Change is coming in 2024 to the short story a day challenge known as Stories on Fire. We are going to be creating and setting our stories free on the world!

We’re going to set a schedule for writing, revising, polishing, and releasing the short stories we create. This has been a request from a few members of the Creative Writing Community driving Stories on Fire.

Currently we are looking at Jan. 2024 for the writing portion of stories on fire. We’re aiming for completed stories that will be dedicated to the goal of publishing.

We’re still going to have prompts and information every day on the Stories on Fire event platform. It’s been an incredible experience writing completed stories daily.

Action Plan:

• Allocate specific hours each day for writing.
• Set daily themes or prompts to inspire story ideas – Check Discord, This Website, or One of the Streamer Twitch channels.
• At the end of each week, have a brief review session to assess progress and adjust themes if needed.

Once we’ve got our momentum, we’re going to keep that going by spending February dedicated to reading and selecting our top 5 short stories.

Action Plan:

• Review all written stories.
• Select the top stories based on criteria like theme, quality, and completion.
• Think about how the stories will link or not link
• Identify the genre for each story and begin creating a One Sheet for it.

Moving in to March we’re going to be working on cleaning up those stories. First things first, you’ll pick which story you think is the best of the selected stories. Read the story, make revisions as you need to or expand if you’d like.

Keep in mind you’ll want 3000 words to sell the story on its own as an ebook. 10,000 words helps you develop your book into print as well.

Action Plan:

• Assign each week to focus on specific stories.
• Incorporate feedback loops, where each story is edited, reviewed, and revised.
• Ensure each story aligns with the overall theme and quality standards of the collection, or goals
• Finish revising stories until you are satisfied with them before moving onto the next one.

April is going is Camp Nano, so we are going to give our short stories a bit of a break for those who are doing Camp. This will help avoid burnout.

IF you are not doing Camp in April, get in touch with the discord and we can get started on pairing up for the Beta Reading cycle that everyone will be doing in May.

May we’ll be doing the peer edits/reviews. That means we’ll be pairing our work with another author who will provide peer updates based on a 10 question questionnaire. You’ll be given the questionnaire based on the given stories once the reader is done. Getting back to revisions will be great for everyone.

Action Plan:

• Assign time each week to focus on reading a peer story for revision and feedback.
• Incorporate feedback into your own works, where each story is revised.
• Ensure each story aligns with the overall theme and quality standards of the collection or publishing goals.
• Update your OneSheet for each story with a 2 sentence summary of your story now that it’s better polished.

June is going to be a great month to really do a final pass on the stories we’ve got and finish up any additional revisions. If by the time we reach the finish line for May you’re ready to go, this is a good time to find a solid editor to handle your work on your behalf. We’ll offer a list of established editors we know can really help a person polish their work when that time comes.

The other thing we need to do in June is make sure our One Sheets are completed with our Publishing Date scheduled. Give yourself at least 1 month before your first release. Decide if you’re releasing a collection of stories or each story by itself. June is your planning, July is our marketing and teamwork planning.

July is marketing and August should be the first release (or collection release). This month is when we are focused on telling the world the book, story, project is coming. We’re going to develop launch plans, work together and use the OneSheets for each story so we can create a network of supporters.

We are also going to be providing specific projects to work on together, and meeting together in Discord to keep on the right track.

Action Plan:

• Finalize all publishing details, including cover, formatting and distribution channels.
• Set the book release date, and launch!
• Monitor the initial response and adjust marketing strategies as needed.

Starting in February we are going to be meeting twice a month to review goals, stories, and create an accountability process together. It’s going to be a fantastic journey to publishing together!

This challenge is more than just a writing exercise in 2024. It’s a comprehensive program designed to go from concept to publication. You’ll gain invaluable insights into the publishing industry, develop a disciplined writing habit, and most importantly, see your work come to life in print.

Watch the site for more updates!