365 Day Challenge: Write Your Stories

Dear Wonderful Online Friends and Folks,

You are a big part of the reason I am where I am today, writing and loving it, stretching my wings, digging back into poetry, and muddling my way into this brave new world of entrepreneurship. You have listened to my good times and my bad times and cheered me on and chatted shop and fandom and original creativity and all the bridges between. We've talked tea, we've talked fiction, we've talked about the influences on our lives. It's been a wonderful year.

Looking back, I see things I want to do differently in the upcoming year, things I used to write about that I want to write about again, things I want to cull off this site and clean up into something worthwhile. Most of all, I want to reach out to the community of friends I have here that I've been missing more than I can say.

I've been wanting to do a 365 challenge for the new year, particularly inspired by the Paperback Writer's artist trading card challenge and Elsie Larson's photography challenge, and I want to stretch myself, make myself grow into what I can become as a writer and creator. I'd like to write 365 pieces of poetry and fiction to prompts.

This means I need help. I need prompts. Poetry, songs, colors, favorite lines, etc. Every few weeks or so, I'll probably set up another prompt post and call out for what I need to get started. I want to write original work, but knowing me, the occasional bit of fandomness will sneak in. This is more exciting to me than I can say for some reason, and I'm hoping you will all help me as I reach out to create an average of one piece a day.

Love you all. You are the best. :hugs:

the scribbler


The Rules

Goal: 365 total stories/poems averaging 1 piece a day

Flash Fiction (1000 words or less) = 1 piece
Short Story (1001–7500 words) = 2 pieces
Novelette (7501–17500 words) = 4 pieces
Novella (17500–40000 words) = 7 pieces
Novel (40000 words or more) = 10 pieces

Poem (1–100 lines) = 1 piece
Poem (101–250 lines) = 2 pieces
Long poem (251+ lines) = 4 pieces


365 Challenge Updates | Livejournal 365 Challenge Tag

1/365: Tenderness

Renaiven was known as a harsh man, but almost no one knew why.

Science Fiction Fantasy Flash Fiction Short Story
200 words

2–3/365: A Letter to Fellow Historical Intern, Whom I Named Huerél

Vardin is not the same without you here to taste the rain.

A letter from one Academy Library intern to another, asking for a return to Vardin and an opinion on a proposed law by the new Queen.

Science Fiction Fantasy Letter
1408 words

4/365: Remembering Lena

Wesley thought he knew why he borrowed the books. He wanted a reason to come back.

Every week for the last three months, Wesley Bryn has showed up at Pretty Things to return a book to the proprietor and borrow another. The reason is as much a mystery to him as to her.

Fantasy Romance Flash Fiction Short Story
939 words

5–6/365: Girls That Go Bump in the Mind

What you don't know can hurt you.

No one realized just how deep the animosity between telepaths went until sweet, self-sacrificing, foolish Scott Summers offered to help Emma Frost with her homework—and she brought her study partner, Jean Grey, along for the ride.

X-Men Evolution Fanfic
1016 words

7/365: The Perfect Woman

This will not do! For what I am / Is woman, not a female man.

Lyric Poem
16 lines

8/365: Winter Rose

She wants a bloom that lives beyond a week.

Every week, Wesley comes to borrow and return a book. Lena wants the rose to live until he comes.

Fantasy Romance Flash Fiction Short Story
200 words

9/365: Edge of Salvation, Edge of Fear

What if every thought could write reality?

Markus was afraid to open the books, even if by doing so he could save them.

Science Fiction Fantasy Flash Fiction Short Story
100 words

10–11/365: Beneath the Icewood Trees

What is fae and what is magic?

Eried Black is a son of a privileged house, one granted magic to guard and use and sell. When he sees it used amiss, it angers him, but has he finally gotten in over his head?

Science Fiction Fantasy Short Story
1277 words

12–13/365: Queen of Heaven

The Queen of Heaven should not care / When lost were all the reeling stars / The Queen of Heaven tossed her hair / Retorted, "Don't you know what's ours"

Fantasy Narrative Poem
124 lines

14–15/365: Welcome

Cate shouldn't have asked, but she did.

Rachelle would rather be anywhere else than the newly formed Special Unit, doing the work she used to be enslaved to. But she will. For Cate.

Science Fiction Short Story
1042 words

16/365: Hunt the Mists

He wanted to change the way things were.

Bryn wants to guard their own lands and the outsiders who stumble upon them, but he is no hunter and only the hunters wander out into the mists.

Science Fiction Fantasy Flash Fiction Short Story
353 words

17/365: The Un-Study

Knowledge solid, fluid (is) / Unlearning ev'rything.

Lyric Poem
16 lines

18/365: How We Write Poetry

Answer, turn and answer / Then turn the stone again

Science Fiction Fantasy Poem
13 lines

19/365: Battery Acid

Battery acid is caustic, but indispensable.

Justus had found the Database’s company to be tolerable, but sometimes she was a little too sharp when he was already feeling raw.

Science Fiction Flash Fiction Short Story
501 words

20/365: watch me dream

and time shall be hereafter / writ in heart our souls' provisions / wound, unwound by dreamers sifting

Fantasy Poem
18 lines

21/365: The Unmaking

Whirled 'round, making and unmaking / Raze, raze heaven 'til it gleams

Fantasy Poem
16 lines

22/365: The Ones Who Choose

Who is family?

Natasha Romanova surprised herself by moving in to the Stark Tower and making her suite her own. Tony Stark surprises her by commenting on it.

Avengers Movieverse Fanfic
393 words

23/365: Glass Angel

He had to name her to have her.

Jordan Michael gave her the glass angel in Glaston and asked her to marry him, but did he really know her in the first place?

Science Fiction Flash Fiction Short Story
100 words

24/365: Late Return

The book was late and he had never missed a week.

Lena isn’t sure what to do when her most regular borrower fails to appear on schedule. Her assistant is pretty sure it’s not the book she’s worried about.

Fantasy Romance Flash Fiction Short Story
100 words

25/365: Pause the Sonata

Jordan Michael wasn't worth stopping the sonata.

Ashen has just ended a relationship. Her leader is concerned.

Science Fiction Flash Fiction Short Story
683 words

26/365: When the Clock Chimes

Forty-eight hours but it wasn't time to sleep.

It was Wednesday, the day after forgetting day, but Wesley wanted to remember and see if what he thought he saw was real.

Fantasy Romance Flash Fiction Short Story
975 words

27/365: How Anthony Met the Stars

What are the stars?

Tiger is a watchcat charged with keeping Anthony safe, but she was the self-contented sort, certain that if she is chaperoning, a visit to the stars is not unacceptable.

Fantasy Flash Fiction Short Story
779 words

28/365: As the River Breathes

They'd taught her to kill. She would learn to heal.

A feud between kingdoms results in a dammed up river and only one half-crazed girl to save them.

Science Fiction Flash Fiction Short Story
728 words

33–34/365: Wake and Thrive

He began at the bottom, nameless and empty, with a gaping hole where his life ought to be.

Red Wolf remembers nothing of his past or history before he became a member of Storm’s team of operatives. His only reassurance in the face of an uncertain future is the promise he woke to receive.

Science Fiction Short Story
3633 words

29/365: Scarred

She's not in love. Really.

Hayley isn’t the kind of woman to be in denial, but she’s never liked a problem she doesn’t know how to untangle.

Warning: Mentions abuse.

Science Fiction Flash Fiction Short Story
100 words

30/365: Poetry is Fire

Arsonists aren't supposed to be into literature.

Shelley wants a book; so does the local troublemaker.

Science Fiction Flash Fiction Short Story
200 words

31/365: Ever in Love

Why did she have to look like she belonged there?

Ever’s friend comes down to his shop, perches on his desk, examines the space station parts he sells. He just wishes she came for him.

Science Fiction Fantasy Flash Fiction Short Story
100 words

32/365: at my back I always hear

bound by spheres of glass // as the songbirds sing // they growing ever younger

Lyric Poem
16 lines

35/365: Keeping the Balance

In Vardin, change is a balance.

Serel shows his son the balance between change and guarding against change.

Science Fiction Fantasy Flash Fiction Short Story
100 words

36/365: Of Many Colors

She was trained to create what she could never have.

Kileshin sewed the finest cloaks for the wealthiest of her people, but could never wear her own creations.

Fantasy Flash Fiction Short Story
100 words

37-38/365: Learning Legato

Ashen had never thought she was normal.

Ashen was trained as a living weapon from her childhood, and now that she is free, understanding normal life—like coffee or love—is difficult at best. She turns to her mentor and her music to help her find the way.

Science Fiction Short Story
2340 words

39/365: Of Memory and Making

What makes a person who they are?

Ashelynn likes her boyfriend’s easygoing nature, so it catches her by surprise when he suddenly isn’t, when the idea that our memories make us who we are nearly drives a rift between them.

Fantasy Flash Fiction Short Story
803 words

40/365: A Tale of Fae

“Tell us a fairy tale,” the children cried.

The old bard loves to tell stories—of anything but Fae and her beautiful, terrible magic.

Science Fiction Flash Fiction Short Story
150 words

41/365: Into the Temple of the Sun

Nyx was a wrongness that should not be.

Nyx is dying for fear that when she is reborn, she will cease to be… Nyx.

Science Fiction Flash Fiction Short Story
379 words

42-43/365: Remembering Stories

She remembered the akhlakhai. She did not honor them.

It is Llereya’s birthday, a day for remembering what has gone before, but these are things she remembers alone. She does not like to honor her birthday.

Science Fiction Fantasy Short Story
1091 words

44–45/365: History Lesson on the Night Train

she was old, her lines were tired, but her eyes were bright— / to ask what it is, this marking down of history / like stainless steel tines pressed down into meat

Science Fiction Poem
153 lines

46/365: Best Friends

An unlikely rescuer and a shy little girl...

Five-year-old Shelley Huntington falls prey to the class bully, but meets an unlikely rescuer with startling results.

Science Fiction Flash Fiction Short Story
100 words

47/365: Since When

Truth is not in the eye of the beholder. Is it?

Two schoolgirls share lunch and misgivings at how to apply truth when the facts are not convenient.

Science Fiction Flash Fiction Short Story
100 words

48/365: Once Upon a Time

Story is in the mind of the reader.

Once upon a time, a very long time ago, a little boy and a little girl liked to read.

Flash Fiction Short Story
434 words

49/365: Song Between the Waking and the Dreaming

He had no memory, but he had music.

Red Wolf’s team has taken an assignment they should not have received and the key to its accomplishment awakens the phantom of memories he no longer has.

Science Fiction Flash Fiction Short Story
471 words

50/365: A Handsbreadth Light

Her life was but a handsbreadth compared to his.

The bonds that form between soulmates are inescapable and irrevocable, but Llereya has misgivings when hers appear.

Science Fiction Fantasy Romance Flash Fiction Short Story
666 words

51/365: Owning Beauty

She has never been beautiful.

Ashen has never experienced being beautiful—until tonight.

Science Fiction Romance Flash Fiction Short Story
412 words

52–53/365: Dream the Dance

She had danced the dance of death so many times.

Ashen is able to kill or heal with a simple touch, but it isn’t until a disturbing dream that she realizes mastery goes beyond the waking world.

Science Fiction Short Story
1,011 words

54/365: When the Clock Strikes Midnight

Unlike Cinderella, Shift had no hearth to welcome a prince to...

The clock would strike midnight, soon, and all Shift wants is to remember that she has a heart before her cinderella run is over.

Science Fiction Flash Fiction Short Story
765 words

55/365: After the Grief

Storm likes to worry about her. Whisper likes to ignore that.

You would think Whisper had ended a relationship instead of started one, but big brother types could be protective regardless.

Science Fiction Flash Fiction Short Story
100 words

56/365: The Way of the Hunt

Just when he thought he found some common ground—at last.

Josh Williams is an outsider to Vardin, kidayet, and so he’s glad to find some common ground at last with someone native. Even if it’s not quite the way he thought.

Science Fiction Fantasy Flash Fiction Short Story
364 words

57/365: Echoes of Anchor Lost

Moving forward or moving on are the only options.

Tactic and Thought should have been allowed to marry. They were voluntary operatives who did their work and did it well, but it isn’t the Department that’s destroying them.

Science Fiction Flash Fiction Short Story
655 words

58–59/365: That is Something

We do not choose who we love.

Rhiannon gave up her hunt and accepted the first failure of her life as a guardian—for Tracer, but he might never forgive her for considering choosing another.

Science Fiction Fantasy Romance Short Story
1,145 words

60/365: Abyss Looking Back

Sometimes Justus wonders why Rachelle is always looking into the abyss.

Justus and the Database have known each other for years, long enough for him to ignore break the anger and silence between them to help her as much as she will allow.

Science Fiction Flash Fiction Short Story
996 words

61/365: Collateral Damage

No price is too high...

Andre knows a young woman’s genes are killing her, but is saving her a lost cause?

Science Fiction Flash Fiction Short Story
676 words

62–63/365: To Dance with a Dragon

He preferred the translation, Never assume anything.

Etienne has a few assumptions about this girl, this woman he may one day marry. She doesn’t much mind setting him straight.

Science Fiction Fantasy Romance Short Story
1,016 words

64–65/365: Blood of Dragons

She was still a little girl for all she was a woman.

Akena is the daughter of guardians of Vardin, sworn to protect their people and their lands, and yet, she doubts herself, that she will ever become what she should.

Science Fiction Fantasy Short Story
1,392 words

66–67/365: Name Me Another (or Glass Angel, Redux)

He wanted to know her name. She wanted him to know who she was.

Ashen hopes to create a new life and a new name for herself with Jordan Michael, a businessman with his own reason to be interested in special type humans like her, but can he ever see who she is beyond the name?

Science Fiction Short Story
1,370 words

68/365: Well Doing, Weary

That moment when faith becomes sight.

All the old preacher wanted was some sign the families in his church might soften their hardened hearts to the Word they claimed to keep.

Christian Flash Fiction Short Story
495 words

69/365: Don’t Remind Me That It’s Over

Ricki had put away the past when she put away the name.

Anna has a new photography job and decides to go back through her old snapshots and memories. Ricki, who is visiting, demands that she stop—before it hurts too much.

Science Fiction Flash Fiction Short Story
612 words

70/365: By the Numbers

How does one rekindle a faded love?

David had been buried in work and statistics so long, he and his wife had forgotten how to communicate. They just need to take that first step…

Literary Romance Flash Fiction Short Story
279 words

71/365: Flight of a Wild Mare

You’re riding me hard, and I’m put away wet. / My soul like His cloak is a gamble, a bet.

Lyric Poem
16 lines

72–73/365: Hedge Your Bets

Collie Barton is comfortable with what she does and with being an archer in a sniper’s world. Then she gets Nikolai Romanoff as a target.

Avengers Movieverse Fanfic
1549 words

74/365: How Many Ways Can You Make Me Bleed?

They told Prodigy his mental shields existed for a reason. They didn’t mention the reason might be horrifying.

X-Men Comicverse Fanfic
161 words

75/365: Accounting for Redemption

How do you account for redemption in a world where survival is the only law?

Justus once believed that his decisions were being guided by a God whose will was sovereign. Now he doesn’t. These sins were his own and he does not know what to do with them.

Science Fiction Flash Fiction Short Story
819 words

76–77/365: Counting Heartbeats

She didn't have the luxury of regret.

Shift may not have had a soul, but she had a heart and for some d— reason it was still beating. And she had Justus. She just didn’t know how to save him.

Science Fiction Flash Fiction Short Story
1083 words

78/365: With You, Singing (a lullaby)

I'll be close, never say goodbye / Dreaming's sweet, just a pretty lie

Lyric Poem
22 lines

79/365: Jubilation Theme Song

Bobby thought John alone was bad enough. Then came Jubilee…

X-Men Movieverse Chapter
200 words

80/365: Pick Me Up

Rogue just wants out of town. But there’s that mutant walking down the road into the hotbed of anti-mutant hostilities after Alcatraz.

X-Men Movieverse Fanfic
200 words

81/365: Pick a Card, Any Card

Liar. Thief. Grifter. He knew how to do this, exchange a life in ruins around him for something else he could fit over his skin.

X-Men Movieverse Fanfic
200 words

82/365: Black Widow and a Cup of Marriage

Clint accepts an assignment on his and Natasha’s behalf. Natasha isn’t pleased.

Avengers Movieverse Fanfic
210 words

83/365: The North and the South

Logan doesn’t understand why Rogue prefers the heat. She doesn’t give him a straight answer.

X-Men Movieverse Fanfic
463 words

84/365: Little Things

Justus never expected to see Rachelle wearing his shirt. He also didn’t expect his reaction to seeing it.

Science Fiction Romance Flash Fiction Short Story
332 words

85/365: A Pairing of Convenience

Rogue has an offer that Gambit’s not so sure he ought to take.

X-Men Movieverse Fanfic
425 words

86/365: When the Coffee Does Not Work, Drink More Tea

When the coffee doesn't work, drink more tea. / If you don't drink coffee, then drink more tea.

Lyric Poem
8 lines

87–88/365: Snow Day

Ashen wondered briefly if perhaps he was no regular-type human as Pieter had professed but if he were instead a naturally gifted with the ability to charm half-asleep girlfriends who did not wish to be awake.

Science Fiction Romance Short Story
1991 words

89/365: Five Reasons I Love You

There are five reasons I love you / (And none of them are the ones you want to hear)

Science Fiction Romance Poem
86 lines

90–91/365: Acceptable Cost

Some things are worth it.

Alaine Shaever is a healer by nature, and she’s studying to become a medic by trade. It’s her first emergency call out in the field. Nobody ever told her it’d be like this.

Science Fiction Short Story
1761 words

92/365: Without a Reason

It’s one thing to not understand Rachelle’s messed up team relationships; it’s another to ask whether she loves a man she’s never even considered loving.

Science Fiction Flash Fiction Short Story
901 words

93–94/365: Its Own Absolution

Shift’s team was brutal. They had to be. Storm’s team was bloody. They were a strike team. They had to be. Storm had a conscience. Shift didn’t. The only thing they all have in common is the will to survive.

Science Fiction Short Story
2208 words

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11 Responses to 365 Day Challenge: Write Your Stories

  1. Rabia says:

    A 365 pieces of art challenge sounds awesome. The most I've done is an Index Card A Day art challenge over the summer, and that didn't last very long.

    I would love to give you prompts! It's my innate bossiness, I think... 😀

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  4. Rabia says:

    I have some prompts for you. Feel free to use what you like and discard what you don't. 🙂

    1. The song Kryptonite, by 3 Doors Down (lyrics here

    2. Chasing after wind (I've been reading Ecclesiastes, so there you have it).

    3. Icicles filled the long window
    With barbaric glass.
    The shadow of the blackbird
    Crossed it, to and fro.
    The mood
    Traced in the shadow
    An indecipherable cause.

    (From Thirteen Ways of Looking At a Blackbird, by Wallace Stevens, rest of the poem here.

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