I’m going to do Story-a-Day-May. Last year, I wrote a series of stories under the title The Fairy Tale Asylum. The working title this year–Graveyard Girls and The Enchanted Dead: Their Stories. We shall see where it goes.
Why even do such a thing? I’ve done NaNoWriMo too, and these challenges beg the question-why?
Why indeed.
A thousand good reasons exist not to do them. If you can write without one, then go write. If you think these things are a silly waste of time, then they probably are. What matters is the writing, not whether that writing comes in the month of November or May.
This year, I may not participate in NaNo. Hard for me to imagine because I’ve done it every year since November 2004. I wrote a lot. Met great people. Had fun. And the main reason I love NaNo is that it changed my commitment to writing. It changed my thinking about my writing. Before Nano, I’d taken five years to write one novel, and it didn’t seem like a life I could seriously pursue. I may not be published, but still, I consider myself a writer, and NaNo is to thank.
Besides, NaNo also introduced me to someone who has become a fantastic friend–the friend who convinced me I could sell my art.
But I may have gone as far with NaNo as I can. Story-a-Day is different. It is still new and a real challenge. With NaNo, if you skipped a day, you just wrote more the next day. This Story-a-Day challenge means writing every single day.
It helps that I have an idea.
If you are happy with your writing life, then keep doing what you’re doing. Write. Otherwise, join me.
Marta Pelrine-Bacon 
I hope it goes really, really well. I think it’s a brilliant exercise, Marta, and I wish I could do it with you. Heck, maybe by then I’ll have finished my non-fic and can do it.
I’d like to see what you’d do with such a challenge. And you know, you could give it a whirl any time at all. Make it June (like JES, ahem) if you need to. Just keep writing!
Sounds like a great idea, but I don’t think I could think up so many stories. Is it important/helpful to have a theme? Good luck with it! 31 days….
I’ve only done this once before, but in that one experience a theme was helpful. I decided to write fairy tales–taking an element from know fairy tales–and that gave me an idea to write something–no matter how awful–every day.
And thanks, Miriam!
Really considering it. I like that there’s no specific word count involved, only a story a day. I think that could be very beneficial to me at this point in my “career”.
The more the merrier. Try it. No penalty for trying after all.
This sounds interesting- I look forward to hearing how it goes for you. And wow, every year Nano, since 2004?! Impressive!
Thank you, Aisha (a lovely name too by the way). And really, I made many friends through NaNo, which made it feel like the great social event of the year, which certainly made the process easier.
Great title! It almost sounds like a creepy cheerleader squad or something. 🙂 Looking forward to reading.
No cheerleaders of any kind!
My writing life has seemed to be fading away. This is very inspiring. I’ve stopped thinking of myself as a writer, even. I want to be a writer again. Though I can’t really explain why.
You are a writer again.
June?! I thought I said July. Or maybe October???
Good for you for doing this. Will you be posting these stories? If not, how do I get on the mailing list? 🙂
Maybe it was July. Maybe I’m being pushy.
Now a mailing list…? Hmm.