October is rolling right along and as with all months, there are numerous things to celebrate or become aware of. (Thanks to Edie Melson at The Write Conversation for most of the following list)
Daily celebrations include:
- Poetry Day,
- Face Your Fears Day,
- World Mental Health Day,
- Evaluate Your Life Day,
- National Tell a Story Day (in Scotland and the UK)
To the writer in me, those celebrations just beg me to grab a pen and paper.
Not to leave the artists out, we have:
- International Artists Day and Animation Day. (Sorry there aren’t more days devoted to art- I didn’t make these days up, I am just writing about them).
Some of these daily celebrations sound delicious:
- National Caramel Apple Day,
- Pumpkin Cheesecake Day,
- National Frappe Day,
- National Candy Corn Day (I happen to like candy corn),
- Cupcake day,
- Angel Food Cake Day,
- World Egg Day.
The following daily celebrations would make interesting writing prompts:
- Create a Great Funeral Day,
- National Frankenstein Day (Different from Frankenstein Friday),
- National Knock-Knock Jokes Day,
- Curious Events Day,
Weekly Celebrations include, but are not limited to:
- Get organized Week,
- Earth Science week,
- Freedom of Speech Week,
- National Friends of Libraries Week and Great Books week.
The list of things to be aware of or do includes:
- Adopt a Shelter Dog Month,
- Clergy Appreciation Month,
- Breast Cancer Awareness Month,
- Infant Loss and Miscarriage Awareness,
- National Diabetes Month,
- Lupus Awareness Month,
- Domestic Violence Awareness Month,
- National Bullying Prevention Month
- National Popcorn Popping Month,
- Pizza Month,
- Cookie Month.
My point with listing these daily, weekly and monthly celebrations is to get your wheels turning and get you thinking of ideas to write. Maybe someone you know and love has one of these ailments. Perhaps write a story for their child or grandchild. Maybe you are passionate about a cause- shelter dogs, your clergy or domestic violence. Write about it!
Speaking of writing, you do know Write2Ignite has a Fall Writing Contest underway. The target audience is young Adult readers. We are seeking submission of stories set in autumn! Have you written a story with students going back to school? Set at a high school football game? Enjoying a bonfire or hayride? But hurry! The deadline is November 15th! Click the home tab (above) and follow the link therefor further details.
Written for the W2I blog by Jan Prahl
I’ve been thinking about collecting Edie’s monthly lists each month and using them to write short magazine or newspaper pieces. You have to submit them way ahead of the celebration day/week/month so it would be great to have them in a notebook and work on articles in advance.
Wow – lots of story ideas! Oct. 18th is also National Pasta Day. Why not write a cookbook for kids? Or a fun picture book where a grandmother/grandfather teaches grandkids how to make pasta. Imagine the potential hilarity! That’s the beauty of writing for kids of all ages.