Fiction Writers: A Short Story Prompt for June

Image source: Irina_Kukuts, Pixabay

Hi, and welcome to the Write Club June prompt. In this post, you can learn a little about Write Club and decide if you have an interest in participating. If not, but you still want to write for this prompt, you are welcome to do so! Simply post your short story on Hive, in your community of choice, and share your link in the comments to this post at www.peakd.com/@jayna.

You can find the writing prompt and information about how to join in 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 write one story every month, and then "workshop" that story with our peers in the group. Then we revise the story, incorporating feedback and suggestions for improvement. The goal is to prepare the piece 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.

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.
• In another 10 days, we refine our stories. Then we review again.
• By the end of the month, we complete a third draft.

The final draft is then hopefully ready for submission to a publication of our choice before the next month's challenge begins. But of course that is up to each individual writer as to what they choose to do with that story.

Those in the group enjoy the commitment to goals, deadlines and the editing process because it keeps us from thinking about writing and instead helps us to actually write.

Is Write Club a Fit for You?

If you feel you could benefit from working with a writing community and having deadlines and peer reviews, you might want to check this out. We are a small, welcoming and non-judgmental group.

We are here to nudge each other forward.

Invitation to Short Story Writers

If you are a fiction writer who wants to get serious and get your work ready for publication in fiction magazines, 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 Steem, Hive, Medium, Narrative or other self-publishing venue.

Here are two options:

1. Check out Write Club and see if it's for you.
2. Or, use this month's writing prompt on your own.

You can find more information about how to join Write Club in this article on Medium, along with a link to our Discord channel where we converse and manage all of our deadlines and reviews.

This month's writing prompt

That brings us, at last, to the prompt! For the month of June 2020, Write Club members must write a story based on this prompt: distance.

To get going, here are some ponderings:

• Distance can, of course, be a physical or emotional distance. Which one speaks to you, as a starting point for a central conflict?
• Your main character might still be in pain from something that happened in the distant past - another form of distance. What might that be?
• Or perhaps your character has been moving away from something (or someone) troubling for a long time, and has finally realized that the distance does not fix the problem. It must be faced head on.

One tip is not to get started right away. 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, 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.

Have fun!