Learn how the stories come to life each week!

---

Step 1: “Daily Prompt” selection.

This one is actually pretty whimsical, to be fair. I pick a word from my screensaver or a prompt service to which I subscribe – I always attribute those fairly and link them 😁 – and I write it down as I am making coffee; as many of them strike me, I write them down on my notepad.

While drinking my coffee, I look them over and find words that inspire a fun storyline. I imagine them. I write nothing more down, but I eliminate the words that do not spark my imagination.

Step 2: Blind selection committee

It’s not necessarily a committee affair, but it can be a possibility – I have kids and a wife involved who sometimes choose a character’s fate unwittingly. I usually have it narrowed to two or three words or prompts at this point, so I propose a word choice to myself. Or I pose a question to another person.

In my head, I have an idea for the furtherance of the storyline based on each of these. Which will it be?

Step 3: The Night Before Go-Live

And all through the house, not a creature was stirring … I know the topic word or prompt about bedtime, and I write it down on my notepad. I scrawl some attributions for where I found the prompt, who chose it – if that person was not me, and any other notes I might need to include in the header.

Step 4: One-Thousand Words in One Hour

This is just what it says in the title. I get up in the morning before work, make coffee, and open WordPress. I write the entire portion of the story in approximately one hour, just before I start my work day. Then I save it, finish my coffee, and turn on my work computer while putting my personal computer to sleep.

Step 5: The Luncheon With the Editor

I am required to take a thirty-minute lunch break. During that time, I turn my computer back on, eat something if I can remember, and edit.

My editor, me, sometimes doesn’t like my work and will refer it to another editor, my wife, who will usually red pen the poor thing nearly to death, which is probably why I didn’t like it in the first place.

I can usually have it all fixed up and ready by the end of my lunch break, so I schedule the post to be published.

So there you have it, folks. These stories are challenging and fun to write because I give myself a specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, & timely goal.

I also chose one thousand words per story for the time it takes to read; a five-minute tale isn’t a big ask of your priceless time, and it can take your mind away from where you are for just a moment.