Being Funny by Steve Kaplan, which was recommended to me by StoryADay veteran, Almo Schumann.
The Prompt
Give your character permission to go after their desire, no matter what the cost Continue reading “[Write On Wednesday] What A Laugh”
[Write on Wednesday] Cataloguing
Today’s prompt kicks off a month of Write On Wednesday short story prompts that focus on odd or very specific formats of stories.
Remember when Elaine from Seinfeld got a job writing for the J. Peterman catalogue? Every entry was a tiny short story, usually ridiculous, about the fantasy character who would wear/carry each product.
That’s what I want you to try today.
The Prompt
Write an imaginary entry for a pretentious, high-end catalogue
Tips
- Think about the character who might use the piece you are highlighting
- Think about the image you’re selling to the reader
- Take the characteristics or details of your imaginary friends, and amp them up to outrageous levels
- Make yourself laugh
- Be as over the top as you like
- Include a description of the object that contains sensory details
- Keep the ‘story’ to around 200 words
- Once you’re finished, look at your little story and see what you could learn from it, when you’re writing character or setting descriptions in the future.
- Could you use some of the techniques you employed here, even if you dial it back a little?
Leave a comment and let me know the product you described and the character you chose. What did you discover in your writing today?
StoryADay September 2018 Week 5
How did it go last week? How many stories did you write? How are you feeling heading into this week? Join the discussion below!
And don’t forget to come back when you’ve finished your last story to CELEBRATE YOUR SUCCESS!
Week 5 Prompts
So how did you get on? What did you learn during this challenge? Leave a comment here with your reflections, or share it on social media and leave a link.
In the meantime, I’ll see you in the comments!
Keep writing,
PS Want prompt by email throughout the year? Sign up below for the Write On Wednesday prompts.
StoryADay September 2018 Week 3
How did it go last week? How many stories did you write? How are you feeling heading into this week? Join the discussion below!
If you missed the start of StoryADay September or still need to set your rules, check out Week 1’s post. Don’t try to catch up and write stories for last week, just jump in now and keep moving forward!
Week 3 Prompts
- Day 15 – Write A List
- Day 16 – We Need To Talk
- Day 17 – Write A Sonnet
- Day 18 – It’s A Bit One-Sided
- Day 19 – Direct To Camera
- Day 20 – I’m Gonna Sit Right Down
- Day 21 – NewsFlash
That’s it for this week. I’ll be next week with another batch of prompts.
In the meantime, I’ll see you in the comments!
Keep writing,
PS Want email reminders throughout September? Sign up, below: