[Writing Prompt] Mashup

I’ve been reading a lot about marketing recently. One of the techniques that strikes me as a double-edged sword is the advice to create an elevator pitch for your story that goes like this:

    It’s like Alien meets 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
    It’s Sleepless in Seattle but with dogs

(Can you tell why I think it’s a double-edged sword?!)

The Prompt

Write A Short Story Mashup
Let’s have some fun with this idea, and go literal:

  1. Take a character who is suspiciously like another character from literature or film (an Indiana Jones-like explorer, a Tess of the D’Urbevilles-like victim, a Ferris Bueller-like rogue).
  2. Drop this character into a completely different environment (put your Indy-alike in a cyberpunk thriller; Pseudo-Tess on Wall Street; Ferris-esque into a made-for-TV-movie plot about a football team…hmm, maybe not that one).

Write your tagline first, then write whatever you like. Use this as a chance to try something new and a little bit whacky.

[Reading Room] Death By Scrabble by Charlie Fish

I loved this story.

It’s filed under ‘humor’ and it definitely made me laugh out loud a few times, in a black-humor kind of way.

The story begins,

“It’s a hot day and I hate my wife.”

There: that’s funny already. It’s the juxtaposition, the unexpectedness. I love it.

The story goes on in the same vein. The couple play Scrabble together and all we get is a torrent of emotions from the man who … hates his wife. He blames her for everything, despises everything about her and begins to fantasize about ways out of the situation.

It’s not the situation, nor the conclusion, nor even really the characters that make this such a great story. It’s the writing.

If you ever think up a scenario for a story then shoot yourself down, thinking ‘it’s been done before’, take a break and read this story. Only Charlie Fish could have written THIS story this way. Take heart from that, writers!

Read Death By Scrabble by Charlie Fish

An Interesting Publishing Experiment

Our friend Simon Kewin[1. past participant and recent Guest Prompter] has just announced that the first six chapters of his new novel ENGN are being released free at Wattpad.com.

Over the next six weeks Simon and his publisher will be releasing a chapter a week and soliciting feedback from readers via Wattpad’s comments stystem.

It’s great use of the new publishing technologies to help writers find and interact with readers. Why not pop over and take a look?

Take The 7DayStory Challenge Today

The 7DayStory is a new short story writing challenge, from the creators of StoryADay May and the DIY MFA:

  • Write and revise a story over the next seven days
  • Use the hashtag #7DayStory to connect with other working writers.

Why Write A Story in 7 Days?

We believe that it is by writing that we become writers. But it’s not just by writing. It’s also by finishing, revising, releasing our work, and connecting with readers and other writers, that we become writers. So we’re encouraging writers to sharpen their writing skills by writing, revising and releasing short stories in seven days.

  • Finishing your first draft in a day or two, before you lose momentum
  • Revising the story over the next few days in several passes
  • Connecting with other writers to find sources of support and feedback.
  • Releasing the story to trusted readers, or perhaps even publications.
  • Repeating the process often, to learn from your experiences and reinforce the writing habit.

Sign up now to join the #7DayStory challenge and get daily updates to keep you on track through the writing and revision process






 



But That’s Not All

Wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have to stumble through this process alone? What if someone put together a guide for gathering ideas, writing that first draft and working through the somewhat overwhelming process of revising and releasing your story?

Coming Soon: The 7Day Story eBook7DS-Cover-Tangerine-LG

 

Write, Revise, Release, Repeat: Your Blueprint for Short Story Success

by Gabriela Pereira and Julie Duffy.

Join the challenge today!

What are you waiting for? Enter your email below and join the 7DayStory Challenge!






 



You Win!

Jump For Joy!

Well, it’s here: the end of StoryADay May 2013.

Thank you for taking part, for paying attention, for commenting and for sharing, you great big Winner, you.

 

You Win

  • If you wrote a story this May,
  • If you wrote a story every day,
  • If you wrote, but you missed a few days,
  • If you learned anything at all about your writing journey,

You win.

If you did write every day, then you don’t need me to tell you how much you won. You’re already bubbling over with awesome and excitement and all the lessons that you learned. And I am so happy for you. Now go forth and keep writing.

If You Did Not Complete A Story Every Day…

…this bit is for you. (And I’ll be honest: I am one of you!)

You still win (and b, go and write a story using today’s prompt “When One Door Closes” or any of the other prompts including one of your own).

No matter how your StoryADay May went, there is a sense of achievement at having *tried*. And there are certainly lessons to be learned if you’re willing to take a little time and analyze what happened over the past month.

I encourage you to take some time today or tomorrow and assess what worked and what didn’t in your writing life this May.

    • Write down the answers to these questions, now, while it’s fresh in your mind:
      • Were there days it was really hard for you to write? (Sundays are bad for me.)
      • Were there times when writing worked best? Morning? Evening? Lunchtime? 10 minutes sprints in parking lots between sales calls?)
      • Did you discover you could start a story and come back to it later in the day? (This was one of my revelations the first year I tried the challenge.)
      • Did you find ways to write even when you weren’t in the mood? (Hint: you’re going to need them. Write them down!)
      • What did you learn on your best, worst, and middling days? (Mediocre days are plentiful. Pay attention to how you got the work done on those days, for future reference.)
      • Did you discover a style, a voice, a genre or a length that fitted you best? (Was it the style/voice/genre you *thought* was going to be your best?)
    • Today or tomorrow, write yourself a blog post or journal entry that captures these lessons.
    • Write a pep talk, as if your writer self were your best friend, for when you are having trouble in future. (You will have days when looking up this pep talk totally saves you!)
    • Grab the graphic to remind yourself of all you accomplished and all you learned (even if you ‘missed’ some days, or ‘failed’. You learned a lot in the attempt. Pay attention to that.)

I would love to hear what you learned, so, if you post these lessons anywhere online send me at link at julie at storyaday dot org and I’ll share the best with the rest of the gang.

And well done!

Keep in touch and keep writing,
Julie

Take The 7DayStory Challenge

Just because StoryADay May 2013 is ending soon, don’t think I’m letting you off the hook. You’ve developed some great writing habits this past month and you shouldn’t let those go.

To encourage you to continue with your short story writing, I’ve teamed up with Gabriela Pereira of DIYMFA.com and, next week, we’re bringing you:

The 7DayStory Challenge

The 7DayStory

  • Write and revise a story in a week;
  • Check in online to connect with other people taking the #7DayStory challenge.


Why Take Part In The 7DayStory Challenge?

It’s an opportunity to:

  • Challenge yourself
  • Reinforce the good writing habits you developed during StoryADay May (or make up for what you missed out on!)
  • Connect with other writers.

Gabriela will also be sharing some of her DIY MFA revision strategies, which will be a huge help to us around here, sitting on piles of first drafts as we always are at the end of May.

The #7DayStory Challenge starts June 3, 2013. Check back here on Monday for details.