Day 3 | Ride the Wind by Myna Chang

The Prompt

People often react to weather in unexpected ways. What weather events haunt you? Alternatively, what weather simply annoys you? Maybe a sudden gust of wind blows your character’s hair up, or an untimely frost nips their tomato plants. Put your character in the path of a coming storm, or set them a thousand miles away, watching the storm on the news. What happens after the storm has passed? Try to capture the heart of your story in one-thousand words or less.

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Myna Chang

Myna Chang is the author of The Potential of Radio and Rain (CutBank Books). Her writing has been selected for Best Microfiction, Best Small Fictions, and WW Norton’s Flash Fiction America. She hosts Electric Sheep SF and publishes MicroVerse Recommended Reading. Find her at MynaChang.com or on Bluesky at @MynaChang.

Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!

Remember: Please don’t post your story in the comments here (and I talk more about why not, here). Best practice: Leave us a comment about how it went, or share your favorite line from your story.

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Day 2 | Funktionslust by Aimee Ogden

The Prompt

Write a story about a person, an animal, or even an inanimate object that finds joy or deep meaning in fulfilling its purpose.

(Note from Julie: this song was inspired by a Bermuda Palm that lived out its life in a glasshouse in Scotland.)

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Aimee Ogden

Aimee Ogden is an American werewolf in the Netherlands. She is a three-time Nebula Award Finalist, most recently for her short story Because I Held His Name Like a Key, and the author of four standalone novellas from publisher Tor.com, Psychopomp, and Interstellar Flight Press. Over 100 of her short stories and novelettes have appeared in publications such as Strange Horizons, Clarkesworld, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. For more about her work, please visit her author website: aimeeogdenwrites.com

Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!

Remember: Please don’t post your story in the comments here (and I talk more about why not, here). Best practice: Leave us a comment about how it went, or share your favorite line from your story.

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Here’s your next Game Piece. save the image and share on social media with #storyaday

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Day 1 | The Last Word by P.A. Cornell

The Prompt

We’ve all had the experience of being caught off guard in a situation and not known what to say, only coming up with the perfect response when it’s much too late. Use that memory to inspire a story. Will your character respond in the moment? Will they not? What else might happen? You decide.

P.A. Cornell

P.A. Cornell is a Chilean-Canadian speculative fiction writer. A two-time finalist for the Nebula Award, her stories have been published in over seventy magazines and anthologies, including Lightspeed, Apex, and eight “Best of the Year” anthologies. In addition to becoming the first Chilean Nebula finalist in 2024, Cornell has been a finalist for the Aurora and World Fantasy Awards, and in 2022 won Canada’s Short Works Prize. When not writing, she can be found assembling intricate LEGO builds or drinking ridiculous quantities of tea. Sometimes both. For more on the author and her work, visit her website pacornell.com.

Latest Book: Shoeshine Boy & Cigarette Girl

Forthcoming Collection: The Astronaut Among the Flowers and Other Stories

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Get the StoryADay Challenge Handbook for 2026 – custom warm-up and brainstorming exercises for every prompt, delivered as a private podcast with transcripts.
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Sample Warm up for Day 1

Sample Brainstorming Exercise For Day 1

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Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!

Remember: Please don’t post your story in the comments here (and I talk more about why not, here). Best practice: Leave us a comment about how it went, or share your favorite line from your story.

1

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Prefer paper crafts? Here’s the cut & paste version

[Write On Wednesday] At The Gym

The Write On Wednesday story prompts are designed to prompt quickly-written stories that you can share in the comments. It’s a warm-up exercise, to loosen up your creativity muscles. Come back every Wednesday to see a new prompt or subscribe.

Zumba

It’s that time of year again. Everyone’s made their New Year Resolutions and they’re all hitting the gym. I admit it. I’m one of them.

As I looked around my Zumba class last night I was struck by what a great setting it would be for a story. All those people from all different walks of life, all with their own stories and their own reasons for being there. And guess what? That’s your prompt today!

The Prompt

Write A Story Based Around A Set Of Characters From A Gym (Class)

Tips

  • You could write the story from one observer’s perspective, or hop from head to head, following each participant’s thoughts.
  • Remember the story must have a shape, so inject some tension (someone is worried about something; someone wants someone else to notice them, someone desperately wants no-one to notice them…)
  • If you don’t have much time, limit this to a single perspective and keep the word count short. Ask yourself what your character wants, before you put pen to paper, then run through the scene in your head. Don’t start writing until you know what happened in the hour before the class (or the first half of the class). Leave all that off the page, and just jump in when something interesting’s about to happen.

The Rules:

You should use the prompt in your story (however tenuous the connection).

You must write the story in one 24 hr period – the faster the better.

Post the story in the comments — if you’re brave enough.

Find something nice to say about someone else’s story and leave a comment. Everybody needs a little support!

Optional Extras:

Share this challenge on Twitter or Facebook

Some tweets/updates you might use:

Don’t miss my short story: TEXT #WriteOnWed #storyaday http://wp.me/LINK
This week’s #WriteOnWed short story prompt is TEXT! #storyaday http://wp.me/LINK
Come and write with us! #WriteOnWed #storyaday LINK
See my story – and write your own, today: TEXT at #WriteOnWed #storyaday LINK

If you would like to be the Guest Prompter, click here.

Daily Prompt – May 28: The Storm

Daily Prompt Logo I’m sitting here enjoying a raging thunderstorm. The sun is sinking pinkly under the edge of the storm and the ragged flashes and sheets of lightning are so much more thrilling than any season finale on TV. The thunder sounds like kettledrums.

And so, to the prompt:

Write a story featuring a storm

It can be figurative or literal, but it must be stormy!

Go!

Daily Prompt – May 21: Rewrite In The Style Of…Pt III

Today, rewrite a story you have written before, but this time as a dramatic monologue.
Taking a look at the story from another angle is a challenge in itself. Then add the challenge of making the dialogue seem real and you can really have fun with this…

Daily Prompt LogoThis is the thirdin a series of prompts that will encourage you to choose a story to write several different ways. You could choose a fairy story or a tale you’ve already told right here during Story A Day May. Each day I’ll give you a style to write in. You can reuse the same character, plot, timing, whatever works as you import your story into the new style. Feel free to ditch characters, change their names, switch out the endings, whatever makes sense.

Today, rewrite a story you have written before, but this time as a dramatic monologue.

Taking a look at the story from another angle is a challenge in itself. Then add the challenge of making the dialogue seem real and you can really have fun with this.

(NB, the character who is ‘monologuing’, to borrow a phrase, doesn’t have to be the original story’s hero. It could be someone who was walking by and saw the action; a minor character in the action; anyone really).
Go!

(PS Did I mention? Day TWENTY! And you’re still here? Awesome, dude!)