News – StoryADay

Sneak Peek

at this year’s roster of amazing writers providing writing prompts for StoryADay May 2025.

“How do they do it?”

So many of us think exactly that, when reading stories by writers we admire.

Well, if you’d like a sneak peek in side the brain of a bunch of award-wininng and best-selling authors’ brains, you should sign up for StoryADay May 2025.

This year I’ll be sharing writing prompts from writers who have won Nebula and Hugo awards, been featured in the Best American Short Story collection, been shortlisted for Edgar and Bram Stoker awards, and more.

Be Our Guest

Here are some of the names you’ll see in your inbox this May, when you sign up.

headshots of the authors providing guest prompts for this year's challenge and the words: with writing prompts from P. Djèlí Clark, Mary Robinette Kowal, John Wiswell, Lori Ostlund, Kim Coleman Foote, Sasha Brown, R. S. A Garcia, Jennifer Hudak, Tim Waggoner, Rachel Bolton, Julia Elliot, Kai Lovelace, Anglea Sylvaine, Rich Larson, F. E. Choe,Emma Burnett , Patricia A. Jackson, Allegra Hyde,

P. Djèlí Clark, Mary Robinette Kowal, John Wiswell, Lori Ostlund, Kim Coleman Foote, Sasha Brown, R. S. A Garcia, Jennifer Hudak, Tim Waggoner, Rachel Bolton, Julia Elliot, Kai Lovelace, Anglea Sylvaine, Rich Larson, F. E. Choe,Emma Burnett , Patricia A. Jackson, Allegra Hyde, and more.

Past Performance

For a hint of the kinds of prompts guests have given us in the past, here are some that have been popular:

Roxane Gay Wants You To Be Happy

Mary Robinette Kowal Opens A Portal

Tadzio Koelb Witnesses An Accident

Simon Rich Knows More Than Your Character

Caroline Kim Conjures A Ghost

Pick one and write a practice story this weekend. And don’t forget to sign up for the challenge: https://storyaday.org/signup.

Keep writing,

RIP NaNoWriMo

I’m taking a moment this morning to mark the passing of NaNoWriMo as an oganization.

Theirs was one of the creativity challenges that inspired me to start StoryADay May for short story writers, in 2010 (NaNo’s 11th year).

(Fun fact: I even got founder Chris Baty’s blessing)

The end has been undignified, but I think NaNoWriMo’s real legacy will linger in the memory of its celebration of everyone’s right to be creative, to write our own entertainment and to do it in our own way.

(Pre-1999, pre-NaNo, pre-YouTube our culture had been one that suffered decades of tight gate-keeping on creativity’s tools of creation and distribution. NaNo was a glorious middle finger to all the people who said only certain types of people should dare to write.)

Its legacy will also be in the many, many writers who taught themselves how to stick with a project during NaNoWriMo and the many books that followed.

The Fall

It’s hard to grow and scale a business, even (especially?) a non-profit one. And it’s hard to run a writers’ organization—we are passionate, opinionated, insecure, clever, thoughtful, and prickly.

The choices the NaNo board made for their community were naieve at first, and disastrous later, but we can still applaud the spirit of encouragement, empowerment and generosity that were at the heart of NaNoWriMo for so long.

All good things, as they say.

What does this mean for other writing challenges?

Candidly, I’ve seen a drop off in participation in StoryADay May, too, though hundreds of people still enthusiastically participate and build that stack of first drafts to polish, and teach themselves how to persevere.

And, in truth, the challenge itself has become less important to the StoryADay writers, as we’ve built a close-knit private community and a looser, casual-acquaintance-type community around my workshops, podcast, and blog.

The StoryADay May challenge is still a highlight of the calendar, a way to take our writing both less and more seriously: more, as we commit to the practice; less as we try to write a ton of stories in one month.

(Perfectionism? Eat my dust!)

So RIP #NaNoWriMo. Writers will always need the kind of encouragement, permission and togetherness you stove for. We’ll continue to find each other, and push each other, and celebrate each other’s wins.

We just might not try to all get along in one place…

Onward

One day StoryADay will end. I will do my best to make it a controlled descent rather than a crash and burn, but that day is not today.

If you’re craving a little time-limited, creative frenzy, consider joining us for the 16th StoryADay May

I’m Talking About Practice

Visual artists keep sketchbooks.

I’m not sure if it’s something they’re taught to do or something they’re compelled to do., but if you tried to tell a visual artist not to ‘waste their time’ on anything but the piece they’re trying to sell, they would blink uncomprehendingly.

The constant, unfinished, experimental sketches are essential fuel for their finished works.

We writers seem to have a lot more angst about doing writing that doesn’t ‘turn into something’.

Do you ever worry if you’re wasting time because you’re jotting down ideas or fragments of conversations?
Do you feel pressure to be completing works and getting them published?

I think we feel this way, in part, because of the way “how to write “reference books are written (Chapter 1: how to find ideas, Chapters 2-11: Craft techniques to develop those ideas; Chapter 12: how to get an agent, publisher, seven-figure book deal and then sell the film rights).

But a more powerful reason we feel pressure to craft finished pieces is that everyone can and does write, daily, even if it’s just text messages, and has been able to do it since they were a child.

Writing seems ‘easy’ in a way that creating a painting or a sculpture (or writing a symphony), doesn’t.

When the people in our lives ask, “when’s that book coming out” we feel judged (even if it’s meant in a supportive way).

And so we rush back to the Big Project full of good intentions and impatience, only to discover that crafting that big project feels like standing at the foot of Everest, in flip flops, and hoping to get to the top by next weekend…because we haven’t equipped ourselves properly, or kept in shape by doing sketches, crafting characters, drafting dialogue, and writing down our ‘what if’s on a daily basis.

An invitation to a training mission: This week, capture 3 Story Sparks a day, for five out of seven days.

Hand write them in a special notebook you carry everywhere or capture them in a note in your phone. Use a journaling (or journaling app) to add pictures and sound snippets, if that inspires you.

Don’t worry about what you will do with these sparks. Just practice noticing how the world unfolds around you.

Keep writing,

Julie

Writing Prompts: Sensory Writing Series

A few years ago I put together a series of short story prompts aimed at helping you explore the different senses in your writing. You can use them in a larger work in progress, or you could write a series of short works that go together, tied up with the theme of ‘senses’.

Bonus points: write about the fuzzier senses (sometimes lumped together as ‘proprioception’) that allow you to do things like walk downstairs without looking at your feet, stand up in the dark without falling over, and know how closely someone is standing behind you, even if you can’t see them.

Sneak Peek at some of the Guest Prompters for StoryADay May 2025

Get Ready to Write Every Day in May with Inspiring Prompts from Literary Legends

[25 March 2025] – StoryADay is thrilled to announce the upcoming 2025 StoryADay May challenge, set to inspire writers of all levels to write a new short story every day throughout the month of May. This year’s challenge includes exclusive guest prompts from some of the most exciting voices in contemporary fiction, including P. Djèlí Clark, Rich Larson, John Wiswell, Jennifer Hudak, Lori Ostlund and many more.

StoryADay May is a month-long writing event designed to challenge writers to commit to a daily writing practice and push their creative boundaries. This year, the challenge is made even more exciting with special guest prompts from award-winning authors who have contributed their own unique writing exercises. These prompts are crafted to spark new ideas, inspire creativity, and help writers explore fresh storytelling techniques.

Some of the literary luminaries who have joined this year’s lineup include:

P. Djèlí Clark, Hugo Award-nominated author known for his speculative fiction that blends history with bold new worlds.
Lori Ostlund, author of After the Parade and The Bigness of the World, whose beautifully crafted stories of human connection and transformation have earned her wide praise.
Rich Larson, whose gripping short stories and science fiction work have captivated readers worldwide.
John Wiswell, whose award-winning, inclusive fiction regularly appears in ‘best of’ anthologies.
Jennifer Hudak, an acclaimed writer celebrated for her short stories that explore identity, relationships, and the human experience.

These guest authors, along with others, are offering their personal insights and prompts to help participants unlock their imagination and make the most of the challenge.

Why Participate in StoryADay May?
StoryADay May isn’t just about quantity—it’s about creating a consistent writing habit, connecting with other writers, and honing your craft. Whether you’re a seasoned writer or just starting out, the challenge provides the structure and motivation to write every day. The guest prompts will help you approach your writing with new perspectives, while the StoryADay community provides a supportive environment to share your work and celebrate your progress.

How to Join:
Writers of all levels are invited to sign up for the StoryADay May challenge at https://storyaday.org/signup. Participation is free, and registrants will receive access to the daily writing prompts and community support throughout the month.

Don’t miss this opportunity to join a vibrant, creative community and make 2025 the year you build your writing habit—one story at a time.

About StoryADay
StoryADay is an online community dedicated to helping writers develop their craft and maintain a sustainable writing practice. With a focus on short fiction, StoryADay provides writers with challenges, prompts, workshops, and community support to help them reach their writing goals. Founded in 2010 by writer Julie Duffy, the challenge and community have become fixtures of the writing community, earning a frequent place on Writer’s Digest magazine’s, 101 Best Websites for Writers list

The Contrary Writer

If you’ve been wondering why it’s hard to write: it’s because it’s hard…

I always thought that an artist’s was the hardest life of all. Its rigor—not always apparent to an outside observer—is that an artist has to navigate forward into the unknown guided only by an internal sense of direction, keep up a set of standards which are imposed entirely from within, meanwhile maintaining faith that the task he has set himself to is worth struggling constantly to achieve. This is all contrary to the notion of bohemian disorder.”
Lucian Freud (via Austin Kleon)

Creative Contradictions

Creative people don’t like to be told what to do…so we opt for a lifestyle where we have to be self-motivated—on good days and bad—or nothing gets done, only to long for someone to tell us exactly what to do, some days.

We love novelty and discovery…so we end up living lives that require us to work really hard to figure everything out ourselves—there’s no template for a best-selling story and if there was, we wouldn’t use it, because that would feel like factory work!

We prize our vivid imaginations…and curse them when they block us from writing the majestic, soaring words we long to our onto the page.

Making it Harder…And Easier

Recently, writer and literary agent, Kate McKean turned back to her work-in-progress, after letting it sit dormant for a few months. Here’s a list of things that ran through her head as she sat down to work:

What the hell am I writing about?

I have to read this whole thing through before I start again.

I have to read my whole outline through before I start again.

Maybe I can write a newsletter about this experience.¹

This is why I say touch your manuscript most days because if I’d taken my own advice I wouldn’t be in this mess and I could have been writing for the last hour instead of dragging my feet.

I am anxious and this sucks.

I can’t believe I only have 6000 words. I would have 30k by now if I had stuck to my plan from January.

What if I have to rewrite the whole thing already?

What if I just rewrite the whole thing right now? Start over so I won’t have to go back and reread these 6000 words?

Great, now I only have half an hour to write.

Oh hey let me go see what’s going on in the group chat.

Great, now I only have 20 minutes to write.

(Kate McKean, Agents + Books )

Sound familiar?

(McKean has vowed to take her own advice and ‘touch my manuscript every day’, to keep it more ‘alive’ in her mind, going forward, a piece of advice I’m happy to pass on to you here.)

3 Thoughts For The Week Ahead

Keep going

You need to write.
There will come a day when you REALLY need to write.
Keep your muscles flexed and your belief high.

Writing is hard

And that’s OK.

We chose the path less traveled by

Though we may slip on the occasional leaf and trip over the odd hummock of grass, it will, I think, make all the difference.

Keep writing,

Julie

P. S. I am lining up writing prompts from some amazing writers for this year’s StoryADay May. I am so excited to share their names and their prompts with you (soon, my precious!). But for now, make sure you’re signed up to get all the prompts this year, but entering your email address here (yes, even if you’re on this list. I don’t spam everyone with the prompts. Only people who sign up for each year’s challenge)

Maybe You SHOULD Be Writing

Some weekend reading and listening to inspire you to write…

I’m in the midst of asking writers I admire to contribute prompts for this year’s StoryADay Challenge. It’s nerve-wracking, and takes a little courage, but I do it.

Then, inevitably, when they say ‘yes’, I experience Big Emotions: Happiness and, weirdly, overwhelm. And I want to run away from my computer!

Today I caught myself feeling those feelings. I took a deep breath and asked:

What if I don’t let the Imposter Syndrome rage?

What if, by creating StoryADay May, I really HAVE created something awesome that people love to support and take part in?

What if I am doing good, and that’s good enough?

And so, I ask you the same question: what if you ARE good enough, as a writer?

Some Weekend Reading/Listening For You

I wrote about this here: What if you ARE good enough?
I talked about ‘How good does your writing have to be?’ on the podcast here
Here are some suggestions in case your writing really isn’t good enough
And if you want a gallery of encouraging quotes about keeping going, outrunning the Imposter Syndrome, here you go:

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Discussion Time: How Do You React?

Do you ever struggle with receiving positive feedback on your writing?
Do you ever demur and dismiss people’s praise with an “oh, go on, you’re just being nice…”?
What if you could stand your ground, sit in the discomfort, and let their praise sink in?
What would it do for you, if you could truly believe that your writing is good enough, of service to readers, and that you can accept praise?
Would you become an arrogant monster? Or would you become invigorated and want to write more stories for people to enjoy (Hint: it’s not the first one).

Leave a comment and let me know