Hello everyone. Most of you reading this will be readers if not writers. Maybe you’ve thought about doing some writing but you’re not sure where to start. Maybe you think you have to start with a novel. That’s not the case. Rounded stories can start at 55 words, poems a haiku at 17 syllables!
My first love is short stories and I’m currently (May 2023) doing Story a Day May. It’s getting me writing daily which is long overdue. Back in 2013, my third year of doing the prompts, I continued which became ‘Five pm Fictions’ for a year! I ended up self-publishing all of these, later converting them into my Flashes (<500 words) and Shorts (500 words+) collections.
Writing for me (and I know for others), especially short pieces, works best if I have a prompt so I thought I’d provide a prompt a day (posted at 6am UK time) as inspiration for you once Story A Day May has finished, i.e. June 1st onwards. It might be a single word, a sentence start, a character name, location, or a new way of thinking about something. Anything fairly random!
I have several collections of writing workbooks but these will be new prompts. That said, I have quite a shocking memory so apologies if there is some overlap, it certainly wouldn’t be intentional.
When I was teaching (creative writing for my then-council’s adult learning) I found it didn’t take much for inspiration to strike so I hope these daily posts help you. If you’re already writing and perhaps you’re stuck with your current project you may find the distraction helps. If nothing else, it should hopefully be fun.
If you’d like to suggest a prompt for others, do complete the form below. Please provide at least two (as many as you like) so I can choose one should it be too similar to someone else’s or post them sporadically so you get more than one mention. If you have a website or book page (e.g. Amazon, Kobo etc.) I’ll link your name to that so hopefully it’ll boost your traffic a little. The post will automatically go to Facebook, LinkedIn and Tumblr. I’ll then share to Instagram and Twitter after it goes live.
Don’t worry if you miss any, I will post the links to a sub-page of the A Prompt A Day page so you can read them at any time.
If you do any of the prompts do leave a comment on the relevant post so we can see how you’re getting on.
Hello. I know that writers, myself included, need – and appreciate – feedback on our work. By that I don’t mean “Oh yes, that’s great” – although that would be good too. We need to be told where we’re going wrong. I am a freelance editor so it’s my day job to do that but I thought I’d start this critique group so that you could also get feedback from other writers.
For some of us sitting down to transcribe or pen a memoir can be an overwhelming task. I recommend approaching it in bite-size pieces or rather applying flash. By freeze framing a moment, a memory, like a camera snapshot, and dwelling there you are creating the foundation for longer memoir, a jumping off place to expand upon later. (see my other eBook, Freeze Frame: How to Write Flash Memoir)
Taste is a huge trigger—recall Proust in In Search of Lost Time or also known as Remembrance of Things Past where he writes about involuntary memory instigated by a simple cookie. Dunking a tea biscuit can easily lead one on a journey into the past. Some call this nostalgia or déjà vu.
Later than planned to tell you… sorry about that but…
Ben wiggled his tailed bottom. “Look at my costume, Dad.”
Morgen 'with an E' Bailey 