This is my second summary of my Story A Day writing this month, covering September 7th to today!
I struggled with the September 7 prompt, Roxane Gay Wants You To Be Happy, because I don’t really do happy. (That is not to say that some of my stories might not have a not-completely-depressing tone or outcome, but happy as an overall mood is very much not-me.)
So I’m not sure that what I wrote was objectively happy (is there an objectively happy? I don’t know).
But I was nonetheless very happy with I wrote 🙂
It was another contribution to the novella-universe-prequel pieces that I have been mostly writing this month. And, aside from this story-scene itself, it also generated some other good ideas to further develop the novella’s backstory.
And it also ended up with a Sleeping Beauty’s fairy godmothers kind of twist that I really like.
I really love the day 8 prompt, Premee Mohamed Makes a Deal With A Demon. This is my second attempt at it and I took a similar-but-different approach than I did in May.
I stuck pretty close to the prompt, although not entirely in all the details. I really leaned in on the death/souls aspect in this version.
There is something in the specificity of this prompt that conjures up so many ideas for me. (And I tend to like this kind of content-oriented prompt in general.)
This story hit closer to something I want to explore further than my previous attempt at the prompt. (Although I have done more work on my May story, I am not completely happy with how it resolves, like I had part of a story, but not one that was going to be complete within 3000 words or whatever.)
The prompt on September 9, JEM Wildfire Keeps Things Short, was to write a six word story
I have mixed feelings about these sort of prompts (in particular, specific, often very brief, word counts). On the one hand, I do feel that they are very good exercises in being concise and choosing your words with great care. On the other, sometimes I think of them as merely a distraction (because it’s not a ‘real’ story or some such rather bad reason).
All that to say, I wrote a six word story for day 9 🙂
Her grip loosened. She slid under.
The Day 10 prompt was Deesha Philyaw Encourages Letter-Writing, but I did not write to it at all really. Although the idea it suggests, of writing to a younger version of yourself, did get me thinking about a specific aspect of my novel (the childhood, or lack thereof, amongst the not-really-humans who are the central characters) and I wrote a scene/story about that.
The prompt for September 11 was to Write a 100 Word Story.
See comments for day 9 about the 6 word story 😉
Having said that, I did write an exactly 100 word piece that was a bit story/a bit reflection on a particular element of my novella-universe, so that was useful and productive.
I do find that writing within a particular world (for the most part) is quite helpful in ensuring I always have something to write about, whether it hews close the prompt or not.
And for today’s prompt, Michael X. Wang Challenges Your Character To Survive, I kind of followed the prompt, although not entirely.
It was another piece of backstory for my novella-universe, this time a character telling their dying partner about what will/may/could happen in the future.
So far, Story A Day is going really well for me. There have been a couple days where I have not done all the things I had planned on, but I have caught up the next day (or days!). I know I don’t have to do that, but I like to for myself.
Monique Cuillerier 