Author: Erica Drayton Writes

Your comments and likes count more than ever.

From September 1st to the end of 2023, I will rely on your comments, likes, and the open rates to help me choose the best 100 word stories I’ve written. My intention is to create the very first collection of these stories. The first book will include, you guessed it, one hundred stories. So far, I’ve written over 120 such stories. In the next four months I’ll add another 120+, bringing the total number to choose from to almost 250! That’s a lot for me to filter through. Sure, I have my favorites, but I want to involve you in the ones I select for this collection. I realize not everyone wants to leave a comment, so here’s how you can “cast your vote” and become an integral part of my book:

1. Leave a comment. I will even count comments that say “this was terrible.” Although, I hope if you’re leaving a comment it’s to say something nice or constructive…

2. Hit the Like button.

3. Open my email.

Yes, these are in the order of how much each will weigh when it comes to scoring. So, leaving a comment will weigh much higher than Likes or Open Rates when I’m scoring each story. The scoring will be a bit more “nuanced” because I’m going to try to do a 1 – 5 star rating based on the three criteria above plus how I feel about the story as well. I could just go by the Likes and Open Rate which are more statistical but who wants a book put together by stats alone? I know I don’t. So I need to put a bit more human emotion into my decision making. Of course, this means that if I like something written in these next 4 months that gets zero comments and zero Likes, I will include it in the book anyway. It is my book after all!

I will grab all the stories that received a 5 star score and put them in the book. When I came up with this idea my biggest fear was having over 100 stories with a 5 star rating. But now I’m worried I may not have that many. Then I’ll be forced to take the 4-stars which bring its own unique challenges.

WHY NOT DO THE FIRST 100 DAYS?

Ah, well, I thought of this too. But I felt that would be the easy way out. Sure, some of these are written in a particular order or go together and to separate them wouldn’t make sense. I have an idea when it comes to those particular stories. But if I were to just take the first 100 days it would be leaving a whole lot of amazing ones on the table. I feel like I’m getting better at writing these over time so it stands to reason that number 300 might be far and away better than number 52 in my list of stories. I want to try to give them all equal opportunity.

WHAT ABOUT THE STORIES WRITTEN FROM MAY – AUGUST?

Since those stories are for paying subs only now, as they are archived, I will go back through them to rate them based on two of the three criteria above and my own judgement. Some of them do have comments left prior to being put behind a paywall and I will take them into account as well.

YOU MENTIONED STORIES THAT GO TOGETHER. WILL THEY STAY TOGETHER IN THE BOOK?

Of course! However, I must really love all of the stories in order to put all of them in. Now, what doesn’t count are the Substack Name Publications or any “themes” I may have thought up of at the last minute or that were intentional. Another example would be the Tarot decks or Pentober. I don’t want to devote an entire month’s worth of 30+ days when I only have 100 to choose. That would be almost 1/3 of the book! If it’s a pair or like “the 7” then sure, they might go in the book and be kept together.

WILL THERE BE MORE THAN JUST THE STORIES IN THE BOOK?

This is where it gets interesting. I will include a few sentences or paragraphs alongside each story that will give a bit of background to how it came to be written. If I choose any publication name stories I will, of course, reference that Substack specifically. I want to have more than just 100 pages of stories but not distract from them either.

TELL ME MORE ABOUT THE EDITIONS?

If you hadn’t heard there will be TWO different and very distinct versions of this first (and every subsequent) collection. This is how they will be distinguished from each other:

• Size: One will be 7.5 x 7.5 and the other will be 8 x 8. Yes, I am going to make these collections into a square shape. Each story being just 100 words I think visually it makes sense.

• Hardcover vs Paperback: The Special Edition will be hardcover. The regular edition will be paperback.

All paid subscribers will receive the hardcover special edition version in the mail. US/Canada shipping for monthly subscribers. For global shipping you must be an annual or founding member. This reward is for every collection I print. Hardcovers will never be available for purchase outside of subscribers. That will be the only way to get your hands on these.

Paperback versions will be available for purchase on Amazon and other online outlets.

As an added bonus for the hardcover editions, they will include more than the standard 100 stories. That number is still being worked out. But they will ALSO include 100 word stories that have never been (and will never be) published so you can only read them if you are a paid subscriber to get the book in hand.

Will there be an ebook? At the moment I’m leaning towards no. However, if I can figure out how to make the unique formatting design of the paperback book look just as visually cool as an ebook then I will do so but only for the paperback. The ONLY way to get your hands on the hardcover is as a paid subscriber. Have I convinced you yet?

ONE FINAL NOTE

I really want to thank all of you for silently pushing me to write these stories. There have been many nights where I just didn’t think I had anymore ideas. But then I see how many I’ve written so far and I think of all of you who’ll read it and maybe like it and I push myself just a little bit. Just one more story. Now, I don’t worry as much about if I’ll write my story but what my story will be about. I still hope you’ll like them but that’s par for the course when you’re a fiction writer.

Oh, and if you’re wondering about release dates for these two editions? I’m thinking Summer 2024. If by some miracle I’m able to push that up to Springtime, you’ll be the first to know.

100 Word Story Collaborations & 100+ 100 Word Stories Written

Dear Reader,

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 we’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 you’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, I’ve wanted to do the same for myself to develop positive writing habits.

So, how will this go? As always, for myself, I’ll be writing one 100 Word Story every day in October. You can write any length you’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 I’m going to write all of my stories in a Jonathan Adler journal. I haven’t devised a plan for calculating 100 words by hand besides good old fashioned counting but I’m excited to get back to the basics and I hope you join me! If you do, I’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 you’re subscribed I’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:

That’s right! I’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 I’ll be using the last week of September as prompts:

A QUICK POLL

I’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 I’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 I’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 aren’t already! But if it’s something you’d like to hear, let me know in the poll and like I said, I’ll introduce it in October alongside Pentober! And who knows, maybe this will be my entry into TikTok and I’ll do some vertical video recording of me reading the story as well? 🤔

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THE SHORT SHORT STORY COMPETITION

Every year I try to enter at least one writing competition. I’m building a list of loses and rejections. Unfortunately, 2022 I skipped because I had a lot of family changes that happened. I’d like to get back to it in 2023 with the Writer’s Digest competition. The Early Deadline is November 15th with an entry fee of $30 and I’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 I’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.

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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 you’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: [email protected] and put “100 Word Collaboration” 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 we’ve collaborated before, we can totally do it again so go ahead and reach out if you want!

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WORTH THE WATCH

Ali Abdaal is a leading leader in productivity and I’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 – I’ve recently resurfaced all of my “long fiction” 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.

September 1, 2023