igpy kin has a blog

...so, I decided as of officially about yesterday that I would be participating in the Thirty Days Project. My incredibly awkward introduction is here. The basic idea of the Thirty Days Project is that participants aim to produce a creative work every day over the course of June. As university has rendered me a creature entirely capable of productivity unless I'm facing big red deadlines, this seemed like the perfect project for me.

Over the next month, you'll be seeing (ideally) one very short work of fiction every day. These will be largely un- or underedited, and will probably cause me a great deal of shame and trouble. I'm pretty excited about that prospect.

As a uniting theme for the month's work, I've decided to base my stories off the Twitter prompts of Sarah Selecky. I haven't actually read her fiction, but she gives great prompt. Um. And I will probably give reading her a go, now that I've decided to commit a month to doing what she says. I compiled a list of the prompts posted between November 30, 2010 and May 30, 2011, and beside repeating one prompt every three days, used Random.org to choose my other 20 prompts. this is my schedule:

june 1 Write a story that involves a hipster and his Holga. Use 1st person POV.
june 2 Write five good first sentences. Don't worry about the rest of the story for now - just write the opening lines. 5 of them.
june 3 Go to your nearest book. Turn to page 51. Find the first line of the last paragraph on the page. Use that line to start your scene.
june 4 Write a story like Lydia Davis.
june 5 Then write a scene that starts with the word "follow."
june 6 Go to your nearest book. Turn to page 51. Find the first line of the last paragraph on the page. Use that line to start your scene.
june 7 Write a story that is shaped like an accordion file.
june 8 Write a story that involves horizontal stripes and vitamins.
june 9 Go to your nearest book. Turn to page 51. Find the first line of the last paragraph on the page. Use that line to start your scene.
june 10 Write a story that involves insomnia.
june 11 Write a short story about diving.
june 12 Go to your nearest book. Turn to page 51. Find the first line of the last paragraph on the page. Use that line to start your scene.
june 13 Write a story that involves a pink post-it note.
june 14 Start a story with the line, "Make your own," she said.
june 15 Go to your nearest book. Turn to page 51. Find the first line of the last paragraph on the page. Use that line to start your scene.
june 16 If you can steal away 10 minutes today: write a list titled "Things that are too much."
june 17 Write a scene that evokes something buttery. do not write about anything that is actually made with butter.
june 18 Go to your nearest book. Turn to page 51. Find the first line of the last paragraph on the page. Use that line to start your scene.
june 19 Write a scene that involves a square plate.
june 20 Write a story that uses the words: bird, aerosol, Persia.
june 21 Go to your nearest book. Turn to page 51. Find the first line of the last paragraph on the page. Use that line to start your scene.
june 22 Write a story that involves a symphony.
june 23 Write a radio play. Start with the sound of a key in a door.
june 24 Go to your nearest book. Turn to page 51. Find the first line of the last paragraph on the page. Use that line to start your scene.
june 25 Write a story about what s/he finds at the bottom of hir teacup.
june 26 Write a story that involves a countdown. Start the story at 10 and end the story at 0.
june 27 Go to your nearest book. Turn to page 51. Find the first line of the last paragraph on the page. Use that line to start your scene.
june 28 Write a story that contains only non-sequiturs.
june 29 Have your character do something you don't understand yet. Write it, and resist having an opinion about it for as long as possible.
june 30 Go to your nearest book. Turn to page 51. Find the first line of the last paragraph on the page. Use that line to start your scene.

I'm hoping that the use of Random.org rather than my own preferences will help force me out of my comfort zone, and bring up some new topics. (Also, hopefully this will get me properly used to writing about things I don't want to write about.)

I will also, over the course of June, be working through the reading list for my Honours project (incl. Samuel Beckett, The Complete Short Prose 1929-1989 (06/05); Betty Lambert, Jennie's Story (06/11); James Joyce, Dubliners (07/03)), having a life, throwing a party, doing reading-not-Honours-reading, and presumably deigning to put through a load of laundry and/or eat some food now and then. It should be an interesting month.

Fiction will be posted to this blog, and you can keep track of my overall progress here.