 1. Read three existing stories so you’ll have a better understanding of what we’re looking for.
Story 1: A young girl whispers a revealing secret to her friend.
Story 2: A young man takes us through some emotional memories of a relationship, moments before he has “the talk” with his boyfriend.
Story 3: A 10-year-old boy wearing a baby blue shirt with unicorns on it is confronted by an older boy, with an unexpected outcome.
2. Read the following tips to help you write a great, first-person story, or read one these articles: “How To Write Winning First-Person Stories” and this article by the New York Times.
- Share an experience. What specific experience are you sharing with your readers?
- What’s your story about? A first date? Coming out to your grandma? Your experiences growing up gay in 1960? Be sure you can answer this question.
- What actions take place? Be specific. Tell the reader what happened, take us through the experience.
- Was there any dialogue? What was said?
- Tell the reader about a specific event or series of events, not about your entire life or your thoughts on a subject. Again…what happened?
- Where were you when your story happened?
- How did you change by the end of your story? Did you learn anything from your experience?
- 1500 word max, but shorter is usually better.
3. Write Your Story and Submit
Write your story in a separate word processing program (Word, Notebad, Google Docs, etc) and copy/paste it in the form below. Stories are usually posted within 2 weeks. Keep in mind that not all submissions will be posted, so make sure you perform a spell check and proofread your story before clicking “Submit.” Thanks for sharing!
If you don’t want to write a story but want to support I’m From Driftwood, you can make a tax-deductible donation.
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