My Name was Supposed to be Elizabeth Ann

I have a confession to make.  

In April and May,  I watched waaay too much (for me) Monday night television. 

More on that in a bit, but first–StoryADay.

For years, I had put off joining the May challenge because I mistakenly thought I had to write a ready-for-readers story every day for thirty-one days and there is no way—NO WAY—I can do that. Other people, maybe, but not me. 

In 2019, however, I decided to try, and I’ve participated every year since.

Turns out there are only two basic rules for the StoryADay May writing challenge: 

First, Make your own rules for the challenge and, 

Second, If you miss a day DO NOT GO BACK.

Seems contradictory, right? I mean, what if one of your rules is that you can go back if/when/whenever you want? 

I mean, that’s what I do sometimes.

Anyway, this year I knew I wouldn’t be home much during the challenge, and I knew I wanted time to finish a separate project, so in April I decided I wouldn’t worry about writing stories, per se, with beginnings and middles and ends. Instead, I would take any one or more of seven characters I’d outlined, then plop them into each day’s prompt and play with them like dolls to see how they’d behave.  I would read the daily prompts with my morning coffee, but I would complete them whenever I could. Sometimes that was first thing, and sometimes that was the end of the day. I gave myself permission to skip any prompt that just didn’t seem to work for that framework, and permission to return to prompts I didn’t want to skip but couldn’t complete on that particular day. 

Most importantly, I would complete more of the prompts than I skipped, and I would not under any circumstances just quit. 

Oh, and I would have fun.

Complicated? Maybe. But it was a challenge, you see, and I wanted to win.

The challenge isn’t just about winning StoryADay May, it’s about winning StoryADay next–whatever that means to each participant.  

Speaking of winning,  I don’t watch a lot of television–I’d much rather read–but one day last winter when I was out of books and it was too icy and dark to be outside, I started watching ‘The Voice’ with my husband, who had turned it on for background noise. 

If you’re unfamiliar with its premise (I was), ‘The Voice’ is a competition wherein amateur and/or semi-professional singers vie for a recording contract and $100,000. Four celebrity musicians select and coach their teams, then pit teammates against each other in order to decide who advances and who goes home. After each coach wittles their team to three, the show’s viewing audience assumes control, by using an app to vote for their favorite performers during the competition’s final live broadcast weeks.

Yes, I downloaded the app and yes, I voted. And when season 25 began, I watched that too, and on Mondays I sometimes watched ‘Deal or No Deal Island,’ a different pseudo-reality competition which came on after ‘The Voice.’ THREE HOURS of television, but I had to watch. I had to see who won. Such validation, yes? in winning. Not just for the competitors but for their supporters. All that reflected glory. 

Sadly, however, none of my preferred contestants won, though they were all in the top four of both series. Oh well. More time to read, I thought, and continued on with my life, but then a few days after their finales, my Instagram feed highlighted a photograph of one series winner showered in confetti. I clicked on the comments, which I almost never do, and was unsurprisingly appalled at the level of vitriol and animosity directed at the winner and the voting process. To paraphrase, the comments’ authors either agreed that the winner deserved to win, or they insisted that the voting was rigged because their preferred contestant lost. Clearly their candidate was the best winner ever, so what other explanation could there be for his/her/their/loss?

People, puh-lease.

Candidates usually lose because more people voted for the other guy.  

*****

While the daily StoryADay prompts followed a structure similar to past years’ (mornings, you get an email with the prompt and a few tips), 2024’s challenge came with an optional Handbook containing not only more detailed versions of each prompt, but also explanatory videos, warm-ups, and brainstorming activities. During May, Handbook content was unlocked one day at a time (no cheating!), but come June 1 (today, in fact) anyone with access can revisit any of its resources whenever and however they want. 

I love that, because you see the challenge isn’t just about winning StoryADay May, it’s about winning StoryADay next–whatever that means to each participant.  

In other words, winning isn’t only defined by doing ‘the thing’ or being showered with confetti and accolades. That’s part of it, of course, and lovely when it happens, but that approach, I believe, is only appropriate for toddlers and t-ball competitions, not life. Winning, I believe, is defined not by participation trophies but by what you learn while striving. By how you’ve grown and evolved, and how you’ll apply those lessons to the next challenge you face or accept. 

And, let’s not forget, by how you respond to others’ successes.  

*****

I still prefer classical music to most genres, and reading to watching television.  

I still can’t write a reader-ready story in a day, and sometimes life is so distracting I can’t concentrate to read. 

However, in May’s thirty-one days, I read nine and half books, abandoned six at about their 50-page mark, and started three more. I wrote to 23 StoryADay prompts, plan to return to two more, and have a more complex and detailed understanding of my seven characters’ characters. I’m almost finished with that other project I mentioned, and I’ve added several previously unknown artists and less familiar genres to my music playlists. 

Oh, and I definitely, definitely had fun. 

This time last year, not so much.

So what do you think? 

Do I win?

*****

So how do you define success? Of what recent accomplishment are you most proud?

Drop a comment below 🙂

Coming up on MY NAME WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ELIZABETH ANN —

I usually post the first Saturday of each month, unless LIFE.

Next up in July: Part four of my occasional series on BOOKS THAT MATTER AND THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM, a profile of one of my reader-writer friends. Look for it the third Saturday, lots of LIFE for me and mine between now and then.

And coming up in August: It’s All A Matter of Perspective

Thanks for reading!