A Story A Day in May

my short story short list

Check out StoryADay.org, where you can commit to writing a story a day for the month of May. I just found out about this a couple days ago via Nicky Drayden, who's just crazy enough to try such a thing. It sounds like Nanowrimo (which I completed once a few years back), like a kick in the butt with potential for mining several diamonds in the rough while loosing lots of sleep.

I am tempted. I seriously thought about signing up, but I've got some other goals and deadlines to pursue this month. Namely, it looks like I'm going to be able to attend both ApolloCon and ArmadilloCon this year, both of which have writer's workshops. I want new stories to send into the workshops in early June, and they need to be in decent shape since I get the most out of workshops/critiques when I submit my best work.

Then I read Sci-Fi/Fantasy author Marshall Ryan Maresca's post about the value of reading, and it really got me thinking. He mentions an anecdote that Stephen King reads four hours a day and writes four hours a day (wow, nice work if you can get it). I realized that while I've been successful at shoe horning some amount of writing into my life, I have sorely neglected my reading. If I expect to keep returning to the well, I think I'd better get back to that 1:1 ratio of reading to writing.

So, I'm committing to reading one story a day in May (and beyond with any luck). Sounds pretty pithy next to the idea of writing one a day but life is all about balance and baby steps after all.