Today’s post is part of series of posts encouraging you to write stories for minor holidays.

Writing and submitting a story for Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day or Christmas, means you’re up against a lot of competition in an editor’s inbox. Everyone writes for those holidays. But editors still love a timely, topical story. Why not take advantage of the myriad of minor holidays, to give your story an edge?

(Listen to the podcast where I tell you why I think this is important)

The Prompt

Write A Story Centered Around A Solstice

Tips

• Twice a year on our planet, the sun (from our point of view)  reaches as far north on the horizon, or as far south, as it will ever go. Then, the next day, it starts to creep back. At this moment, the season change.
• The solstices (and equinoxes)has been celebrated in all kinds of cultures for thousands of years, in lots of different ways. Your story could reflect one of those.
• Your story could take the idea of standing still (which is built into the Latin root of ‘solstice’; sol=sun, sistere=to stand still) and use that in your story. Perhaps your story exists in the moment between two different ways of life for your character. Perhaps the story charts the decision that IS the moment your character stands still and makes a choice.
• The theme of the story doesn’t have to be explicitly state. it is something you can include in a cover letter to the editor, though, to make sure why you’re sending it to them at this particular moment.
• Remember, if you are submitting a story for the summer solstice (June 21) or the winter solstice (Dec 21 — apologies for my Northern-hemisphere bias), pay attention to the lead time of the publication. You don’t want to hear back from the editor that they loved your story but the timing was wrong.

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Leave a comment, below, to let us know if/what you wrote this week.