Recap | Stories 11-20
Twenty. Whole. Stories. Let's recap!
When you’re writing one story a week for a long-term newsletter, it’s implied that you’ll reach story 20. That said, there’s a difference between setting the intention and actually doing the damn thing. I’ve written 20 stories!!
Standing on this mountaintop and looking back at the trek to get here feels really good. For now, I’m not going to turn around and consider the range behind me. Let’s just take a moment and breathe.
20 stories, but digging a little deeper:
11 short stories
5 inspired by songs
2 writing challenges
4 sample chapters from novels
1 set of emails
1 screenplay
1 article
1 poem
53,276 words, not including the introductions or other content. That’s almost a novel! Which are usually 80,000 to 100,000 words. No wonder I’ve not found time to edit my novel…
This week, take the opportunity to glance back at the last 10 stories on Plot Twists with me. Are there some you missed that you want to dig into now? Is there one you want to reread? Do you want me to curate a custom selection to be your next book club selection? Because I will!
Enjoy! And thank you, thank you for being on this journey with me!
A Plot Twists Recap, Stories 11-20
New Originals
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: A Meet Cute For Christmas needs to be a full-length novel. I keep revisiting the story in my head and wondering what happens to these characters, perhaps more than any other short I’ve written, which is a very promising sign. Walking away from writing these shorts with a full-length novel idea was a best-case scenario for this exercise. I even have a sequel idea!
And First-Class Fools feels like an awesome scene for a movie!! I just don’t know what the rest of the movie is.
Sample Chapters
Meanwhile, I already have several books in the works, fiction and non-fiction alike… I like giving you sneak peeks because I can’t wait for these projects to be out in the world, and these chapter reveals give me a little hit of what it will be like. It also allows me to gather your reactions and feedback, ensuring I’m on the right track.
I’d love your thoughts on these: a Christian devotional based on worship music and the story of a NYC PR gal mistaken for an heiress in hiding. The deep and the superficial, get yourself a girl who can do both.
Writing Challenges
To solve for too much time spent on these weekly stories, I devised this writing challenge: complete a story based on a previously unseen prompt in 2 hours and with 1000 words.
This series may become the defining stories of Plot Twists. I’m quite pleased with both; they’re clever, snappy. And both culminate in a plot twist no one saw coming, including me. I didn’t plan them, they just happened!
An Article for the New Year
I strongly believe embracing risk makes your life richer, so I wrote on the topic to kick off 2025. To my great delight, three of you wrote me to share that this article inspired you to act on a specific risk. There could be no greater outcome! I plan on addressing the subject of risk further on my Instagram.
Stories Inspired By Songs
Perhaps my cringiest story yet! I felt confident about it when I clicked publish, but I don’t think it has aged well. Read it to see if you agree.
There are two crucial reasons for this: 1) “Cosmic Love” is a longtime favorite song, and it’s just so brilliant and mystical that I don’t know that I could ever do it justice. 2) The storyline I went with requires about 10x the time and effort to be fully fleshed out; there’s so much opportunity here that just hasn’t been realized.
Poetry
I made a huge deal of At All being my only poem, and then I went and wrote How Do You Knit a Miracle? which doesn’t rhyme and is a children’s book but maybe it’s also a poem? 🤷🏼♀️ So I’m slotting it here and not under sample chapters.
Since writing this admittedly very rough draft of How Do You Knit a Miracle?, I’ve come up with a finer version of the concept for draft two. Add that to my to-do list.
Your Favorite?
💌 Did you have a favorite from these first 20 stories? Even if you haven’t read all, share your most compelling title in the comments!
When I asked for your favorites in last month’s survey, I was surprised by how concentrated your responses were. The clear winners were A Meet Cute For Christmas and The Accidental Socialite, which just so happen to be the next novels behind Interlude, the novel you haven’t gotten a taste of… yet… And you liked my content relating to France, both the original short and the Cannes intern emails.
What’s Next
Business as usual, that’s what’s next. No major updates here, just a few notes for those fascinated:
I will be discontinuing the closing poll asking for a star rating, in favor of begging for likes on the entire post, as those will help gain some exposure for Plot Twists in the Substack multiverse.
Back in February, I said I was going to start weekly story discussions in the Plot Twists chat, which is exclusive to subscribers, but to be honest, I forgot. It’s still a good idea, so we’ll start that with the next story. I hope you’ll join me! *sets reminder*
In the meantime, I got the conversation started with a fresh reading rec question in the chat. Check it out here.
Finally, a new recommendations column will soon launch, featuring some exciting guests! Technically, at the time of writing this, no one is confirmed (I have one ask out, received one polite decline (I aimed high), and have two more concrete ideas), but I’m optimistic and speaking it into existence. 🔮
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