Recently, it’s come to my attention there is a little confusion about what constitutes a story for this challenge. I attempted to clarify during the event, but did not make myself very clear. With this in mind, I want to clear up any uncertainty.
My first stop was Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary. This is what I found:
Story (noun) – 1) an account of incidents or events 2a) a fictional account shorter than a novel
child reading a book
So, that sums up nicely the way I define a story. A short story is going to be something you create as a storyteller. It might be a slice of daily life, or it might be a complex take down of the covert dark government on a world far from home, or it might just be how the toes got polished different colors. It’s your story. Tell it how you want in the world you chose. Develop the plot, or write by the seat of your pants.
As long as you create your story between 1000 words and 15000 words you’re creating what qualifies for the 31 Short Stories Challenge.
As long as there are storytellers, there will always be stories. You who are reading this are a storyteller. You got this.
Pride is a variety streamer who tends to do more demystifying and education about their animal companions than actual writing most times. They take great enjoyment in writing for the pleasure of it and often tend to pursue stories and adventures that are fantastical or magical in nature. While they don’t have anything available in print just yet, they’re working hard on making serial stories available soon!
What do you stream? I stream mostly games, sometimes animals, and of course writing. My favorite genres are anything that loosely encompasses Fantastical settings and usually a lot of mythology and magic.
How long have you been streaming? Several years off and on
How do you keep your viewers engaged? I ask chat for their opinions on what to explore next, or how their own writing progress is going.
What is your favorite thing about streaming? Being able to share my ideas and writing with the wider world, in real time.
Where can people find you? Pride Ascending on Twitch, Twitter, Instagram and World Anvil, PrideItUp on 4thewords
From your interviewer: Pride Ascending has been a joy to watch on stream and enjoys an engaging chat, answering questions, and having fun. If you haven’t followed Pride on twitch don’t forget to visit HTTP://twitch.tv/PrideAscending
As a writer and a streamer, I can tell you following will be fun.
As we get closer to 31 short stories, it’s my hope to share somethings to look forward to.
To help the creation process, prompts will be shared daily. Each one will be posted to the website here and auto-published in the Discord account too. A little streamlined, easy to find stuff is a wonderful thing.
The prompts will include an image, a quick suggestion for a story topic. It will be dependable for anyone who may need the prompt for their inspirational source during the month.
Many of the prompts will be able to apply to any genre and category. The broad nature should leave a lot of room for creative expression. Below is an example of what you may find on the site for your prompts.
Your main character needs to stop someone from a life and death decision that would leave chaos in its wake.
Once you’ve finished your prompt you can share it in Discord, or on the site. Give us your best lines or excerpt from the fun work you’ve created for that day! We can’t wait to see what you create and share ours with you.
As we look forward to the launch event, we have a plethora of opportunities to create, connect, and discuss all the things coming up. I hope to see you in the Discord.
Round 3 of 31 Short Stories in 31 Days just keeps getting bigger. Have you followed the #31s31d hashtag? Or the #31d31s? Both will start getting busy in the next few weeks. If you haven’t signed up yet you can do that from the 31-Stories page on this site. The fun is just beginning.
The discord is being revamped for function, but I’m hoping we’ll be able to get an updated design at some point too. There’s a lot going on. Our streamers are setting up their 31 stories stream overlays or backgrounds. Our writers are sharing the commitments in the participant chat, so we can all work together for accountability and support. Many of our short story support team will be lurking during the month to answer questions, be available on discord, and on the website while offering support throughout the month.
This is going to be the biggest short story a day event yet! Have you joined us? We’ll have a lot of activity on July 24th at 5p ET on my twitch channel – HTTP://twitch.tv/theladywrites
Maybe we’ll do a challenge accomplished feature during the June MEGA event. That is happening June 24th, 2022. If you need to know more about Writer’s Conduit check out WritersConduit.com and see the highlights from this past year!
I’ve been writing since I was at least 13. I grew up in a very conservative household, in a state with nothing to do, so writing it was! And lots of gaming lol. And art! At that age, a lot of it was writing down the adventures I went on with my imaginary friends; although there were certainly constructed characters as well.
I took writing, literature, and art classes all throughout high school. I didn’t pursue art classes in college due to money constraints, but I eventually got a B.A. in writing and wrote roughly 200 fanfics in the midst of all that. Now I’m writing + streaming original content, encouraged to do so by my friends.
But for a happy ending on the art front, I’m participating in Art Fight for the first time ever this year! I’ve already seen my art style grow by leaps and bounds through this event, and I’m excited to see what happens to my writing style through 31 Days of Short Stories!
What do you stream? Writing. Often queer autistic fantasy, although I have done sci-fi as well. On occasion, I also enjoy sharing digital art streams.
How long have you been streaming? I started this year! late April / early May specifically. I’m coming up on 100 twitch followers!
How do you keep your viewers engaged? Most of my audience likes to watch the words go nyoom! So I make sure that they can see the words I’m typing. A lot of writing streamers don’t, and it’s one of my biggest turn-offs with writing streamers. Just because you can read it doesn’t mean that your viewers can, and it’s important to respond to what your audience needs.
What is your favorite thing about streaming? Knowing people are there and care about the content I’m producing. Everybody puts a lot of time and energy into their craft, and some of us can’t wait and hope it pays off in the end. Some of us need support while we’re creating the thing, and having a live audience helps me in that regard.
Where can people find you? My carrd has everything relevant to me. I would particularly like to highlight my twitter @hfeproductions, my wordpress: and Queersletter: a monthly-ish newsletter of queer art and affirmation.
From your interviewer: HFE has been fun to get to know and I can’t wait to see what comes from possible submissions to 31 Tales! If you haven’t followed, please visit HTTP://twitch.tv/HFEProductions right now to fix that.
I hope you’ve visited a few of the other streamer events. They are a blast. I’ll link to my previous post about all of that at the end. Feel free to go back and check out the information.
Today we are preparing for the 31 short stories launch event on Twitch. I’ll have a giveaway going for 3 months of 4thewords. This will include the hoodie!
I’ve been really busy trying to figure out how to organize things. Without the incredible volunteers helping me out, I’d be so lost. My biggest thanks go to Heather W. Adams, published author, friend, and incredibly talented creative. She took my hastily thrown-together guide for January and made it a work of art. Having two kids home to work remotely challenged every bit of my sanity this past year. As we hit each milestone in the semester I diverted my attention to motherly things instead of prep for 31. Heather kindly offered to do an update for me. A month later she overhauled it and truly made it beautiful. If you’re participating in the event, you’ll be thrilled with the upgrade.
Because of her skilled hand, we’ll be putting the book up on the LuLu bookstore for sale as a workbook. It will be priced at cost as there is no goal to make a profit off the event. Unfortunately, giving the print book away free would also be a challenge as printing costs money. Can you tell I’m excited about next month, yet?
So, if you have a moment to stop by her stream, visit twitch.tv/Angsthase and tell her thank you for her incredible work on the guidebook. If you are in the discord, you’ll see it in a few days. Everyone else will see it during the launch event.
If you have never seen 4theWords – go visit 4thewords.com and check out the fun game. It’s free for the first month and those participating in the 31 Short Stories Challenge will also get another free month. There are monsters, quests, and currently this month a special Water event. This blog post was written in 4theWords because I have a quest to fulfill.
We’re going to have a lot of fun come August, but July has been wonderful and fun too.
I hope you’ve visited SableAradia and the Game of Tomes, Tourney event – or CampNano – or the Writer’s Games 2021. This has been a full, fun, wonderful writing month. Twitch has been full of great people supporting one another.
This summer is going to be busy – We’ve already been busy.
Writer’s CONduit was a huge success. If you missed it, that’s fine. It was just our first year. We ended a three-day weekend with international scheduling for 77+ panels, guests, and fantastic discussions. There was a host of excitement, planned events, and wonderful support. Our Twitch Based event was one of the biggest, most exciting things I have ever been privileged to be a part of.
Topics covered ranged from representation to writing as a business. It covered things like Streaming101 and picking your publishing track between Traditional and Independent. This amazing resource was 100% free of charge to anyone who wanted to see it. It will continue to be free of charge when you visit the YouTube channel.
You can follow http://twitch.tv/writersconduit and http://youtube.com/writersconduit for videos, VODs, and updates. If you want to learn more about what’s going on around twitch, what’s going on in the writing community, or get involved with Writer’s CONduit 2022 please feel free to visit the website and get signed up for the newsletter.
Going forward we have many wonderful events coming up just around the twitch writing community, but really even beyond. I am participating in Game of Tomes Tournament – Tourney of Tales, I believe as well as the 4thewords River Festival events. The great thing about these two is that I can combine my efforts and still contribute to both. There are streams all over twitch offering support for both events. If you search GoT or 4thewords you’ll find someone fun to chat with while you’re writing your next masterpiece.
The other major project I’m undertaking for July is preparation for 31 Short Stories in 31 Days. That’s a challenge event I coordinate twice a year with the help of many really incredible twitch streams and friends. If you participated in January, you’ll be thrilled to see an upgraded guidebook, available both in print and ebook. We will be releasing this second edition under Creative Commons and the print version will be at cost.
The guidebook will have many fun and fantastic options it had before, including 35 writing prompts, info on the event, and some fleshed-out guidance. All of the streamers participating in the challenge will be able to give away a free version of the book. It will also have a glossary of industry terms, just to make it easier for everyone after the event. We’re working on an Edit Your Short Story challenge as well. All of the stories written during 31s31d will be eligible for submission to the 31 Tales magazine, launching in December this year.
31 Tales is a charity magazine only accepting short story submissions from individuals participating in the event. This magazine will support Doctors Without Borders, but also help those submitting learn the process of submissions, contracts, etc. The short story cap for these tales is 3000 words, leaving plenty of room for many authors to contribute.
All participants in 31s31d will also get a code for a free month to play 4theWords. If you opt to join the challenge, it would be a pleasure to gift that to you.
We’re working on many other ways to bring value to our community and share in the incredible opportunities ahead. Watch this space for more information on 31 Short Stories in 31 Days and the streamers involved.
Brian is a graduate of the State University of New York at Oswego’s creative writing program. Books and the worlds they evoke have been a passion his whole life, and he has wanted to be a writer since the age of fourteen. Now two decades later, streaming his writing alongside others he’s found within the streaming writers community has provided him the motivation to finally pursue that dream.
Those twenty years did not pass idly by. In that time, he’s been attending regular writing workshops for practice and to keep sharp. One of those groups self-published an anthology of their work entitled “Zarf,” in which he is featured four times. Sci-fi and fantasy (or a mixture of the two) short stories are Brian’s genres of choice for his work.
He also creates poetry, typically done stream-of-consciousness. Some of his material is available through his Patreon, “The Loose Page.” Outside of writing, Brian is a board game enthusiast, avid LARPer, tabletop roleplayer, and occasional video gamer.
What do you write? Sci-fi and fantasy writing, or poetry
How long have you been streaming? Since November of 2020
How do you keep your viewers engaged? Sundays are dedicated to interactive writing sprints, where viewers are invited to join a voice chat and share what they wrote in those ten minutes.
What is your favorite thing about streaming? It keeps me accountable for my writing and has been a valuable source of motivation.
When can people find you on Twitch? Weekends – 10am-12pm EST
A Veteran with flair!
Brian has already made it through 31 short stories in 31 days – creating a story for the inaugural edition of 31 Tales that is both enjoyable and attention-catching for any scifi fan. He took on streaming our weekend shifts to help ensure those venturing into 31 short stories in 31 days have someone available at all times for support and interaction. He and his army of paper airplanes make the weekend fun for all writers.
Coffee Quills is a quaffer of coffee, a hugger of hedgehogs, and a slinger of ink. Writing under flickering neon lights, they take inspiration from a range of media and enjoy mashing together genres as they write. Post-nuclear apocalypse cozy mystery? Working on it! Detecting in a steampunk/magic ocean-side fantasy? Sounds good too! Most of their writing has an optimistic slant to it with found families, protection, and love wins being found in most (if not all, in varying degrees) of their writing.
Describing Coffee is akin to describing one part of a patchwork cloak, and that can be seen in their writing. Spells, Snow, & Sky is a polyamorous paranormal romance, but they also write for 4thewords (an online RPG for writers) and have horror drabbles published with The Horror Tree and Black Hare Press. Web serials on Wattpad and Royal Road go from romance to sky pirates to video game isekai.
Coffee runs on ink and is a friendly person. Feel free to say hello on Twitter, Twitch, or in 4thewords!
What do you stream? (or write in what genre)
4thewords / writing
How long have you been streaming?
Since July 2020
How do you keep your viewers engaged?
I talk to viewers during breaks, use Stream Avatars to give hugs & fight, and have channel points to be redeemed.
Where can people find you?
People can find me on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, and at 4thewords as CoffeeQuills.
** If you bring a hedgehog you might get a little extra talk time out of Coffee too!
Pride (They/Them) is an autistic queer stay at home parent to an eleven animal menagerie, who takes joy in crafting, writing, gaming, and world building. They have been streaming off and on for four years, tending to stream gaming and crafting content. More recently they’ve started to stream their writing content. Their writing focuses more on Fiction, Fantasy, and Sci-Fi and contains a lot of LGBTQIA+ themes and characters. Their favorite books include The Sword of Truth series by Terry Brooks and The Night Runner Series by Lynn Flewelling. Their favorite movies include Running Free, Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken, and War Horse. A few goals for the future include owning their own horses, running charity fundraising events, and publishing some of their stories.
What do you stream? (or write in what genre) Writing (Mostly Fiction/Fantasy/Sci-Fi), Gaming (Story/Survival mostly)
How long have you been streaming? Off and On for close to four years now. Started on Mixer shortly after it changed names from Beam, then moved to Twitch. Recently got affiliated with Twitch as well =D
How do you keep your viewers engaged? I tend to ask a lot of questions of my viewers, and I love going into depth and explaining things when people have questions about my work. I find that this sort of interaction helps me as a writer and keeps my viewers engaged in what I’m presenting them.
What is your favorite thing about streaming?
Being able to show off everything I’m passionate about to the people who share my interests. I like to teach people about the games I play, show off the animals I own, and explore the situations my characters find themselves in. I believe that all of these entertain and help those who are like me and learn by first-hand experience. It’s also a good way for me to connect with people when I ordinarily might not be able to do so otherwise.
If you have time, don’t hesitate to check out the fun PrideAscending’s twitch stream where you’ll have fun, get some writing done, and know you’re in great company!
As we look forward to the launch event, we have a plethora of opportunities to create, connect, and discuss all the things coming up. I hope to see you in the 
