Afraid of Looking Foolish? Write Anyway!

What if the thing standing between you and writing success is your unwillingness to risk looking a little foolish? Can you allow yourself to write something bad? To drop the ball? To make up your own rules? To try something that might not work? To fail in public---or at least in front of yourself? In this episode I make the case for embracing your inner fool. And, since I take metaphors seriously, I donned the greasepaint and grabbed my juggling balls, to illustrate the point! (check out the YouTube video here) (You're welcome.) Underneath all the silliness, there's a serious point: writing challenges like StoryADay aren't valuable because they prove you can be disciplined, perfect or wildly productive for a month. They're valuable because they give you a relative safe space, and limited timeframe in which to practice writing bad first drafts, figuring out how to make writing fit into your life, how to finish imperfect stories...how to drop a ball and pick it back up again. In a challenge like this you get data: about your writing habits, your perfectionism, your favorite kinds of stories, the conditions that help you write. So if you've been thinking about joining a writing challenge like StoryADay, but have been worried about making a fool of yourself...excellent! This may be exactly the experiment you need. Sign up for the challenge: https://storyaday.org/signup TIMESTAMPS 00:00 What if you make a fool of yourself? 01:28 🤡 Foolish Reason #1: Let It Be Bad 04:30 Why messy first drafts matter 07:00 Stop looking backwards while you draft 09:00 Tricks for keeping yourself moving 12:24 🤹 Foolish Reason #2: Make Your Own Rules 15:00 You don't have to write every single day 18:00 Make promises to yourself you can actually keep 20:14 🤹‍♀️ Foolish Reason #3: Practice, Not Perfection 22:00 Put an ending on it — even a bad one 24:00 Leave breadcrumbs for Future You 26:05 🎪 Foolish Reason #4: More Reasons Than I Can Juggle 28:00 Experiment with genres, voices and strange ideas 31:00 Remember how it feels to be a writer who writes 33:30 Get off social media and make something 36:00 The value of deep creative work 38:30 You don't have infinite time 41:45 🃏 Foolish Reason #5: What If You Don't Even Try? 44:00 Failure is data 47:00 Treat your writing life as an experiment 49:00 Join me in the creativity lab WATCH NEXT All right, fool. You've listened to enough writing advice for now. Go drop some balls.  ➡️ Put on one of my Write With Me sessions and spend the next block of time actually writing. 

There's a lot going on in the world today. AI, publishing worries, the world…the feeling that writing is somehow not as 'important' as any of that.  Bah! In this episode I make the case that it's absolutely the time you should be writing — not because I can guarantee you publishing deals, awards, cash, or screaming fans, but because the act of creation matters. And then, because it's October, I'm giving you pointers on how to write a spooky story (and no, you don't have to like horror, for, or long, dark staircases.) I'll show you how to take an extremely ordinary premise and make it deeply unsettling, by changing just a few details. In This Episode 00:00 Why "a good idea" can stop you before you start 00:17 October, spooky stories — and why I want you writing 01:03 Why writing still matters when the world feels noisy 03:30 Why external success won't sustain your writing life 07:10 Writing as an antidote to cynicism 10:09 Why finishing stories matters 10:09 StoryADay November is coming 11:30 The trap of waiting for a good idea 13:30 How to turn an ordinary idea into a spooky story 15:30 Use setting, isolation and sensory details 17:00 Make one thing feel slightly wrong 18:00 Repetition, unease and psychological spookiness 19:00 What has your character done to deserve this? 20:00 Your spooky story challenge If you're inspired to write, don't go and try to learn anything else. Instead do this: Put on one of my WRITE WITH ME videos and write: https://youtu.be/2DZ_tFC0nQk?si=RLChBSS292hqA-K9 No teaching, no scrolling, just quiet company while you get your words down. Also mentioned: StoryADay November (sign up here: https://storyaday.org/signup) The Short Story Framework https://storyaday.org/framework StoryADay Writing Prompts

What if the thing you think is supporting your writing is actually stealing your writing time? Online writing communities can be encouraging, funny, useful, and genuinely connecting. They can also become a very convincing substitute for writing. In this episode, I'm talking about why StoryADay has never had the kind of always-on free community that so many writing sites now offer, what I mean by the power of inconvenience, and the question I think every writer should ask about the spaces they spend time in: Does this community send me back to my writing — or keep me scrolling?

If you're the kind of writer who has trouble staying motivated or completing things, the upheaval and uncertainty in the world (around AI and politics and climate change and economic instability) probably aren't helping. Here's my answer to whether you should bother (spoiler: yes) and the fundamental step you can't skip if you want to stay motivated and keep going on the greatest adventure you could choose: life as a writer. LINKS Watch the video edition: https://youtu.be/RAvJexG1i4I StoryADay Challenge archive: https://storyaday.org/writing-prompt-archive/ SWAGr monthly accountability posts: https://storyaday.org/category/swagr/ 'Define Success' article: https://storyaday.org/how-to-become-a-highly-successful-writer/ The Dream of being a Writer, article: https://storyaday.org/the-dream/ Permission to Write article (and certificate): https://storyaday.org/write-more-permission-to-write/ The I, WRITER Framework for a Successful Productive Writing Life, article: https://storyaday.org/i-writer-framework/ Planning & Tracking Worksheets Bundle: https://storyaday.kit.com/products/story-a-day-planning-tracking-worksheets StoryADay Superstars group: https://storyaday.org/superstars Book a 1:1 Writing Strategy Session with Julie: https://members.storyaday.org/creative-coaching       SWAGr monthly accountability posts

A four-week momentum/rescue plan to help keep your writing life progressing outside the bounds of a challenge like StoryADay May.

How can you be successful as a writer if you don't define success? But how do you define success? In this episode I suggest a definition of seven different writing 'modes' you can build into your success framework.

A reminder to mark the end of the StoryADay May challenge, and not to simply keep sprinting.

What does success really look like for a writer? In this episode, I share a surprisingly encouraging reminder from a 1951 editorial in Galaxy Science Fiction: even at the highest magazine rates of the day, it took "a stupendous amount of writing" to support a writer. That may not sound comforting at first — but it is. Because it means writing was never easy. False starts, abandoned drafts, stories that don't quite work, and the sheer volume of practice required are not signs that you're doing it wrong. They are part of the work. A gentle but honest episode about ambition, effort, StoryADay May, avoiding burnout, and building a writing life that makes room for a stupendous amount of writing. This Week's Question What will you write this week? How many times will you show up for your writing? Don't go from zero to sixty. Increase your commitment a little. Give yourself the chance to discover what happens when writing becomes something you return to, again and again. LINKS:  StoryADay Handbook 2026 StoryADay Handbook 2024 (the one that's really a writing course disguised as a challenge): Prompts from Week 3 of the StoryADay May 2026 challenge:  Day 17 - A Critical Day, from Mary Robinette Kowal Day 18 - Expanded Idioms, from Julie Duffy Day 19 - Inspired by Artemis II, from Julie Duffy Day 20 - Making a Grocery List, from Brenda Rech Day 21 - The Nitty Gritty, from Ruby G. Dubois Day 22 - The Hero of their Own Story, from Julie Duffy Day 23 - Beyond Sound and Vision, from Elizabeth Twist  

StoryADay 2026 Handbook: https://stada.me/2026handbook Inspiration Corner Here are some prompts that you might have missed, this month, to get your creative wheels turning. Days 1-9 Day 10 - Darkness to Light, from Renan Bernardo Day 11 - Inhumanity, from Julie Duffy Day 12 - The Visitor, from Debbie Ohi Ridpath Day 13 - Here's a Quarter…, from Michele Reisinger Day 14 - Mine your Emotions, from Jluie Duffy Day 15 - Anarchic Archetype, from Julie Duffy Day 16 - I Think I Can, from Somto Ihueze Keep writing, Julie  

In the light of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America organization's statement on AI and eligibility for the Nebula Awards, I recorded this bonus episode of the podcast to give you my perspective on where we are and where we're headed, regarding AI and the creative arts and, well, civilization as a whole. For more like this, subscribe and follow along at StoryADay.org And please share this with a friend.