Everyone Has a Story, What’s Yours? March 14 is National Write Your Story Day

March 14th, National Write Your Story Day

Remember how you felt on your very first day of school? Or what about that time you rode down a hill and took your feet out of the pedals of your bike? The wind in your face, the sense of freedom. Have you experienced coming back to a place that you visited in your childhood to realize that looks incredibly different from what you remember? A friendship that has lasted forever. An unexpected gift. The trip that went out of plans and turned into an amazing adventure. The victory of your team that fall. Your first 5K race. That awkward date. The day you discover your true call. I could go for hours, but I think you got the idea.

Everyone has a story, have you ever written yours? Today could be the day to grab a notebook and a pen or put your fingers to the keyboard and write your story down. March 14th is National Write Your Story Day, a day to celebrate personal stories and to challenge everyone to tell their story in written form. Words have power. Words can educate, empower and inspire. Words can heal, can warm hearts, and make feel who writes or who reads, freer and lighter.

To observe the day, you only need to write a personal story. You can keep it to yourself or you can share it on social media. If you decide to share it, be sure you use  #WriteYourStoryDay. You can also browse other people’s stories under the same hashtag. 

Want to read a local short story? Try the Wichita Library’s story dispensers!

The idea is brilliant: connecting the authors and the people while bringing more creativity to town in an innovative way. How do these short story dispensers work? You just need to hover your hand over the type of story you would like to read, and the machine will release a short story printed on paper.  There are three dispensers at the moment and they are pretty new. You can check them at the following locations:

  • Reverie Coffee Roaster at 2202 E. Douglas
  • Hunter Health Clinic at 527 N. Grove
  • Ablah Library at Wichita State University (1845 N. Fairmount)

Even when it’s more fun to go to the actual dispensers, you can also read some of the stories here. Selecting your reading time (1 min, 3 min, or 5 min) you will be offered a short story to read, a brief bio of the author, and the option to keep looking for more stories.

Want to write short stories for the Wichita Library’s dispensers?

You may be on your lucky day, my friend! The Wichita Public Library is accepting submissions from local writers for its short story dispensers initiative. You will need to follow the Wichita Library Guidelines, and you can check the complete terms and conditions here. The main conditions are that all work submitted must be original, written in English, and with a maximum length of 8,000 characters. Poems or stories should be fictional or deal with historical or biographical topics in a literary manner. Submitting your work is super easy, you just need to open an account here, go to “My Account”, click on “My Work” and start writing -or pasting- your work. Don’t forget to select a theme and then submit your piece. You got this!

You don’t need to be a professional writer to write down your story. Just let your heart guide you while you put pen to paper or hit the keyboard of your preferred device. National Write Your Story Day it’s both a challenge and an opportunity. Of course, you don’t need to share it, but remember that what could be nothing to you could be everything to others who feel inspired by your words.  Whether if it’s your personal story on social media or your fictional work at the Wichita Library story dispensers, I can’t wait to read what you have to say!

Eliana Martinez Shapasnikoff
Eliana lives in Andover with her wife and their triplets. Originally from Argentina, she is happy to raise her kids experiencing different cultures from the places the family has lived in: Buenos Aires City, Maschwitz, Costa Rica, Arkansas, and ICT area since June 2019. So here she is, trying to keep it all together at home while working part-time as an IT Consultant, volunteering in her kid’s school, and cheering at recitals, races, and games. She also manages to steal time to do what she loves: running, riding her bike, building relationships, and writing about her adventures, feelings, and thoughts.