This simple phrase changed everything for me, this week.
This was a massive (and kinda obvious) disruption to my thought processes this week. It goes deeper than simple fixes, but is much more likely to have a real impact on your writing life…and your quality of life. Enjoy!
I wrote this story on the blog this week, but in this week’s podcast you get a more complete version, along with some thoughts about what to do if you’re In The Pause
I wrote this story on the blog this week, but in this week’s podcast you get a more complete version, along with some thoughts about what to do if you’re In The Pause
Everyone you know seems to be preparing for National Novel Writers’ Month. Are you?
I’ve done a few challenges in my time (from StoryADay to NaNoWriMo) and I have some questions for you about how you’re preparing and what you’ll do instead-of/as-well-as outlining to sustain you through the month.
What would you say if I told you that, by this time next week, you could change your relationship to your writing?
Instead of wondering “can I?” you’ll be eagerly thinking “When will I…?”
Instead of worrying if you’re ‘meant to’ be a writer, you’ll be convinced that you have stories to tell and that you are absolutely able tell them.
Instead of wishing you were writing more, you’ll be thinking about how great it felt to have finished a story?
The StoryADay Fun-Size Challenge is back and this time it’s a 5-Day Challenge.
Five days to write your next story, to prove to yourself that you can do this, to stop worrying and start doing.
Will you join us?
The fun starts tomorrow, Saturday, Sept 10.
Everyone who signs up will receive daily tasks by email and invitations to live events and the blog community, to inspire and support you as you perform each day’s tiny task, each of which brings you closer to a finished draft.
Did I mention that by this time next week you could have a draft of a new short story complete?!
Sign up today and I’ll send you
The Day 0 tasks: Finding Your Target
The Short Story Framework (our ‘textbook’ for the challenge)
The Story Sparks lesson and workbook (a shortcut to endless ideas)
AND a link to our first live session which happens tomorrow (Saturday) at 9:30 AM (Eastern US)
We’ll start with a live lesson and writing sprint (I’ll talk for a bit, you can ask questions, then we’ll do some quiet writing breaks so you can start making progress on your story straight away).
Hope to see you there
Keep writing,
Julie
PS Your link to tomorrow’s live session will go out a couple of hours before the session so sign up now!
This week we take a look at the publishing industry, your goals, and how you can become endlessly inspired and creative…
Learning about the realities of the publishing industry can free you to create your own definition of success (that may or may not include traditional publishers). Step 1 towards success is to imagine your vision. Step 2 is to turn up for your writing, something the new StoryAWeek newsletter can help with!
This week I talk about the creative boost I got from my recent travels, and how you can get a similar boost in your writing life, without even leaving home.
This week I talk about the creative boost I got from my recent travels, and how you can get a similar boost in your writing life, without even leaving home.
I also tease some of the upcoming events at StoryADay as we look towards the change in seasons.
Crafting a writing life isn’t all about knowing where to put commas and how to develop characters. It’s also about engaging with other humans. This week I’m in conversation with Larissa Sjarbaini, a high performance coach, about how to do that and why you might want to, even if you’re an extreme introvert. And stay tuned for an opportunity to develop your own game plan for a writing life
In a story your protagonist faces the possibility of change before they can solve the problem they face, win their true love, or defeat their enemy…in short, achieve their heart’s desire.
Funny thing is: as writers, we face that moment of decision too.
That’s what I’m talking about on the podcast this week.
We got together this morning for a writing sprint and to get some questions asked and answered, about the challenge.
Watch it now:
I know it was too early for some of you, but I opened up a Q&A session about StoryADay May this morning and recorded it, so you don’t have to miss out.
Some of the questions answered:
When do the prompts arrive (and how)?
Where do we comment?
Should we post our stories somewhere?
What are Story Sparks?
What will the Fun-Size Challenge tasks be like?
What if I ‘fail’?
You can watch me, and some veteran StoryADay writers, tackle these questions in the replay here or, if you’re subscribed to the StoryADay Podcast the audio version of it should show up in your feed today.
SIGN UP FOR STORYADAY MAY 2022
If you haven’t yet signed up to participate in the Classic Challenge or the Fun-Size Challenge, you can do that here.
(If you have signed up already you would have received a “Day 0” email from me, yesterday. No need to do anything further.) If you don’t sign up, I can’t send you daily emails during the challenge, but you’ll still get my weekly(ish) notes of encouragement.
Do you believe that you have a right to write? Not that people in general have a general right to be creative. Do you believe that you, specifically, have a right to write? Even if it takes time away from your partner, even if it takes time away from your kid, even if, even if, even if…
Do you believe you have a right to write? Do you believe your voice is important? Do you believe your voice matters?
Mindset is I’m coming to believe more than half the battle when it comes to writing. Everything else? We can, we can learn as we need it. I think getting that in place is huge.
If you need a place that’s snug and safe, to work on your writing practice, consider joining us in the I, WRITER Course. Find out more.
In keeping with this month’s theme of Achieving Wins and Celebrating, limit yourself to 1000 words for this story and just get it done.
The Prompt
Write a story that starts at the end. The story must include a flower.
Tips
I’ve given you the restriction of including a flower, because when we have too much freedom it is paralyzing. I bet as soon as I said ‘flower’ your mind starting turning over how it could get a flower into a story.
Starting at the end is a fun way to tell a story. It’s a fun for the reader, as they try to unpick the puzzle of how your character ended up *here*. It’s good for the writer because we aren’t tempted to write a story-with-no-point. We know it’s going somewhere and we have to figure out how to get there!
All our stories should be about something, should hvae a point, should make the reader say ‘ah, yes, I must keep reading to find out why…”. Often, in the process of writing our ideas, we forget this, or get lost in the details. Telling a story in reverse (or at least starting at the end and jumping back in time) is a great exercise to cure us of this.
Brainstorm some ways your story could start that would intrigue a reader. Is your character standing on the roof of a building looking over the edge? Are they running? Are the police leading them away? Are they laughing gleefully as someone plunges a knife through their heart? (Yes, more Star Trek references! Bonus points if you can identify the episode.)
It is November and you know what that means? The whole writing world has been taken over by NaNoWriMo.
As someone who has been participating in and leading creative challenges for over a decade, I have some tips to help you make the most of this month of extreme creativity.
Read the “Secrets To Your Success” article from the StoryADay Essentials series, which defines a Story Spark and how you can use them to ‘win’ StoryADay.
If you’re already on the mailing list, dig out the Creativity Bundle you received when you subscribed, and use the Story Sparks Catchers I created for you. If you aren’t on the mailing list, sign up to get your Story Sparks Bundle now!
If you collect three Story Sparks a day now, you will
Gather 21 interesting nuggets for inclusion in stories, this week alone
Start looking at the world like a writer does: it’s all material
Train your brain to start thinking creatively
Be bursting with ideas when you sit down to write!
You could use the Petrarchan form of sonnet where the first 8 lines/sentences propose an argument or an idea and the second 8 answer or refute it.
You could use the Shakespearean form, with three groups of 4 linked sentences, followed by two lines/sentences that provide illumination, a revelation, a twist or an explanation.
You could write a sonnet series, with each group of 14 lines fulfilling a different function in your story.
Writing this way is hard but it frees you. Instead of worrying about writing well, you’re concentrating on the form. Sometimes that tricks your brain into writing really well; sometimes it’s just a triumph to have written at all.
This month I’m pushing us to write short stories in odd forms, lists, conversations, letters, all kinds of things.
Short stories can be told in narrative form, like mini-novels, but they don’t have to be. Part of the fun of being a short story writer is the ability to twist people’s brains, surprise them, make the familiar unfamiliar. You can do that with your images, but you can also do it with a story’s form.
You’ve made it! You’ve written stories all month long — whether you’ve written every day, or on and off throughout the month — I congratulate you!
Make sure to come back tomorrow for three things
The June Serious Writers’ Accountability Group — make your commitment to your writing for next month
Details about StoryFest — your chance to get your favorite story featured on the front page of StoryADay.org
The mini-critique group I’m running next week, to help you whip your stories into shape in time for StoryFest.
But before all that: one more story to go:
The Prompt
Write A Story About A Writer
Tips
Feel free to take out your aggressions on me! Feature a writer who turns on their teacher/mentor/professor!
Channel Stephen King’s “Misery” and feature a stalker.
Take the reader through all the goys and perils of the writing journey
Or use the conceit of a writer character to do something that couldn’t really happen in real life.
And after you’re done, write a blog post or a journal entry capturing all you’ve learned about yourself as a writer this month. Resolve to build on your strengths. Keep what you write somewhere safe, so that next time you have a big writing push coming up, you can benefit from all these lessons!
If you share your post online, be sure to send me a link (in the comments below or by email) or tag me on social media!
And don’t forget, StoryFest is coming, June 10-11!
Thank you all for playing along this month. Without you, I wouldn’t be doing any of this.
Today I wrap up the story structure series with a bang.
The Prompt
Write a Hansel & Gretel Structured Story
Tips
The Life-Changing Moment in this story structure, comes at the start.
The Life-Changing Moment may have happened ‘off-stage’ before the story starts (imagine the story of Hansel and Gretel where the kids are already alone in the woods. That would work, right?)
Remember to focus on what your character would never, ever choose to do, and how the circumstances are forcing them to face that (for example, Hansel and Gretel would never disobey/mistrust the adults in their life, but life is giving them a pretty clear directive to do just that).
This story starts with a big moment, and then throw complications at your character. Once you’ve told us enough about the character for us to figure out how they’re going to survive, you can end the story.
If you’d like to read more about this story structure, check out this post.
Don’t forget to post in the community or leave a comment to tell us how you got on today.
Today we continue looking at story structure: this time, with what I call the Ugly Duckling Structure.
The Prompt
Watch the video and write an Ugly Duckling story
Tips
The ‘life-changing moment’ comes in the middle of this story
Balance out every challenge from before that moment, with a similar, but different moment afterwards. Show us how the character (or their circumstances) have changed now.
This story might have to be longer than a Cinderella-type story. Sketch it out, if you don’t have time to do it justice today.
Read this post, which talks more about the Ugly Duckling structure.
Don’t forget to leave a comment or post in the community and tell us how you’re getting on. What have you learned this month, so far?
Today’s prompt is part of a workshop that I give on story structure. (If you’d like me to talk to your group, ask!)
The Prompt
Write A Story With A Cinderella Story
A Cinderella Story Structure
In the story of Cinderella our heroine wants to find happiness. She tries and fails and tries and fails. A lot.
She tries to find it by being nice to her sisters and stepmother, but they just treat her terribly.
She tries to find it by going to the ball, but she’s not allowed to go.
She tries to find it from her fairy godmother. This one almost works, but there are time limits and she fails. When the love-struck prince can’t find her, all is lost.
Eventually, the life-changing moment comes at the end of the story when the prince finds her and Cinderella gets to choose her happy ending.
(In most versions she says yes and marries the prince; in every version, this choice is the first time Cinders has had any power. This is when her life changes.
So, this is where the story ends because the character’s story arc is over: She has her chance to reach her goal, at long last.
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