Day 1 – From Idea to Premise…and Beyond?

Grab your Short Story Framework and let’s have some fun!

Too often people start writing before they have more than a simple premise for a story. They have a cool idea, but no clue where to take it. We’re going to work on that part this week, but rest assure, by tomorrow, you’ll have a much better idea of how to develop your cool idea into a real story.

Another problem I often see is that people rush through the first draft of a short story in one sitting (that’s part of the appeal of short stories, right?!), leaving themselves rushing the ending, and not really knowing what the story is about…

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[Write On Wednesday] Opening Lines

Our theme here at StoryADay this month is “Openings & Endings” so here’s a prompt to help you with the first of those.

Lily Dithrich

The Prompt

Your opening line is: The chairs, the tables, the pictures on the walls, everything was right where it ought be, but something wasn’t quite right.

Tips

  • This prompt seems like it could be leading you to write a contemporary, realistic, narrative story, but don’t let that hold you back. If you want to write an absurdist, stream-of-consciousness piece with four different perspectives, you go right ahead!
  • Think about who might care about things being right (or wrong) and why?
  • What has happened up to this point in your character’s life to make them so suspicious…or paranoid?
  • Is your character like Columbo or Monk, a person with an obsessive eye for detail? Or is this a room that they know well because they spend a good portion of their day in it?
  • What kind of room has chairs, tables and pictures on the walls?
  • Should the room even be there?
  • Is your protagonist human?

If you share you story somewhere (and here’s why you might not want to) post a link here so we can come and read it.

Leave a comment to let us know what you wrote about today, and how it went!