Day 4 | Use These Words by Julie Duffy

The Prompt

Your prompt today is to find a way to use all of the following words in a story. (The words are taken at random from Mary Oliver’s “Upstream: Selected Essays”):

  • poems,
  • winged,
  • faith,
  • bog,
  • darkness,
  • summer,
  • more,
  • many,
  • course,
  • equally.

The point of this is to lower the stakes for you, so that you can write something without worrying about making it a work of art. With these constraints in place, it’s a triumph to simply write a coherent story. In the process, you’ll be practicing all the skills you need in your storytelling life: showing up, puzzling out the story, staying at it until you reach ‘the end’; character creation; putting obstacles in their way; creating conflict; resolving the puzzle; putting some sort of ending on the piece…


You’ve already given yourself permission to write. Now give yourself permission to write something imperfect. (It’s a valuable skill!)

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Julie Duffy

Julie Duffy is a writer and the host of StoryADay. You can find her most recent story in the May/June 2026 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact. If you’re struggling with your writing or your writing practice, Julie offers coaching sessions (One-off troubleshooting or multi-session packages):

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.

4

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

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

[Daily Prompt] May 30 – The Lake At Dusk

Daily Prompt LogoToday’s prompt is a stanza from “The Lake At Dusk” by Robin Robertson (from Swithering, Harcourt 2006)

 


Rinsed after the rain,

The forest is triggered and tripwired;

When I pause for a bird call

The silence takes time

To reassemble around me

Like a dream retrieved.

 

 

No-one will find me here.

 


Go!

[Daily Prompt] May 27 – Graduation

It’s that time of year again.

I spent the evening watching my kindergartener receive a certificate and getting ready to move into First Grade. He’s already been at the same school for three years, and is moving on to…the same school, but next time in 1st Grade.

Still, it was an ending, a moment of transition, a biggish deal (mainly because the grown-ups made it that way).

So today’s prompt is:

Write a story that contains a transition, an ending or a new beginning.

Go!