Writing Challenges: My 30 Day Short Story Challenge Day 1

I love writing fiction, and I decided to challenge myself to write a story a day for a month, starting today.

The first story is loosely based on a guy who saw Bigfoot in Lampe Missouri over 30 years ago, when he was a young man on a date. When he told me about his experience, he actually said the line that became the title of the story: “She had a curfew. I had a van.” I loved that line so much, I used it as the title.

Here’s a sample of the 30-Day Short Story Writing Challenge Day 1 story.

Excerpt of “She Had a Curfew…I had a Van” (a Bigfoot story)

by Ronda Del Boccio copyright 2014

My sisters never took a liking to fishing, but I got real lucky with my girl. She likes to fish near as much as I do, and she don’t mind cleaning the fish neither. We had made a full day of it at the lake fishin’, swimmin’ and…carryin’ on as young folk do. We ate our catch for supper. We had a couple beers too, but don’t tell her dad.

Sunbeams danced on Table Rock Lake as the sun set, making a feller remember God’s in charge and not us puny people. We stood ankle deep in the water, arms around each other, watching the sun kiss the lake goodnight. All too soon, it’d be time for us to kiss each other goodnight on account of her curfew. Sometimes it’s hard havin’ a girl who ain’t quite legal to make up her own mind on things like when it’s time to go home.

It’s real hard to think of much of anything when she’s so close to me. I forget all about God and the beauty of the lake and everything else, even fishin’, if you can imagine that’. Well, if you’re a guy, I know you can imagine that..

I’ll post an excerpt each day and share some writing tips along the way.

Today’s writing tip: Focus

Keeping on a writing schedule means you have to be able to focus. Naturally, I have other things to do, like anyone else, so to keep on task, I turn off other distractions and do nothing but write for the half hour or hour I’m devoting to it.

I’m giving myself an hour for the story.

What is your personal writing challenge this month? Join the conversation and make it public!

Follow your B.L.I.S.S.!

Ronda Del Boccio, the Story Lady

bestselling author, speaker and mentor, creator of the B.L.I.S.S. Butterfly Author Success System.