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
[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…
Productivity Hack #1
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