Story A Day – May 31st: An Ending and a Beginning

May 31, 2014May 31, 20141 Comment

The latest prompt from storyaday.org is below. For the other prompts given this month, see the SADM 2014 page.

It’s the end of the StoryADay May 2014 challenge.

But it is just the beginning of the rest of your writing life.

I hope the challenge this year has opened your eyes to how very, very creative you can be; to how well you can write; and how important it is to the world that you keep writing.

Stay tuned for more information on the upcoming Revisions course and do keep in touch!

An Ending And A Beginning

Tips

Without wishing to sound like a motivational poster, the end of one thing leads to the beginning of something else. Write your story today in that moment of transition.

Will your character struggle with the idea of the ending, or be wildly excited about the new beginning? Will your character’s expectations be upset? By what?

Every stage of life has transitions. Some are expected (leaving school, getting married, starting a new job) and others come completely out of the blue (a death, the end of a friendship, a job offer, a pregnancy, someone else leaving home). Think about how this affects your character’s reaction.

Go to town on this story. Use everything you have learned this month about: how you write best, when you write best, what length works for you, what tone/style works for you, what kinds of characters speak to you most, the kinds of dialogue or description that you enjoy, the use of suspense, beginnings, middles, ends, theme, character, conflict, action, the ways you’ve learned to get yourself into the writing zone… Everything you have worked on in your writing this month is a tool you can use in this story, today. Have fun. Let yourself go. Finish the story.

Get up tomorrow and keep writing.

GO!

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Story a Day May – May 30th: 215

May 30, 2014May 30, 2014Leave a comment

The latest prompt from storyaday.org is below. For the other prompts given this month, see the SADM 2014 page.

There are 215 days left in 2014. What will you do with them?

As the StoryADay May challenge for 2014 winds down, it’s time to look back a bit, forward a bit, and plan how you’ll use the lessons learned in this month of extreme writing. Hop on over to the community hand have a chat about your plans.

But not until you’ve written today’s story.

Two Hundred And Fifteen

Tips:

You could really go anywhere with this.
Use the number as a countdown; a hotel room number; the number of tasks someone has set themselves to complete before they die…anything.
Remember to give us a character through whose emotions we can feel the whole impact of the story.

GO!

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I welcome items for critique directly (see Editing & Critique) or for posting on the online writing groups.

Story A Day May – May 29th: Start A Riot

May 29, 2014May 29, 2014Leave a comment

The latest prompt from storyaday.org is below. For the other prompts given this month, see the SADM 2014 page.

On May 29, 1913, Igor Stravinsky’s ballet score ‘The Rites of Spring’ premiered in Paris and sparked a riot!

(Wouldn’t you love to have a short-story-reading public that was so passionate about the art, they were willing to throw punches?!)

Write About A Gathering Of Experts That Degenerates Into A Rammy

Tips:

This could take place at a business or scientific conference. Imagine someone presenting a radical, innovative idea and being rowdily challenged by his fellows.
This could be historical, present day, fantastical or sci-fi. You decide.
Make sure you set high stakes for the participants. In Stravinsky’s case, he was a young composer, trusted by the great choreographer Diaghalev to compose something new and untested. There were two factions in the audience: the wealthy, conservative ballet lovers and the young upstarts who wanted to revolutionize all things artistic. What will your story’s opposing forces have to lose if their ideas are rejected?
Remember, as well as the spectacle and opportunity for action in this story, it must be about characters. Make us care about your characters.

GO!

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I welcome items for critique directly (see Editing & Critique) or for posting on the online writing groups.

Story a Day May – May 28th: A Holiday Story

May 28, 2014May 29, 2014Leave a comment

The latest prompt from storyaday.org is below. For the other prompts given this month, see the SADM 2014 page.

And yes, I do mean the winter / Christmas / Thanksgiving / Hannukka / Samhain / Diwali / Hogmanay / New Year / Kwanzaa / Chinese New Year / Solstice / Saturnalia / Festivus November / December / January type of holiday.

If you ever think of submitting your stories to literary magazines, contests, anthologies, or other publications, you need to know two things:

They are often themed and holiday stories are always popular. Your story needs to be written, edited, submitted, selected, corrected, and green lit, month in advance of the actual holiday. Write your December stories now. Time’s running out.

Write A Story Tied To A Holiday That Takes Place In November / December / January / February

Tips

Evoke the sights, smells, sounds and emotions you associate with that holiday.
Put on some appropriate holiday music to get you in the mood.
Go beyond the obvious idea for the story associated with your chosen holiday. No saccharine tales of redemption or bitter humbug retellings of A Christmas Carol, for us!
Make the characters stronger than the trappings of the holiday.
Write the story for someone who has never participated in your holiday traditions. Show them what it’s like to be you at Christmas / Hanukkah / Hogmanay / Groundhog Day.

GO!

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I welcome items for critique directly (see Editing & Critique) or for posting on the online writing groups.

Story A Day May: May 27th: Two Prompts

May 27, 2014Leave a comment

The latest prompts (yes, there are two today) from storyaday.org are below. For the other prompts given this month, see the SADM 2014 page.

1. Illustration: click here for the details.

2. Today’s scenario starts with character and very little in the way of setting.

Alex is cold. She is climbing a snow-laden mountain. The wind strips the heat from her as soon as it radiates out to her skin. She clutches her arms. Where is her coat? She wants to sit down, lie down, but knows that is the most dangerous thing she can do. Suddenly, she’s doing it anyway. But the snow feels wrong under her body. It is smooth and hard and dry and not at all like snow. In an instant her hip and cheek are aching as if she’s been lying here for hours. She can’t hear the wind anymore. She is still cold but now she knows she is inside. In a room? She opens her eyes. She has been dreaming. Instead of the unending expanse of the world around her, she can see only a few feet to the dirty white wall. She is still in the room. On the floor. Her chest contracts, but she lacks even the strength to curl up in a ball and cry. She is still here. Maybe this afternoon she will try the door handle again. Or maybe not.

Tips:

Alex needn’t be a woman. Or human. Or called Alex. But start your story with someone in a (presumably) locked room. Make us care about your character, or at least wonder what he/she has done.
If you’re not a fan of mystery, you can let Alex out of the room quickly.
If you don’t like the tone I set with this opening, write your own.
Your character’s prison need not be physical. Maybe the door is unlocked and your character is in a comfortable bed, but is locked into a psychological hell instead.
Or maybe this is the opening to a comic tale where Alex has done something incredibly silly and ended up here. She needs to extricate herself from the situation, piece together what exactly led her to be here, and set about putting things right, in a ridiculous, hilarious way.

Go!

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I welcome items for critique directly (see Editing & Critique) or for posting on the online writing groups.

Story A Day May: May 26th: It Ain’t Easy, Being…

May 26, 2014May 26, 2014Leave a comment

The latest prompt from storyaday.org is below. For the other prompts given this month, see the SADM 2014 page.

Today’s writing prompt is a traditional ‘scenario’ prompt. I give you the scene and a character, you run wild with it.

Tonight is the kid’s talent show. Your character is determined to be there. Unfortunately your main character is no run-of-the-mill suburban parent. This time, though, they’re not going to let that job get in the way. No matter what comes up, they’re going to let someone else handle it. They can’t stand the thought of getting that look from the kid one more time…

Tips:

The prompt is intentionally vague. Your character can be male, female, trans; human, fish-person, orc (hey, where is it written that orcs can’t be caring parents?)…the kid can be any kid, any age — whatever works for you.
What could possibly keep this parent from seeing all their kid’s shows and games, and has them running late to the few birthday parties they’ve managed to attend?
Will you write a humorous tale of disaster or a dark, sinister horror thriller? Will your story be uplifting or tragic, or a more realistic mixture of both.

GO!

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I welcome items for critique directly (see Editing & Critique) or for posting on the online writing groups.

Story A Day May – May 25th: Date with Destiny

May 25, 2014May 25, 2014Leave a comment

The latest prompt from storyaday.org is below. For the other prompts given this month, see the SADM 2014 page.

OK, so for most of this month I’ve been encouraging you to write, write, and nothing but write. No thoughts of publication or audience to scare you into writers’ block. But you’ve been at this for 24 days now. I think you’ve probably proved a thing or two to yourself (like a, you’re stubborn; b, not everything you write is garbage and c, you can do this!). So today, just for a moment, let’s remember that part of writing is a desire to connect with other people. We can do that by having our work published in magazines that already have a reading-audience built in.

Find a contest or submission deadline on a theme you like, and write a story as if you were going to submit to that market.

Tips:

You don’t have to submit the story in the end (and if you do, you probably shouldn’t submit the version you write today. Put it away for a couple of weeks, show it to writing-friends, revise it, format it according to the market’s guidelines and then send it).
You can find market and contest listings at Duotrope.com, WritersMarket.com (subscription), Poets & Writers and many, many other places online. I have a subscription to Duotrope and find it to be the best managed market listings site I’ve come across in almost 20 years of using the things.
Go beyond the obvious ideas suggested by the theme or guidelines. Try out several different characters and scenarios. Push your ideas into the realms of the ridiculous and beyond, before you ever start writing one of them. Remember, editors are going for receive hundreds of entries for every publishing slot they have. Your best bet is to be original. Part of that is your voice, but part of it is your ability to push past the first, obvious idea you have.

Go!

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I welcome items for critique directly (see Editing & Critique) or for posting on the online writing groups.

Story a Day May – May 24th: Title Recall

May 24, 2014May 24, 2014Leave a comment

The latest prompt from storyaday.org is below. For the other prompts given this month, see the SADM 2014 page.

Today we’re stealing from the Beach Boys. Use their title to write an original story

Write A Story Titled “Good Vibrations”

Tips:

You can write a Beach Boys-related story about surfing and California if you want.
Think about the ways you could use the words in the title — ways that have nothing to do with the original song.
Write 10 different ideas for plays on the words ‘good’ and ‘vibrations’.
Write a story about a person who was influenced by (or grew up listening to) the song.
Set the story somewhere completely unexpected (like 10,000 years in the future, on an alien moon colony), or under the sea.

Go!

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I welcome items for critique directly (see Editing & Critique) or for posting on the online writing groups.

Story A Day May – May 23rd: Will’s Words

May 23, 2014May 23, 2014Leave a comment

The latest prompt from storyaday.org is below. For the other prompts given this month see the SADM 2014 page.

Today we’re stealing from another master: William Shakespeare.

Write A Story That Incorporates This Quote (or its spirit)

“If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?”

Tips:

If you don’t like this quote, here’s another to play with: “A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.”
Consider making the quote the last line (or first line) of your story.
How can you incorporate the actual line into your story? What kind of story will you write if you opt to use the spirit of the quote rather than Will’s words?
Shakespeare endures, not because we’re interested in Elizabethan life, but because the characters he wrote were so true to human nature. Make your characters similarly realistic.

GO!

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I welcome items for critique directly (see Editing & Critique) or for posting on the online writing groups.

Story A Day May – May 22nd: Word List Silliness

May 22, 2014May 22, 2014Leave a comment

The latest prompt from storyaday.org is below. For the other prompts given this month see the SADM 2014 page.

This is an extremely silly way to start a story, but it always seems to work — maybe because it removes any pressure you may be putting on yourself to write something “good”. Today you write a story using these words from my Third Grader’s spelling list.

Use These Words In A Story: Lettuce, Happen, basket, Winter, Sister, Monster, Supper, Subject, Puppet

Tips:

Don’t worry too much about this one. Just write something!
Don’t forget to give us a character who want something (perhaps a lettuce? A sister? A monster?).
Post your story somewhere we can see it (in the comments or in the community) and read everyone else’s stories. Revel in the weirdness!

Go!

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I welcome items for critique directly (see Editing & Critique) or for posting on the online writing groups.