Tag Archives: A Story Every Day

A Story Every Day would like your help…

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You’ve probably noticed that we haven’t been posting a story EVERY day.

While this is a hard feat, and I have to recognize that (humbly, since we haven’t met the goal!), we’ve done a pretty good job. But recently, it’s been hard to keep up.

This is for a few reasons, some lame and some more legitimate:

1. I’ve been traveling.

2. It’s the holidays.

3. And here we go… submissions are low. I originally started spreading the word by posting on Craigslist – there are always hungry people on there! But, Craigslist often takes ads down when they look like other ads, and so if I posted in two cities within about 90 days of each other, this tactic didn’t really work.

And thus, A Story Every Day readers, we’re asking for your help. Can you assist us in spreading the word about A Story Every Day, and encouraging people to submit their stories, poems, photos, anecdotes, whatever they please? The submission email is: astoryproject@gmail.com

I want this relationship to be reciprocal – it’s not just for A Story Every Day. We can feature your blog, or your stories specially, or something along those lines. If you help us out, we want to help you out too.

What do you guys think? You in?

National Author’s Day

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Today is National Author’s Day. I think this calls for a celebration here at A Story Every Day, since this IS a site that celebrates us all as authors and writers. Let’s share our favorite authors and give them some attention and recognition!

Who is your favorite author/writer and why?

Personally, I love Joan Didion because she writes in a straightforward manner yet there’s so much packed in that you may not even realize at first read. The “straightforwardness” is there, and true, but can also be deceptive.

I also adore John Irving – I just started reading his works, and so far I’ve read “A Widow for One Year” and now I’m reading “The World According to Garp.” His characters (and writing) appeal to me because they are humorous in a completely non-comical way. There is something so honest, so bare about them (I think this is really because of the way in which he writes) that makes me fall in love with them.

“I’m not telling you to make the world better, because I don’t think that progress is necessarily part of the package. I’m just telling you to live in it. Not just to endure it, not just to suffer it, not just to pass through it, but to live in it. To look at it. To try to get the picture. To live recklessly. To take chances. To make your own work and take pride in it. To seize the moment. And if you ask me why you should bother to do that, I could tell you that the grave’s a fine and private place, but none I think do there embrace. Nor do they sing there, or write, or argue, or see the tidal bore on the Amazon, or touch their children. And that’s what there is to do and get it while you can and good luck at it.”
― Joan Didion

A Story Every Day

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I was listening to NPR the other night in my car as I drove home from some place I’ve already forgotten, and I overheard an interview with author Donald Ray Pollock. He was saying that he used to write a story a day. By this he meant that he copied over someone’s story, one a day, as a method of learning how to write. I liked this idea. I also started to like the idea of writing a quick (or long) story a day. To practice. To learn. To tell. To share.

And then I decided that perhaps when I didn’t have my own stories, I could help tell other people’s stories. And here, “A Story Every Day” was born.

It is my hope that this can be outlet for everyone’s stories. Stories true or false. Stories sad or happy. Fiction or non fiction. Past or present.

Donald Ray Pollock’s story, as told by NPR, can be found here.

I’m confident that everyone has a story to tell, whether or not they believe they do. This confidence has inspired me to make this space, and to aim to post a story a day, whether it’s mine or yours.

You can submit stories to astoryproject@gmail.com.