Well, it’s here: the end of StoryADay May 2013.

Thank you for taking part, for paying attention, for commenting and for sharing, you great big Winner, you.

You Win

• If you wrote a story this May,
• If you wrote a story every day,
• If you wrote, but you missed a few days,
• If you learned anything at all about your writing journey,

You win.

If you did write every day, then you don’t need me to tell you how much you won. You’re already bubbling over with awesome and excitement and all the lessons that you learned. And I am so happy for you. Now go forth and keep writing.

If You Did Not Complete A Story Every Day…

…this bit is for you. (And I’ll be honest: I am one of you!)

You still win (and b, go and write a story using today’s prompt “When One Door Closes” or any of the other prompts including one of your own).

No matter how your StoryADay May went, there is a sense of achievement at having *tried*. And there are certainly lessons to be learned if you’re willing to take a little time and analyze what happened over the past month.

I encourage you to take some time today or tomorrow and assess what worked and what didn’t in your writing life this May.

• Write down the answers to these questions, now, while it’s fresh in your mind:
  • Were there days it was really hard for you to write? (Sundays are bad for me.)
  • Were there times when writing worked best? Morning? Evening? Lunchtime? 10 minutes sprints in parking lots between sales calls?)
  • Did you discover you could start a story and come back to it later in the day? (This was one of my revelations the first year I tried the challenge.)
  • Did you find ways to write even when you weren’t in the mood? (Hint: you’re going to need them. Write them down!)
  • What did you learn on your best, worst, and middling days? (Mediocre days are plentiful. Pay attention to how you got the work done on those days, for future reference.)
  • Did you discover a style, a voice, a genre or a length that fitted you best? (Was it the style/voice/genre you *thought* was going to be your best?)
• Today or tomorrow, write yourself a blog post or journal entry that captures these lessons.
• Write a pep talk, as if your writer self were your best friend, for when you are having trouble in future. (You will have days when looking up this pep talk totally saves you!)
• Grab the graphic to remind yourself of all you accomplished and all you learned (even if you ‘missed’ some days, or ‘failed’. You learned a lot in the attempt. Pay attention to that.)

I would love to hear what you learned, so, if you post these lessons anywhere online send me at link at julie at storyaday dot org and I’ll share the best with the rest of the gang.

And well done!

Keep in touch and keep writing,
Julie