I second critique groups! Also, #12x12! And it helps so much to start out the new year with a month’s worth of fresh ideas thanks to #storystorm! And, of course, having #PBParty each year to look forward to keeps me pushing.

Creative Challenges (and Other Challenges) Reflections on the value of reading and writing challenges, including StoryStorm and Poem-a-Day challenges.

I wrote a blog about #StoryStorm, picture books, poetry, and the benefits of creative challenges!

Check it out here: stefankarlssonwrites.wixsite.com/author/post/...

#KidLit #PictureBooks #PoetryCommunity

Young girl with long purple hair sits looking off into space in a cozy room with a fireplace and magical lights as she writes. Panels on either side show snow falling.

Another January idea month completed thanks to the efforts and generosity of @taralazar.bsky.social and the authors and author illustrators who posted throughout January. #Storystorm #kidlit #ideas

StoryStorm winner badge showing an illustration of a girl writing at a desk

This was my second year completing #StoryStorm, and it’s become my favorite annual tradition. Thank you to @taralazar.bsky.social and all of the guest contributors for offering inspiration and encouragement 💜 #KidLit

Here are the picture books I read for this January’s #StoryStudy reading challenge that I started, inspired by @taralazar.bsky.social’s #StoryStorm writing challenge.

Thank you for following along, & a BIG thank you @mlapointemalchik.bsky.social for joining me in sharing wonderful PBs! 💜 #KidLit

LIBRARY LION 🥰
✍🏻 Michelle Knudsen @michelleknudsen.bsky.social
🎨 Kevin Hawkes
2006, Candlewick

I do solemnly swear that I have faithfully executed
the Storystorm 30-ideas-in-January challenge,
and will, to the best of my ability,
parlay my ideas into picture book manuscripts.
#StoryStorm

30+ ideas for #Storystorm! That's an exciting way to start 2026! Thanks @taralazar.bsky.social! #kidlit

#writingcommunity gratitude. #storystorm truly lit a fire for me. I'll be back next year!

#kidlit #amwriting #picturebooks

Winner! #storystorm

Storystorm winner badge with art by Courtney Pippin Mathur

Thanks to @taralazar.bsky.social for organizing #Storystorm! I'm starting the year with so many new ideas, and even better, I'm in the habit of writing down a new idea every day.

Storystorm wrapped up and 30 new ideas in the bank! Now, onto writing a a few of them...

#storystorm #picturebooks #kidlit

I finally came up with 30 story ideas for #Storystorm. Not saying there's 30 good ideas. Just that I have 30 of them and I've knocked something off my January list. #kidlit

And that concludes this year's #StoryStorm. These are open source story ideas, feel free to use to spark your own stories. I have a couple or three that I've added to my own backlog for future books or shorts.

#StoryStorm Day 31 Story Idea:

31 Days
A child lives her life in 31 days. Walking by the middle and talking by the end of the 2nd day, she’s a young woman after the 1st week. Her middle weeks are all fun with games. Her last week is full of reflection and regret but acceptance and happiness too.

#StoryStorm Day 30 Story Idea:

The Day Planner
Jimmy buys a desk calendar from 1931 and finds its days match up. Every day has a writing prompt. When he starts writing short stories to the prompts his career takes off. As time passes he becomes more fearful of the year’s end.

#StoryStorm Day 29 Story Idea:

Whiteout
After a massive snow storm, a family finally digs out to find they've switched to a new reality as the flakes fell. Beyond their driveway is a new and strange world where they no longer fit in.

I did it! I thought of 30 story ideas for #StoryStorm! And two are already drafts for @12x12challenge.bsky.social.

#writingcommunity #12x12PB #authorsky

#StoryStorm Day 28 Story Idea:

Em
Em was a detective on old earth before the longevity treats. Now she has her own space ship, a blaster, and a bad attitude. You can hire her to find someone, or to solve a mystery. But after the job is done don’t expect her to stick around.

#StoryStorm Day 27 Story Idea:

Frozen Over
A travelogue through Hell where the weather is always a wintry mix, not a fire in sight. Dante without the inferno. A cold hell.

#StoryStorm Day 26 Story Idea:

Kitterly
Anara 4, populated with descendants of genetically modified cats, is ruled by an ancient and demented king. One prince keeps him drugged and chemically off balance to maintain control. Another, sent off to be raised at sea. If only the King can remember.

#Storystorm 2026: Snow Day!

Day 25 of @taralazar.bsky.social #Storystorm Hope from #LindaRavinLodding who says #PB "...small as they are, are mighty. They are portable courage. They are a hand to hold. They are a way of saying: Yes the world can be a lot. But you are not alone inside it." #kidlit #creators stay the course.

Storystorm 2026 Day 23: Laura Zarrin Tames Her Distracted Mind by Laura Zarrin I’ve been an artist all of my life, but even though I liked writing, I never considered myself an author. That changed thanks to Storystorm, but making time to write without distrac…

I wrote a blog post for #Storystorm. Check it out! taralazar.com/2026/01/23/s...

#StoryStorm Day 25 Story Idea:

Commodities of Lahnindahl
An engineers mate 3rd class is sent to fix a stasis pod on the Battle Station Lahindahl but accidentally falls in to the broken unit. He wakes 500 years later to find the Battle Station is now an interstellar shopping mall.

Storystorm 2026 Day 25: Linda Ravin Lodding Turns Headlines into Hope by Linda Ravin Lodding Some days, the world feels like it’s shouting in ALL CAPS. You open the news and there it is again: another story that makes your shoulders creep toward your ears like they’r…

Another must-read post on the #Storystorm blog today, by Linda Ravin Lodding. This is why we keep writing stories and drawing bears and bunnies in the face of the unspeakable:
wp.me/p7jVE-5rh

#StoryStorm Day 24 Story Idea:
The Last Starfighter with Big Naturals
In an Arizona trailer park, a buxom high school student plays a video game. No cash for college. Her friends are leaving. When she beats the game a mysterious stranger arrives to whisk her away to fight the Kodan Armada.

The Preliminary snow outlook for the North Atlantic states shows 4 to 8 inches minimum with maximums of 18 inches.

My understanding was #StoryStorm was meant to be metaphorical.

#StoryStorm Day 23 Story Idea:

Bad to the bone
A sentient alien virus finds a rich breeding environment within the bone marrow of Earth animals. It spreads aggressively, turning every creature with a skeleton into a deadly threat.

#StoryStorm Day 22 Story Idea:

Arc Second
The captain and crew of the OSS Sandoval patrol the Skorran Borderplane, an imaginary boundary between Lantean and Skorran space. The Lantean Treaty Alliance has kept an uneasy peace for a century. But now the Lanteans have elected a madman to rule them.

#StoryStorm Day 21 Story Idea:

Dragon Economy
Dragons are the only source of power. If you have a dragon, you have a home (probably a castle) and everyone in the surrounding countryside looks to you for guidance. But dragons have their own ideas of human value and they are very choosy.