The 2020 Story Diary
At Christmas 2019 I received a diary. Having mostly used a web-based diary for a few years (and not having many appointments in that one), I wondered what to do with my present.
Then I had the idea of committing to writing something each day – a short story of some kind perhaps. This would go towards achieving the One Weird Rule That All Successful Writers Adhere To:
- They write
I don’t write enough, so this was my way of making sure that changed.
And, somehow, I managed it.
There were two ‘failures’: I did two stories just past midnight, and one Saturday story I forgot, in October. But apart from that – success! I’ve been keeping up this habit ever since.
The rules of Story Diary
I wanted to make this as easy as possible for myself. I wanted to write without committing to showing anyone. I just wanted to increase the amount of writing I do. I wanted to be able to sit down every day and just write, not overthink, and not need to plan. If it was rubbish, I would just fill the page and move on the next day. No one would ever know!
And yet here I am: I’m pleased with how a lot them came out, and so the best ones will be published on this site. They’ll be largely unchanged from the diary, except for stylistic edits and improvements. I’ll be putting the original date from the diary at the top of the story, although at the moment that’s a work in progress.
The published stories
Many of the stories are little more than expanded ideas (often from a small notebook I keep for little ideas). I let myself leave them ‘unfinished’ in this way, because I didn’t want to force myself towards any end goal each day.
Some of the stories are part of a theme, or a fictional ‘universe’. I’ll try grouping them if I publish them here.
The future
In 2021 I tried writing a whole novel, a day at a time. It wasn’t too bad, but certainly was more a proof of concept. Then towards the end of 2025 I decided that all my writing energy was being taken by this task, and I wasn’t writing the novel I’ve always wanted to complete. And so, starting in December, I wrote a page of that every day. I’d made a lot of notes, so it was easy – once I applied myself in this daily routine!
I finished that first draft in mid-2026, and I don’t think this diary method will work for second drafts. For start, it doesn’t get it typed up! As I write this (August 2026) I’m trying yet more new ideas in the diary, while looking for time to type up the novel’s second draft.
But as long as I’m writing every day, I’m achieving my aim, so I’ll keep going.
The Stories
All the stories will be published under the tag Diary2020, so read on: