100 Word Story Collaborations & 100+ 100 Word Stories Written

Dear Reader,

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With Fall under way and the Summer weather hopefully long behind us, the time has come to talk about a new month with an all new idea for prompts! Yes, in September weā€™ll be going through another suit in the Literary Tarot deck, but I want to take a quick peek behind the curtain at October because this is an idea nearly ten years in the making! It started from Inktober. If youā€™re not familiar, it was created by Jake Parker in 2009 as a challenge to improve his inking skills and develop positive drawing habits. And ever since, Iā€™ve wanted to do the same for myself to develop positive writing habits.

So, how will this go? As always, for myself, Iā€™ll be writing one 100 Word Story every day in October. You can write any length youā€™d like using the word prompts, but I suggest keeping it short when you see the Pentober Rules:

  1. Write a story using a pen/pencil & paper

  2. Absolutely no typing on a computer or digital device allowed!

  3. Share it.*

  4. Repeat.

*Take a picture of (or scan) your story and post it to social media, your Substack, or Substack Notes. How or where you share it is less important as the act of handwriting a story in the first place.

PEN/PENCIL & PAPER? REALLY?!

What makes this challenge great is not just writing a story, but taking the act of writing all the way back to before typewriters and just keeping it basic. Cross-outs and all! To mark this special month of Pentober Iā€™m going to write all of my stories in a Jonathan Adler journal. I havenā€™t devised a plan for calculating 100 words by hand besides good old fashioned counting but Iā€™m excited to get back to the basics and I hope you join me! If you do, Iā€™d love to hear about it in the comments section and share a picture of your journal and writing implement as well!

THE PENTOBER [OCTOBER] LIST

Because youā€™re subscribed Iā€™m not going to make you wait! Now, no cheating! Try to wait till October 1st before you start going off to write all 31 stories! The point of sharing the list this early is just to get your brain percolating and hopefully build some hype around Pentober ahead of time. Feel free to share the list around social media so anyone who may want to join us can sign-up:

JOIN ME SEPTEMBER 24 – SEPTEMBER 30 FOR A PRACTICE RUN

Thatā€™s right! Iā€™m not going to send you into October without some examples of what Pentober is all about!

Starting September 24th I will share via email (and on Substack Notes) exactly how I intend on using my notebook and pen to write my stories, count the words, and share the story on social media.

And to keep it exactly the same as October, here are 7 words Iā€™ll be using the last week of September as prompts:

A QUICK POLL

Iā€™ve seen this done by a few people and, in truth, I did this a couple years ago with my Friday Fiction 2.0 Podcast. And Iā€™m wondering if you all would be even slightly interested in my bringing it back, starting with October, and possibly going back into the Archives as well with my 100 Word Stories:

Keep in mind because each recording would likely be under 30 seconds I am not likely to do any voice editing or anything really fancy and Iā€™m not by any means on the level of a voice artist like LeVar Burton who does some amazing dramatic readings on his podcast and I highly recommend listening to him if you arenā€™t already! But if itā€™s something youā€™d like to hear, let me know in the poll and like I said, Iā€™ll introduce it in October alongside Pentober! And who knows, maybe this will be my entry into TikTok and Iā€™ll do some vertical video recording of me reading the story as well? šŸ¤”


THE SHORT SHORT STORY COMPETITION

Every year I try to enter at least one writing competition. Iā€™m building a list of loses and rejections. Unfortunately, 2022 I skipped because I had a lot of family changes that happened. Iā€™d like to get back to it in 2023 with the Writerā€™s Digest competition. The Early Deadline is November 15th with an entry fee of $30 and Iā€™d like your help to raise the funds. Consider becoming a paid subscriber. If I get 10 subscribers to upgrade to paid in September/October I would net just enough to afford the entry fee by November 15th. If you do your part to help, I promise to do mine and write the best 1500 word story Iā€™ve ever written!

If you want to learn more about the contest and join me in submitting something this year, check out the page here.


A 100 WORD STORY CALL FOR COLLABORATIONS

There are so many of you who showed interest in writing these 100 word stories that I invited anyone who wanted to join me to collaborate and there have been 7 so far with the 8th coming either today or later this weekend. If youā€™re wondering where you can read them, they are exclusive to my Substack Notes.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

I will send you 50 words to start and you will conclude the story with your 50 words. Trust me when I tell you, no matter how or where I think the collaborator will take the story, it is always a surprise, which is why I enjoy doing them so much.

I am putting out a call for anyone else who may want to collaborate with me. Just let me know by sending me an email: ericadrayton@substack.com and put ā€œ100 Word Collaborationā€ in the Subject Line. I may need a day or two to get back to you but I promise I will. I only do these once a week so keep that in mind. Also, if weā€™ve collaborated before, we can totally do it again so go ahead and reach out if you want!


WORTH THE WATCH

Ali Abdaal is a leading leader in productivity and Iā€™ve been watching his videos religiously for the last 5+ years, at least. He has a new book coming out this Winter (Feel Good Productivity: How to Do More of What Matters to You), but here is a great video where he discusses some great tips about being better at productivity.

A MESSAGE FOR PAID SUBSCRIBERS

EXCLUSIVE ACCESS UNLOCKED – Iā€™ve recently resurfaced all of my ā€œlong fictionā€ pieces and placed them all behind a paywall. I will have new flash fiction and long form fiction stories of up to 2.5k words coming very soon as a part of my Curio Fiction collection of stories coming in 2024. But for now, please enjoy exclusive access to my longer fiction by clicking HERE.

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Comments

  1. Stephanie Loomis

    Ooohhh-fun! Yes on a collab! and yes on pencil/paper!!

  2. Feasts and Fables

    love the boundless creativity. Imagine surfacing an idea that has been 10 years in the making. Fabulous. And handwritten too. Cool

    • Erica Drayton

      Indeed. Iā€™ve had the URL and idea for quite some time, just waiting for the right moment to put it out into the world and hope others will join me. I could not think of a better time, or idea of what to write, than now.

      • Feasts and Fables

        Whenever I have done a handwritten 100-worder, the wordcount plays heavily … my writing is way more intentional … I count as I go and shape the words accordingly, making them up in my head and counting forward. A different sort of writing.

        • Erica Drayton

          I am thinking a simple 10 x 10 grid might work. Count to ten, move to the next line. Do it again. Of course, that doesn’t solve the crossing out that inevitably happens when I write, but I’m still working out the logistics of this whole idea myself on the spot…

          • Feasts and Fables

            That definitely has the makings of a system! It’ll be fascinating to see how folk approach it

  3. Tyler Tarlton

    I like this because itā€™s something I already do. I write all my first drafts in notebooks by hand.

  4. Alexa Tuttle

    Love this idea! I want to participate!!

    • Erica Drayton

      Please do join us! Iā€™m so excited! Why does September have to have so many days?! I just need to make it to the 23rd then I get to do the practice week!

  5. Minor Fossil

    Ok I love this! And the Halloween theme is just the best. I’m in.

    • Erica Drayton

      I look forward to your participation!

      • Minor Fossil

        This will be exciting because I don’t write fiction and it’ll be a good start for me.

  6. Tara Penry

    Gosh, Erica, you have a way of just making a person raise their hand and jump up and down and say “I’ll play!” Now this is what fall should feel like, buzzing and wiggling with creativity. Great post!

    • Erica Drayton

      I hope you join us? Iā€™m excited to see all the participants and all of our magnificent handwritten stories!

      • Tara Penry

        Iā€™m down for anything with a notebook and a pen! šŸ‘šŸ¼ā˜ŗļø

  7. Mark Engelsson

    I am absolutely in for Pentober. I just hope people can read my handwriting!

    • Erica Drayton

      This is my worry as well! I have regressed back to grammar school days where Iā€™m just writing the alphabet in caps and lowercase over and over again to practice! The only time I pick up a pen is to sign my name or write a check which isnā€™t very often. Maybe 12 times a year. Part of me wants to show the mess but another part of me wants to show the neat and tidy rewrite after the initial mess.

      • Mark Engelsson

        Good thought on warming up the handwriting muscles. That last point is extremely valid. Part of the reason I write on my computer is my editing style is *ahem* haphazard. Might take your cue and present the tidy rewrite. Or maybe both, as a comparison exercise?

  8. Debs Stott

    Absolutely love this idea, especially as I always write my stories by hand anyway. I may dip in and out.
    PS I’ve sent you a collab email!

    • Erica Drayton

      Either youā€™re a late sleeper or in another country! It was 3am for me when you sent your email. I am up as of 630am and responded. Look forward to a future collaboration perhaps!

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