This year, I set myself the goal of writing twelve short stories in twelve months. Similar to what the band Toehider occasionally do with their XII in XII, making twelve EPs in a year (check out their music here). I did this because I wanted more short stories to live on this site, and I’ve noticed in the past that I can get very productive if I get a prompt and a deadline.

All the stories come from single word prompts, which so far have become the story titles too. I plan to continue this trend, though the story I’m currently working on feels like it wants a different title, so we’ll see how that goes. When I set myself this task, I was imagining that I would be writing a flash fiction story every month. That lasted a month, but then my February story, Interface, was over 8000 words long. My most recent story, Collective, got even longer. On one hand, it’s annoying I can’t seem to do flash length consistently, but I am happy at how much I’ve been able to write. Most importantly, we’re in June and I have six new stories on the website, all of which I think are quite good. Come and take a look at them.

With the project at its halfway point, I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to do with these stories when I am finished. I’ve always had the vague thought that putting them together in a collection and printing and selling some physical books would be a good idea, but looking at these six stories, I think such a collection has the potential to be something very special.

Because these stories were written on a month by month basis, many have inspiration from real world events from 2026. Vault was inspired by my disgust at the billionaire class, triggered by the release of so many documents from the Epstein files. Allure was influenced by fears of the Iran war escalating, and I came very close to explicitly mentioning Orange man in that one. All of these stories are somewhat fueled by the chaos that has been 2026, and I think talking about what was going on in the world when I wrote each story would be really interesting.

As well as being a chronical of the world in 2026, these stories are also a look into my personal journey in 2026. Last December, as I was writing Anomalous, I interviewed for a training officer job at work, and failed to get it. That was the final straw in a job I’d been dissatisfied with for a while, so I started looking for a new job. I got a part time cleaning gig in March, and the whole adjustment has been a roller-coaster for me. I was at my old job for eleven years and was extremely good at what I did, but I had little work-life balance. Going from that to a job where I am home every afternoon but make less money and I’m not as proficient has been a mixed-bag, and I’ve been having mental health struggles too. Interface and Collective have definitely been impacted by my struggles, whilst Liberate was more of a vent with my frustrations about how we treat work.

I’ve come to realise that once I collect these stories together, they’ll be quite a special collection. Such a collection wouldn’t just be twelve stories thrown together, it would be the story behind the stories. My journey through a new start in a world that seems like it’s going to shit. It could be something quite special.

Of course, this all depends on how the next six months play out. Now that I’ve decided that I want to tell a story with these stories, I hope it doesn’t influence my actions. Most importantly though, I have to focus on writing the next six stories. The next one will be Judgement, and I’m hoping it will be a bit happier than Collective. Though, the title doesn’t sound like a fun time, and all my ideas at the moment involve AI messing with humanity’s ability to use our own judgement. Or even AI passing judgement on humanity. It looks like real world events are going to continue to influence me going forward.

I plan to finish this project no matter what, and a big help for that has been the likes and praise I have recieved for my stories so far. If you do like any of the stories, please tell me; it does really help. As does liking and sharing them on social media. I also have a Buy Me a Coffee page, where all the stories are reposted. If you really love these stories, a tip would be a huge help (though not needed). Pay no attention to the pre-set amounts the site suggests; I am perfectly happy for loose change if you have any. You can click HERE to support me.

Now that the shameless begging is all done, I need to get back to writing. I want to get Judgement written soon, and I need to start a retrospective journal about what was going on when I wrote each of these stories. When I’m done writing them, I want to put together a collection that is super special, and I hope you’ll all check it out when it is done.

~ Jayde