Write about the best gift your character was given. Incorporate one of the seven deadly sins (wrath, gluttony, sloth, greed, pride, lust, envy) into the story.
Charlotte Rains Dixon is the author of Emma Jean’s Bad Behavior. She is a novelist, writing teacher, free-lance journalist, ghostwriter, and author. Continue reading “[Guest Prompt] Charlotte Rains Dixon”
In the Second Person, the story is told like this, “You are walking around in the depths of winter and you find yourself shivering”.
It’s not a format that we see much and as a result it can be tricky to pull off. But it’s worth a try if only to show up the advantages of the other points-of-view available to you. Or maybe you’ll be one of those people, like Jay McInerney, who turns it into a work that is acknowledged as a contemporary classic.
Write A Story in the Second Person Perspective Continue reading “[Writing Prompt] Second Person, Awkward”
This week we’re going to be playing with point of view. It’s easy to get stuck writing from the same perspective in every story. To break you of that habit, we’re going to be trying the all this week! Feel free to write the same story over and over again, this week, playing with perspective.
Write A Story Told In The First Person
GO!
One of the things newer writers worry about most is originality: how can I have an original idea when all the stories have been told.
Today we’re going to do a little exercise to prove that originality is not about the characters, the even the events of the story. Originality comes from you, writing in your voice, as only you can.
Write A Cinderella Story. Share (At Least An Excerpt) In The Comments
What strikes me about this, is how often the words “fun”, “happy”, “yes!”, “accomplished” and “glad” come up in people’s comments about the StoryADay challenge.
It’s not to late to join in. Just pick up a pen, and off you go! You won’t regret it!
“I have a slew of new things to write that I wouldn’t have thought of if I hadn’t tried StoryADay, so this is pretty great.”
-k.c.
“I’m very much looking forward to spending May with you again! Should be great!”
-s.c.
“I’m so glad I found out about this. Thank you xxx”
-l*
“Great post, exactly what I needed…Thank you!”
-l.n.
“I have surprised myself wit the creativity I have produced.”
-m.r.
“I have been looking forward to May for months, now I know why! I love having a new writing experience every day,”
-c.l.
“Haven’t written fiction IN A LONG WHILE, and I’m glad I came up with something!”
-y*
“Today’s prompt really helped me get over a block for a scene I needed for a larger work I am writing.”
-c.jr.
“I like being forced to get something down…good daily discipline.”
c.g.
“mission accomplished!”
-k.d.
“I loved this – brought a delighted grin to an old lady’s face…thanks for a good start to a sunny morning.”
-a.r.
“the guest prompt was excellent.”
-m.s.
“…only 706 words, bt I like where that prompt took me.”
-e*
“Hooray! I’m having such fun with Drabbles.”
-c.k.
“It’s late in the day, but I got a story done so I’m happy. I feel a sense of accomplishment…”
c.g.
“yes yes yes. I did it. Woo-hoo!”
-k.m.
“…a good warm up for the other writing on the agenda today.”
-s*
“glad I tried it…”
-s.j.b.
“…not bad for a first draft, I think!”
-s.j.m.“I’m not really happy with [this] story…but it was fun to write.”
-c.s.
“Thank you for another good story idea,”
-s.c.
“Very rough, but…I feel good about writing it.”
-r.s.
“So much fun.”
-s.c.
“Missed a few days, but I’m back on track!”
-m.l.
“Loving StoryADay!”
-k.l.“Happy dance !!!!!!”
-b.o.
Special thanks to all the people who are writing, providing feedback, supporting each other and inspiring me to keep writing!
Yesterday’s prompt about dialogue, probably didn’t leave you much room for descriptive writing .Today, on the other hand, is you change to channel your inner Tolkein.
Write A Story Rich In Description
GO!
Are you a fan of descriptive writing or do you tend to skip over those parts when you’re reading? Did you find this an easy or hard exercise. Did you learn anything today? Leave a comment or join the discussion in the community.
Today we’re going to focus on dialogue.
Gripping, realistic dialogue can bring a story and its characters to life. Writing great dialogue, however, takes practice.
Write A Story Told Almost Completely In Dialogue
GO!
What form did you decide on? How did this go for you? Do you usually write a lot of dialogue or was this new for you? Leave a comment below or chat about it in the community.
How did you get on yesterday? Did you post in the comments or the community about your writing? Which proverb or ‘theme’ did you use?
Every story — even the most literary, introspective story — needs action.
Stuff must happen.
Action is the agent of change and your characters must change (even for a moment) or face an opportunity for change, for your story to interest people. “Stuff happening” is what gives you the opportunity to show that opportunity for change.
Write A Story Wrapped Around An Action Scene
Choose a piece of music from the list below. Listen through it once or twice and get your mind in the mood of the music. Then start writing.
Gabriela Pereira is the Creative Director and Instigator of DIY MFA, the do-it-yourself alternative to a Masters degree in writing. She creates workshops and tools to help writers get the MFA experience without going to school.
Gabriela holds an MFA in Writing for Children from The New School. When she’s not teaching or designing learning tools for DIY MFA, she enjoys writing some fiction of her own. She especially loves writing middle grade and teen fiction, with a few “”short stories for grown-ups”” thrown in for good measure. Visit DIYMFA.com to learn more about Gabriela and DIY MFA.
[Also, don’t miss the Writer Igniter visual prompt machine at Gabriela’s site. So much fun!]
The theme of a story doesn’t always become clear to a writer until the story is written and revised (and often, ready by others and discussed).
Today, however, we’re going to turn that on its head.
The theme can be summed up as ‘the moral of the tale’, or a proverb, or the overarching lesson in a fable. Let’s take a well-worn proverb and construct a new story to illustrate it.
Choose A Theme And Write A Story That Illustrates It
GO!
Write A Story Set In A Hospital
(or any other high-tension setting, if you’re not familiar with hospitals)
This week we are concentrating on the different parts of the short story. Of course ALL the elements need to be there, but each of these prompts focuses on a particular element more than the others.
How did your character writing go yesterday? Did you learn any interesting lessons about creating a character with a strong desire, that you can carry forward into your future stories? Did you leave a comment or post in the community?
Today we’re focusing on setting.
Write A Story Set In A Hospital
(or any other high-tension setting, if you’re not familiar with hospitals)
GO!
Woo-hoo! One week into the StoryADay May challenge and you are still turning up. Good for you!
(Seriously. More than talent, persistence is the thing that is going to make writing a fulfilling, successful and worthwhile pursuit for you.)
Take a moment to reflect on everything you learned about your writing last week. Try to keep the things that worked, but stay flexible and open to more experimentation in the weeks ahead.
This week we’re going to focus on different elements of the story, starting today with Character.
Write A Story Where Everything Hinges on Your Character’s Most Desperate Desires
Go!
Don’t forget to comment below to tell us how your writing went (or share an excerpt, or link to your story on another blog) or join us in the community and do your Victory Dance.
Write the story that accompanies this ending line:
I clicked off the safety, swearing that if she showed her face here today, my room would be the last one she ever entered.
Becca Puglisi is passionate about learning and sharing her knowledge with others. This is one of her reasons for writing The Emotion Thesaurus, The Positive Trait Thesaurus, and The Negative Trait Thesaurus. A member of SCBWI, she leads workshops at regional conferences, teaches webinars through WANA International, and can be found online at Writers Helping Writers (formerly known as The Bookshelf Muse).
The last of the content-less prompts today!
Today I’m sticking with the theme of timed-writing but trying something a little different.
Pick Three Times Today When You Will Write Parts Of A Complete Story
Go!
Don’t forget to comment here about your writing day or join The Victory Dance Group and let us know how you got on today.
[Here’s another scenario ripe with opportunities for character development, comedy, tragedy…in other words emotion — that thing that all readers are looking for! – JD]
Your protagonist opens the door and finds an unexpected guest–a friend from high school who hasn’t been heard from in many years.
This friend has fallen on hard times and wants to stay with your protagonist a few days. As your protagonist and friend sit in the kitchen, the friend reminisces about the old days…and stirs up trouble by recalling some unhappy teen moments, too.
How does your protagonist react and what are those good and bad times in the past?
Elizabeth writes the Southern Quilting mysteries for Penguin/NAL, the Memphis Barbeque mysteries for Penguin/Berkley, and the Myrtle Clover series for Midnight Ink and independently. She blogs at ElizabethSpannCraig.com/blog, which was named by Writer’s Digest as one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers for 2010-2013.
I’m on a George Saunders kick.
I mean, when someone can write a story with fewer than 500 words that makes you actually say “oof” out loud at the end? You’re going to want to go on a kick, reading their work.
“Sticks” is a grown man’s reminiscence about his father. It begins,
Every year Thanksgiving night we flocked out behind Dad as he dragged the Santa suit to the road and draped it over a kind of crucifix he’d built out of a metal pole in the yard.
That use of the word ‘crucifix’ is key. Doesn’t that make you want to keep reading? You know there’s more to this than just a funny story about fatherly quirks.
The story is extremely well crafted. You get the sense that there must have many revisions, re-revisions, reversions and more revisions to make it this tight.
That’s only depressing if we think our job as writers is to get as many words out into the world as quickly as possible. If we believe that our job is to craft stories, and that rewriting is a crucial (and enjoyable) part of writing, then George Saunders is our new mentor.
Write the crappy first draft. Then spend as much time as you need to, reworking it until it is art.
How Do You Feel About Revisions?
Today we’re going to try something new. I’m not assigning a word count, but rather a time limit.
Set aside a full hour to write a short story. Start and finish the story during that time.
Go!
Don’t forget to comment about your writing day below or in The Victory Dance group.
OK, so this is Day 5 of the challenge and if you haven’t missed a day yet, the chances are strong that you will. Soon.
So here’s my advice, based on five years of May challenges, a couple of StoryADay September challenges and the writing courses I run.
Let the unwritten stories go and write again tomorrow.
Seriously. This is not so much about turning out 31 complete stories as leaning to turn up every day, even when you feel like a failure. I encourage people never to try to catch up with days they’ve missed. That creates far too much baggage. (You can always keep writing into June if you want your 31 stories!)
The other point of a challenge like this is to try to do more than you think you can do, and to watch where it is hardest and where/when it was most fluid. Then, when you go back to your normal writing schedule you will have all these experiences in your tool kit. You’ll know that Saturday is maybe not a day to expect to get much writing done. And you’ll know that 11-midnight is prime time. Or you’ll know that it’s easier to write when you have a plan (or not).
Don’t worry too much. Just keep turning up, keep breathing and keep watching all the ways your inner demon tries to sabotage your writing life. Say ‘Huh, that’s interesting, demon. Nice try, but I’m still turning up again tomorrow”.
If we are going to write for the rest of our lives (and lets face it, we are), all we can do is keep learning!
Back in 2012 (my third year) I decided I was no longer going to commit to writing on Sundays. I COULD, I just didn’t HAVE to.
Between running the site and having two small children and a husband that I quite like to spend time with, something had to give. Sundays were it, for me.
This is fine. If you decide not to write EVERY day in May that’s cool.
BUT do try to assess your progress on a week to week basis rather than waking up each day and thinking “I wonder if I should write today”. (You should).
Stop now and see how your first five days (which include a weekend) have gone. Decide what you’ll commit to for the next seven days.
Of course, I thoroughly encourage you to write an actual StoryADay unless the thought of it is making you truly miserable. If you’re miserable, change the rules. But keep writing.
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.
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)
Write a story of no more than 140 characters
Go!
Post about your writing day in the comments below or join the Victory Dance group in the community for more accountability.
It’s Sunday, but it’s no day of rest for we writers.
Write A Story of Around 2,000 Words
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!
Don’t forget you could be receiving these prompts every day by email, if you’re not already. Sign up here.
[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 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.
Work the words vermillion and musky somewhere in the next 250 words you write.
So how did you get on yesterday?
Did you write? Did you leave a comment on the blog post, or do your Victory Dance?
Hooray, you’ve made it to Saturday. I hope you’re one of those lucky people for whom Saturday means a break from the regular responsibilities of the week. But likely you’re not. So: tough. We’re writers and we write whether we’re on ‘vacation’ from real life or not 😉
Today we’re striking a happy medium between the lengths of story we’ve played with already.
Write A Story of 640 Words
Go!
(And don’t forget to celebrate when you’re finished, by commenting below or doing your victory dance.)
THERESE WALSH is the author of The Moon Sisters and the cofounder of Writer Unboxed. She lives in upstate New York with her husband and two children.
Imagine your protagonist has just opened a large magnetic poetry kit. Which words call to him/her? Will s/he put these words on the refrigerator in a random scattering or compose a sentence? Share your words and sentences here.
GO!
So how did you get on yesterday?
Did you write? Did you leave a comment on the blog post, or do your Victory Dance?
Whatever you managed yesterday, congratulations and I’m glad you’re back for more!
Continuing the theme of ‘assuming you have more than one idea of a time’ this week, I’m giving you another length-based writing assignment.
Write A Drabble (A Story Of Exactly 100 Words)
Go!
Welcome To StoryADay May 2014!
To kick off our 5th Year of writing a StoryADay in May, I have a special treat for you: a guest prompt from the fabulous Neil Gaiman.
On the day I contacted him he was, sadly for him, stuck in an airport. The prompt he suggested for us was pretty heartfelt:
Getting Home
GO!
When you finish your story today, leave a comment below, or join the Victory Dance group in the community and share you thoughts about the first day, there. (Haven’t joined the community yet? Join here
Thanks again, Mr Gaiman. I hope you got home all right…
Welcome to StoryADay May.
It’s Day 1. You’re nervous, you’re excited, you’re full of ideas…(you are, aren’t you?), so I’m not going to tell you WHAT to write, only how much.
(And of course, you should remember that these prompts are entirely optional. If you want to write a 10,000 word novella today, you go right ahead. Just remember to save some juice for tomorrow!)
It’s Almost Here! The 5th Annual StoryADay May starts tomorrow, with a writing prompt from award-winning novelist Neil Gaiman.
In the the last few hours before the challenge lots of people hear about it, lots of people sign up, and lots of people start giggling nervously and thinking “what have I done?”. Here are some reassuring words before we get started:
You can do this.
Nobody dies if you don’t write 31 fabulous stories next month.
(But really, you can do this.)
Now for some practical words on Writing During The Challenge and Planning Ahead (yes, even after May starts, you’ll still have planning to do).
Here’s some news and some answers to the most frequently asked questions by new recruits (welcome!):
Have more questions? Check out the FAQ and resource sections.
Here are some tips from a veteran (me!) on how to get through this month of extreme creativity:
Spread The Word – The more people who take part, and the more people you tell about StoryADay, the more effective the peer pressure! Take some time today to post this image on your social media network of choice, and tell people you’re taking part in StoryADay. If you know anyone who’s always saying they wished they wrote more, challenge them to join you. Spread the word. Use #StoryADay. (And no, I don’t get rich if you do, it’s just that this is one of those times when the adage “the more the merrier” really does apply!)I’m SO glad you’re coming along on this crazy adventure. You’re going to be amazed at how much you write next month and how creatively free you become. Sure there will be bad days, but you’ll be immensely proud of yourself if you just keep turning up. And you will definitely write some stories that we can all be proud of!
Onward!
Tomorrow it all begins. StoryADay May 2014. Are you nervous? I always am. (This is the fifth May since I launched the challenge!!)
Write A Story In Which Fear Is A Driving Factor For One Or More Character
GO!
Did you write today? Did you finish this story? Did any of your own fears creep into this story? Tell us in the comments, or join the discussion in the community.
Next Tuesday is Release Day for a new picture book illustrated by our friend, the lovely and talented Debbie Ridpath Ohi. The book is called “Naked!” and was written by Michael Ian Black. (The two previously collaborated on the hilarious “I’m Bored“.)
It’s such a good title, that we’re going to steal it today.
GO!
How Naked! did you go? Leave a comment, below, about how you handled this prompt (or a link to your story online, if you posted it anywhere).
The only qualification to be a ‘Superstar” is a desire to write and support your fellow writers.
A supportive group of committed writers, who meet virtually, support each other’s efforts, and inspire each other.
Registration for 2024 open now-June 8, 2024
The only qualification to be a ‘Superstar” is a desire to write and support your fellow writers.
A supportive group of committed writers, who meet virtually, support each other’s efforts, and inspire each other.
Registration for 2024 open now-June 8, 2024
A 6-part journey through the short story.
Starts July 28, 2023
