Archive for the ‘Reader Challenges’ Category

Twitter Tales: DailyLit’s Creative Challenge

Our latest creative challenge is to come up with a story, Twitter-style. For those not familiar with Twitter, the story should have a maximum of 140 characters (but feel free to make it shorter). Note that each letter, space and punctuation mark counts as one character.

You can post your Twitter tale here. And of course feel free to tweet it out (please use #dailylit so we can all find it).

Thanks to DailyLit reader DominiqueM for the idea behind these Twitter tales.

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DailyLit is the leading publisher of serialized books in digital form. Selected to be the #1 Book Website by the Sunday Times, DailyLit has sent over 40 million book installments. DailyLit’s books and series are all free and feature bestselling and award-winning titles. Installments can be read in fewer than 5 minutes and can be read wherever you receive email, including on any computer, Blackberry, or iPhone.

Your Sentences

I asked DailyLit readers to come up with their own sentences — that is, a sentence that encapsulates each of their lives. The idea came from Daniel Pink who said it was a way to orient your life. I thought you’d enjoy reading what readers have come up with; you’ll see some are poignant, others uplifting, and still others that are quite sad):

-She did it HER way (by moengey)

-She spent her life trying to be invisible; now she wants to be heard.
 (by lmarsh1)

-He survived another snow day without strangling the kids. (by NearChaos)

-Work in progress. (by saturntv)

-She didn’t get the fairy tale. (by robind)

-She bit off more than she could chew, and chewed it. (by smorge01)

-He died without ever finding a reason to live. (by Fips)

-For 60-odd years so many mistakes; so many different worlds; so many repercussions; and now at last she begins preparations for life in her own real world, excited at finally living on her own terms doing what she was made for but fearful of there being insufficient time. (elizarussell)

-He crash landed on my heart like warm pancakes. (by birdhugger)

-The best lie goes to: “I love you more!” (by ladybeth22)

-She came and went and I was glad. (by Golem100)

-She never quite felt like she fit in and then happily hit 40 and suddenly didn’t care! (by fnevlntine)

-I’m still circling the drain. (by BashoKatzenjammer)

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You can read other sentences written by DailyLit readers here or add your own here as well.

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DailyLit is the leading publisher of serialized books in digital form. Selected to be the #1 Book Website by the Sunday Times, DailyLit has sent over 40 million book installments. DailyLit’s books and series are all free and feature bestselling and award-winning titles. Installments can be read in fewer than 5 minutes and can be read wherever you receive email, including on any computer, Blackberry, or iPhone.

DailyLit News: Time to Chillax

In case you miss the latest arriving in inboxes today, here it is:

NOTE FROM THE FOUNDER

I think we have it all wrong. We should all be taking off the month of August. There is absolutely no reason we should be sitting at our desks, pretending to work when we could be out by the water “chillaxing” (that is, chilling and relaxing). So I thought I’d highlight the next best thing: a few short stories to transport ourselves to other lands and various creative challenges to keep our minds off work.
So cheers, to chillaxing!
-Susan

Susan Danziger
Founder and CEO, DailyLit
sdanziger@dailylit.com
Twitter:@susandanziger, @dailylit

SHORTS AND TAILS
Here are some short stories and tails (well, OK, tales) for some light summer reading:
-Margaret Atwood’s White Horse (meeting her was one of the high points of the year; what an amazing woman!)
-Jhumpa Lahiri’s Hell-Heaven (one of my favorite authors)
-Classic Shorts (featuring stories by Fitzgerald, Chekhov, and Poe; selected by editors of Poets & Writers literary magazine)
-Grimm’s Fairy Tales (I still can’t remember the difference between Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltskin; can you?)
-Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (I’ve been meaning to re-read this novella — or do I just think I’ve read it?)
-E.M. Forster’s A Room with a View (always transports me to Florence!)

VOTRE PASSEPORT, SI’L VOUS PLAÎT

Even if you can’t swing a trip to France or Spain this summer, you can armchair travel with Berlitz Essential French Phrases or Berlitz Essential Spanish Phrases.

HIGHLIGHT: CREATIVE CHALLENGES

At least look as though you’re getting serious work done by tackling one of these past creative challenges (or just check out other readers’ contributions):
- 50 Word Challenge (write an extremely short story with a beginning, middle and end)
-10 Word Summer Memories (quick, before you forget!)
-Summer Love in One Sentence (who can resist?)
-What’s Your Favorite Word? (Mine is “chillax” — introduced to me by my 11 year old son as in, “You need to chillax, Mom.”)
-And then for a couple of aspirational, thought-provoking challenges: What’s Your Sentence? (need to think of a sentence that describes your life) and Before I die… (enough said).
-Your Perfect Day (our latest challenge: “What does your perfect day look like?” Mine would start in a cafe in Paris reading The International Herald Tribune, eating a freshly-baked croissant and sipping cafe au lait; I’d then hang out at Shakespeare & Company bookshop followed by a stroll through the gardens of the Picasso Museum.) And yours? What’s your perfect day?

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DailyLit is the leading publisher of serialized books in digital form. Selected to be the #1 Book Website by the Sunday Times, DailyLit has sent over 40 million book installments. DailyLit’s books and series are all free and feature bestselling and award-winning titles. Installments can be read in fewer than 5 minutes and can be read wherever you receive email, including on any computer, Blackberry, or iPhone.

Revisiting 10 Word Summer Memories

I thought it would be fun to revisit some past creative challenges, and I came upon this one that asked folks to describe summer memories in exactly 10 words. You might enjoy taking a look at these 10 Word Summer Memories, and they might inspire you to add your own. Here are a few:

#
Jersey Shore, sunburned shoulders, going to bed on ironed sheets.
eileenweirJun 28, 2010 8:26 am
•  Cape Cod, big house, hooded sweatshirts, COLD ocean, horseshoe crabs… (by lskohn)
•  Jersey Shore, sunburned shoulders, going to bed on ironed sheets. (by eileenweir)
•  No school, no shoes, Good Humor bells, fireflies, water sprinklers (by patk)
•  1968, Berkshires, bestfriend, silent nights, blue-eyed farmer, homemade donuts (by livinonthecrowrock)
•  Watermelon under the tree, blueberry popsicles, corn on the cob (by kogawa)
•  Summer afternoon library books crumple a quilt under the elm (by bookmonster)
•  Cold chocolate milk from the milkman, only twenty-seven cents (by deirdre1952)


You can read other summer memories here; add your own as well.  Have a field day!

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DailyLit is the leading publisher of serialized books in digital form. Selected to be the #1 Book Website by the Sunday Times, DailyLit has sent over 40 million book installments. DailyLit’s books and series are all free and feature bestselling and award-winning titles. Installments can be read in fewer than 5 minutes and can be read wherever you receive email, including on any computer, Blackberry, or iPhone.

DailyLit Readers’ (Fictional) Summer Destinations

Given that this is the season of travel, I thought I’d highlight responses to a recent creative challenge that asked which fictional place (from a novel or story) would you want to go this summer. Here are some of the responses:

-Well, the Secret Garden, of course!!! (by scdebbiet)
-To the bliss of Shangri-La! (by dreamdust)
-Willie Wonka’s chocolate factory! (by rootdarc)
-Narnia (suggested by changolote, DominiqueM and ohbejoyful)
-19th century Petersburg from Dostoevsky’s White Nights (by messenger7)
-I’d love to visit one of the fictional lands in Enid Blyton’s children’s novels… (by tinuviel)
-Turn of the 20th Century archeological dig in Egypt (with the Emersons) (by raggsragan)
-Neverland (by lewis.m17)
-Hogwarts/Hogsmeade (by Irene_Gulliver)
-I would like to walk the streets of London with Sherlock Homes and Dr. Watson… (by provolone)
-Same place I’ve visited for the past 65 years…OZ. I miss Dorothy, the Tinman, the Cowardly Lion and especially the Scarecrow (by andrejules and also suggested by crucible3)
-Why to Mr. Darcy’s arms of course! (by pattiecake321)
-To Italy for a stay in the Room With a View. (by linderanniscrabby)
-Tara, from “Gone With the Wind” Yes, Rhett darling, I do give a d—. (by WandaMaynard)
-Never, Never Land….I don’t want to ground up! :> (by lsavadge)

You can view other fictional destinations (or enter your own) here.

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DailyLit is the leading publisher of serialized books in digital form. Selected to be the #1 Book Website by the Sunday Times, DailyLit has sent over 40 million book installments. DailyLit’s books and series are all free and feature bestselling and award-winning titles. Installments can be read in fewer than 5 minutes and can be read wherever you receive email, including on any computer, Blackberry, or iPhone.

DailyLit asks: What’s Your Sentence?

I read Daniel Pink’s book, Drive, over vacation, and in it he challenges us to ask ourselves the “big question”: What’s your sentence?

For instance, on a grandiose scale, Pink explains that Abraham Lincoln’s sentence may have been: “He preserved the union and freed the slaves.” But someone else’s may be as simple as: “She taught two generations of children how to read,” or “He raised four kids who became happy and healthy adults”. Pink explains it’s a way to orient your life towards a greater purpose.

So, as the year begins, I’d like to ask: “What’s your sentence?” You can enter it in DailyLit’s forums here.

And thanks, Dan, for the inspiration.

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DailyLit is the leading publisher of serialized books in digital form. Selected to be the #1 Book Website by the Sunday Times, DailyLit has sent over 35 million book installments. DailyLit’s books and series are all free and feature bestselling and award-winning titles. Installments can be read in fewer than 5 minutes and can be read wherever you receive email, including on any computer, Blackberry, or iPhone.

Creative Challenge – Come up with DailyLit’s Slogan

I’m asking readers to help come up with a slogan for DailyLit. I’m looking for memorable slogans that will make people take notice of DailyLit. So if you have any ideas, please include your them here. Any suggestions are much appreciated.

-Susan Danziger
Founder and CEO
DailyLit
@susandanziger, @dailylit

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DailyLit is the leading publisher of serialized books in digital form. Selected to be the #1 Book Website by the Sunday Times, DailyLit has sent over 35 million book installments. DailyLit’s books and series are all free and feature bestselling and award-winning titles. Installments can be read in fewer than 5 minutes and can be read wherever you receive email, including on any computer, Blackberry, or iPhone.

DailyLit’s Reader Challenge: 50 Word Fright

DailyLit has just launched a new creative Reader Challenge that gets us in the spirit (so to speak!) of Hallowe’en, which is just around the corner. It’s frighteningly simple. In exactly 50 words (no more, no less), tell the creepiest, scariest, most chilling story you can possibly imagine. And remember, you don’t need blood and guts to make it scary!

Enter your 50 Word Fright here.

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DailyLit is the leading publisher of serialized books in digital form. Selected to be the #1 Book Website by the Sunday Times, DailyLit has sent over 35 million book installments. DailyLit’s books and series are all free and feature bestselling and award-winning titles. Installments can be read in fewer than 2 minutes and can be read wherever you receive email, including on any computer, Blackberry, or iPhone.

Winners of “Heroes” Reader Challenge

Thank you to everyone who participated in our “Heroes” Reader Challenge, inspired by Brad Meltzer’s bestselling book Heroes For My Son. We definitely got a little warm and fuzzy feeling reading about your heroes. Here, in no particular order, are our three winners, each of whom will receive a signed copy of Heroes For My Son. Congrats!

“I learned to read, I learned to sing, I learned to share, and I learned to care…all at the knee of my blind and deaf grandfather. I learned to really look, take time to see, listen carefully and hear clearly. I learned that a 5-year old cannot sneak past her grandpa, no matter what his challenges and capabilities. I dedicate my doctoral work in education to my first and best teacher, my grandpa!”
–ggarner58

The most heroic deed is not celebrated, not even known. Manifested everyday in common people who suffers in silence for their loved ones. No need to look far and beyond, just true and discover that heroes are amongst us, in each one of us!
–ladybeth22

My grandmother, a teacher and friend. A college-educated and working mother many years before the norm, her well-lived life was of joys and tragedies, memorable days and thousands more simply ordinary. She was a smart, funny, generous, imperfect woman who lived 97 years always looking forward to tomorrow.
–thehappywordsmith

Thanks again to everyone who participated. Don’t forget to check out our new Reader Challenge: 10 word Summer Memories.

10 Word Summer Memories

Two days ago I announced a new creative challenge: 10 Word Summer Memories. I challenged you to share your favorite summer memories in just 10 words. This challenge has clearly hit a note; there have been some really fun entries. I thought it would be fun to share (in no particular order):

  • “Jersey Shore, sunburned shoulders, going to bed on ironed sheets.” by eileenwei
  • “Cape Cod, big house, hooded sweatshirts, COLD ocean, horseshoe crabs…” by lskohn
  • “No school, no shoes, Good Humor bells, fireflies, water sprinklers” by patk
  • “1968, Berkshires, bestfriend, silent nights, blue-eyed farmer, homemade donuts” by livinonthecrowrock
  • “Watermelon under the tree, blueberry popsicles, corn on the cob” by kogawa
  • “Summer afternoon library books crumple a quilt under the elm” by bookmonster
  • “Cold chocolate milk from the milkman, only twenty-seven cents” by deirdre1952

 
You can read all the memories here; there’s also still time to add others. Have a field day!

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