I know that many of you reading this have been around StoryADay-land for a long time and I want to hear what’s happened for you since you first took part.
…and I want to sing your praises.
Click here and leave a comment to tell me what’s happened, for you
If art is resistance and hope is contagious, let’s spend a minute sharing!
Why I’m Asking
I hear lots of stories from people about ways their writing life has changed since they first took part in StoryADay, but I don’t have them all written down.
When I go on podcasts, or am interviewed about StoryADay, it’s one of the first questions people ask me. I’d love to be able to quote you.
Hearing real stories from previous participants is a wonderful way to give frustrated writers the courage to sign up and join the challenge.
In addition, I would love to be able to point people to your stories that have been released, your other creative enterprises, your Substack or whatever you’d like to promote. Or not. Depending on your preference.
Some Examples
Here are some examples of things that have changed for people:
- One writer, from Year 1, discovered that while she enjoyed writing, she loved art more. Since then I’ve seen her art grace the covers of magazines like Clarkesworld. Woohoo!
- One writer uses the energy around StoryADay to work on their novels, and short stories that act as marketing freebies for those novels.
- One discouraged writer rekindled her love of writing by spending a month on short stories, which encouraged her to send out her novel to agents again…and got a two-book deal!
- One writer told me that they are more decisive and that their day job feels easier when they are writing.
- Multiple writers have told me they’ve had their first publication from a story that started out as a StoryADay draft.
- One writer realized that seeking publication wasn’t right for them at this stage and that they just want to enjoy writing their stories and up-leveling their skills, as a delightful break from the day job and other obligations.
- Other writers have shared with me how showing up in the community (during the challenge and in the Superstars group) has been a lifeline in times of personal tragedy and upheaval.
Can you see how these stories would be more compelling with (as in fiction) some concrete details? I’d love to gather real, attributable stories of how your life has changed since you started showing up for your writing.
It doesn’t have to be a big, outward success. It might be an internal shift. I would still love to hear about it.
If you’d rather share a more personal story anonymously, you can email me (I bet you can guess my email address at storyaday.org) and tell me what’s changed for you. If you don’t want me to share it, even without your name attached, let me know. I’d still love to hear from you.
Since joining STADM in 2021, I have learned:
– the nuances of writing a short story. Some of the stories have been as short as 100 words. I have learned that searching for just the right word, is very important.
– that joining a group of like-minded people makes writing more fun and productive.
– that it is okay to write, just because you love to write.
– that Julie has a huge library of resources. In fact I have just scratched the surface. I have only reviewed, read or used 17%. Every time I think I need to learn something, there it is, in my Superstar library
I joined Story A Day May 2025 .I wrote something almost every day. I loved it! The prompts got me to thinking and writing more often than I have in the past .Now that’s about all I think about: writing something 🤣 Story A Day helped me to get motivated to actually sit down and write. Thank you Julie Duffy for your encouragement.
The last thirteen months – Donald Trump’s second term as President to date – have been a horror show. My identity was formed in large part by the country I grew up in, and seeing my country’s customs, values, and institutions attacked has been an assault on my own integrity. Under these conditions, any act of creativity is an act of defiance.
StoryADay Superstars is the writing community that nourishes that defiant, creative impulse in me. Interactions with other community members – async in Slack, synchronous (aka “real”) in online meetings – led me to recognize my need to record my experience of this time in poetry.
There are many other things of value. SWAGR helps, week after week, to keep me on track. Workshops and hangouts and critique weeks are all great. But it’s the writerly community, the shared value we place on writing, on the creative act, and on the ongoing effort to write more compellingly, that I value most.
Well said!!
Hi Julie! I actually wrote a Substack post about where I am now. I put the link at the bottom of this post. It gets published this coming Sunday morning, February 8, 2026.
A brief summary of the post is this: I participated in Story-A-Day-May often over the years, starting at least 10 years ago, probably more than that. The things I learned through your prompts and tips are constantly being applied in my new career as a nationally recognized award winning Canadian professional oral storyteller. I have my own website, I coach others in oral storytelling, present events featuring multiple oral storytellers sharing their stories. I am very grateful for all that you have offered over the years. I’m going to sign up again this year, and I plan to write a short story every single day in May of 2026. Thanks, Julie!
https://open.substack.com/pub/sholtstoryteller/p/story-a-day-may?r=29xt9e&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
Hi Stephanie
I am a fellow Canadian who is a member of the Superstars.
I have just subscribed to your substack.
Julie,
I have been participating in Story A Day Challenges for several years as part of my journey to becoming a published fiction author.
In the past few months, I’ve finished several short stories and have submitted them to journals and anthologies.
So far, I haven’t received my first acceptance, but I have developed a process and a daily writing habit.
Thank you!
That’s wonderful. Thanks for letting me know.
The habit is the thing that’s going to bring you happiness and success 🙂