Here we are: the last day!
Today I’m sharing the final Superstar post with everyone, because I think everyone needs to take a moment to celebrate!!
Audio only
Transcript
I hope that you have found this illuminating, frustrating, exhilarating…
I know there were days when you weren’t thrilled with what you write and that there were days when you surprised yourself or made yourself really happy.
More than that, YOU know that you have 31 days under your belt, of writing whether you felt like it or not.
(Even if you didn’t write every day, I’m willing to be there were days this month when you wrote when you didn’t want to and you finished a story even when you thought it wasn’t worth it and that act of finishing showed you that you can do this.)
You’ve pushed yourself and I want you to take some time today to make some notes about what you’ve learned, about your rhythms of writing; about how things work for you.
I can give you advice, and Stephen King can give you advice, and none of it really matters. It’s great to put yourself in a community of people talking about things that matter to you, and you can learn from other people’s examples, for sure, but the only way to discover how you write, is to write.
At the end of this 31 days, you’ll have learned something about your rhythm, your practice of writing.
The Prompt
Write a story about a creative person who has just completed, or is in the throes of completing a massive creative effort.
(And yes, this can be autobiographical).
Youc ould tak us thorugh the manic process of trying to finish up the work. You can show us their post-event hysteria/collapse. You can have them reflecting on the effort.
Pay attention to the physicality of it.
Go anywhere you want with this.
It doesn’t have to be serious. It can be self-indulgent (you’ve earned it!)
Looking Backwards And Looking Forwards
I hope this has been a great experience for you.
Write your story today and then take a moment to blog or journal or tweet or whatever you do to celebrate and share.
Take some time to really revel in the fact that you have devoted these 31 days, regardless of how much you were able to turn up, or how often you were able to write, or how good your stories were, you devoted this month to paying attention to your inner writer.
You have these materials now, you can come back at any time and dive back into these prompts, the meditations, the forum. You’ve met these people who have gone through this experience with you and you’ve made some connections. I hope you will stay in touch with each other. Having a cohort of people to help each other out is an amazing thing. These people who know and like you will be your biggest boosters, so stay in touch. Take advantage of the fact that you have this group of people how have shared this experience with you.
(And if you weren’t part of the Superstars group this time around, keep watching your inbox for the next opportunity. I’ll be running this again in September and next May, at the very least.)
Make your plans for the rest of the year. As you’re writing your celebratory blog/journal entry and going through the worksheet about what you’ve learned this month, think about your plans are for the rest of the year, the rest of the next five years…
Think about how you can put into practice. everything you’ve learned in this month to honor your urge to write to be creative, to write. If you need to be part of a group of people who commit to writing regularly, then you’re going to need to find a group. It might be the SWAGr group–come along on the first of the month, and make sure you’re on the SWAGr notifications list by signing up at the bottom of this page. Maybe you need a real-life group fo people who meet in a cafe on Saturday mornings and does a write-in. Find one. Look on Meetup.com. Start one!
Whatever you need, figure it out, commit to doing it.
Set yourself some goal. Make most of them attainable, but think about having one big, scary, outrageous goal. Think about the steps you can take to get yourself closer to realizing that goal, or at least working towards it.
Thank you for coming along on this journey. I learn a lot from you, and from producing these materials, so I really appreciate you being here. I love getting to know you and building this tribe of people who are on each other’s side as we strive to be writers everyday, not ‘someday’.
Write your story today. Journal about your experiences this month. Watch your inbox for more information from me in the months ahead, and most of all…
Keep writing!!
And don’t forget to sign up to receive reminders about the Serious Writers’ Accountability Group (SWAGr) below!
What are your plans for the months ahead? What would you like to see here at StoryADay to help you reach your goals? Leave a comment (or a link to your blog post) below.
Get SWAGr Reminders
Sign up here, to get an email reminder about SWAGr, once a month. Download your exclusive SWAGr Trackr form, as soon as you sign up.
Woo! Hurray everyone!
I wrote every day and even like some of what I wrote. Thanks, as ever, Julie. Thanks for putting this together and making so much of it happen.
Gosh, it feels good to be here!
Complete. I wrote a story about a writer who just finished a first draft for a novel. He’s excited, but then scared at the prospect of revising it. He knows that a lot of the chapters are pretty bad, some of them are little more than “land marks” he wrote in, outlining plot elements so he could remember them when he went back. He starts to doubt himself. He starts to worry that chasing the first draft so quickly to the finish line was a form of procrastination, and that he should have paused and corrected things as he was writing. But then he remembers what his teacher taught him: that he should be proud of his accomplishment, compassionate toward himself, and that all that really matters is that he had FUN and LEARNED something from the process. He then writes out a list to himself of things he learned (which were the things I learned this month), which makes him feel much better.
I’m staring at a word document with over 30,000 words and can’t believe that I wrote them. I’m going to really try and think about what exactly contributed to my success (I think having the group here for support really helped). Thank you Julie, and thank you everyone for being part of such a fun and supportive community!
That’s fabulous! Look what you did!
I definitely think the Accountability helps. I’ve started creating that in my offline world too, with a couple of writer friends and it really keeps me writing!
But meanwhile there’s always the SWAGr group, meeting tomorrow!
31/31 muy contenta de haber compartido este reto y esta iniciativa , a la que le tengo mucho cariño. Ya participé en 2012 y he podido sentir una evolución o diferencia respecto a aquel año, que ya fue estupendo. Gracias por la energía de grupo y el apoyo a la escritura. I LOVE storyaday!!
Hey! Great to “see” you again. Glad you enjoued the challenge and the community.
THE LAST DAY OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH!
I wrote a quite short piece about a goddess who sneakily crafts new species and slips them into earth ecosystems for funsies. As the story opens, she’s making this little (actually, not little, little is relative) fellow.
So WOW! This month was quite a trip. I am beyond surprised by my performance, and have been thinking a lot of things about my process and what it takes to get a short story out and how I am definitely planning on tweaking my approach to writing short pieces (and heck, probably long pieces too) in the future.
I am definitely planning to express some of these ideas more coherently via blog post, once the fog of recovery has lifted! Thank you so much, Julie! And heya to David and Fallon and Marta and probably some people who commented here but who I’ve forgotten to mention, and to everyone who got words down this month–congratulations!
Elizabeth,
Where can I find your blog?
hey tammyb!!! elizabethtwist.com, which currently redirects to elizabethtwist.blogspot.com
I’m a bit of an on again, off again blogger (that might be an understatement), but I’m more active on Twitter, and I check that account much more frequently, if you’re looking for a way to say howdy. I’m @elizabethtwist over there.
(Please, if anyone wants to keep in touch, I would love that a lot!)
How about you?
I am at @tlbreit on twitter and https://tammysreadinglife.wordpress.com/
I try to write about a variety of things on the blog but am active on twitter pretty much daily!
Connection is always good!
Thanks, congrats to you too!
Thanks for being here. Looking forward to hearing what you learned.
Story for today done – it feels kinda rambly today but 31 stories done! One more than my goal.
YAY!
Amazing! Big pat on the back for you!
Late to the party. This is intriguing. It would be fun to try. I wrote much of May sans program, because I went to a sale the first weekend in May and became the proud owner of 2 very nice manual typewriters. One is a blue Olivetti Lettera 32 with script typeface and the other a 1940’s Royal with Magic Margins. The old man who used them had died at 97 and his daughter sold each to me for $5. I told her I like to write. Each machine was well kept. Still they needed ribbons. “Go to Vale Typewriter,” said the woman at the sale. I went and met a very nice old man who intends to run his repair shop another 4 years. Then there may be no place in Minnesota that services such machines. The Olivetti spilled out 4 short stories and several letters in a week’s time. The Royal (when Olivetti was being repaired) put out 3 letters and a couple of short stories. My niece, who is 12, said, “I like the sound it makes!” So do I.
Welcome and Oo, typewriter envy!
We’re doing this all over again in september, so keep in touch!
That is so fun!
Done with today’s story. It will fit right in near the end of the novel I’ve been working on the last couple months.
https://fallonbrownwrites.wordpress.com/2018/05/31/story-a-day-day-31-masterpiece/
I’ve had a lot of fun with the prompts this month, and some will even help with upcoming projects.
You are a rock star! So impressed with how much you’ve written and your dedication. Well done!!
Oh, and you don’t have to write your ‘progress report’ today. But I recommend getting to it over the weekend, while the lessons from StoryADay are still fresh in your mind. If you do write it somewhere public, let me know and I’ll share your post.
This has been amazing, Julie! Thank you for the prompts, the encouragement, and the space to connect.
Hi Windy! I’m so glad you had fun with this, and thanks for sharing about it on Twitter! I look forward to hearing about all the StoryADay Babies that will be published months from now…