Writing: it’s a funny business. Until Tuesday I’d never heard of 13-word stories and knew nothing about Granta magazine’s competition on Twitter. Ridiculous, I thought, no way could you write a story in thirteen words! And even if you could, why bother? Much the same as you do when you hear about a haiku or a tanka or a short-short story for the first time. I ended up entering more than 10 13-worders. I don’t write horror stories and I read very little of it these days. But one of my stories was published in The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror, so it would be churlish of me to denigrate it as a genre. I put neither much time nor effort into my first entry, inspired by a phenomenon on Twitter where my followers were all suddenly replaced with an error message. When they returned I looked at what some of the other competitors were entering and decided it looked like fun. I turned my thoughts into a tweet, as I’ve done more than 7000 times before, double-checked the word count and off I went. (Image: Granta’s horror issue.)

“Life wastes itself while we are preparing to live.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

(Image: saxophonist Wayne Shorter’s solos with Weather Report often featured his improvisations on Bob Hope’s signature tune, ‘Thanks for the Memories’)

Including this, I’ve posted 22 responses to the #Trust30 challenge out of a possible 32 (that’s not quite true; the challenge goes on, reinvigorated by the positive feedback received from the participants). I want to quit while I’m ahead, so thanks for the memories.

“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. If we follow the truth, it will bring us out safe at last.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

When did you feel most alive recently? Where were you? What did you smell? What sights and sounds did you experience?

Capture that moment on paper and recall that feeling. Then, when it’s time to create something, read your own words to reclaim a sense of being to motivate you to complete a task at hand.

(Author: Sam Davidson)

“I do not wish to expiate, but to live. My life is for itself and not for a spectacle. I much prefer that it should be of a lower strain, so it be genuine and equal, than that it should be glittering and unsteady. I wish it to be sound and sweet, and not to need diet and bleeding.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Think about the type of person you’d NEVER want to be five years from now. Write out your own personal recipe to prevent this from happening and commit to following it. “Thought is the seed of action.” (Author: Harley Schreiber)

“The secret of fortune is joy in our hands.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

What if today, right now, no jokes at all, you were actually in charge, the boss, the Head Honcho. Write the “call to arms” note you’re sending to everyone (staff, customers, suppliers, board) charting the path ahead for the next 12 months and the next five years. Now take this manifesto, print it out somewhere you can see, preferably in big letters you can read from your chair.

(Author: Sasha Dichter; image: the board meets in Joel & Ethan Coen’s film The Hudsucker Proxy)

“Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Three things block us from putting down our clever and picking up our ordinary: false comparisons, false expectations and false investments. What are your false comparisons? What are your false expectations? What are your false investments? List them.

(Author: Patti Digh; illustration: Gustave Flaubert, by Corbis)

“The secret of fortune is joy in our hands.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you could picture your intuition as a person, what would he or she look like? If you sat down together for dinner, what is the first thing he or she would tell you?

(Author: Susan Piver)

“If there’s one thing I can’t stand it’s people telling me they know what I’m thinking.” A short-short inspired by the prompt.

“Men imagine that they communicate their virtue or vice only by overt actions, and do not see that virtue or vice emit a breath every moment.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Who is one person that you’ve been dying to connect with, but just haven’t had the courage to reach out to? First, reflect on why you want to get in touch with them. Then, reach out and set up a meeting.

(Author: David Spinks; image: Franz Kafka, by Andy Warhol)

“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm” is a great line from Emerson. If there’s no enthusiasm in what you do, it won’t be remarkable and certainly won’t connect with people on an emotional basis. But, if you put that magic energy into all of your work, you can create something that touches people on a deeper level. How can you bring MORE enthusiasm into your work? What do you have to think or believe about your work to be totally excited about it? Answer it now.

(Author: Mars Dorian; image: Larry David)

“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

We live in a society of advice columns, experts and make-over shows. Without even knowing it, you can begin to believe someone knows better than you how to live your life. Someone might know a particular something better but nobody else on the planet knows how to live your life better than you. (Although one or two people may think they do.) For today, try asking yourself often, especially before you make a choice, “What do I know about this?”

(Author: Jen Louden; image: the town where I was born)