If you took part in the StoryADay May Challenge you might be finding yourself confused. 

You wrote so much in May and now? Now, it’s hard to get anything done.

You’re Progressing, Not Graduating

As a creative person, there is never a moment that you can point to and say, “That’s it. I’m finished.” We will always strive to be better…and so it’s important to notice the milestones along the way.

Don’t beat yourself up for losing momentum after the challenge (or any big writing push).

It’s possible you needed a break.

But it’s also possible you miss the structure of the challenge.

So, in case Option B applies to you, here’s my suggestion for the next four weeks, so that you can feel yourself making consistent progress without burning out.

Read: Your Four-Week Writing Momentum/Rescue Plan

It takes through a four week plan to:

• Notice what you achieved
• Set a short-term goal
• Work on a specific craft skill
• Finalize a draft of a single story

Each week I encourage you to focus on one thing (while, obviously, doing many other things at the same time) so that you can feel a sense of accomplishment at the end of a defined period (in this case, the next four weeks).

Give it a try then come back and tell me how it went.

For the past few years I’ve been working, inside StoryADay programs, on sharing a framework for the writing life that I call I, WRITER.

Now I’m ready to talk about it more widely, in a series of articles, starting today.

The I, WRITER Framework underpins everything I do here to help you build a sustainable, joy-filled writing practice.

What’s Holding You Back?

When I speak with fellow writers about what holds them back, we rarely talk about a lack of writing skills—they have those, and they know they can always improve them by taking classes and getting feedback.

Rather, we end up talking about their frustration with their own perceived lack of progress, success, or ‘motivation’ to stick with their writing practice.

• “I want to write but I can’t seem to find the time”
• “I start projects but I can’t seem to finish them.”
• “I feel like I’ve been working on this one story forever.”
• “I’m not sure I’m ‘meant’ to be a writer.”

Over my decades of being a writer and working with other writers as a workshop leader, speaker, publishing associate, and coach, I’ve come to realise that there’s a very simple reason for this frustration: there’s so much more to “Being a Writer” than the act of putting words on the page.

Being A Writer Is…

Most of us don’t notice or acknowledge all the parts of ‘being a writer’.

Worse, we fail to give ourselves credit for all the hats we’re jamming onto our overcrowded heads. 

We must be:

• Idea machines
• Inventors of worlds – subject-matter experts in all aspects of that from psychology to economic systems and complex societal interactions
• Experts in character creation, suspense, dialogue, pacing, story structure, and descriptive writing, and satisfying conclusions
• Project managers for our own stories
• Administrative assistants who can type and format our work and design filing and retrieval systems for our work
• Time management experts
• Motivational speakers for our tender inner writers
• Harsh-but-fair editors of our own work
• Research assistants, who find publishing opportunities for stories, essays and articles
• Professional persuasive writers who can convince agents and editors to publish our works
• PR professionals who can nurture audiences of readers, including responding to fans and (eventually) managing parasocial relationship with fans online and in the real world
• Technically-savvy enough to do everything from typing to formatting to producing social media content to promote our work
• Productivity analysts who can develop systems for doing all this over and over again through every season of life without losing hope–or our minds.

And all of this in moments stolen from our ‘real lives’, where we must earn a living, keep house, manage family relationships, maintain friendships, and find ways to keep ourselves healthy enough to continue to exist.

Of course we’re overwhelmed and feel like failures.

“Define Success”

I’ve talked a lot, over the years about the need to define success and ‘the dream of being a writer‘ for ourselves.

Some of those markers of success can be external validation (publishing acceptances, positive reviews and feedback, big deals from well-heeled film makers). 

But to sustain a writing practice we must have smaller, daily markers of success that we can point to.

How to decide what those are?

My argument is that there are many different ‘modes’ of being a writer, and that in order to find success we need to feel ourselves being successful in each of them.

Which means, defining them.

The I, WRITER Framework Writing Modes

So here’s how I break down the different modes of ‘being a writer’ in order to help people find success at every stage.

IMAGINE – This is all the work you do to imagine yourself as a writer, give yourself permission to write, as well as the idea-generation parts of our creative work

WRITE – The actual wordsmithing and ‘adding to the word count’ part is the easiest to see as a measure of success or failure. But it’s only one part of your practice.

REFINE – the time you set aside to analyse what’s going well in your writing and your writing practice. This can feel unproductive or like something you can skip in favor of inflating that word count, but Future-You will thank you for the work you do here.

IMPROVE – You’re in this mode on days when you’re  actively working to improve a piece of writing or build our skills through classes and exercises. Again, this can feel like treading water but, when timed correctly, it’s essential.

TRIUMPH – This is the criminally-neglected writing mode of celebrating our successes. Behavioural scientists, psychologists, and yes, even animal trainers, all recommend positive reinforcement to build good habits and behaviour. We must build this into our writing practice, if we want to stick with it.

ENGAGE – Sometimes ‘writing’ looks like engaging with others. Yes, writing can be a solitary act, but if you want to keep at it and be read, you’ll need to spend some of your time engaging with other writers, with readers, with publishing professionals and booksellers. 

REPEAT – You’ll never write the same story the same way twice, but there are parts of the writing life that don’t require creativity, or to be reinvented every time you approach them. Taking time to spot patterns in your writing life and put repeatable systems in place to streamline them all free up your brain to use its best creative energy inside your stories.

It all counts as writing.

Matching Mode + Mood

And here’s the pro tip:  one ‘mode’ of the writing life may feel easier on any given day, depending on your energy and what else you have going on in your life. 

Sometimes a deadline or promise means you have to push through and work in a mode that feels harder than on other days, but the more you allow yourself to work in tune with your own energy, the more joy-filled your writing life will be.

By accepting that there are different ‘modes’ to being a writer, and being willing to allow yourself to feel ‘successful’ in different ways, the more likely you are to stick with this writing thing, and notice the progress you’re making in all the different areas of your writing life.

I’ll be back to talk more about each of these modes, what they look like at every stage of a writing career, and how to be successful in each. But for now, what do you think?

Discussion: How much time do you spend in each of these different modes? Do you allow yourself to ‘count’ all of them as contributing parts of your writing life, or did some of these surprise you? What questions do you have, for me? Comment here.

I couldn’t be more proud of you!

I encourage you to download the post-challenge worksheet attached to this page and either print it out or simply use the question and answer them in your journal. 

• What worked?
• What was a sure-fire way to sink your writing day?
• What surprised you?

WRITE IT ALL DOWN

While you’re in the throes of the challenge it’s easy to think you’ll never forget all the lessons you’re learning. 

You will.

So save the lessons, put them somewhere safe, then take the rest of the day off. Maybe tomorrow too. You deserve it.

Share your favorite lesson in the comments, below!

Celebrate Your Success

And don’t forget to download your Certificate of Completion. Print it out, fill in your name, and post a picture of yourself on social media with the hashtag #StoryADayMay

Keep Going

Feeling fired up and don’t want to lose momentum? Here are some ways you can keep going, with StoryADay:

The Superstars Group

If you know what you want to write and don’t need Just Another Course (), the Superstars group might be for you. This dedicated group of writers drops in daily, as their schedules allow, for co-working sessions, and gets together a couple of times a month at hangouts, to simply be writers, together. We also have critique sessions three times a year and an extensive library of workshops and masterclasses to help you build your craft. 

Find out more about Superstars

I, WRITER Course

If you aren’t sure what to write next and want to keep building your practice and skills, the I, WRITER Course might be for you. A six-part course, it’ll take you through my I, WRITER Framework to help you build a regular writing practice AND you’ll write 6 or more stories, while taking pre-recorded workshops on your own schedule, to build your craft. Workshops include the ever-popular Copycat Writing Workshop, along with workshops on Flash Fiction, Character Development, Story Structure and more.

Find out more about the I, WRITER Course

StoryAWeek Newsletter

If you’ve enjoyed having me pop into your inbox weekly, and want to keep writing stories in a more sustainable way than during the challenge, my StoryAWeek newsletter might be for you. 52 weeks of lessons and prompts, each designed to nudge you to write a story, and keep showing up for you writing, week after week. 

Find out more about the StoryAWeek Newsletter

You made it! You’re hear at the end of the month, still showing up, still writing. Whether you wrote one story or thirty-one, congratulations. This is a pretty good day.

Today I want you to write a story about someone’s best day ever.
You are, of course, free to use that title ironically (and write about the opposite).

Get the StoryADay Challenge Handbook for 2026 – custom warm-up and brainstorming exercises for every prompt, delivered as a private podcast with transcripts.
SUBSCRIBE NOW

Julie Duffy

Julie Duffy is a writer and the host of StoryADay. She coaches other writers and creatives on how to keep the momentum going. She also hosts a year-round writing community. If you need a place to keep you on track going forward, join us in the StoryADay Superstars:

Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? How much did you write this month? What’s your ‘epic win’? Post here!

Remember: Please don’t post your story in the comments here (and I talk more about why not, here). Best practice: Leave us a comment about how it went, or share your favorite line from your story.

Here’s your next Game Piece. save the image and share on social media with #storyaday

Prefer paper crafts? Here’s the cut & paste version

Tomorrow the 2026 StoryADay May Challenge will be over.

There’s an urge to keep running, to decide what to do next, how to keep the momentum rolling…

…But I’m going to encourage you instead to stop.

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Take a moment.

Take a breath.

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Think about what you achieved.

…

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Sit with that for a few days.

Then, let’s plan for what comes next.

At this point, it’s almost impossible you haven’t encountered a piece of software that tried to convince you to use it’s new AI features.

Today you’re going to write a story that delves into the relationship between humans and technological pals…and this stuff is going to seem a lot less sci-fi than it used to!

Bonus points if you write this story in a non-narrative format. That means,

• Writing out a chat conversation, or making a list of things that your character needs to complete their project (and telling a story in the process).
• Or perhaps your character is trying to write a ‘rescue me’ note in a code that the AI won’t break.
• Or perhaps you’re writing the after-action report for your corporate overlords about how things went so spectacularly wrong.

If you don’t want to write about the tech we have today, you could have a medieval knight working with a clockwork squire; or steampunk Sherlock Holmes android invented by Dr Watson…run wild!

Get the StoryADay Challenge Handbook for 2026 – custom warm-up and brainstorming exercises for every prompt, delivered as a private podcast with transcripts.
SUBSCRIBE NOW

Julie Duffy

Julie Duffy is a writer and the host of StoryADay. She lived in an era when humans still thought they were in charge of everything, and she thanks her Robot Overlords for allowing the relic of that time to continue to exist online.

Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!

Remember: Please don’t post your story in the comments here (and I talk more about why not, here). Best practice: Leave us a comment about how it went, or share your favorite line from your story.

Here’s your next Game Piece. save the image and share on social media with #storyaday

Prefer paper crafts? Here’s the cut & paste version

if you’re the kind of writer who mostly writers dialogue, or has been accused of writing stories that seem like they’re set on a blank white stage, this prompt is one that’s going to challenge you.

Write a story where the setting features almost as much as a character.

• This might mean the setting has a strong emotional mood (as in a gothic novel or a 1950’s beach movie
• This might mean you actually give the haunted house a personality, or take your characters to a land where the trees talk and the grass gets annoyed when you walk on it
• This might mean you spend the day making your characters interact with their surroundings – being challenged by the leaky space toilet, or struggling to understand why the broccoli won’t grow in this corner of the garden.

Give us sensation. Give us mood. Give us big scenic attitude.

Get the StoryADay Challenge Handbook for 2026 – custom warm-up and brainstorming exercises for every prompt, delivered as a private podcast with transcripts.
SUBSCRIBE NOW

Julie Duffy

Julie Duffy is a writer and the host of StoryADay. She has lived in three countries on two continents and, despite decades in the area, cannot master a Pennsylvania accent. She has never successfully grown broccoli.

Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!

Remember: Please don’t post your story in the comments here (and I talk more about why not, here). Best practice: Leave us a comment about how it went, or share your favorite line from your story.

Here’s your next Game Piece. save the image and share on social media with #storyaday

Prefer paper crafts? Here’s the cut & paste version

Today I want you to mine your memory for a conversation that you will never forget…and give it to (at least) two different characters.

Tell as much of that story as you can in dialogue, without much narrative explanation.

Get the StoryADay Challenge Handbook for 2026 – custom warm-up and brainstorming exercises for every prompt, delivered as a private podcast with transcripts.
SUBSCRIBE NOW

Julie Duffy

Julie Duffy is a writer and the host of StoryADay. Those who know her will attest: she is rarely short of something to say. Read more at julieduffy.com

Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!

Remember: Please don’t post your story in the comments here (and I talk more about why not, here). Best practice: Leave us a comment about how it went, or share your favorite line from your story.

Here’s your next Game Piece. save the image and share on social media with #storyaday

Prefer paper crafts? Here’s the cut & paste version

“It hurts,” she points yet again to her foot. Her heel. The very back of her heel to be precise. “Why does it hurt?”

I’m a doctor who has run every test I know, prescribed every exercise I know. Yet the pain persists.

I ask her again, hoping for a different answer, “Why Does it hurt? Are you sure you didn’t just bang it somewhere, against something?”

She shakes her head

I lean on my desk looking her in the eyes, “All the blood-work is fine. The results are actually neat, the way the values line up. It’s almost too good to be true. So why Does it hurt?”

Get the StoryADay Challenge Handbook for 2026 – custom warm-up and brainstorming exercises for every prompt, delivered as a private podcast with transcripts.
SUBSCRIBE NOW

Neha Mediratta

Neha Mediratta Chaudhuri is an independent writer, editor and consultant based in Mumbai. Recently, her award-winning sci-fi story Body Count was encoded in a Nickel and Gold Nano-fiche and sent to the moon (See Lunar Codex Project).

You can find her latest short story collection Death Chips and Love Fries at Amazon.

Meet her here: www.nehamediratta.com.

Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!

Remember: Please don’t post your story in the comments here (and I talk more about why not, here). Best practice: Leave us a comment about how it went, or share your favorite line from your story.

Here’s your next Game Piece. save the image and share on social media with #storyaday

Prefer paper crafts? Here’s the cut & paste version

Today you’re going to write a story inspired by a song.

Pick a song you have some emotional connection to. Pull up the lyrics or look at the album art, and think about what kind of story you could tell around it.

• You could tell the story of the song;
• you could take a character like the ‘narrator’ of the song;
• you could take a single phrase from the song and build a story around it;
• you could write an ‘answer’ song, in which you use some of the aspects of the original song, its images, language, or characters, and tell us what happened next, or take the opportunity to argue with the premise of the song.

Get the StoryADay Challenge Handbook for 2026 – custom warm-up and brainstorming exercises for every prompt, delivered as a private podcast with transcripts.
SUBSCRIBE NOW

Julie Duffy

Julie Duffy is a writer and the host of StoryADay and nothing makes her happier than the opportunity to sing and participate in any kind of music.

Join the discussion: what will you do with today’s prompt OR how did it go? Need support? Post here!

Remember: Please don’t post your story in the comments here (and I talk more about why not, here). Best practice: Leave us a comment about how it went, or share your favorite line from your story.

Here’s your next Game Piece. save the image and share on social media with #storyaday

Prefer paper crafts? Here’s the cut & paste version