July is going to be busy…
We are going to write a short story – from outline to finish – every day for 30 days in July. Yes, we know that it has 31 days, but all that means that you get a free day (yayyyy!)
Does it sound like a challenge? You bet it is! Am I ready? Yes-ish. Creating what amounts to a story a day is an undertaking, but one that is worth doing. Because this is about finishing the titles I start.
Here are the rules (with my thoughts in parentheses):
- Between the 1st of the month and the 30th, you must complete 30 short stories. You do not need to 100% finish a story a day, but all stories must be completed by 12:01 am the 31st. (This bit is beneficial for me since there will be more than a few longer ones in there)
- The stories can be any length but must be complete stories. Don’t call a 500-word story “flash fiction” if it’s really just a story you just never finished. (another yay! The initial minimum length was 3,000 which I will still stick to as I tend to write between 5-25K naturally
- The stories can be connected, but each must be standalone. (They will all be connected – you knew they would be connected – see rule 6… but don’t skip the other rules.)
- The completed stories must be editor-ready, meaning if you are the kind of person who rewrites, does multiple passes, and such, they must be at the point where you could turn them into your editor. This is not NaNoWriMo where the goal is to poop out a quick first draft. The goal is to have stories that can be used for reader magnets, to put on Instafreebie, to use as filler between main releases, and other meaningful purposes (Like my blog – for you, yes you ). To do that the stories need to be editor-ready at the end of the month. (this is going to be the hardest part as editing is the slowest part of the process for me – unless you’re building a new universe like I am, then it takes a month longer than it should have.)
- You can do any prewriting and planning that you need to ahead of time. That includes bios, outlines, mind maps, timelines, or whatever you need to get done, so that come the 1st you can start writing. (yes, Yes, and YES!! In coming days, I will be sharing what I will be doing, including the outline method that I macgyvered from several techniques.)
- Feel free to set your short stories in universes you have previously created or with characters you have already written. (yeeeeeep! All the stories will be in the Allazar Universe across all of my imprints:
- M-2 (mystery),
- The Coursers (action-fantasy),
- Crypto LaCoure (monster hunters),
- Ether Moon (LitRPG),
- The Story Mother (magic realism),
- and Tales of Allazar (all the other stories that don’t fit anywhere else.)
- This is not a “Look how awesome I am!” kind of challenge. This is a “Kick in the butt” kind of challenge. The point is to produce a bunch of quality work, over a short period and not to let excuses or life get in the way. This challenge isn’t about bragging rights. It’s about getting done things you’ve meant to write but never made the time. It’s about ending the month with a stack of stories that you can actually use. (I suck at finishing. And having a challenge where the goal is finishing is just want I need. I learned a lot of things from Phoenix Prime and finishing is hard was one of them. I learned things that help me with that, and this will allow me to practice that again and again.)
- All though there are a bunch of us doing this challenge, it really comes down to you. What do you want and what do you hope to get from it? (to learn to finish, have a bunch of stories I can share, learn a bit more about my characters, and increase the number of titles in my catalog). If you want or need to deviate from these official rules, there’s nothing wrong with that as long as you are still using the time to write and create! (believe me, it is on! sehe dich dann!)