Writing Habits - Story Sparks

Stories and poems have to start somewhere. For this swap, let’s work on collecting prompts and ideas to draw from in the future

I occasionally participate in Story A Day during the month of May. It’s like NaNoWriMo but instead of writing one novel, you write one short story a day. The creator often sends out story prompts and ideas. I’ve based this swap on her idea of ‘Story Sparks’ (which she based on an idea from Ray Bradbury).

Here is a definition of Story Sparks from the website:

It’s a term I coined for something that is less than a story idea and certainly not an outline, but something that you notice while walking the world: things that make you go ‘hmmm’, if you will.

Story sparks are details about the world that you can use either to spark or add richness to a story. They can be:

• Fragments of conversation: become a dedicated eavesdropper, if you aren’t already.

• Details from the world around you: the exact color and shape of a dogwood flower in April; a snippet of conversation overhead, out of context; the rhythm of a 14 year old girl’s speech.

• Big Ideas that occur to you randomly: the ‘where are all these people going?’ that pops into your head while you’re sitting in traffic; what if my baby had been born with wings? why do so many of us believe in a deity?

• Memories: spend some time going through old memories and pulling out interesting characters, conflicts, fears, hopes, joys. Gather some of them as Story Sparks.

Some of these, with a little interrogation and development could become a story or a series of stories, but for now they are simply ideas that flit across your brain. You needn’t have any clue what kind of story they’ll fit into or how you might use them.

In this swap, we will be setting ourselves a goal of collecting at least thirty one (31) ‘story sparks’ for one month. Try to collect one or more each day of the month. At the end of the month, we will share our sparks and a note about what we felt and/or learned during the month long experience. Please type or legibly hand write your sparks. If you choose to decorate your sparks in any way, please make sure to either check with your partner about how they would prefer to receive your sparks or also send a plain version for your partner to put in a binder. Don’t forget to make a copy to keep for yourself! There are a few extra days at the end of the swap to write up your experiences and get it in the mail to your partner.

In Summary:

• Collect at least 31 ‘story sparks’ during October
• Send a copy of your ‘story sparks’ to your partner
• Send a note about what you felt and/or learned about the month long experience - Will you continue? Will you collect more? Will you use your sparks for stories?

Do you have suggestions for what you would like to see next in this series? Please let me know!

Here are the links to the original posts about Story Sparks:

• Story Sparks
• Story Sparks and Writing Prompts
• Story A Day