Failing at Writing? Now What?

There comes a time in every writing push when it feels like you’re failing. 

Whatever goal you set, you’re not meeting it. 

You’re imperfect. And your best intentions, it turns out, aren’t enough.

If this is you, you are not alone…and I have a fix: Instead of hoping to find time for writing, you must take concrete steps to make sure writing happens.

Startitis

We start projects (stories, a novel, a challenge) with the best of intentions. 

This time, we say…This time I’ll do it perfectly. If I just work harder, I won’t have bad days.

Yeah…that’s not a thing.

When It Gets Tough

Writers aren’t machines. 

We do have to keep showing up even when it doesn’t feel easy, but to do that and stay productive, you must show up with a boatload of compassion and joy. 

That is  easier to do a, when there are fewer decisions to make and b, when you’re around other people who get it.

Not “Will I Write?” But “When Will I Write?”

I’m as allergic to being told what to do and when to do it, as the next neurodiverse/creative person.

And yet.

Writing time doesn’t just appear because we want it to.

If you’re having trouble showing up for your writing right now (looks in the mirror. Nods.) you might need to take a look at your schedule and see if you have planned time where the writing can happen.

Without a plan, it won’t happen.

Even if you plan to write on Friday afternoon but get suddenly inspired as soon as you wake up, that’s fine. Flexibility is good. 

But having a plan–even one you react against–is a powerful way to limit the number of decision you have to make in the moment, and hoard your creativity for the actual writing..

Making time for your writing a gift

… to yourself and the world. 

It’s not about creating a rigid conveyor-belt-of-words you must staff at all times. 

It is about making your writing a priority, before other people’s priorities steal all your time away from you.

So. I’m off to put some potential writing times on my calendar. How about you?

Inspiration Corner

Here are some prompts that you might have missed, this month, to get your creative wheels turning.

Days 1-9

Day 10 – Darkness to Light, from Renan Bernardo

Day 11 – Inhumanity, from Julie Duffy

Day 12 – The Visitor, from Debbie Ohi Ridpath

Day 13 – Here’s a Quarter…, from Michele Reisinger

Day 14 – Mine your Emotions, from Jluie Duffy

Day 15 – Anarchic Archetype, from Julie Duffy

Day 16 – I Think I Can, from Somto Ihueze

Keep writing,

Julie

Pick a Prompt

(Any prompt)

The StoryADay Challenge has rolled into its second week for 2026, and there’s a lively community of writers leaving comments about their writing, over at the blog.

Even if you’re not taking part in the challenge, why not read through them and commit to writing one story sparked by one, this week?

Day 1 – The Last Word, from P.A. Cornell

Day 2 – Funktionslust from Aimee Ogden

Day 3 – Ride The Wind, from Myna Chang

Day 4 – A List of Words, from Julie Duffy

Day 5 – Stranger Than Fiction, from Jared Lemus

Day 6 – Talking to Animals, from Max Delsohn

Day 7 – Dip your Toe Into Memoir, from Heidi Clausius

Day 8 – Like a Sore Thumb, from Gabrielle Johansen

Day 9 – Non Stop, from Lara Hughes

(If you’d like to get the prompts in your inbox each day for the rest of the month and aren’t already, add your email address to this form.)

Each of the prompts has some explanation and inspiration built in, so go and check them out, then leave a comment and let us know how you got on!

Keep writing,

Julie

Recommended Short Stories from my Reading List – Jan 2026

One of my projects this year is to reconnect with the current state of the short story. 

Because I’m interested in the form, I read a lot of short stories, but I’ve been doing it in a haphazard way. 

But because another of this year’s goals is to submit more stories, I want to make sure I’m reading to what editors are buying and readers are enjoying now, not just what the professors say a short story should be.

How To Read A Lot of Short Stories

This year I’ve committed to reading A LOT of short stories and I’ve found a rhythm that I’m enjoying. 

Mostly that means starting or ending my day with a short story or piece of flash fiction from one of the many collections on my shelves or one of the many online publications I otherwise forget to visit.

But I’m also going to strongly recommend another tack I’m taking: every time I pick up my phone to doomscroll, I either put it down and pick up a short story collection, or swerve the social media and news sites (and yes, I deleted the social media apps from my phone, which means I have to go to the browser if I really want to get my fix) and pull up an ebook collection or an online journal.

How Much Time To Allocate

Flash fiction takes almost no time to read – I’ll read one while waiting for the coffee machine to run or the kettle to boil for a nice cup of Lavendar Mint Tea

Short stories might take ten or twenty minutes to read – perfect for getting away from my desk, drinking the aforementioned coffee or herbal tea.

Sometimes I hate the stories. Mostly I don’t.

The trick, I’ve discovered, is knowing what you like.

Finding Stories You Like

The trick to that, sadly, is ploughing through a bunch of stories you don’t like. 

Trial and error will teach you which editors, collections and journals tend to have stories you enjoy, and which have stories that frustrate you or leave you feeling bad.

Don’t love stories about trauma? It doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate good writing. It just means you don’t care to spend your break time being brought down.

Tips for finding anthologies you’ll love:

Follow authors you like on social media and when you inevitably break your self-imposed social media fast, look them up and find out what they’re recommending.

If an author whose writing you enjoy guest-edits an anthology, there’ a good chance you’ll like the stories they chose (this happened to me the year Anthony Doerr edited the Best American Short Story Collection, but it can also happen in reverse. I picked up a copy of the same collection from the year when Stephen King edited and was delighted to discover that he–an author I had never read, and had many preconceptions about–had excellent taste in fiction, which led me to reading and enjoying some of his writing too!)

Ask writing and reading buddies what they’ve read that they’ve enjoyed, lately.

Stories I Have Enjoyed from my January Reading List

‘Foreword’ by Jacqueline Freimor, Best American Mystery and Suspense 2023 

Styled as a foreword to a newly-discovered novel by a lesser-known writer, and salted throughout with footnotes, this story was an absolute delight. (Things you should know: I love a footnote and I’m a sucker for stories that use weird formats like this and stories where the story that is really being told is not the story the narrator thinks they are telling). This was a sly and delightful story, with a hint of crime a crime to earn it a place in the ‘mystery and suspense’ collection, but the real mystery is the one the reader solves by reading between the lines.

‘The Song of a Non-Human Intelligence’, Mical Garcia, Strange Horizons

This short piece is a fantastic example of interesting science fiction, told from a non-human but accessible perspective. It taps into the current AI-everything zeitgeist but does it in an unexpected way. It’s also a great example of something I’m trying to learn about: science fiction that is not focused in colonialist and extractive norms (conquering planets, mining the universe for resources). In this story an AI is embedded in a whale embryo by human researchers who, it turns out, lack the scope to understand the whole whale experience. So the AI makes a plan….it was a lovely story, and a great advert for the importance of writers coming from more walks of life than the ‘I like writing, let me do an MFA and become a teacher’ route. (Nothing wrong with that, but give me a story by a biologist or an accountant or a land management specialist, from time to time, too!

Weight Room, Paul Crenshaw, Best Microfictions 2020

This was a great example of how very short fiction differs from the 4-6,000 word short stories you might be more familiar with. 

It is impressionistic and immerses you in a moment and an environment…and then uses the ending to show you another layer to the story.

Elegantly done.

Ripen, Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier, Best American Mystery and Suspense 2023

This was a lush, lovely story with a light mystery element, that opens this collection and changed my whole expectation of what mystery/crime short fiction could be. In this story a food journalist returns to her parents’ home on St. Thomas to deal with some family and personal issues, and becomes tangentially involved in an island drama.

Take Me To Kirkland, Sarah Anderson, Best American Short Stories 2025

A coming of age story about a girl growing up–and apart from–her former best friend. It’s charming and terrifying and about something, but not self-pitying. The voice has that true teen self-absorption that comes from trying to figure out who you are. And the ending lands.

The Wif-Fi Womb, Avi Burton, Analog Nov/Dec 2025

This is a low-key, well told story about convenience and the dark side of our always-connected, always-monitoring societal trend. This one felt like it could be come (a terrifying) reality, next week.

Dominion, Lauren Acampora, Best American Short Stories 2025

This story captured the pampered ‘failing up’ nature of a former CEO in retirement, and the wife who hitched her wagon to his star and is now trapped with this one-dimensional fool, who threatens to wreck everything she’s built (he’s already alienated their daughter). In retirement Roy has decided to create a zoo of wild (and sometimes rescued) animals, and sees his hobby as somehow divinely ordained, and a benefit to humanity (of course he does). He invites his granddaughter’s kindergarten class to visit and, shockingly,  in a zoo run by amateurs, disaster strikes. Roy’s response is as inept as you would expect. This was a vicious skewering, and I liked it 🙂

‘The Billionaires Are Having A Party’, Sage Tyrtle, Fractured Lit

This is flash fiction at its best. The billionaires of the title are deliciously awful, the story doesn’t preach, but it does illuminate, and the ending packs a wallop!

Sources for these and other stories I read this month

Best American Short Stories 2025 (Celeste Ng, Ed)

Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2025 (Nnedi Okorafor, ed)

Analog Science Fiction & Fact

Clarkesworld Magazine

Best American Mystery and Suspense 2023 (Lisa Unger, Ed)

Best Microfiction 2023

Fractured Lit

100 Foot Crow

Selected Shorts

Flash Fiction Online

The Rumpus

Strange Horizons

SUPPORT STORYADAY BY ORDERING BOOKS THROUGH BOOKSHOP.ORG

All The Stories I Read (So Far) This Month

(No, I’m not reviewing them all…)

“Halfway Alive Halfway Living”, by Colton Kekoa Neves, Apex

“Look at the Moon,” by Dominique Dickey (Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2025).

“The Forgetting Room,” by Kathryn H. Ross (Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2025).

“An Ode to the Minor Arcana in a Triplet Flow,” by Xavier Garcia (Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2025).

“The Weight of Your Own Ashes,” by Carlie St. George (Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2025).

“Bots All The Way Down,” by Effie Seiberg (Lightspeed Magazine; Lightspeed Magazine).

“Nine-one-one,” by Sarah Freligh (Welkin Stories; MattKendrick.co.uk).

“Pattern,” by David Anson Lee (Welkin Stories; MattKendrick.co.uk).

“John,” by Petra Marteleur (Welkin Stories; MattKendrick.co.uk).

“A Unique Case,” by Alasdair Gray (Every Short Story, Alasdair Gray).

“Flip Lady,” by Ladee Hubbard (Best American Mystery & Suspense 2023).

“Chalice,” by James L. Cambias (Analog, Nov/Dec 2025).

“Academic Neutrality,” by M. R. Robinson (Lightspeed Magazine).

“Earth’s Last Library,” by James Van Pelt (Analog, Nov/Dec 2025).

“Jumper Down,” by Don Shea (Flash Fiction Forward).

“Stories,” by John Edgar Wideman (Flash Fiction Forward).

“Eros, Philia, Agape,” by Rachel Swirsky (The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2010).

“Truth and Bone,” by Pat Cadigan (Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Vol. 4, Jonathan Strahan (ed.), 2010).

“Stairs for Mermaids,” by Mm Shrieir (Flash Fiction Online).

“Home Is The Hunter,” by James A. Hearn (BAMS 2023).

“Foreword,” by Jacqueline Freimor (Best American Mystery and Suspense 2023 ).

“The Mayor of Dukes City,” by S. A. Cosby (Best American Mystery and Suspense 2023 ).

“The Song of a Non-Human Intelligence,” by Michal Garcia (Strange Horizons;).

“New York Blues Redux,” by William Boyle (Best American Mystery and Suspense 2023 ).

“Weight Room,” by Paul Crenshaw (Best Microfictions 2020).

“New York Blues Redux,” by William Boyle (Best American Mystery and Suspense 2023 ).

“Linger Just A Little Longer,” by V. Astor Solomon (100 Foot Crow).

“The Horses Are Ready and They Need to Go,” by Christopher Citro (Best Microfictions 2020).

“Ripen,” by Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier (Best American Mystery and Suspense 2023 ).

“The Billionaires are Having A Party,” by Sage Tyrtle (Fractured Lit).

“Currents,” by Hannah Bottomy Voskuil (Jerry W. Brown’s site).

“Take Me To Kirkland,” by Sarah Anderson (BASS 2025).

“Dominion,” by Lauren Acampora (Best American Short Stories).

“One Tick,” by Joel Wright (100 Foot Crow).

“The Red Zone,” by Jennifer Galvão ( The Rumpus).

“The Wi-Fi Womb,” by Avi Burton (Analog, Nov/Dec 2025).

“The Grand AM,” by Tyler Barton (Best Microfictions 2020).

“Persephone Rides at the End of Days,” by Carmen Maria Machado (Selected Shorts 2026-01-05).

“Space Is Deep,” by Seth Chambers (Clarkesworld 232).

“The Desolate Order of the Head in the Water,” by A. W. Prihandita (Clarkesworld 232).

“Down We Go Gently,” by M. L. Clark (Clarkesworld 232).

“What to buy your husband of thirty-seven years for his birthday,” by Jay Mackenzie (Flash Fiction Online).

“The stars you can’t see by looking directly,” by Samantha Murray (Clarkesworld 232).

Take Your Time with Flash Fiction

Writing short fiction doesn’t have to be frantic…

Last week I talked about giving yourself the opportunity to slow down, make mistakes, and write just because you enjoy it.

This week I’m going to encourage you to put that into practice by writing some flash or micro fiction.

I know, it seems counterintuitive. Surely short fiction will be faster than novel writing. 

Ha!

Haven’t you heard the often-quoted saw, “I would have written you a shorter letter but I didn’t have the time”?

There is an art to brevity.

There is craft in knowing what to cut.

Watch my Flash Fiction 3-minute explainer here

Ready to go deeper? Take the Fiction in a Flash Workshop

This week’s challenge

Give yourself the gift of working on a single story, told in 100, 500, or 1000 words, this week. 

  • Take the time to find a character you’re intrigued by.
  • Spend time finding an issue that you can get passionate about.
  • Wallow in the possibilities of how you can bring this character to that moment.
  • Meander through the opportunities for change, that exist for your character.
  • Write the vivid moment.
  • Stare at your prose and find ways to sculpt it so that it is spare where it can be and lush where it needs to be.

Come back to your story every day this week and ask yourself 

  • “is this the right opening line?
  • “Would they say it exactly like this?”
  • “Is that the most powerful visual I could use?”
  • “Does this last line hook the reader’s brain so they are thinking about my story for the rest of their week?”

Give yourself the gift of time and space to craft an exquisite morsel. 

Even if you are the only person who ever enjoys it, aren’t you worth the effort?

Welcome To The Slow Zone

We writers can be in such a rush–to get this project finished; to submit; to hit the best-seller list; to make our fortune—that it’s easy to get discouraged. It can feel like we’re not making progress if the writing is slow, or ‘successes’ don’t come often.

But writing isn’t just one thing. And none of the activities that make up a writing life are particularly quick.

  • Developing ideas takes time
  • Drafting takes time
  • Revising and rewriting benefits from time and space.
  • Improving our skills demands time, and experimentation, and wrong turns.

It’s OK to be what my friend, coach Jennie Mustafa-Julock, calls “impatiently ambitious”. At the same time, we have to cultivate patience for the parts of the practice that just go…well, slowly.

The Benefits of ‘Slow and Steady’

This idea of ‘going slow’ has come up a couple of times in the Superstars community, this week.

“I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that I’m a really slow writer,” said one person, who writes beautiful, immersive stories.

“I’m embracing being slow,” said another writer, who I’m watching make huge strides in their practice.

World-class athletes, actors, and musicians spend a lot of hidden time practicing their craft; only occasionally stepping onto the big stage to perform.

We writers spend a lot of times doing work that doesn’t end up in front of anyone else. And that’s OK, especially when we are focused on improving our skills.

Couture Vs. Fast Fashion

In a world of fast fashion, people still crave a tailor-made suit, a custom-fitted wedding dress, and a beautifully hand-crafted hat. And those who can, value that quality enough to pay premium rates for it.

In this moment of instant-access to information, and AI-everything, there’s a lot to be said for slowing our creative lives down to a human (humane?) pace. 

Let’s reclaim the time and space for deep thought, wrong turns, course-corrections, and insights that only come with prolonged effort.

These are the spark of humanity – of creativity–that AI can never replace.

Spend some time this week giving yourself the chance to stare into space, make some mistakes, erase some words, and write something nobody will ever see, just for the sake of having done it.


P. S. Want to put some craft-building writing time on your calendar this week? Try the 3-Day Challenge, a self-paced journey through the short story.

StoryADay’s 2025 In Review

It’s been a busy year!

In case you haven’t been paying attention (and why would you? I’m sure you have other things in your life), things have been pretty busy at StoryADay this year.

Here’s my round-up of writing resources and events from the past year.

If you’re subscribed to the mailing list, you’ll know some of this. If not, sign up here.

If you’re intrigued by the events going on inside the Superstars Community and think it might be the right community for you, find out more here.

On a Personal Note

My personal writing year was gratifyingly full of new drafts–I had hoped to complete 12 and in fact completed 6, which I consider a triumph given the way my year was disrupted by family emergencies and LOTS of non-leisure travel and stress. I also came out of the year with a professional-rate sale and a renewed commitment to sending stories out into the world.

But what surprised me most was the StoryADay tally of STUFF WE DID. Take a look:

Coaching 

14 x 1:1 Coaching sessions – If you feel the need for a one-off ‘Writing Therapy’ Session, to get unblocked, to reignite your fire, or to make a plan of action for your writing, you can book some time on my calendar here.

My coaching session was amazing. Not only did we address the original issue and come up with some great alternatives, she probed me about my current project and helped me to come up with some new ideas that are going to revolutionize it. I’m so excited about how the ideas we tossed around are going to affect this revision of my book. I feel like I’m on track to accomplish what I wanted.

Heidi Clausius

On The Blog

214 Free Resources

11 Opt-In Resources

In the Superstars Community

JOIN US HERE

633 Ongoing Events

602 (!!) writing sprints facilitated — many of these are hosted by member-volunteers and each host brings their own flavor to their sprints. (I have lost control in the most delightful way possible!)

25 hangouts (hosted by me) + 4 Launchpads (member run meetings) – opportunities to be with other writers, talk about writing, share resources, and just BE writers together.

A year of asynchronous support and resource-sharing in our Slack Workspace

11 Special Events

  • 3 Critique Weeks (12 meetings, 51 stories received feedback from 4 readers each)
  • Book Club (Jan-Mar)
  • Revision Hotseats (Jan)
  • Be Precise Workshop (Mar)
  • Character at the Core: Build Your Story From The Inside Out Workshop (July)
  • Get Better At Bragging Workshop (Aug) 2 timeslots – also delivered to Mary Robinette Kowal’s Lady Astronaut Club
  • One-Story Challenge – Mastering The Middle (Sept)
  • SWAGR Weekly Planning Method – a new weekly planning and accountability (Nov-Dec, weekly)
  • Annual Plan Workshop – Coming Soon as a replay you can access

4 Experiments

  • Revision Hotseats (deep dive into a small number of stories that have been revised )
  •  6 Book Club meetings (monthly deep dive into four short stories from an anthology)
  • SWAGR weekly planning meeting (plan to continue in 2026)
  • Critique Week shared language plan and BOSS Critique System (more about this coming soon)

6 Worksheet Bundles & Resources Created

2026 Productivity Tracker (free)

Get Better at Bragging

Guide to Preparing for a Writer’s Conference

Breakthrough Challenge Workbook

SWAGR Method (and Randomizer)

I, WRITER Planning & Logging Templates (expanded and updated for 2026) – worksheets and trackers for every brain type

  • BIG PICTURE PLANNING
  • Annual Overview Calendar Page
  • Goals Overview
  • PACE Yourself Worksheet
  • Quarterly Calendar page
  • SWAGr plan overview page
  • Triumph Tracker 
  • What Am I Doing? (And Why?) Daily Overview Page
  • 1-6 Projects planner
  • CALENDAR PAGES
  • Week at a glance (Sunday start, landscape)
  • Week at a glance (Monday start, landscape)
  • Weekly Planner (morning, afternoon, evening, Monday start, landscape)
  • Weekly Planner (morning, afternoon, evening, Sunday start, landscape)
  • Weekly Planner (morning, afternoon, evening, any day start, landscape)
  • MAKE IT MANAGEABLE
  • SWAGR Method – This Week/Not This Week page, linear
  • SWAGR Method – This Week/Not This Week page, non-linear
  • SWAGR Method Randomizer toy
  • Weekly overview sheet (priorities, tracking, portrait)
  • Focus For The Week overview (priorities, tiny next steps, notes, portrait)
  • Daily Plan(ish) – Gentle planning page (portrait)
  • Mind Map starter template 
  • Tiny Next Steps Tracker
  • Daily Review worksheet (traditional)
  • Gentle Daily Assessment worksheet
  • Weekly Review worksheet
  • Market Research Checklist
  • Project Planner One-Sheet
  • Submission Planner printable ‘job sheet’
  • Activity Logs & Trackers
  • Activity Web (non linear)
  • Activity Log (linear)
  • I, WRITER Tracker (track which parts of the writing life you’re focusing on throughout the year)
  • Monthly Habit/Task tracker (circular)
  • Submission Tracker table (linear)
  • Story Tracker (what you wrote and where you kept it)

Buy now for $9

Thank You

All of this, of course, takes time, hosting fees, and brain power. If you’d like to get more support while supporting my work, consider upgrading to the StoryADay Superstars Community.

If you want a little dedicated time on my calendar, I’ve started offering formalized 1:1 “Writing Therapy” sessions. Let’s talk about your writing, your projects, your ambitions, and how to make them all line up!
Stuck on your next step? Let’s talk.

But most of all,

Keep writing,

Julie