SADM 2018 – Day 21: News flash

http://storyaday.org/day-21-news-flash

Julie says: Write A Story As A News Report

This could be a TV report with a panel of pundits yelling at each other, a reporter on the street, the voice of a producer in your anchor’s ear…

Or, this could be a traditional newspaper report.

Remember to tell a story, though!

Go!

This year I won’t be publishing the stories here as I want to send them off somewhere and blogging online counts as published which most outlets won’t accept but will let you know each day how I got on the previous day… so you know I’m doing the challenge with me. Do leave a comment below to let me know how you do.

And me? <tumbleweed – swamped with work>

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SADM 2018 – Day 20: I’m Gonna Sit Right Down

http://storyaday.org/day-20-im-gonna-sit-right-down

Julie’s prompt today is to… Write A Story In The Form Of A Series of Letters

Tips:

You could do social media updates, conference call, letters, records.

In this story remember that each party in the story has an agenda, conflicts.
You could tell three different sides of a story

Your format will affect the type of language that the characters use: in letters things might be more formal, in texts it’ll be more brief.

Go!

This year I won’t be publishing the stories here as I want to send them off somewhere and blogging online counts as published which most outlets won’t accept but will let you know each day how I got on the previous day… so you know I’m doing the challenge with me. Do leave a comment below to let me know how you do.

And me? <laughs then sighs>

 

SADM 2018 – Day 19: Direct to Camera

http://storyaday.org/day-19-direct-to-camera

Julie says: May is far from over! Don’t give up now. And if you’ve just discovered StoryADay May, it’s not too late to jump in. Here’s today’s prompt, and you can find a new episode of the podcast here: Is It Time To Quit? (spoiler: no!)

The Prompt: Tell A Story ‘Direct To Camera’

This is probably going to be in first person.

Write as if you’re writing to your best friend, or talking directly to a police officer, or relaying this to a room of strangers.

if all else fails, stand in front of your phone and tell the story. Tell a real story or a fairy story. See what this does to your writing.

Go!

This year I won’t be publishing the stories here as I want to send them off somewhere and blogging online counts as published which most outlets won’t accept but will let you know each day how I got on the previous day… so you know I’m doing the challenge with me. Do leave a comment below to let me know how you do.

And me? <laughs then sighs> If you’ve been following this series then you’ll know how far I’ve not come. Mmm…

 

SADM 2018 – Day 18: It’s A Bit One Sided

Julie says: Write a story today in which the reader only hears one side of the conversation

This could be a telephone conversation, a text conversation, a series of social media updates, a series of letters, whatever.

Examples

• Bob Newhart telephone does this in telephone calls
• Watch Neil Gaiman read his story Orange here or read it here

Go!

This year I won’t be publishing the stories here as I want to send them off somewhere and blogging online counts as published which most outlets won’t accept but will let you know each day how I got on the previous day… so you know I’m doing the challenge with me. Do leave a comment below to let me know how you do.

And me? Ever hopeful but realistic that I won’t participate this year. Sadly.

 

SADM 2018 – Day 17: Write a Sonnet

http://storyaday.org/day-17-write-a-sonnet

Julie says: Today’s prompt is all about limits, but don’t worry, you don’t have to know anything about poetry and you don’t have to make this rhyme!

Write A Story In 14 Sentences

That’s it!

(Sometimes limits can be surprisingly freeing so if you hate this idea, try it anyway!!)

Go!

This year I won’t be publishing the stories here as I want to send them off somewhere and blogging online counts as published which most outlets won’t accept but will let you know each day how I got on the previous day… so you know I’m doing the challenge with me. Do leave a comment below to let me know how you do.

And me? Struggling for time this month. I was planning on doing Story a Day May (this project) as part of an unofficial NaNoWriMo, i.e. 50,000 words in the month from Story a Day stories topped up by any of my works in progress. 😦

 

SADM 2018 – Day 16: We Need to Talk

http://storyaday.org/day-16-we-need-to-talk

Julie says: Today we continue our look at short stories as not-mini-novels and play with them in ways you can only play with short stories!

Write a story completely in dialogue

It’s probably best to keep this to two characters because it’s harder to have more than two characters, without attribution.

I want you to keep it straight in our heads, who’s talking, simply by the way they talk.

A guy who works on Wall St should sound different from a farmer from a rural area.

Go!

This year I won’t be publishing the stories here as I want to send them off somewhere and blogging online counts as published which most outlets won’t accept but will let you know each day how I got on the previous day… so you know I’m doing the challenge with me. Do leave a comment below to let me know how you do.

And me? <laughs> Yep. Still on day one and not looking good (too much work) for any catch up this weekend. I’ll try.

 

SADM 2018 – Day 15: The List

http://storyaday.org/day-15-the-list

Julie says: “Welcome to Week 3! You’re still here! I’m very impressed…

This week we’ll be looking at some of the fun ways short stories can be written that are nothing like mini-novels.

The Prompt

Write A Story In The Form Of A List

Ideas for your list story:

• Shopping List
• 10 Things I Hate/Love About You
• To Do List
• List of books the character has/wants to read, with commentary (also movies)
• A list of deceased childhood pets
• A list of your character’s fears

Suggested reading

In the video I credited this story to Lydia Davis, but of course it is Jennifer Egan: To Do.

You can also look at McSweeney’s list articles, which are a little more snarky commentary than character stories.

This is a great refresher after a week of deep narrative work.”

Go!

This year I won’t be publishing the stories here as I want to send them off somewhere and blogging online counts as published which most outlets won’t accept but will let you know each day how I got on the previous day… so you know I’m doing the challenge with me. Do leave a comment below to let me know how you do.

And me? Same as before. Nothing past day one… yet.