Julie Duffy's Blog, page 86

[WoW] An Audience Of One

The Prompt

Write a story while thinking about one specific person

Tips







You could aim to delight one specific reader—perhaps your best friend from high school, or your kid, or your funny friend from work…(You do not have to ever show them the storyYou could write a story that works as revenge on someone you have a grudge against—a mean old teacher, the dog that bit you when you were 10, a politician you loathe. You can include the person you’re getting revenge on, or simply think about them and write an amazingly beautiful work of art, to celebrate your utter repudiation of everything they stand for!You could write a story for someone who has passed away.You could write a story that captures elements of a friendship you value—there’s truth in fiction far beyond the actual events of the plotIf you feel your story is getting weird, dig deep. Go weirder.Focus on delighting yourself, while you’re writing. Don’t worry about who will read (or buy) this story. Write for yourself, today.

If you share you story somewhere (and here’s why you might not want to) post a link here so we can come and read it.

Optional Extras:

Share this challenge on your social media platform of choice

Some tweets/updates you might use:

Don’t miss my short story: TEXT #WriteOnWed #storyaday LINKThis week’s #WriteOnWed short story prompt is TEXT! #storyaday LINKCome and write with us! #WriteOnWed #storyaday LINKSee my story – and write your own, today: TEXT at #WriteOnWed #storyaday LINK

Thanks to StoryADay Superstars Marta & Katherine & Laura Jane, and to Srini Rao of the Unmistakable Creative Podcast (listen to my appearance) for inspiring this prompt.

Leave a comment to let us know what you wrote about today, and how it went!

The post [WoW] An Audience Of One appeared first on StoryADay.

[Reading Room] The Era by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

This story was featured in The Best American Short Stories 2019 , edited by Anthony Doerr

The Opening

“Suck one and die,” says Scotty, a tall, mostly true, kid. “I’m aggressive ’cause I think you don’t know sh*t.”

I’m used to not knowing what’s going on at the start of a story. I expect it.

But this story slid under my skin with that weird ‘mostly true’, quickly followed by the kid unexpectedly explaining himself to the victim of his insult.

Something about it seemed off, but it happened so fast that I didn’t have time to figure it out. It hinted to me that we were in the ‘not-now’.

It’s important to orient the reader in the first few lines (something I learned from Mary Robinette Kowal), with the ‘who’, the ‘where’ and the ‘genre’. I’m fairly sure this is goign to be a story featuring kids, and it’s not going to be realistic contemporary fiction.

For the first story in a collection of literary short stories (which can be, for my taste, a little relentlessly contemporary and realistic) this was a very promising start.

I still don’t know if I’m going to like the story, but the fact that it has both confused and informed me in the first two lines is a promising start.

The author quickly confirms my suspicions about the setting with this next couple of paragraphs.

We’re in HowItWas class.

“Well,” Mr. Harper says, twisting his ugly body towards us. “You should shut your mouth because you’re a youth-teen who doesn’t know sh*t about sh*t and I’m a full-middler who’s beeen teaching this stuff for more yeras than I’m proud of.”

There’s so much I love about this: the use of a couple of non-standard vocabulary words to show us we’re definitely not in the here-and-now; the fact that the teacher still manages to sound like a teacher, the way people use not just odd words, but that even when they’re talking in standard English they are communicating in non-standard ways.

This is a great way to intrigue me and force me to read on.

I often talk about the need to create tension or suspense or ‘ask a question’ at the start of the story, to pull the reader in. This is a fabulous example of how that ‘suspense’ doesn’t have to have anything to do with a body on the floor, or an action-scene, or really anything life-altering. It can just be: I wonder why the character is doing/saying that?

And all of this in the first 7 lines.

The Plot Thickens

The story quickly widens out so that some of our curiosity about the setting is satisfied. (It helps that the protagonist is in a History class; it gives them the opportunity to review a few things for the reader’s benefit).

We also quickly learn more about the character. By the third page of the story we’ve been shown how the character is different from the other children in the class. The author does a good mix of showing and telling here. We watch as the kids ‘read’ a textbook in various different ways. The differences between them are then explained to us briefly, in a conversational (“telling”) way.

It’s a great illustration of how there’s a place for each type of exposition in fiction. If the author hadn’t told us why each child reads differently, they would have had to spend a lot more time painting the picture, and we might have got frustrated because we’re not familiar enough with this world yet to understand the inferences. Also, this is a short story. The author doesn’t have time for all that!

Sometimes it’s OK to tell.

General To Specific

The meat of the story introduces some of the flaws in this ‘ideal’ society, at first in general ways: we meet characters who don’t fit in with the ideal, some who are named and some who are lumped-together as a group (the ‘shoelookers’).

Gradually we begin to meet individuals who matter to our protagonist. We learn the identity of some of the outcasts, and begin to see them as individuals.

The story moves from the general to the specific when the issues in this ‘ideal society’ begin to affect our protagonist in very specific, personal ways. In turn, our protagonist must begin to act, make choices, deal.

In the end, everything becomes specific and personal-a big tonal shift from the beginning of the story.

The Ending

This story started with a society and a protagonist it was hard to have much empathy for. It ends with me pumping my fists in the air, rooting hard for the main character and cheering their choices.

In my Openings & Endings workshop, I talk a lot about the importance of emotion. I find it important to feel something as I exit a story. This story certainly made me feel.

It’s a quiet kind of story, one underpinned by large and terrifying thought-experiment. It reminds me of writing by authors like George Saunders and Jim Shepard, who mange to take big ideas and dystopian societies and somehow tell stories that don’t feel grim and depressing.

Note to writers: what emotion are you leaving your reader with as they walk away from your final paragraphs?

Read the story in Best American Short Stories 2019

Have you read this story? What did you think? Leave a comment!

The Reading Room is a series of posts where I review short stories with a writers’ eye.

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Now What?

StoryADay September is over, and now, a week into October, you might be missing the thrill of high-velocity creativity. 

But this is the perfect time to look through your stories and figure out:

which ones are perfect (ha!), which were useful exercises that will forever be consigned to a dark corner of your hard drive, and which might be worth revising.



Don’t Love Revision?

I know, I know! 

Turning out new stories, racking up the word count, feels productive. Revisions can feel like, ugh…spinning your wheels.Writing first drafts is kind of exhausting, and revision feels like preparing to climb the same mountain twice.Writing new words, when you’re in the flow, feels like flying. Revision can feel like staring at a report of ‘why my writing sucks!’

If any of these treacherous thoughts are keeping you from making your stories the best they can be, delighting and impressing readers, and learning to be more productive in your writing practice, you’ll want to grab the  free StoryADay workbook: 

seven, concise pages of tips and mindset tricks to help you learn to, well, love revision. And it’s yours free, right now!

And when you’ve read it I’d love to know what questions you still have. Have you been in critique groups before? What worked and what didn’t? Are you terrified by the idea? (You’re not alone!)

Just reply leave a comment below and tell me what you’re thinking.

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SWAGr for October 2019

Post your goals for this month and let us know how you got on with last month’s goals.

Leave a comment below telling us how you got on last month, and what you plan to do next month, then check back in on the first of each month, to see how everyone’s doing.

(It doesn’t have to be fiction. Feel free to use this group to push you in whatever creative direction you need.)

Did you live up to your commitment from last month? Don’t remember what you promised to do? Check out the comments from last month.

And don’t forget to celebrate with/encourage your fellow SWAGr-ers on their progress!

Download your SWAGr Tracking Sheet now, to keep track of your commitments this month

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Examples of Goals Set By SWAGr-ers in previous months

Write a story a day in May – everyone!Revise at least 10 short stories – IraideWrite two short stories. – JamiAttend one writers’ conference – JulieWrite fable for WordFactory competition – SonyaRe-read the backstory pieces I wrote in May and see if I can use them within my novel – MoniqueResearch the market – JamiFocus on my serial – Maureen

 So, what will you accomplish this month? Leave your comment below (use the drop-down option to subscribe to the comments and receive lovely, encouraging notifications from fellow StADa SWAGr-ers!)

(Next check-in, 1st of the month. Tell your friends!)

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2019 Day 30 – Roll Call

This it! The end of StoryADay 2019! You are an absolutely rockstar for being here today!

Do me a favor? Leave a comments below, and answer these two questions:

How many stories did you writeDid you meet your goal (or get close enough to feel proud of yourself)?

But don’t forget to write today’s story.

The Prompt

About A Writer

Normally I don’t encourage stories about writers because it seems kind of cheap (and uninteresting for the readers), but today I think you’ve earned it.

Use this prompt to write a story about a writer like yourself who has just undergone a big challenge.Or satirize the idea of writing about a writer.Or use it any other way that occurs to you. (And hey, it worked for Stephen King, so who am I to question it?)

Use all the tricks you’ve been practicing this month to show us what a day in the life of a writer can be.

Planning Ahead

You’ve achieved so much this month. I’m so proud of you.

To keep the momentum going, mark your calendars for these StoryADay events throughout the year.

Serious Writer’s Accountability Group (SWAGr) – 1st of every month (sign up for reminders here)Critique Week, October 20-17 – A chance to get your story reviewed by your peers and by me (more details coming soon)NaNoWriMo Support Group – for members of the Superstars group only.Critique Week, February 22-29 – A chance to get your story reviewed by your peers and by me (more details coming soon)And much more, including weekly writing prompts on Wednesdays, posts in The Reading Room, podcasts, interviews, and workshops.Use the StoryADay Events calendar to stay up to date

Go!

Don’t forget to leave a comment saying how many stories you wrote this month, and how you feel about it! Then come back tomorrow to record your June goals in the SWAGr post.

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2019 Day 29 – The One

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 has to be one story that has been nagging at you, patiently waiting its turn.

Today is that day.

Take everything you’ve learned this month, about

Setting limits to help you get to your writing deskCharacterConflictActionDescriptionDialogueOpenings & EndingsThe MiddleEmotionDifferent Story FormsWriting to a provided scenario/external prompt

Use your favorite discoveries from this month, to set your story free today.

Go!

What did you write about today? Did you use any of the lessons from this month? Leave a comment.

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141 – Changing Seasons

There are different seasons in your writing life. Today, I talk about how to navigate the switch from creation mode to ‘everything else’ mode, along with some tools to ease that transition.

It’s another new episode of the StoryADay Podcast

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2019 Day 28 – Closing Line

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

ENDING LINE: As the sun went down that night, I knew it would rise, tomorrow, on a very different world.

Think about this line and what kind of mood you would like it to convey. What kind of mood do you want your story to take today?

Sometimes our stories can veer off track: we feel like writing a funny story and suddenly we’re crying over our keyboards; or we want to write Gothic Horror and somehow end up with Clueless.

Starting with the end in mind, can help with that.

(Feel free to change the syntax and pronoun in this, to fit your story.)

Go!

So how’s it going this week? Are you tired or have you caught your second wind?

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2019 Day 27 – Opening Line

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



OPENING LINE: NEVER TELL ANYONE YOUR REAL NAME

Start your story with that line today.

Go!

So how’s it going this week? Are you tired or have you caught your second wind?

Are you desperate to get back to novel-writing? Or have you discovered a new love for the short form?

What parts of this month’s successes will you take forward into your other writing?

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2019 Day 26 – Two Directions

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

Two Different Directions

Today’s story should feature two characters or factions who want to go in different directions. Lots of room for character desire and conflict, here!

You can take this as literally or figuratively as you like.

Go!

Check back every day for more prompts, and don’t forget to come back and leave a comment to celebrate your writing successes, every day!

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