Culture infuses everything about our world, so ‘world-building’ is an important part of our writing. Today’s prompt encourages you to build a story around a cultural oddity. The Prompt Think about a cultural norm in the world of your story and explore its ramifications for your characters. Tips
This month’s writing prompts all acknowledge the fact that November belongs to novelists. Whether you write longer fiction or you don’t you can use this month’s prompts to nudge you forward in your writing practice. The Prompt Take an idea you have thought “I could write a novel about that” and test it as a … Continue reading “[Write On Wednesday] Test Your Premise”
The Prompt Premee Mohammed dug into her a short story stash of ideas to share one with us. ‘Superheroes, community service/non-jail punishment for crime, a secret society. In a world where superpowers are real, a convicted criminal is spared a prison term… If he agrees to do community service, enforced by an unknown league of incognito superheroes. But how … Continue reading “Day 20 – Premee Mohamed Has A Question”
The Prompt Think up a narrative about some form of travel—anything from setting out on an adventure, to a school trip to somewhere, to crossing a border, to an accident on the way, (a train wreck perhaps). Begin this in the voice of a collective first person: “We.” How does a group consciousness describe the … Continue reading “Day 17 – Gregory Frost Plays with Point Of View”
This month’s theme at StoryADay is “Show, Don’t Tell”, that pesky little piece of writing advice that sounds so easy and will actually take us the whole month to unpack. It’s more than simply ‘showing’. It’s about using all our senses to immerse the reader in a moment, and it come more easily to some … Continue reading “[Write On Wednesday] Pull Readers into Your Story”
On Wednesdays, I provide a writing prompt aimed at sparking a short story, with tips and advice included. Want them in your inbox? Subscribe now! The Prompt Write a story in which your characters go to a party Tips
How did you get on yesterday? Did you write a story? Remember, set your own rules, and stick to them. If you miss a day, don’t try to catch up. Just keep moving forward! The Prompt Write The Story You’ve Been Waiting To Write I’ve been making you jump through hoops all month, but there … Continue reading “2019 Day 29 – The One”
What if you had time to write? What if, when you sat down to write, you could jump over all the hangups and just write? What if, every day, you felt like the writer you were supposed to be? What if you were a writer who could produce more, better stories, then get on with … Continue reading “Walking The Writer’s Path”
Yesterday, I reviewed “Useless Things” by Ariel Berry, and it gave me the writing prompt for today’s Flash Fiction focused prompt The Prompt Write a story of fewer than 1000 words, that features a twist on a topic/event that might be seen as a disaster. Show us how your character pulls another meaning from it … Continue reading “[Write On Wednesday] Good From Bad”
This month I’ve been encouraging you to write short stories in unusual forms and genres. Since I’m spending today trekking back and forth to NYC to see the new Frozen musical with my kid’s school (I know, such a hardship, right?), I decided to urge you to write an outline for a musical today. This … Continue reading “[Write On Wednesday] 5-6-7-8”
Today’s prompt kicks off a month of Write On Wednesday short story prompts that focus on odd or very specific formats of stories. Remember when Elaine from Seinfeld got a job writing for the J. Peterman catalogue? Every entry was a tiny short story, usually ridiculous, about the fantasy character who would wear/carry each product. … Continue reading “[Write on Wednesday] Cataloguing”
Firstly I talk about some people who are making short and long fiction work for them: Mary Robinette Kowal, whose new novels The Calculating Stars grew out of a short story, The Lady Astronaut of Mars; and Diana Gabaldon, who writes short stories in her Outlander universe to keep her readers occupied while she’s working … Continue reading “112 – Backstories & Integrity”
This month I’m giving you prompts that work in different ways to support your long-form fiction/novel writing. This week we’re looking at the micro-cultureS in your novel’s world. The Prompt Write a story that explains how the culture of your novel’s setting evolved Tips Even if you are writing contemporary fiction, don’t assume that the … Continue reading “[Write On Wed] Culture Club”
One of the only ways to get better as a writer is to learn to revise our stories. This month, at StoryADay we’re focusing on revision. Keep reading for a free lesson on how to achieve the right revision mindset, and for news about this year’s StoryFest! The Prompt Take a story you have written … Continue reading “[Write on Wednesday] Revisit An Older Story”
Welcome back to the penultimate day of your month of extreme short story writing. After setting you free yesterday, I’m putting a few more limits on you again today. The Prompt Take a story that you wrote earlier this month, and tell it from a different point of view The point of this prompt is … Continue reading “Day 30 – Change Your Point Of View”
Here we are, the final three days of this extreme month of writing. It’s so impressive that you’re still here, that you’re still writing, that you’re still coming back to this. I know you have stories you want to tell, that the world needs to hear. Your experiences, your outlook, your way of expressing yourself, … Continue reading “Day 29 – The Story You’ve Been Waiting To Write”
Read The Story Online Here I’ve never done this before: today, I’m writing about one of my own stories. This is a story that I wrote during StoryADay May 2017. I’m sharing it in today’s Reading Room post to demonstrate what you can do with a writing prompt that seems to suggest you must write … Continue reading “[Reading Room] The Girl Who Circumnavigated The Globe In An Act of Her Own Making by Julie Duffy”
Allow me to introduce Gary Zenker, a flash fiction writer, game designer, marketer, and awesome leader in my local writing scene. After eight years of reading mostly-my-prompts, I wanted to give you the opportunity to play in someone else’s sandbox from time to time. I looked around for someone I trusted to be both creative … Continue reading “Write On Wednesday – Writers Bloxx with Gary Zenker”
It reads like a simple story, but is, in fact, a skillfully crafted tale that hides its author’s hard work well.
This month at StoryADay we’re all about Flash Fiction! Flash fiction is loosely defined as being between 250 and 1200 words long, but it is so much more than that. The best description of Flash Fiction I’ve ever seen goes like this:
Starting can be the hardest part of writing a story, so this week I’m giving you an opening line, to break through that block. I’ve written before about opening lines and how important they are to a story, so don’t think that this opening line has to be your story’s opening line forever. In fact, … Continue reading “[Write on Wednesday] Story Starter”
Happy New Year! If you haven’t quite settled into your new routine (or your old routine) yet, and want to get creative, this is the episode for you
Okay, you made it! Welcome to Week Two. | jump to this week’s writing prompts | Week 2 Elements of Story [Remember, if you want ALL THE PROMPTS NOW you can get them in the ebook A Month of Writing Prompts 2016, and help keep StoryADay free at the same time!] This week we’re going … Continue reading “Welcome to Week Two”
Continuing the theme of reaching to your strengths, this week. By necessity, in a challenge like this, you will likely have been writing very short stories. (I do know some people who managed to stretch to a few thousand words on some of the days, but for the most part if you’re finishing stories during … Continue reading “Write At Your Natural Length”
Silence all the critics in your head telling you you should be writing some other way…
Today’s prompt is a reminder that it’s quite all right to be inspired by other artists work!
Today’s writing prompt is all about painting a vivid setting for your readers.
We’re changing tack today: writing in dialogue! The Prompt Write a story containing only dialogue You can write this in play format if you like, using each speaker’s name at the beginning of the line, but I would discourage you from using stage directions. Try to convey everything from emotion to movement the setting in … Continue reading “Write A Story In Dialogue”
Today I’m limiting your character choices. The Prompt Write a story featuring a character very like you Tips Think about the things that make you you: Gender, family roles, occupation, age, body type, religion, hobbies, outlook, genetic heritage. Are you curious, or cautious? Musical or tone deaf? Extroverted or introverted? Content or endlessly searching? Put … Continue reading “When Your Character Is Like You”
Now that you’re all keyed up to write, we turn to the tricky question of how to take all your good ideas and turn them into story drafts. From Idea To Story Ideas are great. Story Sparks are great. Writing prompts can be great. But anyone can have an idea. It takes a writer to develop … Continue reading “From Spark To Story”
Fan fiction has really taken off in recent years, especially with the success (relatively speaking) of several fan fiction stories that became novels and even movies. Fan fiction is a tricky kind of writing because you often have to immerse yourself in someone’s world to write about it. And it’s also tricky because of potential … Continue reading “September 19 – Who’s Your Pop Culture Crush?”
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
