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.
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 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.
Hi, my friends. Welcome to TheWritingNetwork as it’s rebuilding again.
This site has been around in one form or another since 2005. The primary goal has always been to offer helpful support and advice in the venue of writing. Originally, it started out just as a freelance writer’s site. It was targeting jobs, supporting skills, and development of business functions. Over time, it has grown to support writers, authors, small publishers and anyone interested in writing and editing. The blessing this site has been for myself and others over the years has been immeasurable.
While we are rebuilding after the latest hack to our site, we will be redesigning our plan for posting.
Authors will want to visit us Mondays for posts on Creative writing, developing your story, and editing. We’ll also visit topics like Marketing your book, developing a promotional or launch plan, and where you can find the best lessons and classes for developing your skills. You’ll find helpful videos and support resources posted among the messages each week. Also, Authors – our sister site is ReadersRetreat. If you’d like your book featured there, you can contact me through the page below for details.
On Wednesday we’ll visit the essentials of publishing. We will offer suggestions for marketing, building your publishing base both as an author and as a small press, we will also share marketing information and outline different options for business development.
Friday will is dedicated to Freelancers. We’ll discuss tips, where to find work, how to create a cover letter or resume specific to freelancing and a plethora of other topics. We will also direct you to the tools you will need for improving your writing. We will be hoping to support your success throughout the process.
You will encounter some fantastic guest spots, authors, and talented, experienced freelance writers along the way. They will share tips, suggestions, and knowledge that will help you find success.
Please feel free to comment and share. If you’d like to be featured in a guest spot, visit our Facebook page and drop a message about what topic you’d like to discuss. http://facebook.com/TheWritingNetwork I’m on the site daily. Therefore, I will get the message quickly.
