image created in CanvaProI didn’t have any idea what to write about today as we were travelling for much of yesterday, from north to south. Very south. The morning was spent packing and getting ready. But much of the day was then spent on the road. When we arrived, I did write and publish yesterday’s post. But that’s pretty much all I did achieve.
So today I was struggling…until something bright and shiny arrived in my email: a new badge.
Friends on Facebook, BlueSky and Instagram will have already seen the badge, and now it appears on the sidebar here (it’s at the bottom on mobile devices). Here’s the badge:
Yes, in 2024, I wrote and submitted 12 stories in 12 months!
I didn’t expect a badge this year because my dashboard was showing as 10 stories instead of 12. We found out later in the year that this is because if we submit a story then edit it before it’s accepted or approved, it doesn’t count. We have to wait for it to be posted before editing it in order to have the right tally.
So, of course, I was delighted when the badge arrived.
Here’s a roundup of this year’s stories:
1. January: Prompt = Exchange; Word-count = 1,200; Deadline = 31 January 2024. Welcome to the International Tundra Space Hotel
I started this story for a course the year before but didn’t finish it in time. It was my first foray into something a bit ‘near future’, way out of my comfort zone, and I had no idea where to start. So I just started to write ‘into the dark’. The challenge was what I needed to get it written. But by the time I hit 1,200 words this time, it turned out it was just the first part of a longer tale. At least I was able to leave it at a suitable place, and I was delighted when readers said they were keen to know more. I’m going to develop this story idea further into a 16,000-word novelette and I’ve added it to the 12 books for the Great Novella Challenge in 2025.
2. February: Prompt = Murmur; Word-count = 1,250; Deadline = 28 February 2024. The Weather Can Be Murder
This was another short story I started for a course. We only had to write the opening so many words, 300 I think, in order to set the scene while using depth. I took the character I created for the Tundra Hotel story and gave him his own tale. There were starlings at the start of my opening. Hundreds and thousands of starlings. So with the prompt ‘murmur’, I decided to develop this story further. Again, it’s in the near future, and my main character is an angsty detective. It was going to be Part 1 of 3, but I condensed it down into a single short story and it will be published as a Wordsworth Short in 2025, first in the bookazine and then as a standalone.
3. March: Prompt = Levels; Word-count = 2,500; Deadline = 27 March 2024. Elvis is Missing
The third originally started for a writing course, again in the near future, but this time with some fantasy creatures in. Again, we didn’t have to write it all, just start it, and I had good feedback from the course leader. This was the longest story length in the challenge, so I had to write a lot more to get this one to fit. But get it to fit I did, and the finished story will be published as a Wordsworth Short in 2025, first in the bookazine and then as a standalone. It’s a fun story set in Vegas.
4. April: Prompt = I Can’t; Word-count = 500; Deadline = 24 April 2024. The Old Annexe
Here’s another title you might recognise. It’s another story I started for a writing course, as another opener, but the course leader didn’t get beyond the opening paragraph as it was far too long, he said. So I rewrote the first 500 words and submitted it to 12 Stories to see if I’d got it right this time. And I had some good feedback with readers saying it made a good opening and they’d be interested to see more. I didn’t touch it again until this month as it’s been added to the Great Novella Challenge as this month’s effort. It’s much, much longer already, and it will be another 16,000-word novelette.
5. May: Prompt = Tides; Word-count = 1,500; Deadline = 22 May 2024. The Horby Bells
I wanted to write a story about one of the legends surrounding Whitby in North Yorkshire, and when this prompt popped up I thought it was perfect. I gave the story to Stevie Beck so it could be one of her Horvale mini mysteries, and it literally wrote itself. I rattled through it so fast I even had time to edit it before submission. It will be published as a short Stevie Beck Horvale mystery in 2025, and in the bookazine.
6. June: Prompt = Living; Word-count = 1,200; Deadline = 19 June 2024. The Mucky Duck
A year or two earlier there had been a murder in a local pub that seemed a bit fishy to me, or the reasons given behind the murder. I loved the name of the pub and I wanted to write a story based on this real life story. But I had to change the name of the pub because there were gangs involved, I didn’t want to get in trouble, and the court case was ongoing. By June, I was ready to write the story, and I used this month’s prompt as the perfect example. This will be published in January’s bookazine and then it will be released as a standalone flash fiction in 2025.
7. July: Prompt = Trial; Word-count = 750; Deadline = 17 July 2024. Fireworks at Killiecrankie
Years and years ago I wrote a short story called The Battle of Killicrankie, which was published as part of my publishing challenge a few years ago. I always knew this was Book 1 in a series, as it was only a battle. I also knew that the next story in the series would be set around Bonfire Night. So I used this opportunity to write a short story from scratch, using the original story and the characters as my outline and guidance. As it’s only 750 words, but complete, this is a perfect flash fiction story and I’m aiming at publishing it in 2025, first in the bookazine and then as a standalone.
8. August: Prompt = Cheers; Word-count = 1,500; Deadline = 14 August 2024. A Day at the Races
As soon as I had the title for this story I knew it would be a Marcie Craig short story, because it’s also a song title by Queen. But because it’s by Queen and not a Brummie band, it was always going to be a short story and not a full length novel. So I made it a complete mystery. Despite it being a Marcie Craig, I did write it by the seat of my pants, on deadline day. So it went up unedited and unpolished. It will be published in the future, possibly in 2025, first in the bookazine, then as a standalone Wordsworth Short, and then it will go towards a collection of short stories starring Marcie Craig.
9. September: Prompt = Faded Dreams; Word-count = 1,000; Deadline = 11 September 2024. Stevie Beck and the Mystery at Horton Edge Part 1
I didn’t know this was going to be Part 1 until I finished it, as this is a story I wrote completely ‘into the dark’. I didn’t plan it, I didn’t think about it for years beforehand. I just wrote it by the seat of my pants. But I did try to round it off so it at least felt like a complete story. The readers loved it and asked for Part 2, so I knew it was a hit, and I immediately started to think about Part 2.
10. October: Prompt = Overheard; Word-count = 1,800; Deadline = 9 October 2024. Stevie Beck and the Mystery at Horton Edge Part 2
So I wrote Part 2 for the August prompt as well. Part 1 actually came in at 1,200 words, and I had to trim 200 words to submit it and not get penalised. But when I saw that this one was 1,800 words, I thought the two added together would make a perfect 3,000-word short story. In the end it came out at just over 2,900 words. Writing Part 2 meant I had to go back and tweak Part 1, which I’ve already done in my version of the story. And this Stevie Beck/Horvale story will be published in the future, first in the bookazine, then as a standalone, and then in a collection of Stevie Beck/Horvale shorts.
11. November: Prompt = Hysteria; Word-count = 1,200; Deadline = 6 November 2024. The Battle of Stubbins Bridge
From the moment I heard about the annual black pudding throwing championships in Lancashire, where they also used Yorkshire puddings for ammunition, I wanted to write a story about it. (This is as a result of my monthly date work.) I had no idea what to write for this month’s prompt, so I just went for it and gave the black pudding story a go. It was written in one sitting, again on deadline day, and I haven’t really looked at it since. But I had some good feedback and I’d like to polish it and revise it and use it in the future. I thought about giving it to Stevie Beck, but I’d have to relocate the story to Horvale, and it might not work as well there. So it might also stay as a standalone.
12. December: Prompt = Delightful; Word-count = 300; Deadline = 4 December 2024. Let It Snow
At 300 words, this was both the shortest of the 12-month challenge and, for me, the hardest. I wrote one outline for it for A Winter’s Kiss, but that outline alone came in at almost 1,000 words. On deadline day I was despairing for what to do when suddenly an idea hit me. To test it, I tried another outline, and this one came in at almost 500 words. But at least that meant I was closer to target. So again, I went for it and rattled it off on deadline day and so far haven’t looked at it since. It’s too short to be a standalone, and I don’t think it will work as a longer story. But this is the third story I have that’s under 500 words, so if I can keep adding to that, I may have a collection of very flash fiction one day.
So, 12 stories challenged, 12 stories written, although one is very much the opening of something bigger, one is VERY short, and 2 have already been merged together to make one longer, more substantial story.
The challenge starts again on 8 January with our first prompt of 2025. If you’d like to join in, the website is Deadlines for Writers and the challenge is 12 Stories in 12 Months. It’s free to enter, and you get a nice, shiny badge at the end of the year if you hit every challenge. Oh yes, and 12 hopefully complete and brand-new short stories.
Let me know if you do.
