Short Story Writers: Your Fiction Prompt for October

Hello once again from Write Club! Every month we start off with a fresh short fiction writing prompt. We use that prompt to develop short stories over the course of the next 30 days, with support and feedback from our workshop group.

Additionally, we invite others to take part if they choose. In this post you can learn a little about Write Club and decide if you have an interest in participating. If not, you are still welcome to write a story for the prompt. If you would like to share it with us, simply post your short story on Hive or Medium, and share your link in the comments to this post.

What Is Write Club?

We are a small group of serious fiction writers who are committed to writing and polishing stories for publication in mainstream publishing outlets. We develop and workshop one short story every month, with the goal of preparing it for submission to the publisher of our choice. (And we have resources to help you find one.)

Our writers have a range of fiction writing experience, from workshoppers to MFAs and published writers, who are mastering the craft of fiction writing and want the accountability of a group and deadlines to keep us on track.

The best part is that we are a small and dedicated virtual group, even though we are dispersed all over the world, and we connect up regularly on Discord to share ideas and resources for fiction writers.

Our Monthly Schedule

It goes like this:

We issue a writing prompt at the beginning of the month.
In 10 days we write the first draft. Then we read one another's work and provide feedback.
We have another week to refine our stories. Then we review again.
By the end of the month, we complete a third draft.

Those in the group enjoy the commitment to goals, deadlines and the editing process because it pushes us to write and polish our work on a cadence.

Invitation to Short Story Writers

You are welcome to check us out. You are also welcome to use this process to improve your writing quality overall, and get stories ready to post on Hive, Medium, Narrative or other self-publishing venue.

You can find more information about how to join Write Club in this article on Medium, or pop in as a visitor to our Discord channel and let us know if you are looking to participate. We will ask you a few questions and see if it seems like we're a good fit for your writing journey!

This month's writing prompt

That brings us to the prompt! For the month of October 2020, Write Club members must write a story based on this prompt: vow or promise.

Now, we all know these words can mean many things. Your story could be about the vows of loved ones gone wrong, or perhaps wedding crashers, a childhood promise that comes due in adulthood, or a promise received via Ouija Board from someone in the next life. We will be sure to have fun with this one!

Get your engines running

Start thinking about your story's conflict, who is experiencing it, and how they might seek to overcome what they are facing. The more your conscious and sub-conscious brain are working on developing your MC (main character), and defining the scenario that has brought us to the time and place of this story, the sooner your story will take shape.

You could write out some loglines - one-sentence story plots - and then choose the one that resonates the most with you.

Looking for Writing Resources?

I love to share tips and ideas about creative writing! Here are two treasure troves for you:

You can find many of my tips here on my website, in the Writing Tips section.
I also share weekly writing tips from The Ink Well on Hive. See the latest tip for the complete list.

Have fun!