Day 26- You never know where you might end up. by Brenda

Today’s prompt from Brenda Rech gives you a chance to stretch your imagination

The Prompt

A misunderstood aristocrat wants to unmask an intriguing conspiracy behind a museum exhibit. It takes him to a place he never wanted to go.

Take your character to a different time, a different place. Do they go forwards, backwards or maybe even a bit sideways.

Brenda

Brenda loves writing short fiction and is working on her first novel. 2023 is the third year of her monthly newsletter – Thru the Window.

All her life she wanted to be a veterinarian and took all the right science classes in high school. But, her favorite class was English 300. The teacher was a poet, who loved Shakespeare, and gave funky, fun assignments for creative writing. She struggled through first-year university, her grades in organic chemistry were less than stellar, but her marks in Canadian Lit were awesome. It was suggested that she pursue an English degree and be a teacher. She quit university.

Fast forward. She got married, had two children and ran a successful consulting business with her husband.

Fast forward again. During a monster house move she wrote a blog with photos to send to people who wanted to know how the relocation was going.

Fast forward some more. She joined Story A Day May and has never looked back

Find more info on her website (which is still under construction – so wear a hard hat) https://wordpress.com/home/brendarech.com ,
A better idea is her newsletter. Thru the Window

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Day 25 – You And Them by Julie Duffy

Write a story using this helpful prompt from Julie Duffy

The Prompt

Write a story in the first person point of view, but include three characters

Put the characters in a position where they must make a decision and must work together to achieve something.

The point-of-view character and one other want the same thing, but the third character wants something different.

Remember that, since we are only every privvy to the person in the “I” point of view, you can’t tell us what the other characters are thinking. We’ll have to figure that out, along with the point-of-view character, from their words and actions (including body language) as they progress through the story.

Will your POV character get what they want? Will the second character back them up or switch sides? How will you show the progression of the relationships, through only words and actions?

Can we trust what your point of view character thinks, or are they fooling themselves? Are they insightful about their companions or do they misinterpret their actions?

Julie Duffy

I am Julie Duffy and this is a first-person bio. I founded StoryADay May in 2010 because I was stick of never finishing anything I started. Ironically, StoryADay May turned into an annual event and now I hope it will never end! I also encourage people to make monthly goals during the rest of the year, in our Serious Writers’ Accountability Group posts.

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Day 24 – At The Precipice – A Visual Prompt from C. MKCane

Write a story using this helpful prompt from Julie Duffy

The Prompt

Two people standing, silhouetted on a ridge with sun and blue sky breaking through clouds

Try to incorporate this visual prompt into a pivotal moment in a story.

Perhaps these two people are adversaries or a couple.

Consider the location: this could be a real trail in the mountains or on a whole other planet.

C. McKane

Cee is a nursing student, writer, photographer, and family herbalist who loves micro fiction and Italian poetry. She is currently exploring Notes on Substack:

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Day 23- A Catalogue of Complaints by Julie Duffy

Settings are important in today’s prompt

Write a list of complaints. Focus on the voice of your character, and what the particular complaints tell the reader about that character.

Things To Consider

You can write this as an exaggerated version of yourself and your own complaints about the world—but be wary of doing this if you are not blessed with a strong sense of the ridiculous, or if you’re feeling particularly dark about the world right now. The point of this exercise is NOT to validate your complaints, but to communicate to a reader certain human commonalities.

Start with a character and think about what stage of life they are in, what their hopes are, what their experience of life might have been. Try to write the list the way they would, with an eye to providing context clues for a reader.

You might model your character on someone in public life who frustrates you, inspires you, or confuses you. What would a fabulously wealthy heiress have to complain about (it won’t be nothing). How do those complaints reflect on her? What would an admired philanthropist still grouse about, privately? How would that change a reader’s perspective from the start to the end of the story?

Use the title to tell us whose list of complaints we’re reading (for example, it might read like an advice article in a glossy magazine: World Champion Ice Dancer Melody Swope shares Fourteen Things to Prepare Your PreTeen Ice Queen For When They Go Pro; or How Famed Naturalist Sir Danny Arbuckle Packs For A Trip To The Wilderness, A List of Grievances by Olivia Snyder, Aged 12 1/4).

Write the list as if your character wrote it for their eyes only, because you want to get to the honest parts of the character, the parts they wouldn’t necessarily air on purpose.

Remember to provide a sense of discovery for the reader–they will be searching for meaning, so take them on a journey.

It doesn’t have to be a list of complaints, but do try to pick something that allows you to dig into a particular character and take the reader on a journey.

Be brave. Leave lots of gaps. See what happens.

Julie Duffy

Julie is the creator of StoryADay May. She tries not to complain too much. If you’d like to receive writing lessons and prompts from Julie throughout the year, consider signing up for the StoryAWeek newsletter.

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Day 22- If You Were Not You by Julie Duffy

Today’s prompt has us looking at character

The Prompt

Dig out your Short Story Framework again, and this time let’s plan a story that features a character who might be you, but very much isn’t. Let them react in ways you never would, never could, to whatever obstacles you throw at them.

  • When trying to get inside the head of this person, it can be useful to think of someone you actually know who is very different from you. Think of someone who does things that you would never do, that you despise, or that you secretly admire. Start with their external actions (what do they do when someone cuts them off in traffic that is so different from what you do, for example.) Backtracked from there to try to figure out what is going on in their head and their heart in that moment.
  • Put this character in a situation where there is conflict or stress and where their reactions are going to be really different from how you would react. Write the reactions, and as you’re doing so, unpack the story behind this person.
  • Don’t worry about trying to have a clever plot in this story. It can be something as simple as: this person gets cut off in traffic and how they react. The point of this exercise is to investigate the psyche of somebody very different from you. There’s a danger in always writing characters that are too sympathetic or similar to yourself.
  • Writing about somebody you dislike or someone unlike you can be very difficult. To make them more sympathetic, give them something there really, really good at. They might be charismatic. They might be really good engineering. But everyone has some areas where they are competent even if they are incompetent in every other sphere that matters to you!
  • This is not an exercise in writing a villain. This is an exercise in writing someone very different from yourself. It could be someone you admire.

Julie Duffy

Julie is the creator of StoryADay May. She created the challenge in 2010 when she realized she was spending so much time daydreaming about ways she could have lived different lives that she might as well write some of them down as stories!

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Day 21- If You Plant It, They Will Come by Michele E. Reisinger

Settings are important in today’s prompt

The Prompt

Write a story in which a garden plays a central role, whether as setting, character, source of conflict–or any combination of those three elements.

WHAT kind of garden is it? Flower, vegetable… Unicorn? Is it flourishing or fallow? Sprawling or skimpy? And what kind of nourishment does its harvest require? Is that nourishment easy or difficult to acquire?

WHO owns/plants/cultivates the garden? Are they the same person?

WHY do they garden? Pleasure? Revenge? Magic? Obligation? Or why do they refuse/delay/squirm at the prospect? Are they too old, young, squeamish, busy, distracted, sick?

WHERE is the garden located? In the protagonist’s backyard? In a community plot at the over-55 development? On the space station? Atop a soaring skyscraper? Beside the cottage? Behind the castle? Lost in the multiverse? At great-aunt Lulu’s?

WHEN does the garden exist? In memory, 1236 BCE, a week from now, during the Plague, during the war, during the famine? And when does it bloom? Predictably or never or only when the Blue Moon shines?

HOW does the garden connect to the protagonist’s deepest, darkest fear, want, need, desire? How will they feel/act if the garden fails? Succeeds? Remains unharvested? And how does the garden impact the protagonist’s relationship with other characters? Other creatures?

Need more ideas?

Claim an extant garden–a real one, or one from literature or film–and set your story there. BUT, change at least one significant detail about its composition.
OR, borrow characters or historical figures and place them in your newly invented garden. Bonus points for genre mash-ups.


OR, retell a garden story from a different POV… like the worm’s.

Michele E. Reisinger

Michele is a writer and StoryADay Superstar living in Bucks County, PA, with her family and never enough books. Her short fiction has appeared in Across the Margin, Stories That Need to be Told, Sunspot Literary Journal, Dreamers Creative Writing, and others. Find her online at mereisinger.com.

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Day 20 – Make it Flash by Julie Duffy

A moment of clarity, from Julie Duffy

The Prompt

Write a Flash Fiction story in 500 words, inspired by a vivid, or transformative, or reflective moment (like the one in the photo).

Tips

  • Have as vivid a moment as you can in mind as you start your story.
  • If you use this picture, brainstorm what happened in the moments before the the shutter clicked. Where are they going? Where have they been? What’s causing that facial expression? Is it sincere? Who’s taking the picture?
  • What happens the moment after the photo? Who cares about that? (Whose story is this?)
  • Whose voice will you tell it in? The photographer, writing it up later for the notes for his exhibition? The subject (first person, present tense? Told from the future). Some omniscient narrator? Will they be trustworthy or untrustworthy?
  • If you’re stuck on how to write a flash fiction story, listen to the episode of the StoryADay podcast with Windy Lynn Harris, where she shares 7 ways to approach flash.
  • If you’re not sure what makes a short story flash, check out these StoryADay Flash Fiction Essentials

If you share you story somewhere (and here’s why you might not want to) post a link here so we can come and read it.

Leave a comment to let us know what you wrote about today, and how it went!

Julie Duffy

Julie Duffy has always been verbose (something she often got in trouble for at school) which might explain why she is such a fan of the puzzle that is short fiction.

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Day 19- Mapping a Crime by Leslie Stack

An intriguing use of technology for today’s prompt from Leslie Stack

The Prompt

We all depend on our GPS devices whether it’s through Google, Apple, or other providers, but do we know how those online maps are created?

For at least Apple and Google, a small car literally drives around each neighborhood with a camera on top taking pictures and videos in real time for use later in their maps.

What if one of these drivers inadvertently takes a picture of a crime being committed unbeknownst to the driver?

This could be in a home, a park, a shopping center, a theatre, or a deserted road. For this prompt you can use the POV of the person committing the crime and finding the evidence on Google or Apple maps or you can use a different POV such as the victim or the officer investigating the crime.

What is the crime and what did the camera see? Enjoy!

Leslie Stack

Leslie Stack is a musician and retired teacher who is finally surrendering to her love of writing. You can usually find her doing research behind dark glasses on a park bench. She lives in a house in Pennsylvania with her husband where the books are plotting to takeover.

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19

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Day 18- Follow the Scent! by Robin Stein

Follow the scent and uses your senses in today’s prompt from Robin Stein

The Prompt

The aroma of coffee brewing, the minty scent of your grandfather’s aftershave or the salty smell of the beach.

What are the smells of your childhood? List three that pop into your head.

Start your story with one of them.

Maybe your character has a flashback when she smells something.

Or, the scent can be used as evidence in a crime.

Perhaps an unfamiliar perfume will reveal someone’s infidelity.

Make sure to use all five senses as you follow the scent to reveal your story.

See where your nose takes you!

Robin Stein

Robin Stein muses, meditates and creates in Newtonville, MA. Her work has been displayed on the Martin Poetry Path and in the Story Dispenser at Wellesley Free Library. Her book, My Two Cities: A Story of Immigration and Inspiration, has been featured at many schools. She enjoys crafting crosswords, walking in nature and playing piano. You can read more at robinsteincreative.com.

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18

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Day 17- You got a mouse in your pocket? by Fleet Sparrow

Fleet Sparrow invites us to explore the first person plural, today

The Prompt

Lately, I’ve been fascinated by how many times people will say “we” when they really mean “I”. There’s the courtly “royal we”, the Borg-like hive mind “we”, the “you and what army? we”, etc. So, for a challenge, write your story in the first-person plural.

Think about who would be using the plural first-person. What are they hiding about themselves? What are they telling? How many is the “we” including: one, two, or hundreds? And, for fun, just notice how naturally or unnaturally this “we” comes to you when writing.

Fleet Sparrow

Fleet is an avid fanficcer and smut lover who enjoys playing with long-held ideas and figuring out how to break them into something new. Zie loves Batman/DC Comics, writing, reading, music, and puns.

Y’all can find zir on Twitter (sometimes) at @FleetSparrow; on Substack (rarely) at fleetsparrow.substack.com; and on ArchiveOfOurOwn (often) under the name, you guessed it, FleetSparrow.

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17

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Day 16 – Very Short Story by Julie Duffy

Write a story using this helpful prompt from Julie Duffy

The Prompt

Tell a story in 50 words

Imagine someone has taken away something your character cares about deeply, to the point where their focus on its absence feels obsessive.

Tell us that story in 50 words

Tips:

Think through everything that would matter to your character, then distill, reduce, concentrate all that you would like to communicate to the reader.

How little can you say and still have character, tension, change, imagery?

You could write about the moment when it’s just a threat to take the “something” away. How hard will they fight to keep it?

The “something” could be a physical object, a person, a right, or an anticipated reward…

Remember: the reader doesn’t have to understand it on first reading.

You should feel free to use your title to tell us a lot.

Julie Duffy

Julie Duffy is the founder and host of StoryADay, its challenges, community and podcast. For more prompts and deeper writing lessons weekly, throughout the year, subscribe to the StoryAWeek newsletter

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16

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Day 15- Sweet Stories are Made of Dreams…To Paraphrase the Eurythmics by Michele E. Reisinger

Sweet dreams, for today’s prompt from Michele E. Reisinger

The Prompt

Some people dream in color, others in black and white. Some never recall their dreams, while others recall them in vivid, haunting detail.

Some believe dreams are psychic housekeepers, tidying our subconscious as we sleep. Others believe they are keys, unlocking a multiverse of otherwise inaccessible worlds.

Write a story in which a dream–or nightmare–plays a central role in the protagonist’s internal and external conflict.

Michele E. Reisinger

Michele is a writer and StoryADay Superstar living in Bucks County, PA, with her family and never enough books. Her short fiction has appeared in Across the Margin, Stories That Need to be Told, Sunspot Literary Journal, Dreamers Creative Writing, and others. Find her online at mereisinger.com.

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Day 14- The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts by Neha Mediratta

We’re diving into structure and character today with this prompt from Neha Mediratta

The Prompt

Write a short story about an accident from the PoV of three different characters:

  1. involved in the accident (e.g. as a passenger or driver of a cart or cycle/bike or car/plane or spaceship),
  2. witnessing the accident ( e.g. as agent who tried to avoid or confront the accident as it happens),
  3. trying to put pieces of what really happened when investigating (e.g. could be a public figure like a police officer or a person just coming to terms personally with this incident).

The playing rules here are to

a) develop our practice muscles to inhabit different perspectives.
b) dig deeply into a small but decisive moment.
c) convey a final impression of the whole (i.e. The End) with the help of three different characters in the compact space of a short story.

And most of all, have fun writing!

Neha Mediratta

Neha is a generalist currently obsessed with stretching, mind-body-world connection and the spirit’s dwelling place. She writes fiction, non-fiction, takes on editing assignments and works with people she admires. She lives by a lake in an overcrowded coastal city with her family and some wildlife. Check out her writing here

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14

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Day 13- Disappointment & Delight by Meghan Louise Wagner

Let’s get emotional with today’s prompt from Meghan Louise Wagner

The Prompt

Imagine a character who is older (interpret that as you like!) who returns to a place they visited once when they were younger.

There should be some emotional importance to the place, but this prompt works best if it’s a place the character only went to one or two times (not anywhere they’re super familiar with).

Start the story with the character returning to the place. When they arrive and see the place in its present state, have them either be:

a) greatly disappointed or

b) greatly delighted.

Then weave in memories of the place (or memories associated with the place) from when they were young.

Try to jump back and forth between them in the present and the past. By the end of the story, try to show a change in how the character views the place, either in the past or present. (for ex: if it started with them being delighted, have the story end with them being disappointed–or vice versa.)

Meghan Louise Wagner

Meghan Louise Wagner lives in Northeast Ohio. Her work has recently appeared in such places as Nashville Review, Cutleaf, Story, AGNI, Okay Donkey, and The Best American Short Stories 2022. More about her can be found at: meghanlouisewagner.com

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Day 12- Listening for ideas by Monique Cuillerier

Sound can be stimulating…in today’s writing prompt from Monique Cuillerier

When I’m having a hard time falling asleep, when my mind won’t stop throwing up new worries or old memories or random fears, I listen to white noise tracks, preferably nature sounds. (Here’s a short playlist of some of my favourites)

In doing this, I unintentionally discovered that listening to these soundscapes provides me with lots of ideas for stories (or further developments for works in progress).

(It is not, however, particularly helpful in getting to sleep!)

The Prompt

Choose one of the tracks on the playlist (or find one on YouTube, Spotify, or a website like Ambient Mixer ).

Listen for a while. Maybe 5 minutes, maybe more. (I will warn you that some of the tracks are many hours long…)

Let your mind wander as you immerse yourself in the sounds. What do you think of? What images come to your mind? How do you feel?

Then write a story based on your reaction and the ideas that have come to you.

It might be something quite literal (like rain falling on a roof inspiring a story of being inside a cabin during a storm) or less so (for example, the feelings of isolation or coziness that arise).

Monique Cuillerier

Monique (she/her) is a lesbian science fiction writer living in Ottawa (Canada), with her cat Janeway and many (many) plants. Her latest story, “Touching Mars,” can be found in Bicycles & Broomsticks: Fantastical Feminist Stories about Witches on Bikes (January 2023). She can be found at notwhereilive.ca

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Day 11- Food Fight by Marta Pelrine-Bacon

Food is more than nourishment .in today’s writing prompt from Marta Pelrine-Bacon

The Prompt

Food!

People have strong feelings about certain foods.

Have your characters battle over food. There are so many ways we fight about food.

Or have a character who refuses to love their traditional food and suffers the consequences.

Marta Pelrine-Bacon

Marta is an author and artist making stuff up as she goes along.

More from Marta

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Day 10- A Mysterious Start by Fallon Brown

Fallon Brown invites you into a mystery

The Prompt

When I opened the door, I never expected to be hit by *that*.


What is *that*? An idea, a smell, a sight, a sound? Something else? How does the protagonist react to it? What do they do next? Start your story with this line and see where it takes you.

Fallon Brown

Fallon Brown is a nonbinary writer from Northwestern Pennsylvania. They write mostly romance and cozy mystery novels, with some fantasy and historical in there as well. When they aren’t writing(rarely), they tend to devour books or let their mind unwind with crochet or cross-stitch projects. The first two books in their Jax of All Trade mystery series are available. You can also find them at stitchingastory.substack.com or on Instagram and twitter: @frbrown906

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Day 9- Kingdom in a Jar by CH Schoen

CH Schoen created a graphic prompt for today

The Prompt

A glass jar containing a fantasy and including a forest and a path to a castle with turrets

Write a story, and after 5 minutes of writing, this jar appears in your character’s world.

or
.
Write 100 words about meeting the ruler of this kingdom.

Or whatever you would like.

CH Schoen

C.H. Schoen is a late-night writer hailing from the midwest. Her passion include studying the different belief systems of the world and walking the land with her dogs. She can be found most nights crafting weird little stories and posting visual prompts to https://www.savvywordslinger.com.

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Day 8- Take over the story from here! by Lisa Thornton

An intriguing premise for a story from Lisa Thornton, today

Let your mind wander. Any genre works. Make it your own. Have fun!

The Prompt

“She wrote it on the back of the list she had been keeping of the best neon signs she’d seen so far. There was no way to know if he would ever read it, but that wasn’t the point.”

Lisa Thornton

Lisa Thornton is a writer and nurse living in Illinois. She has words published/forthcoming in SmokeLong Quarterly, Roi Faineant Press, Bending Genres, Fiery Scribe Review, Bivouac Magazine, Cowboy Jamboree and more. She was a finalist for the 2022 SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She can be found on Twitter @thorntonforreal.

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Day 7- Opening Old Label Scars: Setting and Character Prompts From Closed Stores and Restaurants by Amy Barnes

Amy Barnes wants you to fill in the gaps

The Prompt

Old Label Scars: Setting and Character Prompts From Closed Stores and Restaurants

Think about your favorite childhood store, attraction or restaurant. Did you sing the Woolco song and chase “blue light specials?” Did you cheer the drums and ice cream at Farrell’s? Can you spot a Whataburger a-frame building even when it’s been turned into a bank? A Toys-R-Us turned into an electronics store with the familiar front intact but painted over? A more recent Payless Shoes that is empty but still has remnants of the sign. A wooden roller coaster standing guard over a city with no visitors.

With many businesses closing due to Covid and entire malls being abandoned across the country, there are often “label scars” where businesses have left, leaving only the shadows of their names behind. As you shop or eat, watch out for those label scars that may trigger memories of shopping or food locations that are newly or long-gone.

Prompt

  1. Write about your childhood memories of stores and restaurants that are no longer open. Did you visit a Stuckey’s on a family vacation? Eat at a Woolworth’s lunch counter?
  2. Write about your first job working retail or as a restaurant server in a place that isn’t open anymore. What do you remember about the experience, good and bad? What did your uniform look like?
  3. Imagine the employees and shoppers at the same places. Invent characters based on those people. Write about their interactions. Does the manager fall in love with an employee? What was the bestselling item when you worked there?
  4. Make a list of the sensory details you remember from these closed businesses. The smell of Wicks and Sticks. Tastes from food court stores that don’t exist anymore. Colognes in department stores. The sound of those Farrell’s drum beats. The smell of mall bookstores. Sounds of mall piano stores or dogs barking in the pet store. Shoe stores where they x-rayed your feet and fit your shoes.
  5. If you find a label scar on a storefront, take a picture of it and create your own ekphrastic prompt. Write about the emotions you feel when you see it. What decade does the remaining font shadow feel like it belongs to? Who hung the sign? Who took it down? Was it a family business that failed?
  6. Do some research. Go online and see when/how the business closed. For example, the history of Chi Chi’s closing is well-documented but you might learn about your own regional favorite shuttered store. Write about how the community felt when the business closed. Did a little girl cry because Chi Chi’s wasn’t there with a sombrero and fried ice cream for her birthday?

For further research, visit online sites that explore dead malls and abandoned stores. Write about those locations by imagining what happened to them.

Amy Barnes

Amy Barnes is the author of three short fiction collections: AMBROTYPES published by word west, “Mother Figures” published by ELJ, Editions and CHILD CRAFT, forthcoming from Belle Point Press in September, 2023. Her words have appeared in a wide range of publications including The Citron Review, JMWW, No Contact Mag, Leon Review, Complete Sentence, Gone Lawn, The Bureau Dispatch, Nurture Lit, X-R-A-Y Lit, McSweeney’s, SmokeLong Quarterly, Southern Living, Allrecipes and many others. She’s been nominated for Best of the Net, the Pushcart Prize, Best Microfiction, long-listed for Wigleaf50 in 2021 and 2022, and included in Best Small Fictions 2022. She’s a Fractured Lit Associate Editor, Gone Lawn co-editor, Ruby Lit assistant editor,and reads for Retreat West, The MacGuffin, Best Small Fiction, The Porch TN and Narratively. You can find her on Twitter at @amygcb.

Mother Figures:
Ambrotypes:
Child Craft: preorders May, 2023:

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Day 6- Unnamed by K. B. Carle

K. B. Carle invites you to leave your character unnamed

The Prompt

When writing or brainstorming the beginnings of a story, one complication that paralyzes the writer is what to name their character?

Some have a placeholder name such as “John Doe,” waiting for the character to reveal their name once the story is complete and will add this new name while editing.

Others, like myself, go to Google for unique, unusual, or rare names. But what if we made the decision not to name our characters at all?

For this prompt, resist the urge to name your main character. Instead, consider characters such as

  • Cathy Ulrich’s, “The Astronaut’s Wife,” who is simply known by her wife’s job title and role in their marriage.
  • Hema Nataraju’s “middle-aged commuter,” or
  • Eric Scot Tryon’s “Wife #2.”

How do names identify our characters? Are they defined by their job title, feelings, or their role in the world around them?

DO NOT be afraid to experiment and, as always, have fun! Afterall, someone dared to create villains such as Polkadot Man and Condiment King.

Examples:

After the Thrill by Amy Lyons

Compound by Noa Covo

You Were Only Waiting for This Moment to Arrive by Kathy Fish

Rumors from the Castle by Cathy Ulrich

K. B. Carle

K.B. Carle lives and writes outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her flash has been published in a variety of places including Lost Balloon, Five South Lit., The Rumpus, JMWW, and elsewhere. K.B.’s stories have been nominated for The Pushcart Prize, and her story, “Soba,” was included in the 2020 Best of the Net anthology. Her story, “A Lethal Woman,” will be included in the 2022 Best Small Fictions anthology. She can be found online at kbcarle.com or on Twitter @kbcarle.

Listen to her episodes of the StoryADay podcast: episode 279 and episode 280

Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!

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Day 5- Tell a scary story by Nathan Ballingrud

Nathan Ballingrud sets up the scene for a horror story (perhaps?)

The Prompt

Molly heard her mother’s car pull into the driveway. She closed her math book and ran to the front door. The two hours she spent between the end of school and the time her mom came back home from work were always lonely.

She met her mother at the front door.

“Hi Mom!” She gave her a hug.

“Hey sweetie.” She set down her purse and her keys. “What are you doing?”

“Homework!”

“Well go finish it up and we’ll watch a movie when you’re done, okay?”

Molly was about to head back to her room when the door opened again. Her mother came in, again. “Hi, Molly!” She joined the first in the kitchen — two carbon copies of each other. They didn’t see each other or seem to know the other was there, but they kept talking cheerfully to her. And then a third came in. And a fourth.

Molly crept slowly back to her room. The kitchen was full of their happy talk, all their words running over each other. She hated nights when this happened. She slid under her bed and put her hands over her ears. She hated what came next.

Nathan Ballingrud

Nathan Ballingrud is the author of The Strange, Wounds, and North American Lake Monsters
Find him on Twitter at @NBallingrud

Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!

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Day 4- 100 Word Story by Julie Duffy

Julie Duffy encourages you to keep things short


After the meaty, narrative stories of the past few days, I have a fresh challenge for you today: write something extremely short that still can be defined as a ‘story’

The Prompt

Write a story in exactly 100 words

Beware don’t expect this to be fast, just because it’s short.

Writing a complete story in 100 words takes a lot more time than any average 100 words in the middle of a longer story.

Crafting a complete story in 100 words is not easy. It is, however, quite satisfying.

Tips

  • Super-short stories have to pack an emotional punch in very few words. Concentrate on one moment, one incident, that holds huge significance for a character: the moment they first made eye contact with their baby; seeing the first crocus of spring after a hideous winter full of drama and despair; standing on stage in the moment of silence before the applause starts…
  • You’ll want to save the majority of your words for the build-up to the climax. Think about how many words you can afford to spend setting the scene (maybe 25?) and how many you want for the resolution (10?). Can you create a resonant story in 65 words?
  • Choose adjectives carefully. You don’t have much room.
  • Make words do double duty. Instead of saying ‘he walked across the room, shaking with rage’, say ‘he stalked away’, saving five words. You might even be able to cut it further by making “Stalked off” a complete sentence.
  • Don’t feel you have to hit 100 words on the first pass. Write the story, then go back through and intensify things by making your verbs more active and pruning as much dead wood as you can.
  • Imply as much as you can. Leave gaps. Let the reader work a bit.

As you may have noticed by this point, it’s a different kind of challenge to write a story every day than it is to work on the same story every day for a month.

If you haven’t started collecting Story Sparks yet, now would be a great time to start writing down stray thoughts and observations as you about your day.

You’re doing great, but we have 27 more ideas to come up with, before the month is over.

Future-You will thank Past-You as they browse through all the ideas you’ve collected along the way, while away from your desk!

Julie Duffy

Julie is the founder and host of StoryADay May. She creates challenges, courses and community for writers at StoryADay, on podcasts and conferences. She often relies on Past-Julie. Sometimes it even works out well…

Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!

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Day 3- Character Pulls Focus by Tommy Dean

Tommy Dean leads your character through a story

The Prompt

Start a story with a character in the middle of a conversation, where everyone knows something the main character doesn’t know.

Allow the main character to ignore the people around him. Use the setting to reveal something about the main character.

Let the main character gives us snippets of who the characters are around them.

Eventually, let one of the other characters get through to the main character!

Let the main character know seeing the room around them differently.

How does this added context force the main character to act/react?

How do they better understand the other characters in light of this revelation?

Tommy Dean

Tommy Dean is the author of two flash fiction chapbooks Special Like the People on TV (Redbird Chapbooks, 2014) and Covenants (ELJ Editions, 2021), and a full flash collection, Hollows (Alternating Current Press, 2022). He lives in Indiana, where he currently is the Editor at Fractured Lit and Uncharted Magazine. A recipient of the 2019 Lascaux Prize in Short Fiction, his writing can be found in Best Microfiction 2019, 2020, 2023, Best Small Fiction 2019 and 2022, Monkeybicycle, Moon City Press, and numerous other litmags.

His interviews have been previously published in New Flash Fiction Review, The Rumpus, CRAFT Literary, and The Town Crier (The Puritan).

He has taught writing workshops for the Gotham Writers Workshop, the Barrelhouse Conversations and Connections conference, and The Writers Workshop.

Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!

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Day 2- A Pocket Sized Prompt by Mary Robinette Kowal

A question from Mary Robinette Kowal, to prompt today’s story

The Prompt

The thing that I want you to think about is is just the answer to a question :

What’s in your character’s pocket?

  • So is there a thing that they carry with them all the time?
  • Is there something that they have put in their pocket specifically just in that moment?
  • Do they not carry anything in their pocket? How can they get away with that?

What’s in their pocket?

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 Nashville. Visit at maryrobinettekowal.com or visit her Patreon

Catch Mary Robinette Kowal on the StoryADay podcast here:
Part 1| Part 2

Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!

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Day 1- Expand, Narrow, Explode the Frame by Rachel Swearingen

Write a story using this helpful structure from Rachel Swearingen

The Prompt

Expand, Narrow, Explode the Frame

Write a scene in which a character is looking for something or someone that has been lost. Use all the senses to describe the setting. Give us a sense of the body and include the following “moves” in any order:

1. Allow the details of the scene to feel close, contained, even constricting.
2. Describe the thing that has been lost, a brief memory perhaps that has been triggered by its loss.
3. Look down. Zoom in on something very small.
4. Bring in a distant sound.
5. Draw attention to an opening of some sort, a window, a door, a hole in the wall or in a dense wood or in a thick covering of clouds, for example.
6. Can your character see or sense what is beyond that opening?
7. Allow your character to climb down or up or into for to a new vantage point.
8. Is your character alone? Invite a stranger to the scene. What happens now?

Rachel Swearingen

Rachel Swearingen is the author of “How to Walk on Water and other short stories” which received the New American Press Fiction Prize. Find out more at RachelSwearingen.com

Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!

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StoryADay May 2023 Is Almost Here

Read this tips for the StoryADay Challenge…and get your gameboard!

May is almost upon us!

Here are some tips on how to participate fully in the challenge:

Gamify your Experience

Each day of the challenge I’ll post a graphic you can save and share to chart your progress. Keep it secret or share on social media using #storyaday

OR If you’d like to get away from the screen and do some handi-crafts, print out this version of the game board and pieces. Cut out a piece for every day your write and paste it onto the game board. Proudly display it in a public space or take pictures and share on social media, using #storyaday

gameboard blank
gameboard piecs

Set your own rules

You don’t have to write every day but you should push yourself to do as much as feels a little intimidating…and then review every week to see if you want to change your commitment)

Set up your workspace

Pick a notebook or create a folder on your computer to house all your StoryADay related writings

Always Put a Date on Your Work

Especially if you’re hand-writing. You won’t be sorry!

Do Your Victory Dance

Every day, come back to the blog and post to let the community know how you got on…yes, even if you didn’t get on well!

The support you’ll get is well worth the effort!

Don’t Catch Up

I mean, if you are highly motivated by streaks, you can.

For the rest of us, I strongly recommend closing the door on days when you didn’t write.

Part of the point of this challenge is to learn about how write, long-term. Do you tend get crushed by set-backs? Learn to keep going during this challenge!

(Use the community to help keep going. Post if you need a word of encouragement)

Keep It Secret, Keep It Safe

I do encourage you to post about your writing, but I don’t encourage you to post your actual stories.

For one thing, the idea of having to write AND polish a story every day is paralyzing (trust me, I always try to find ways to circumvent this truth, and I never succeed). Just write. Play in the mud. Make a mess. Enjoy yourself.

The second reason is more practical: if you ever want to have someone else publish your piece, they likely won’t take it if it has been published somewhere before, even on your blog or social media.

Keep Track of Your Progress

Not just whether you wrote or not, but how you’re feeling, how the effort is going, anything else that will help you build your writing practice, after the challenge is over.

Printable Weekly Log

I’ll send you a ‘debrief form’ at the end of the challenge, but make sure you keep notes as you go along.

You’ll learn a lot this month. You think you will remember all the lessons but you won’t. Keep notes!

Have Fun

This is a ridiculous challenge.

Part of the point is the have fun with your creativity and part is to help you lower your expectations and fight procrastination.

Just keep moving forwards.

Talk to other people in the comments.

Notice when you write a line you like.

Notice when you exceed your expectations (but just don’t raise them again

Check your email later today for an invitation to our kick-off party (bring your questions, nerves, and suggestions to help others).

Keep writing (and writing, and writing).

Julie

3 Short Stories To Read Before May Begins

As we warm up for StoryADay May 2023, it’s always useful to read great examples of the kind of short fiction we might end up writing during May.

Here are three great (and a little weird) stories I’ve read over the past few months, to inspire you.

If you’ve ever thought “I can’t write a whole a short story,” maybe it’s because you haven’t seen all the weird and wonderful ways a short story can be built. It’s almost impossible to get it wrong!

Keep writing,

Julie

P. S. The free WRITER Code Masterclass is underway. If you want to write, but keep getting derailed, watch Lesson 1 now: in which I present a framework for a writing life that works for you, today, not ‘some day’.

If StoryADay May Was Cancelled

What if StoryADay went away?

If the month of May rolled around and there were no prompts, no daily email encouraging you to write, no friendly community to welcome your “Yay! I did it” posts at the blog, would there be a gap in your writing practice?

Would you have fewer first drafts to work on the rest of the year?

Would another month go by without a focus on your writing?

And, if this is your first year contemplating the challenge, what do you hope to get out of it?

Leave a comment below, and let me know!

Should I Do This, Again?

Every year, as the organizer of StoryADay May, I face the question: am I going to do this again?

(It’s a lot of work!)

And every year, I look at the comments and emails from past years to help me make my decision.

Comments like:

“I noticed something this month that’s been scarce while I was focused on my novel, story sparks! Sparks just started popping up out of no where…I feel like I’ve been freed!
Thank you, Julie, for the inspiration!! Yay for May!”

Christina

“My heartfelt thanks …for letting me enjoy every single one of the prompts for the last month.”

Rathin

“I have loved all the story prompts this month, especially the flexibility and possibilities they have, meaning I can return to them many times to write new and varied stories into the future.
I step towards more writing, more creativity and more ideas.”

Ran

“You’ve helped me hold my faith in my writing.
This is a spectacular achievement for me as I struggle to prioritise time for myself. Thank you for the motivation. It’s been awesome.”

Wendy

“I have learned so much not just about short stories, but writing in general.”

Calla

“I feel proud of myself!”

Grace

“ I discovered … how easily I could come up with new story ideas. Also, I feel more motivated to go back and revise the stories I wrote. I… feel more motivated to continue writing.”

Natalie

“I didn’t write for forty years…The horrible part was that I knew writing was my calling, and that I was capable of it. But I just didn’t do it…This has been a truly life-altering experience. It is huge. A titanic breakthrough. A door opening, chains falling away. I’m shocked and humbled and amazed, … I’m telling you the truth. This has changed my life.”

Dawn

And that’s why, every year, I find myself I find myself arguing with my coach about what is and is not a good investment of my time 😉

I’d love it if you would take a moment to think about what you hope to get out of the StoryADay May challenge, what rules you are setting for yourself (will you write every day? Once a week? Only on weekends?) and how you hope to feel at the end of the month.

Then leave a comment here. It’ll help crystalize your goals, which will, in turn, help keep your motivation high.

(And I can show them to my coach!!)

If you have questions for me, post them here, too.

Here’s to another May of ridiculous, glorious creativity!

Keep writing,

Julie, writing
Julie (signed)

Julie Duffy

P. S. If you want me to send writing prompts to your email inbox every day of the challenge, make sure you’re signed up here (yes, even if you’ve signed up in the past)

What If You ARE A Good Enough Writer?

Therefore all should work. First because it is impossible that you have no creative gift. Second: the only way to make it live and increase is to use it. Third: you cannot be sure that it is not a great gift – If You Want To Write, Brenda Ueland

If You Want To Write, Brenda Ueland

We hold ourselves back.

We hold ourselves back because, what if our writing isn’t good enough?

What if we put in all this effort and we fail?

(First question: have you defined success for yourself, yet?)

Is Your Writing Any Good?

It’s hard to know the quality of our own work.

We’re too close to it.

That’s when critique groups and writing buddies can come in handy.

Sometimes the word ‘critique’ scares us, but in my experience sharing work with writing friends often means they spot the parts of my writing that are working…and that I take for granted.

Why are we so critical of our own work?

Lots of reasons.

  • When you’re in your own head all the time it’s hard to know when you’re being insightful or entertaining. Familiarity breeds contempt, as they say.
  • You were probably told not to brag about yourself by someone who loved you and wanted other people to like you. Who wanted you to be safe.
  • We are comparing our first draft with someone else’s 20th!
  • It’s safer to aim low than to aim high and risk failure.

What If Your Writing Is A Gift?

Today, I’m challenging you to ask yourself:

  • What if my writing really is good?
  • What if my words are exactly what someone needs to hear today?
  • Isn’t it a little bit arrogant to assume you know how your writing will affect others?

Isn’t it a little bit selfish for you to hold back?

↑↑↑ If that were true, what would you do, today? ↑↑↑