Writing Like You're Running Out of Time -- On Booktober 2025

Ever saw a challenge you couldn't resist? Visual art has never been my forte, but like many writers and readers alike I've been enamored with the concept of Inktober since I first got a Tumblr account in 2019. And who wouldn't be? Thirty-one fresh but vague one-word prompts are offered to open-minded artists. The catch? You had to post one a day in the order in which it was listed. (Or hey, you could throw that rule out the window, too. It was an art challenge! Since when was staying inside the box part of art's lengthy history??) It didn't matter what the final product was -- only the effort and creativity you put into it.

In late September, I stumbled across @dalooch's BookTober design on Tumblr. How can you ignore such a dreamy soft pink background? The whole thing sang of fairy tale nostalgia as the image's caption teased dalooch's followers to use the prompts to recommend stories to whomever would follow the trend.

Now I might be readsy, but not enough to have a recommendation for every prompt! So, I thought, why not make my own stories to share?

If you were following me on Instagram anytime in October, I'm sure you saw my daily Booktober posts. Using this Booktober template as my muse, I wrote thirty-one 100-word short stories -- all of them ranging in terms of POV, genre, tense, and style.

I know it's no fun, but I'm afraid it's not quite time for all thirty-one of these stories to be permanently public. I'd like to see how far they can go first! But if you're impatient for just want a taste of what this challenge can look like, you can find the first five stories right here.

And who knows! I've got a birthday in June and not a lot on my wishlist. Maybe I'll just have to create my own template and have you guys write your own short stories to help me celebrate...