Today’s prompt is a whole scenario with a named character and a tricky situation. Your job is to decide who this character is and how they will ultimately react. I’m really curious to see how different people deal with this, so please do post either the story or a link to your version in the … Continue reading “[Writing Prompt] Writing From A Scenario – Lorina’s Story”
Thanks for your interest in providing a prompt for the StoryADay Challenge 2023. Every May hundreds of writers take part in the StoryADay May–challenging themselves to become more productive and more creative by writing a story a day for a month. The 2023 lineup already includes Mary Robinette Kowal, KB Carle, Rachel Swearingen, and Sarah … Continue reading “Guest Writing Prompts”
If you’re serious about your writing, doesn’t it seem like you should be working on your novel or the story-you-want-to-get-published rather than messing about with writing prompts? Respectfully, no. Using writing prompts has many benefits, if you’re getting good prompts and you know how to use them. Good vs. ‘Meh’ Immodestly, I’ll dispense with the … Continue reading “6 Ways Writing Prompts Can Inspire Your Best Writing”
How to keep going as we enter Week 2 of the StoryADay May challenge (hint: it’s about purpose); and how to work with writing prompts. ::Links:: Writing Prompt (The Bridge): https://storyaday.org/2021-day-01 Writing Prompt (A Happy Story): https://storyaday.org/2021-day-07 Writing Prompt (Scenario): https://storyaday.org/2021-day-08 Story: The PILGRIM’s Guide To Mars by Monique Cuillerier: https://www.diabolicalplots.com/dp-fiction-75a-the-pilgrims-guide-to-mars-by-monique-cuillerier/ Ready to write today, … Continue reading “Working with Writing Prompts”
Guest Prompt Thank you so much for your interest in providing a prompt for the StoryADay May challenge Enter Prompt In Form Now F. A. Q. What kind of writing prompt should I provide? Prompts for StoryADay May can be anything from a word to a picture or a list of unrelated phrases. Or it … Continue reading “Guest Prompt Form”
Great! I’ll send you writing prompts every Wednesday. You can opt out at any time, but I hope you’ll keep opening them every week, to see what ideas they spark! In the meantime you can find all kinds of writing prompts today: Writing Prompts With Limits Writing Prompts Exploring Character Writing Prompts About Point Of … Continue reading “Writing Prompts Every Wednesday”
Today’s writing prompt invites you to look back into your characters’ past again. The Prompt Imagine the first (significant) meeting between your protagonist and a secondary character Tips Again, if you’re not a novelist, imagine this scenario for a short story you’ve written in the past, or for one you’re planning. If your novel-in-progress’s … Continue reading “Secondary Meeting – a writing prompt”
Today, Bea from The Busy Muse gives us a scenario and encourages us to stretch our genre expectations… Don’t forget, you can listen to the audio-only by subscribing to the podcast The Prompt Your company sends you to meet a costumer at their house. It’s a standard, nice neighborhood. You ring and ring but nobody … Continue reading “A Mysterious Situation – Writing Prompt from Bea from The Busy Muse”
The Prompt
Your story starts with a character standing on a windswept, desolate plain. How did they get there? What do they want? And what is that on the horizon, and why is it getting closer?
I talk a lot about writing prompts and Story Sparks around here. They are your secret weapons for getting through a month of extreme short story writing! What is a Story Spark? It’s a term I coined for something that is less than a story idea and certainly not an outline, but something that you … Continue reading “Story Sparks and Writing Prompts”
Today’s scenario starts with character and very little in the way of setting. The Prompt Alex is cold. She is climbing a snow-laden mountain.
Today’s writing prompt is a traditional ‘scenario’ prompt. I give you the scene and a character, you run wild with it. The Prompt 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, thought, they’re not going to let that job … Continue reading “[Writing Prompt] It Ain’t Easy, Being…”
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, … Continue reading “[Writing Prompt] Date With Destiny”
Woo-hoo! One week into the StoryADay May challenge and you are still turning up. Good for you! (Seriously. More than talent, persistence is the thing that is going to make writing a fulfilling, successful and worthwhile pursuit for you.) Take a moment to reflect on everything you learned about your writing last week. Try to … Continue reading “[Writing Prompt] Character Counts”
[Here’s another scenario ripe with opportunities for character development, comedy, tragedy…in other words emotion — that thing that all readers are looking for! – JD] The Prompt Your protagonist opens the door and finds an unexpected guest–a friend from high school who hasn’t been heard from in many years. This friend has fallen on hard times … Continue reading “[Writing Prompt] Elizabeth Spann Craig – The Unexpected Guest”
In this exercise we’re going to take what we’ve discovered while writing the other Point Of View prompts, and use it to rework a story. The Prompt Take a story you have previously written and rewrite it, in a different Point of View Tips If you have a story that never really worked properly, try … Continue reading “[Writing Prompt] Changing POV”
Today I’m recycling this prompt from March. It offers an innovate way to get into the Second Person (“you do this, you do that”) perspective without making your story sound like a Choose Your Own Adventure. The Prompt Write A Story Set in the Second Person Tips Are you still collecting story sparks everywhere you … Continue reading “[Writing Prompt] Second Person”
Don’t miss this news about a new week-long challenge to keep you writing in June — and this one comes with a built-in revision component! The Prompt Take an event/experience from your own life and fictionalize it Last year, at a writer’s conference I was struck by the reaction of a panel of agents every … Continue reading “[Writing Prompt] The Non-Memoir”
I love stealing inspiration from other sources. The Prompt Write A Story Based On A Character or Scenario From A Game Tips This could be a scenario from a video game or a board game (what if you WERE Mario — or met him on the road? What if you were Miss Scarlet. Were you … Continue reading “[Writing Prompt] Game-ify”
Continuing this week’s theme of POV prompts, here is today’s prompt: Write a Story In Second Person This is probably the least-used of all the points of view and with good reason. It’s not one we’re used to reading because it’s tricky and informal and potentially distracting. So what is ‘second person’? It’s when the … Continue reading “[Writing Prompt] Second Person”
Choose a character to observe this scenario
I talk a lot about writing prompts and Story Sparks around here. They are your secret weapons for getting through a month of extreme short story writing! What is a Story Spark? It’s a term I coined for something that is less than a story idea and certainly not an outline, but something that you … Continue reading “Your Secret Weapon For Creative Success – Story Sparks”
How did you get on yesterday? Did you write a story? Remember, set your own rules, and stick to them. If you miss a day, don’t try to catch up. Just keep moving forward! The Prompt Write The Story You’ve Been Waiting To Write I’ve been making you jump through hoops all month, but there … Continue reading “2019 Day 29 – The One”
In your writing practice, what counts as ‘writing’? Do you give yourself credit for reading time? Revisions? Taking classes? Or do you feel guilty about now being productive when you aren’t adding new words to a story? RESOURCES Does Thinking Count As Writing: https://stada.me/think Learning To Make Choices: https://stada.me/choice Writing Prompts – Scenarios: https://stada.me/scenarios Writing Prompts – Word … Continue reading “episode126”
This month’s focus is on Flash Fiction. Flash isn’t just short, it is urgent. And so is today’s prompt The Prompt Time’s Up Tips
Today’s guest prompt comes from Jen Silverman. Jen Silverman is a New York–based writer and playwright, a two-time MacDowell Fellow, and the recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts grant and the Yale Drama Series prize. She was awarded the 2016–17 Playwrights of New York fellowship at The Lark and is a member … Continue reading “Day 7 – Playing With Character with Playwright Jen Silverman”
Today we’re moving on to another element of story: your protagonist The Prompt Write a story with the flawed protagonist Tips This is kind of a cheat because every protagonist should have a flaw, but today we’re going to focus on that. Characters are interesting for many reasons. They can be interesting because we identify … Continue reading “Your Flawed Protagonist”
I talk a lot about writing prompts and Story Sparks around here. They are your secret weapons for getting through a month of extreme short story writing! What is a Story Spark? It’s a term I coined for something that is less than a story idea and certainly not an outline, but something that you … Continue reading “Your Secret Weapon For Creative Success – Story Sparks”
Welcome to StoryADay September 2015!! Congratulations on making a fresh commitment to your writing. This month we’ll be featuring writing prompts from writers within the StoryADay community, and myself. Let me tell you, from what I’ve seen already, there are some GREAT prompts coming your way. Each prompt this month will set a scenario or … Continue reading “Sept 1 — The Disappeared”
The Prompt
Write a story starting with the climax and working backwards to find out how we got there
The Prompt
Write A Story In The Second Person
A 6-part journey through the short story.
Starts July 28, 2023
