Yesterday, I ended up just scribbling some lines down for a Ink & Mirabelle story. Ink & Mirabelle are rabbits, and a few years ago, I made a handbook telling a short story about them. In that story, Mirabelle is on the moon and Ink tried in vain to talk her into coming back to …
I didn't take much of a look at today's Story-a-Day prompt since I had an image already in my head. This is why I've never been good at plotting. I have to write to figure out what is going on the scene. In rewrites, a plot takes shape, but I have to explore the space …
I wrote yesterday but didn't come over to my blog to post about it. And I've written today. Neither story follows the Story-a-Day prompt. Even though I liked the prompts, no ideas came. So, I just wrote something else. First, here is a story about a moment in the childhood of a character in my …
Nine days in. Today's prompt was about a character's desire. No idea came to me, so I picked another character from my work-in-progress and explored his childhood. I can't help but wonder what I'm going to do with this manuscript when it is done. It won't be done for a while yet, but if I …
Today's Story-a-Day May prompt was conflict. While I think I put some conflict in my stories, I never start with a conflict in mind. I start all my stories with an image in my head, and then I ask myself questions about that image until I find the conflict. So, starting with a conflict didn't …
I'm not committed to following the Story-a-Day prompts, but so far each prompt has given me an idea. Todays' prompt is about stealing from yourself. The idea is to go back and revisit a story you've told before. So, I've gone back to my first published short story. This ins't strictly true. I had a …
Today's Story-a-Day May prompt asked us to steal something--a character, a world, a plot. Something from another fictional world and to have fun with it. Since this is fan fiction, I can't have it published elsewhere or anything like that, so I'll just post the entire piece here. Coincidentally, I finished reading Jonathan Strange & …
Today's prompt was to write for 40 minutes, but I had seveal interruptions when I started and soon lost rack of how much time I spent writing. In any event, I went to an established character and went into her past. Here is a snippet of that. Tas was the only one not to watch …
The prompt for Story-a-Day today was to write a 100 word story. I don't always follow the prompts, but after yesterdays very long, about-to-get-out-of-control story, the idea of a very short story appealed. Another Day on the Job Ben Chiselsmith navigated his ship into position. He sipped his tea, reviewed the orders. Everything was clear …
The beginning of today's story--Mr. Dimwater's Graveyard School. The bodies arrived before lunch. Fourteen-year-old Sofie Hartmore slammed her book shut and threw her pencil hard across the room. It barely missed Tobin Yu, who had just lifted himself up off the floor. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and ignored the clatter of Sofie’s …
Marta Pelrine-Bacon 