StoryADay

Join our critique 'week', Oct 21-31 (because wouldn't it be nice if every week had a couple of extra days to get stuff done?) and get access to the Revisions & Critique Mini Course as well as having me and 3 of your peers critique your work. Use the code: octearlybird before noon (EST) on Sunday, Oct 21 to save $20 https://stada.me/crit18  

This month, as we transition from StoryADay September into the rest of our writing lives, I encourage you to slow down, turn left, and break things. LINKS SWAGr: https://stada.me/swagr Opening Lines Article: http://storyaday.org/opening-lines/

In which I talk about when (writerly) promiscuity is good, and announce the winners of the September giveaway of Windy Lynn Harris's book, "Writing & Selling Short Stories & Personal Essays". Bonus points if you can spot the sound of my kid's hamster trying to break out, in the background. #IThoughtHamstersWereSupposedToBeNocturnal

This could be a really short podcast (just me screaming "NO!"), but I decided to talk in a more constructive way about the reasons why I think it's important to write fast first drafts and save revisions for later. With thanks to my StoryADay Superstars group for raising this talking point as they go through StoryADay September.  

Firstly I talk about some people who are making short and long fiction work for them: Mary Robinette Kowal, whose new novels The Calculating Stars grew out of a short story, The Lady Astronaut of Mars; and Diana Gabaldon, who writes short stories in her Outlander universe to keep her readers occupied while she's working on the longer novels. I also talk about slang: Writing prompt: http://storyaday.org/wow-invented-languages/ Escape Pod episode: Me, Meg & The Thing by Gian-Paul Bergeron - http://escapepod.org/2018/08/02/escape-pod-639-me-meg-and-the-thing/ Prompts for this month: http://stada.me/backstory PEP TALK The second part of this podcast is a pep talk about living up to your writing commitments in the face of life's urgent tasks and why it's so important ... and not just to you.

Writing a longer work like a novel can get a bit overwhelming. Today I encourage you to use short stories to explore areas of your novel's world that you might not have dug deeply into. This can help unblock the writing process and get you back to a place where you're enjoying your writing. LINKS ==== Write on Wednesday prompts: https://stada.me/wow

This month I am still talking about writing for minor holidays and anniversaries. In this podcast I reveal the grand plan behind this: it's a system for focusing on particularly stories, regularly. I talk about the importance of systems (because apparently Ihave a problem with the word "routine") and I recommend you check out Tim Grahl's new book Running Down The Dream. If you want a super-bundle that includes not only Tim's book, but the new book by Stephen Pressfield too "The Artist's Journey" (swoon!), you can find that here. https://stada.me/grahl (not an affiliate link. I'm just a huge fan of both of these guys) The bundle contains all ebook formats plus audio book files. Quite the steal!    

Minor holidays are a great opportunity for writers to show editors why they need to publish *this* story *now*. Forget about the over-subscribed holidays of Valentine's and Christmas. Instead, write about some oddball holidays.  All StoryADay's prompts in June will be tailored to these odd little holidays and anniversaries. Listen to this episode to find out why you might want to write an Arbor Day or National Handwriting Day story. Plus some opportunities to give and invest in your writing. NOTES: Get Well Gabby Foundation is collecting NEW books to be distributed to children's oncology wards. Send them to PO Box 555, Ocean View, DE 19970 or contact your local hospital to see if they need donations.   

This month at StoryADay we're all about revisions. This episode takes a look at how to revise your short stories without becoming overwhelmed, and invites you to think about submitting a story to StoryADay's showcase: Storyfest, coming up on June 23-24.  

StoryADay May is over and now we get to celebrate. This episode talks about upcoming themes at the StoryADay blog, the Serious Writers' Accountability Group and the upcoming StoryFest showcase of all our hard work