A question from Mary Robinette Kowal, to prompt today’s story
The Prompt
The thing that I want you to think about is is just the answer to a question :
What’s in your character’s pocket?
So is there a thing that they carry with them all the time?
Is there something that they have put in their pocket specifically just in that moment?
Do they not carry anything in their pocket? How can they get away with that?
What’s in their pocket?
Mary Robinette Kowal
Mary Robinette Kowal is the author of The Spare Man, Ghost Talkers,The Glamourist Histories series, and the Lady Astronaut Universe. She is part of the award-winning podcast Writing Excuses and a four-time Hugo Award winner. Her short fiction appears in Uncanny, Tor.com, and Asimov’s. Mary Robinette, a professional puppeteer, lives in Nashville. Visit at maryrobinettekowal.com or visit her Patreon
Catch Mary Robinette Kowal on the StoryADay podcast here: Part 1| Part 2
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Write a story using this helpful structure from Rachel Swearingen
The Prompt
Expand, Narrow, Explode the Frame
Write a scene in which a character is looking for something or someone that has been lost. Use all the senses to describe the setting. Give us a sense of the body and include the following “moves” in any order:
1. Allow the details of the scene to feel close, contained, even constricting. 2. Describe the thing that has been lost, a brief memory perhaps that has been triggered by its loss. 3. Look down. Zoom in on something very small. 4. Bring in a distant sound. 5. Draw attention to an opening of some sort, a window, a door, a hole in the wall or in a dense wood or in a thick covering of clouds, for example. 6. Can your character see or sense what is beyond that opening? 7. Allow your character to climb down or up or into for to a new vantage point. 8. Is your character alone? Invite a stranger to the scene. What happens now?
Rachel Swearingen
Rachel Swearingen is the author of “How to Walk on Water and other short stories” which received the New American Press Fiction Prize. Find out more at RachelSwearingen.com
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The Welsh Government plants a tree for every new child in Wales. Write a story involving one of the trees or forests.
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The Prompt
Since 2008 the Welsh Government has pledged to plant a tree for every new child born or adopted in Wales. Write a story involving one of the trees or forests.
You could take this down a supernatural/fantasy root (pun intended).
What if the child’s life was linked in some way to the tree, perhaps their life is even linked to that of the tree. What would a parent do to protect the tree and ensure it flourished as it grew?
You could write from the point of view of the tree over a long period of time. What does it witness? How does the tree itself change/mature?
You could write in the genre of climate change. How does this scheme affect the planet? This could either be from a positive or negative perspective.
Or, from a conflict point of view, think about who might not be in favour of this scheme. This could be a developer who wanted to build on the cheap land that the Government is now using for a forest. Or someone in a community who sees farmland being bought up for tree planting and their way of life disappearing. What might someone do to sabotage the forest- arson, breaking the the saplings, etc?
Remember you don’t have to use a traditional style of storytelling. You could write your story as the minutes of a meeting, a newspaper report, a personal letter.
You might not have time to write a long story with all the background info filled in so jump straight into the action. You can always add backstory when it comes to revising.
Katie Bennett-Davies
Katie Bennett-Davies lives in Wales with her husband and cat, Didi. Living with disabilities has allowed her to see the world from a different perspective. She enjoys pottering in the garden and drinking too much coffee.
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The possibilities are as numerous as … the hairs on a human head.
The Prompt
Rapunzel’s saved her from an enchanted prison. Sampson’s gave him unparalleled strength. Medusa’s was nearly as deadly as her eyes, and in Pope’s mock-epic, Belinda’s drives the Baron to distraction.
Tell a story about a “hairy” situation.
Imagine a comedy of errors between a novice hairdresser and their demanding client.
A mystery in which a lock provides the only clue … or a portal to another time on another planet on which everyone is bald.
How might things change if it were animal hair or peach fuzz or electrified?
If sprouted from a museum statue that suddenly came to life?
If you gave Medusa’s hair to Belinda or turned Sampson and the Baron into roommates?
Maybe plop one or more of them into a completely different genre or setting?
You may even have a real-life hair horror story–Now give it to a character who is your complete opposite.
The possibilities are as numerous as … the hairs on a human head.
Michele E. Reisinger
Michele is a writer and educator living in Bucks County, PA, with her family and never enough books. Her short fiction has appeared in Across the Margin, Stories That Need to be Told, Sunspot Literary Journal, Dreamers Creative Writing, and others. Find her online at mereisinger.com.
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A wrecking ball is parked in front of a 100-year old building. You are an architect, the wrecking ball operator, or a homeless person? What are your best memories and deepest regrets?
Brenda Rech
Brenda is happily married with two beautiful daughters, three dogs, two cats and a bird named Amy Farrah Fowler. Her flower gardens are forever at the beginner’s stages as she would rather hike with her husband and dogs or explore her writing. Her favorite breakfast is crispy bacon and strawberry jam on white toast. She is currently working on her first novel and has a monthly newsletter ‘Thru the Window’
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Write a story in which two characters talk different languages
The Prompt
Communication can be one of the greatest challenges of the human race with roughly 7000 spoken languages in the world. Have you ever been in a country where you did not speak the language but needed to find a location or service? Have you ever helped a non-native speaker of the language in your country purchase an item or find the right train? Perhaps the communication resulted in gestures, pointing at an item or drawing pictures to convey a message. Write a story where two characters speak a different language and must communicate for the most part without words. It can be in first person from the point of view of one of the characters. If it helps, draw from your own personal experience(s).
Carey Marie Shannon
Carey Shannon loves to use her writing to make humorous connections between items that may appear completely unrelated. A feat that is easy for a serious Elvis fan and frequent blood donor. Carey Shannon loves to write about humorous connections between items and subjects in life that may appear to be completely unrelated. A feat that is easy for an Elvis super fan and frequent blood donor. She has been a member of the Story A Day community since 2020 and now hopes to provide some inspiration quirkiness to other writers.
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Listen to Dancing in the Dark by Bruce Springsteen and watch the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=129kuDCQtHs You have few options: 1–Write to the music as you are listening. 2–Dance with the music to get you in the spirit before you write. 3–Use the lyrics to spark your story idea.
Robin Stein
Robin Stein lives and writes memoir, poetry and fiction in Newton, MA. She finds inspiration in music and dance. robinsteincreative.org
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Use this as the first line of your story: “Every journey begins with the tears of kings.”
The Prompt
Use this as the first line of your story: “Every journey begins with the tears of kings.”
This can be taken literally as a story about a tragedy that’s befallen a king, or a searing indictment of the crocodile tears rulers use to start wars; or you can use this as a metaphor: instead of an actual physical journey, maybe it’s a journey of the soul.
Fleet Sparrow
Fleet Sparrow is a queer, genderless writer living in the Los Angeles area who makes zir financial living moving freight and zir creative living writing. Perhaps, one day, the twain shall meet.
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P.S. I haven’t forgotten about the bingo card. If you’re still faithfully filling in your gameboard, snap a picture and send it to me here for a chance to get some real-world mail from me.
Don’t forget, I’ll be reviewing pieces of some of your stories live, tonight at 7 pm Eastern US.
Watch your inbox for a Zoom link about an hour before the call, or you can simply follow along on YouTube
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I love plants, whether they are in pots on my desk, in my community garden plot, or–best of all–growing where they choose outdoors.
Do you have a favourite plant? One that you find particularly fascinating? Or repulsive?
It could be a tree or shrub, a vegetable or a plant known for its flowers, or a so-called ‘weed’.
What does it make you think of? Do you have memories, positive or negative, associated with it? Do you associate it with a favourite food or a terrible rash or a wonderful fragrance?
Think about the texture of the leaves, petals, or bark. How would you describe the smell? What does it taste like?
Use some of these ideas as the basis for your story.
The story could be a fleeting encounter with someone wearing a floral scent you find repulsive. Or a story about a child planting pretty flowers with their grandmother. It could be about the struggles of growing hops in a Martian settlement.
Or maybe your story won’t be about the plant itself at all.
Monique Cuillerier
Monique Cuillerier writes (mostly) science fiction. She lives in Ottawa (Canada) and spends her non-writing time running, knitting, getting angry on Twitter (@MoniqueAC), and (unsurprisingly) gardening. Her work can be found at notwhereilive.ca
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Your character writes a letter to their future self, in today’s StoryADay writing prompt
The Prompt
Sometimes when we are writing characters we forget how much they change, not just in the course of our stories, but in the course of their (fictional) lives.
Today, go back to last week’s story (What If by Leslie Stack) and imagine your character at the moment before everything started to go wrong, before the thing they regret and wished they could fix.
Have that younger version of your character write a letter to their future self, 10 years hence. (Your character might do this because they are given an exercise in a writing class, a leadership seminar, or it could be inspired by hitting a life milestone, a birthday or graduation, or even by reading an article like this.
What do they hope for their future self? What can you include (knowing what you know, from that earlier story) that will be bittersweet or amusing or ironic? What do they expect their life to be in 10 years?
And just to keep things interesting, like Wilfred in that link above, keep the letter to 280 words.
Julie Duffy
Julie Duffy is the founder & director of StoryADay. She writes stories and used to be famed among her far-flung friends, for writing epic letters. If you’d like to receive electronic letters from her, on the topic of writing, make sure you’re signed up at StoryADay!
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Write a ‘hermit crab’ story, a story written in the form of someone’s browser history
The Prompt
Tell a story using someone’s browser history. It could be nothing more than a list of sites visited, or perhaps there are a few narrative interludes, but the main goal should be to tell the bulk of the story with the trail of virtual breadcrumbs.
Gabrielle Johansen
Gabrielle Johansen is a fantasy writer from the south, who has gone down many a rabbit hole herself.
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his could also be a good recipe for a great memory or dream or the perfect evening.
Carey Shannon
Carey Shannon loves to write about humorous connections between items and subjects in life that may appear to be completely unrelated. A feat that is easy for an Elvis super fan and frequent blood donor. She has been a member of the Story A Day community since 2020 and now hopes to provide some inspiration quirkiness to other writers.
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today’s writing prompt invites you to write a short story in an unusual format: an overheard conversation
The Prompt
Write a one-sided conversation.
Tips
Imagine a character listening to one side of a Zoom call.
The person on the call is using headphones, so your character can only hear their words, not the responses.
Imagine a conflict for your two characters (it could be a parent and child, a romantic couple, roommates): Living together has certain stresses and we all need things from the folks we live with. Being in close confines causes conflicts every day, that build over time.
Your character has a problem with the person they live with. Maybe they want more of their time and attention. Maybe they want to leave. Maybe they just want to have a discussion about values.
How could the one-sided conversation they overhear illustrate (or solve, or illuminate the problem?
You could write this in sections – the first section is your character thinking about the problem, or rehearsing what they’re going to say to their housemate.
The second section could be the conversation they overhear. You can include your character’s internal (and external) reactions to what they here, or just leave that section as a block of monologue.
The third section might be showing your character’s actions in the wake of the understanding they have gained from eavesdropping on the conversation.
Don’t forget to include physical senses in some of the story. Where is your person standing? What does the room feel like? What can they smell? What else can they hear (are the floorboards creaking underfoot, as they try to conceal their presence? Or are they tapping on the door and being ignored/unheard? Are they sipping on a coffee or a cocktail? How does it taste?
Julie Duffy
Julie is the host of StoryADay and has been on more than her fair share of Zoom calls even before, you know, 2020. Julie often speaks to writers groups and business groups about creativity, writing, and the art of productivity. If you’d like her to speak to your group, you can find out more here
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P. S. Over on the Fun-Size Challenge I’ve invited people to submit a story for a chance of getting feedback from me on a live call next week. You are also invited to the party. Get all the details.
Do a Fanfiction of your favorite or least favorite TV commercial
Brenda Rech
Brenda is happily married with two beautiful daughters, three dogs, two cats and a bird named Amy Farrah Fowler. Her flower gardens are forever at the beginner’s stages as she would rather hike with her husband and dogs or explore her writing. Her favorite breakfast is crispy bacon and strawberry jam on white toast. She is currently working on her first novel and has a monthly newsletter ‘Thru the Window’
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Because of the COVID vaccines, travel is opening up.
Write a story that’s also a travel brochure.
You can write as if it’s a fantasy locale or an Island in Greece or an outer space destination.
Christina M.
Christina is a writer who digs dragons.
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This could either be a horoscope on a given day for your various characters.
A simplified example is a protagonist’s horoscope that might say, “You’re a curious soul, but be careful who you trust.” And an antagonist’s horoscope that says, “You’re bold and aren’t afraid to get what you want. Don’t let your anger get the better of you.”
But another option could be a series of horoscopes for a given character.
This could be a daily, weekly, or monthly horoscope, which would have “fortunes” for a few days, weeks, or months, respectively.
Horoscope one: The stars say it’s a good time to stay home. Horoscope two: You’ve recently been in an accident. Now is a time to focus on healing. Three: You’ve taken too many risks. Pay more attention to nearby dangers.
You don’t have to know anything about the zodiac to give it a try. Just play around with it.
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In today’s writing prompt will you grant your character the power to change the past?
The Prompt
“If only I could go back and do it over again, I would…
” How many times have we said that to ourselves?
In JK Rowling’s “The Prisoner of Azkaban,” Hermione Granger had a time turner necklace where she could turn back time to allow her to attend more classes, but more importantly, save two lives.
Whether it’s changing one seemingly small decision or a whole lifetime of decisions, there is usually one thing that we would change if we could.
Something that would make a difference in just one life or many more.
What is your character’s one thing?
Leslie Stack
Leslie Stack is a writer, musician, camper, and teacher who loves being on the water or in a museum. You can usually find her doing research behind dark glasses on a park bench. She lives in a house in Pennsylvania with her husband where the books are plotting a takeover.
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Write a story in whcih a character talks to an animal
The Prompt
Dr. Dolittle author Hugh Lofting showed the magic of communicating with animals through his series of children’s books.
The relationship between animals and humans can range from affection to terror.
As pets, animals can sometimes be our greatest confidantes and comforters.
In the wilds of a forest or jungle, they can be our greatest enemy.
Write a story where a person speaks to an animal as if they were another person.
Does the animal respond with grunts, growls or by scratching the ground?
How does the person interpret the nonverbal responses of the animal?
Some ideas include a person confiding a secret to their cat or someone crying to their dog after a bad day at work.
A person could also plead with a bear or tiger for their life.
There is always the hunter and the hunted.
A human could also help an animal in distress or vice versa.
Mystical animals like dragons and unicorns are welcome.
Carey Shannon
Carey Shannon loves to use her writing to make humorous connections between items that may appear completely unrelated. A feat that is easy for a serious Elvis fan and frequent blood donor. Carey Shannon loves to write about humorous connections between items and subjects in life that may appear to be completely unrelated. A feat that is easy for an Elvis super fan and frequent blood donor. She has been a member of the Story A Day community since 2020 and now hopes to provide some inspiration quirkiness to other writers.
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One of the joys of writing is to create characters that can ‘see’ what has come in the way of what they want.
The Prompt
“I twisted my ankle and hobbled about for a decade. After years of doctor’s visits, therapy sessions, medications, this and that, I came to believe that I’d been cursed and would likely limp to my grave. Until I met you, I didn’t know curses could turn into blessings.”
Use this line anywhere in a short story of about 1500 words.
Might help to brainstorm a few things like: Who would say this? To whom? a mentor? a child? a magician? a stranger on a train? a turtle? a millionaire who’s about to be murdered or a pauper who’s about to get rich?
Reflect on a time when something happened that you thought was the worst thing ever, only to find out later that it was not so bad. In fact, as time went by, it seemed the best thing to have happened.
One of the joys of writing is to create characters that can ‘see’ what has come in the way of what they want. Oftentimes, it is an aspect of themselves, not merely the forces around, that throws them into chaos, pulling them away from the very thing they desire.
As a writer, you have the power to enable readers to map this type of ‘seeing’. Readers walk away from your work not only entertained, but subtly equipped with a new way of looking at their own lives.
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Neha Mediratta
Neha is a generalist currently obsessed with stretching, mind-body-world connection and the spirit’s dwelling place. She writes fiction, non-fiction, takes on editing assignments she enjoys and works with people she admires. She lives by a lake in an overcrowded coastal city with her family and some wildlife. Check out her writing here: https://www.amazon.com/Neha-Mediratta/e/B08CJSLD2H
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Writing in the present tense provides immediacy, as this writing prompts, and its tips, demonstrate
The Prompt
Tell a story in the present tense that starts when your character enters a new environment and ends when they exit.
This story could be a single episode from a larger quest, that illuminates something about your character (useful for those of you who have a longer work-in-progress on the go), or it could be a standalone story.
I’m encouraging you to tell the story in the present tense because it makes the story so much more immediate AND leaves the possibility open for absolutely anything to happen at the end of the story.
Want your character to drift off into space uncertain of their fate? Want them to die at the end? Want to keep the reader on the edge of their seat? These things are all easier to pull off when your story is in the present tense.
If you start your story “I’m walking down the middle of the road, traffic roaring past in both directions on either side of me, pulling the folds of my long gown this way and that, like hands grabbing at my dress…” the reader has no idea if this character is going to survive or not.
If the same story was told in the past tense, (“I was walking down the middle of the road…”) there is an implied ‘later’, an older version of the character who survives to tell us the story.
You don’t have to be out to murder your character, to use this perspective, but it can be very useful in stories where you want to ratchet up the suspense and the sense that anything could happen.
It’s also good practice to mix up our natural inclinations from time to time.
If you’re feeling resistance to any of these ideas, remember: I’ve lost count of the number of writers who told me they hated (HATED) a particular prompt, and write to it anyway, only to have it turn out to be the most interesting (and often published) story they wrote that year.
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Julie Duffy
Julie Duffy is typing this prompt on an ergonomic keyboard. The large maple tree outside her window is being buffeted by spring storms, reaching its branches towards her windows as if it wants to come inside. Wait, what was that noise?
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This StoryADay writing prompt encourages you to try an older story from a new poing of view
The Prompt
Re-write yesterday’s story, in a different point-of view.
Keep the same protagonist, but take us into a different voice.
Where, yesterday, you might have written, “I slammed the door as I left, hearing a muffled ‘hey!’ from behind it. But seriously, how could he have said such a thing, and expected me to stay?” today you might write it from the third-person, limited point of view, which would read like this: “she slammed the door as she left, hearing a muffled ‘Get back here!’ from behind it. But seriously, how could he have said such a thing and expected her to stay?”
Notice how similar third-person limited is to first person? We’re still experiencing the thoughts of only one person. We are very closely aligned with their thoughts and feelings. We don’t need the writer to say ‘she thought’, because it’s always clear whose thoughts we are in.
The advantage of third person is that you can use a line break to indicate a perspective shift and hop inside another character’s head.
“She slammed the door as she left.” # The walls shook as the door hit the frame. He yelped with a surprise that quickly turned to anger. Half out of his chair, he yelled “Get back here”. The only answer was the click of her heels on the wood of the stairs and the echoing slam of the front door. A wave of shame pushed him back into the sagging armchair. How could have have said those things to her and expected her to stay? # The air outside was icy and cut into her lungs like broken glass. Where would she go now? Surely anywhere was better than here. Fresh snow crunched under the ridiculous heels he had insisted she always wear … — You can stay in one person’s perspective or jump around, just remember, which ever head you’re in, that’s the one the reader will identify most closely with. It’s best not to jump around too much and leave your reader seasick!
Julie Duffy
Julie Duffy likes to write in first person but appreciates the opportunities afforded by third. If she is being honest, what she really loves is a really well done third-person omniscient story as employed by Messers Dickens and Pratchett. You can read more StoryADay Point of View writing prompts here.
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In today’s StoryADay writing prompt, we’re working with first person perspective
The Prompt
Write a story in the first person about an incident that happens to a character who is your opposite.
TIPS
Think about some situation you are sure you would FREAK OUT in, and give it to a character who is utterly unlike you (in some ways you admire, and perhaps some ways you don’t)
In many ways, first person is the most natural way to tell a story because it’s how we tell stories all day long. “How was your commute?” “Where did you park?” “What did you do this weekend?”
All of these questions invite stories.
The most important thing to remember about first-person is that the reader is only ever privy to the thoughts of the person telling the story. They can infer, from other people other people’s expressions, what they’re feeling, but you can’t know for certain. You can’t tell me exactly what your spouse was thinking when you took a wrong turn. You can tell me what they said and how they said it….
The character can be self-aware or self delusional or mixture of the two.
Julie Duffy
I am Julie Duffy and this is a first-person bio. I founded StoryADay May in 2010 because I was stick of never finishing anything I started. Ironically, StoryADay May turned into an annual event and now I hope it will never end! I also encourage people to make weekly goals during the rest of the year, in our Serious Writers’ Accountability Group posts. If you’d like email reminders about them, fill in the form, below.
Bingo!
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Cram all these words into a story, and tell your inner editor to hush…in today’s StoryADay Writing Prompt
The Prompt
Use these words in a story:
poison
kingdom
keyboard
castle
garbage
vocal
syllables
seventy
mountain
return
In the past I’ve used spelling word lists from my own children’s 3rd Grade (https://storyaday.org/write-on-wednesday-third-grade-word-list/) homework. Sadly, those children are way too tall for spelling homework anymore (and let autocorrect do most of the work for them), so I’m upgrading you to a spelling list for Fourth Graders that I found online.
What is the point of writing a story from such a silly prompt, I hear you ask?
The point is that it is silly.
As soon as you start to practice your writing consistently, the voices in your head begin: “You must write something good if you’re going to spend this much time alone with your imaginary friends. You must justify your time by writing deathless prose that will win awards, and you must do it now.”
And those voices are the ones that will block you, stall you, send you running from your desk not to reappear for months or even years.
Today’s writing prompt encourages you to lower the bar.
Today’s triumph is that you manage to write something — anything — that resembles a story and contains these words.
Simply writing, is your goal, today. Not writing something good. Just writing.
Have a go. You might even like it!
Julie Duffy
Julie Duffy is the founder of StoryADay and takes silliness very seriously.
Bingo!
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Psst! If you’re getting tired and losing steam, pop over to the comments of yesterday’s Fun-Size Challenge, where people are working through the early parts of the Short Story Framework and getting excited about their ideas. It’s quite infectious.
Why not pull out the Short Story Framework and use it to help plan today’s story?
The Prompt
Write a flash fiction story that involves a flash of light
Tips
Realistically, most of the stories you write this month will be Flash Fiction in length (anything up to around 1200 words), but today I want you to focus on making it vivid, the way great flash should be.
Flash Fiction is about more than word count. It is deliberately taut, and yes, short. It should contain one or two vivid moments or images that stay with the reader long after they’ve gone.
Write your story of 1200 words today, and work on making it flash.
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Here’s your next Bingo Piece. Download the pic, print it out and paste it onto your bingo sheet. Then share a picture of it on social media with #storyadaybingo
Psst! Are you keeping up with your bingo card? If you post a pic of your card on Instagram, Pinterest or Twitter with 7 pieces filled in this Saturday, I’ll enter you in a drawing and you might get a personalized piece of mail from me!Use #storyadaybingo so I can find it.
Don’t use social media? Post here and pinkie-swear you’ve filled in all the boxes for this week, and I’ll enter you anyway.
The Prompt
Write an Acrostic prose poem for a person, place or thing you encounter in your daily life. An acrostic is where the first letter of each line must spell out the subject of the poem. An acrostic can be beautiful or sentimental like ROSE, Regal bloom, Omen of love and beauty, Scent of heaven, Enigma of youth. Or it can be a silly take on an existing abbreviation or acronym. S.O.S. Society of Sissy’s. or UFO – Universal Freak Organization. Be as serious as you want or have fun with it!
Carey Shannon
Carey Shannon loves to use her writing to make humorous connections between items that may appear completely unrelated. A feat that is easy for a serious Elvis fan and frequent blood donor. Carey Shannon loves to write about humorous connections between items and subjects in life that may appear to be completely unrelated. A feat that is easy for an Elvis super fan and frequent blood donor. She has been a member of the Story A Day community since 2020 and now hopes to provide some inspiration quirkiness to other writers.
Bingo!
make sure you set your printer to print this at original size, not full-page!
Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!
Set your timer…today’s StoryADay writing prompt forces you to focus!
The Prompt
Set a timer for 40 minutes and then retell a story that you know well.
Tips
The story might be a fairy story or fable, or perhaps you just wish that series you watched had a better finale, and you fancy rewriting the last half of that episode. (Remember, fanfic is fine as long as you’re not selling someone else’s ideas and characters as your own!)
To write a 40-minute story, I propose this timeline (and I’m serious)
0-5 minutes: use the Short Story Framework to brainstorm your character and their need, and the first action they will take to move towards it.
5-15 mins: Write the opening of your story based on those notes
15-35 mins: brainstorm and write 1-2 ‘and because of that’ actions your character takes, which take them towards the conclusion of the story.
35-40 mins: write a quick ending when you have answered the question of whether or not the character gets what they wanted.
40-43:20: do a victory dance (seriously, put on some happy music and dance around your room. Celebrating your wins is important!)
This week, you might have noticed, all the prompts have built-in limits. There’s a reason for that.
Historically, writers get very excited in the first week of StoryADay, and that leads them to get a bit over-ambitious. Stories start to balloon into novel ideas, and it’s hard to finish a story like that every day. With so many ideas lying around unfinished, it’s an invitation to burn out.
So, in recent years, I always start the challenge by pulling back on the reins a little, and asking you to enjoy the creativity that comes from limiting the possibilities for your daily writing practice.
Julie Duffy
Julie Duffy is a writer and founded StoryADay in 2010. She finds it very easy to get lost in her writing. She maintains that nothing in her life would get done without timers and calendar alerts. Her husband agrees.
Bingo!
Here’s your next Bingo Piece. Download the pic, print it out and paste it onto your bingo sheet. Then share a picture of it on social media with #storyadaybingo
Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!
Write a scene in which your character’s physical space is smaller than usual.
Tips
Maybe the scene will take place in a vehicle.
Perhaps place a limit to one particular room in a house.
A whole dramatic scene could be set in an elevator.
Limits on physical space could be as large as one planet in a solar system or as small as one fairy treehouse.
Megan Alongi
Megan is a writer who lives in New Jersey.
Bingo!
make sure you set your printer to print this at original size, not full-page!
Here’s your next Bingo Piece. Download the pic, print it out and paste it onto your bingo sheet. Then share a picture of it on social media with #storyadaybingo
Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!
Today’s writing prompt encourages you to keep things short
The Prompt
Write a 100 word story inspired by an aphorism
Tips
Remember: the prompts are only here as inspiration if you need them. Some people decide to write to all the prompts no matter what (to force themselves to stretch), but you can play any way you want!
Writing a 100 word story is a wonderful way to warm up and get some writing done even on a day when you are busy. It’s not necessarily faster to craft a 100 word story than it is to dash off 1200 words, but it is incredibly satisfying, and it sharpens your word-choice skills.
Today I’m going to suggest that you choose an aphorism or proverb to inspire you story (here’s a handy collection).
You’ll need to choose a character who embodies (or defies) the message of the aphorism, pop them in a situation where they can take an action and, ideally, give us an idea of how they are changing through their experience.
Julie Duffy is the Founder and Director of StoryADay.org. She began thus challenge in 2010 and is proud to have encouraged thousands of writers, since then. She never tires of hearing from writers whose StoryADay drafts turn into published stories, or gifts for friends, or other forms of art, so do please keep in touch!
Bingo!
make sure you set your printer to print this at original size, not full-page!
Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!
Remember: I don’t recommend posting 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.
A writing prompt that focuses on a limited set of characters and locations, so you can start and finish your short story with success
Welcome to Day 1 of StoryADay 2022!
I’m sure you’re nervous and excited and eager to get on with it, so I’ll just say good luck, be good to yourself, never worry that you’re ‘failing’ because someone is doing something different from you (are you writing at all? Then you’re learning what you need to know!).
Keep reading to the end to find out what to do with that Bingo Sheet..
The Prompt
Write a story with 2 characters eating a meal together, who want different things
Tips
Limiting the setting and the number of characters is a quick’n’dirty way to keep your story from growing into the opening of a novel (not guaranteed, but…).
With two characters and one setting (a meal table) you are limited to focusing on these characters.
You can write this as a dialogue or allow the characters’ phsyical reactions tell the reader what they are feeling and thinking (how the character fidgets in their seat, what they pick up and put down, what they look at). Remember that even if the characters want two different things, they will both believe they are right and have valid reasons for wanting what they want.
(They may even want the same thing, but have different approaches to achieving the goal: i. e. they want to keep their child safe, but for one that means letting them go on the school field trip with their friends, for the other, it might mean keeping them at home, away from physical danger).
Remember that people are rarely clear on what they want (or why they want it) so a conversation between two people gets messy quickly. Play with that.
Julie Duffy
Julie Duffy is a writer and the founder and director of StoryADay. When not working on her own writing or hanging out with the fine folks at StoryADay, she can be found playing board games, or music, or finding a quiet corner in which to read and/or knit. She looks forward to traveling again.
Bingo Pieces
make sure you set your printer to print this at original size, not full-page!
Here’s your first Bingo Piece. Download the pic, print it out and paste it onto your bingo sheet. Then share a picture of it on social media with #storyadaybingo
I know, 31 days of this is going to be a lot of wasted paper, but you can use the scraps as book marks, places to catch story sparks, opportunities for origami…and more
Or you can use your fave image editing software to add layers to this image.
But I think rewarding yourself every day with a bit of scissors-and-glue hands-on crafting, is a much better idea!
Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!
Please note, I do not recommend posting your whole story in the comments here, for various reasons. Best Practice ; post about your experience of writing the story, or share an excerpt.
When I was working for the first company to help authors publish using digital print on-demand tech, I talked to a LOT of authors,
Best-sellers like Piers Anthony who had grown disillusioned with traditional publishing;
Mid list authors who had been dropped by their publishers and wanted to republish out-of-print books or finish out that series their fans wanted;
Unpublished authors who hadn’t been able to place their novels with traditional publishers not because of the writing quality but because the publishers couldn’t see a large enough market for it.
Publishing is a business, and it’s hard to get picked, and it’s hard to stay lucky.
And if you want to ‘be published’ traditionally, you must convince someone that there is a large enough audience waiting for it.
But what if that’s not what you’re writing? Should you just stop?
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