How did you get on yesterday? Did you write a story?
Remember, set your own rules, and stick to them. If you miss a day, don’t try to catch up. Just keep moving forward!
Check back every day for more prompts, and don’t forget to come back and leave a comment to celebrate your writing successes, every day!
The Prompt
Set A TIMER FOR 40 MINUTES
Don’t spend too much time on your opening.
Brainstorm for five minutes, spend the next five on an opening and then give yourself 20-25 to dig your characters into a hole and let them start to climb out of it.
Try to start wrapping it up when you have about five minutes left on your timer. Even if you have to write some brief notes [“this is where they make their great escape”], put an ending on the story.
This will make it so much easier when you come back to revise it later.
Today’s post comes to us from gifted memoirist Jane Paffenbarger Butler. You can read more about Jane, below, but in the meantime, enjoy mining your memories for Story Sparks! – Julie
When I was a child, my mother and sisters and I spent hours making our clothes at home. The memory of those long quiet days together is etched in my mind because we did it over and over. That makes it a perfect resource for my writing because it is etched in my mind. But even one-time events can be seared onto our brains and serve equally as sources of inspiration.
Because we have kept a memory, stored it for some reason, it holds a significance that may be useful. When I try, I can remember many details and images about that repeating scene of sewing. Recording a memory, in writing, however disjointed or unclear or insufficient, means we capture whatever clarity there is to be observed. The overriding feeling of the sewing room was one of having to focus on the details, such as being sure of our measurements, even in our pinning, and whether the machine was threaded correctly and if we were following every direction. There was little conversation and there was little sound besides that of our movements.
However fuzzy, our memories are infused with feelings that give them an emotional power that can make our writng richer.
I may want to write specifically about sewing, the memories of the creaking old house, the stale state of the space we shared, the silence so thick I heard the buzz of a fly trapped at the window pane trying to escape. But I may prefer to let this description inform whatever other writing I do. These recalled images and ideas are newly acquired and because of their source resonate with authenticity.
Today’s prompt is all about a misunderstanding, and comes to us from the writer Wayne Anthony Conaway.
The Prompt
Write A Story In Which One Character Misunderstands Another, With Far-Reaching Consequences
Tips
Today’s prompt focuses on misapprehension – that is, interpreting something incorrectly. Too often, in fiction, every character communicates perfectly. That’s not the way it happens in real life.
Example: award-winning author Harlan Ellison once misheard a conversation at a party. He overheard a woman say, “”Jeffy is fine. He’s always fine.”” What Ellison actually heard was “”He’s always FIVE.”” That inspired the story “”Jefty Is Five,”” about a boy who never grows up.
Alternately, the misapprehension could be visual.
True story: when I graduated college, I moved to a southern town – one of those places where anti-intellectualism seemed to be the prevailing attitude. I met lots of girls there, but I was looking for an intellectual girlfriend. One day, while sitting in dingy waiting room, I saw a pretty girl outside. To my amazement, she wore a tee-shirt with the letters “”SPQR”” on it. SPQR stood for – in Latin – “”The Senate and the People of Rome.”” What kind of woman wore a tee-shirt that referenced Ancient Rome? I had to meet her! I rushed outside, saw the girl…and discovered that her shirt didn’t say “”SPQR.”” It said “”SPORT.”” The final letter was hadn’t been visible from where I sat! (I was so disappointed, I didn’t even speak to her.)
So that’s your prompt: misapprehension, either verbal or visual.
About Wayne Anthony Conaway
Born in Philadelphia, PA, Tony Conaway has written and ghostwritten everything from blogs to books. He has cowritten non-fiction books published by McGraw-Hill, Macmillan and Prentice Hall. His fiction has been published in eight anthologies and numerous publications, including Blue Lake Review, Danse Macabre, Rind Literary Magazine, qarrtsiluni, The Rusty Nail and Typehouse Literary Magazine.
[Note from Julie: if you want to know how to wow an audience at a reading, check out Tony’s advice here. I’ve never seen an author do better than Tony!]
For today’s Write on Wednesday writing prompt, I’m digging into the archives.
This writing prompt, from 2012, talks about how to use your character’s desires to power a story and contains important tips on how to keep your short story from become a barely-begun novel.
The Prompt
Write a Story In Which Your Character WAAAAAAANTS something
Last week we wrote about connections. This week, an interconnected theme: support. We need it in our writing lives, and our characters are looking for it, in our stories.
This month’s theme at StoryADay is about finding support in our writing lives, and that has me thinking about connection.
I have this thesis that writing is all about connections: connecting with another person (your reader)’s brain; connecting with the writers who inspired you; connecting with other people working in your genre; connecting with your past and future selves; connecting with the great web of human experience on this planet.
So today I want you to write a story that touches on some of these things.
The Prompt
Write A Story About Connections
Tips
This story could be about one significant connection (or missed connection) or it could be a series of interlocking or parallel connections.
You might write a story like the movie “Sliding Doors” where multiple possibilities hinge on the decision of a moment.
You might write three different people’s stories, all of them making different kinds of connections, and examining how each decision impacts their futures (or pasts, if it’s that kind of story).
Use your brainstorming time to think about the kinds of connections you value and how you get support from the people in your life. How does each type of connection make you feel? What do you miss? How can you convey the emotions that come up, in a story?
For bonus points, post in the comments here and find a friend to write a joint-story with. You could alternate lines, or brainstorm together, or each take one section of the story.
Yesterday, I reviewed “Useless Things” by Ariel Berry, and it gave me the writing prompt for today’s Flash Fiction focused prompt
The Prompt
Write a story of fewer than 1000 words, that features a twist on a topic/event that might be seen as a disaster. Show us how your character pulls another meaning from it
If you’re writing for publication, it’s important to be aware of lead-times, (i.e. the time between when an editor says ‘yes’ to your story and the date the publication goes live). They can be long, so if you’re writing a seasonal story, you need to be submitting months in advance. That’s why today’s prompt is for October’s National Adopt A Shelter Dog month. Write your doggie story today and start pitching it now!
Have you ever been part of a Writers’ Group? There’s good (Solidarity! Feedback! Deadlines!) and bad (Jealousy! Bitchiness! Blowhards!). This week I invite you to write the story of a writers’ group.
The Prompt
Imagine a writer’s group. Write a story about one of their meetings (or a series of meetings
Tips
This ground seems ripe for satire and farce, to me, but perhaps that’s just the way my mind works. (I refer you to @guyinyourMFAclass for inspiration!)
Put a writer (like or unlike) yourself into the group. Have a clear sense of who your protagonist is, what they want, what they don’t want, and what internal struggles cause them potential problems with other characters in this group. What, in their background, caused this internal flaw and how does that play into how they react to other people?
Go to town, pitting your protagonist against people who appeal to them or who play on that internal struggle (knowingly or otherwise).
Don’t forget to bring the story to a head over one incident, one moment, and show us how the protagonist deals with it.
A new year is almost upon us. News sites and shows and all your favourite blogs are urging you to think about resolutions and goals and all the way in which Next Year will be Better than every other year that’s gone before.
Of course, that’s not exactly how it works, is it?
The Prompt
Write About A New Beginning
Tips
Pick a character who needs a new beginning, or who wants a new beginning, and write about the moment they make that decision or embark on the new thing.
Or, pick a character who had no interest in beginning again and force them into a situation where they must.
This story could be tragic (new beginnings are often triggered by tragedy, because new beginnings are often too disruptive to be embarked on by choice), or it could be comedic, hopeful, dark, or joy-filled. It depends on you, your mood, your writing preferences and the character you picked.
Make sure to show us your character’s journey thorughout the story. Let them develop If they begin the story wary and unwilling, show us a moment of hope, where things might go well (even if you decide to go dark in the end).
Remember to make the reader (and yourself) FEEL something for the character and the struggles they’re going through. That feeling might be as difficult and safe as humor, or it might be a sentimental weep-fest. Or it might just be that glimmer of hope.
Think about a new beginning you experienced. What emotions did you feel? How did they manifest in your body and your mind, and in your actions? What can you take from that and put into your story?
Leave a comment and let us know what you wrote about, and how it went.
Write a story and highlight the words as you use them.
Allow yourself to write something silly, ridiculous, bad.
Set a timer if you have to.
Marvel at how, even in this ridiculous exercise, you managed to write at least one line you were really pleased with
Post your story in the comments if you dare (it’s fun to see what everyone else comes up with). But remind yourself, you do not have to show it to anyone.
Today’s prompt is a kind of carnival game, a tombola, a random lucky dip.
When I was a kid, I loved going to church bazaars and village fetes and Christmas Fairs.
Aside from scanning the cheap paperbacks and making a beeline for the bakery stall to see if Carol-Anne’s dad had made his famous tablet, I loved nothing more than the Lucky Dip.
Hand over a coin and plunge your hand into a huge barrel of cold, scratchy sawdust, trying not to get any stuck under your nails. Try not to think about the unfortunate association of the smell of sawdust with all the times somebody threw up at school and the janitor came by with his trusty bucket of the stuff. Rummage around until your fingers find the smooth crinkle of something wrapped in cheap, thin paper. Pull it out and lo! you have a gift. No idea what it would be. It might be something ‘meh’, or it might be something cool like a spinning top or a plastic penny whistle, or one of those little puzzles with the balls you have to roll around until they are all in the right divots; something I could play with all afternoon then shove it in a drawer and re-discover periodically over the next few years.
Whatever I got, it was something I hadn’t expected. And it was mine, all mine!
Below, you’ll find a lucky-dip of sorts, a prompt from the archives of over 500 prompts at StoryADay. It has been generated especially for you!
It can be overwhelming to sit down to write a story.
When you could write about anything it can become difficult to decide what to write about. These writing prompts are meant to put limits on your choices, in order to make your creative gears grind.
The Prompt
Write A Short Story That Features or Refers To A Holiday
There’s no feedback like the honest feedback of trying to hold the attention of a squirmy kid. This week I want you to try (or imagine) reading a story you’ve written to a kid under the age of 8. They are too young to worry about your feelings and they WILL let you know if the story is dragging! It’s great practice for holding the attention of former-kids too!
This month I’ve been encouraging you to write short stories in unusual forms and genres.
Since I’m spending today trekking back and forth to NYC to see the new Frozen musical with my kid’s school (I know, such a hardship, right?), I decided to urge you to write an outline for a musical today.
This is a bit of an odd one and if you’re not such a theater nerd as me, pick your favorite genre of movie, and imagine you’re writing an outline of all the sequences in your movie (there are probably about 8, with a big dramatic turning point at each quarter mark).
The Prompt
Write An Outline, or the Song/Scene List for a Dramatic Presentation
Tips
This isn’t going to read like a traditional narrative story
Imagine you’re looking at the program for a musical: it has a list of the scenes/songs you’re going to hear. Recreate that for your fantasy musical.
Here are some of the beats your two-act musical should hit:
Big opening number that introduces the characters, setting, theme & tone.
Character song – introduces your main characters desire and obstacle
Introduction to the love interest/problem/antagonist
Set back (probably a big chorus number)
Comedy song (featuring a minor character, to relieve the tension – ‘Brush Up Your Shakespeare’, or ‘Gaston’)
A serious ballad that restates the problem
A decision song. The main character is going for it, assembling their team
Set up for the big action of the second half. Cliffhanger! (Definitely have all characters on stage)
[Interval]
Another song restating the desire and obstacles of the main character
Big number setting up for the climax, featuring multiple characters
Final struggle song
Quick charming song resolving the action
Finale, a powerful song bringing back all the characters, even the dead ones. Probably has a similar title to one we’ve heard before.
So that’s it. Decide on a premise for your pretend musical. Figure out who your main character is, their desire, their obstacle and their antagonist. Then go to town creating song titles that fit the outline above. Have fun with this! Come up with a title for your musical and feel free to add notes to your ‘program’ with character names, suggestions for interval drinks and snacks, and perhaps even sponsorships by local businesses!
It’s one thing to be funny in conversation with friends, but writing comedy can seem harder, somehow. Today we’ll try out some techniques to make our funny stories funnier.
Here we are at the start of StoryADay September 2018!
The Rules:
Set your own rules (why not leave them in the comments?): Decide whether you’re going to complete a story every single day, or every week day, or every Thursday…it’s up to you. Make your own rules, and stick to them!
Check in every day to find the (optional) writing prompt. Write a story to that prompt or to your own ideas.
Finish at least a messy first draft
Come back and leave a comment on that day’s post, to let everyone know how you got on, and to encourage others.
Here are the prompts for this week. Bookmark this page now and come back each day!
The Prompts
In September, I send out a weekly batch of prompts. Here are all the prompts for Week 1
This week, I’m recycling a writing prompt from a couple of years ago, all about slang, because it fits so wonderfully with this month’s theme of ‘backstory’.
(Also, because I’ve been on vacation and …)
Invented languages, or slang, are wonderful ways of establishing culture in your novel and of making sure your dialogue feels like dialogue and not ‘speechifying’.
I talked about this on the podcast recently. Check it out.
Read the full prompt here, then come back and leave a comment to let me know what you think. Did you read the linked article? Did it spark any ideas for you?
This month I’m giving you prompts that work in different ways to support your long-form fiction/novel writing. This week we’re looking at the micro-cultureS in your novel’s world.
The Prompt
Write a story that explains how the culture of your novel’s setting evolved
Tips
Even if you are writing contemporary fiction, don’t assume that the culture of your novel’s world is known to all your readers. There are what I think of as “micro-cultures” in every community, every family, every workplace. Just like in gardening, there are microclimates—I can grow tomatoes agains my house’s south-facing wall, but they would utterly fail if I tried to plant them on the cooler, shaded north-facing wall. My property isn’t very big, but it still has micro-climates!
Think about your fictional world’s culture in the novel. What does your main character feel they have to do, ought to do, would be shunned for doing?
How did those attitudes develop?
Write that story.
For example, in the movie “Steel Magnolias”, family and community are everything, and life revolves around the beauty shop. Why? Because a until very recently, women like them had very few choices in life. They found husbands, had children, entertained, and gathered at this ladies-only retreat where they could, for once, let loose and trade confidences. Write a story of the older women in that movie, when they were young. That will help the town and those secondary characters feel very real to your audience.
Conversely, in “When Harry Met Sally”, family plays no role at all. Harry is full of flaws, misbeliefs and self-harming psychological behavior, but we never see where it came from. It’s possible that Rob Reiner didn’t need to know Harry’s backstory because he was Harry, or at least knew a lot of guys like him, and knew enough about their behaviors to make him seem real. But if you want to be able to branch out and write characters who aren’t like you, it’s useful to explore the culture they came from. What was Harry’s family like growing up? What was the micro-culture in his neighborhood. What makes him so divorced from the family structure, relying only on a small group of friends?
Likewise if you’re writing in a more alien culture, it can be useful to write backstories about the early days of the prevailing religion or of the minority cultures that your secondary characters come from (surely no world is utterly homogenous?!).
Writing these backstories is useful for more than just research. You can use them to intrigue readers (give away a free story to get people on your mailing list and introduce them to your writing and your world). You can submit them to publications, and use those publishing credits to prove to agents and publishers that there is a built in audience for your novel. You can collect them and sell them to fans of the first book while you’re writing the sequel…
Have I I convinced you to dig into your novel’s backstories yet? Leave a comment to let me know what you’re thinking and what you’re writing.
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It’s a crazy time of year. You’re busy. You don’t have time to write. You certainly don’t have time to write anything good.
The Prompt
This week, I’m recycling a writing prompt from a couple of years ago, all about slang, because it fits so wonderfully with this month’s theme of ‘backstory’.