StoryADay presents: I, WRITER - A Writing Podcast about Building a Successful Writing Practice

You did it! You've made it to week three! Congratulations. And don't worry if things are getting harder this week. This is your RESCUE WEEK, full of prompts exclusively designed to help you over the hump.

Protagonists and Antagonists aren't the only characters to turn up in your stories. Today we take a look at the sidekick's role.

Today's prompt uses the antagonist to show what the protagonist could be if only they were a little bit worse/braver/less moral.

Today we're concentrating on character. You love your main character...just don't let them be too perfect!

Today I talk about the third of the short story structures I'm encouraging you to try out: This time the big moment comes right up front...BOOM!

Today I encourage you to try out the Ugly Duckling story structure: the big moment comes in the middle of the story and is balanced by events on either side...

A welcome to week two of the challenge, where we take a serious look at the Elements of Story. On this first day we look at what I call the "Cinderella Story Structure". It's a skeleton you can hang your own story on, fleshing it out with your own interests.

Today you'll write a story mostly or completely in dialogue.

Today, I challenge you to write a story about a character as unlike yourself as you can imagine. With they be sympathetic? Will they be evil? What can you do with this prompt?

Today's prompt encourages you to write a story about a character who shares some similarities with you.

Continuing this week's theme of 'Limits', today I'm limiting you to a first-person point-of-view story.

Today you're going to write a story in 100 words

This is a very silly prompt, but it always gets people writing!

You're doing it! Good for you!   Today's episode is a pep talk and your first writing prompt. This week's theme is "Limits"   You can leave a comment about today's story here: http://storyaday.org/prompt-30-mins/

Julie shares her best tips from 6 years of Extreme Writing Challenges, for getting your writing done this month. Don't turn off before the last tip...it's the best!   Music credit: Alan McPike standardstrax.com

Wondering how it's possible to write a story a day for a month? 6 years' worth of FAQs, condensed into one little podcast!

It sounds like a crazy idea: trying to write a story a day every day for a month, and yet thousands of people have taken on this task every May since 2010. How? Why? Listen and find out what your writing life will gain from giving it a try.

In which I rant about the "professionalization" of entertainment and encourage you to rail against it. 

In this episode I talk about the many, many ways we are wrong when we tell ourselves we simply can't write!

Make sure that your definition of 'success' for your writing is really YOUR definition of writing success. Don't allow anyone else to tell you what success looks like! Also covering: fifth grade failures; epic wins; a look forward to December 31.

Last episode, we talked about logging your words, to motivate yourself to write more. This episode we look at other ways to log your progress for those times (e.g. when you're editing a big project) when logging your (new) words is beyond depressing!

Last year I wrote 100,000 words of fiction (that's on top of all the non-fiction writing, mothering, wife-ing and general living I got done). In this episode I show you how to use word count logging to boost your writing output and to keep yourself accountable. I also invite you to join us at the Serious Writers' Accountability Group (SWAGr - we're 'serious', not 'sombre'!) at http://storyaday.org...

Not living up to your writing resolutions? Learn how to harness guilt, dismiss shame, and focus on the things that will help you be more productive and creative.