52 Stories in 52 Weeks: One Writer's Journey in Tackling, Shackling, and Shooting His Inner Critic

by Phillip McCollum

Do you call yourself a writer, yet feel you’re a fraud because you’ve never finished anything, let alone achieved publication?Is there a nagging voice inside your head telling you to give up because you’ll never nail this ‘writing thing?’I was once you.Within 52 Stories in 52 Weeks, you will find a culmination of a 52-week journey I commenced on July 31st, 2017.The basis for this experiment was at the suggestion of Ray Bradbury who recommended that all beginning and intermediate writers follow this ‘writer’s hygiene’ program, because there’s just no way you can write 52 bad stories in a row.Here, I present all 52 stories along with a journal of the process behind each one. Also included are general lessons I've learned that I hope will turn struggling writers into prolific writers.

822 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 29, 2018

About the author

Phillip McCollum spent 52 weeks writing 52 short stories in an effort to prove to himself that he might be cut out for this writing thing after all. He hails from Southern California where he shares living quarters with his wife, son, and an old cat.

Reviews

[Lauren Sapala · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a writer myself, I am always fascinated by the writing processes of others, so when I saw this collection of 52 short stories—written over a 52-week period—I had to check it out. I found that I loved the stories, and was pleasantly surprised by each one in different ways, but what I really loved was the “process summary” at the end of each story where the author shared his inspiration for the story topic, the challenges and cool surprises that popped up while he was writing it, and his thoughts on the whole journey overall. These little process summaries were just a really awesome peek into a writer’s mind, and I highly recommend readers take the time to read each one when they finish the story that accompanies it.

Beyond that, the stories themselves are absolutely rad. The genres range from literary fiction and Western, to dystopian, paranormal fantasy, sci-fi, and dark comedy. I was thoroughly impressed by the author’s ability to move so fluidly between genres and work each genre so well. The horror stories were actually scary. The comedy stories were actually funny. The literary fiction was actually literary. It was really cool to see how flexible the writer’s creative muscle could be, and how unexpected some of the twists and turns of the stories turned out to be. As a writer, I feel like I gained a boatload of inspiration for my own stories by reading this collection. And also, as a writer, I was very much encouraged by following the journey of the author as he worked his way through all 52 stories. It was nice to see that I’m not the only writer who experiences fear, or self-doubt, or just plain doesn’t want to sit down to write sometimes and would rather be doing anything else.

All in all, I got a few different benefits out of reading this collection. I was immensely entertained, I found inspiration for my own creative work, and I was really cheered on as a writer by the fact that it is possible to write a short story a week, every week, for a whole year. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a published OR aspiring writer, and anyone who loves great fiction across a variety of genres.

[Robin Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won an e-book copy of this book from the author through a giveaway he had on LibraryThing, and the following is my honest opinion.

In this book author Phillip McCollum takes up Ray Bradbury’s challenge of writing 52 bad stories in a row in earnest as he writes a story a week for 52 straight weeks. Not only does it take a certain mindset to see this through, it also takes a bit of continuous creativity to be able to write them. And I should know, as I’ve done this myself.

For each of the 52 straight weeks of committed writing, the author has created stories from a myriad of genres, with each one having a beginning, a middle and an end. Each week he had to rely on his creative ingenuity to come up with something new that would please the writing Muse within him.

Given this, the outcome of this endeavor for the author, that of being anticlimactic, didn’t really come as a surprise to me, for he became delighted in what he’s achieved and desires to write more to keep the joy of creativity alive within him.

For eleven years, being involved in my community the way I had been during these years gave me the opportunity to have an article [a commentary] each week in the community’s newspaper. These items gave the community’s inhabitants my viewpoint/opinion of how I felt regarding a particular issue. Just like the author, doing this on a regular on-going basis proved to be a rather challenging task, and just like the author, I relished each week’s achievement, which had been limited to under 1,000 word. In other words, I’ve been in the author’s shoes writing one story after another for 52 straight weeks [I’ve actually done far more consecutive weeks in the 11 years of my own writing which has caused me to become the multi-genre that I’ve become today]

One thing, I believe Mr. McCollum has forgotten to mention regarding his writing journey, which I know from my own experience, is the improvement in the writing of his first story to that of his last.

For sharing his prolific writing journey of those 52 weeks, along with the thought processes which accompanied each story, I’ve given Mr. McCollum 5 STARS.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phillip McCollum is a very versatile writer. I love that he included statistics (word count, synopsis, etc.) and a process summary with each of his stories in this collection. McCollum doesn’t dabble in various genres. He excels at writing in various genres. The first story—“Seven Hundred and Seventy-Six” is a "weird western" as he calls it, but it truly evokes the harshness of life in the Old West, the cruel decisions people often have to make and then live with.

Many stories have twists worthy of the Twilight Zone, and McCollum “mashes up” genres, blending science fiction, horror, fantasy, and westerns. You could say there's something for everyone in this collection. It’s a true treasure trove of good writing. Generally I don’t read science fiction/fantasy mash-ups but McCollum’s "Lights Out: An MC Ruff and DJ Tumble Adventure" hooked and reeled me in. It has laugh-out-loud humor and left me wanting to read more adventures involving MC Ruff and DJ Tumble.

As a fellow writer, I enjoy reading the process summary following each story. I am learning a lot from McCollum sharing the thoughts of his own inner critic: not just how to be a better writer, but, more importantly, how to keep writing despite my own nagging and relentless inner critic.

I haven’t finished reading all the stories in this collection. I’m taking my time because 52 Stories in 52 Weeks has become a kind of steadfast and earnest friend. It’s where I go when I just want to escape and enjoy myself for a while, when I need a break from the world at-large. My favorite thing to do (when I can) is to read the next story in this collection before I go to bed, a hot mug of tea and sweet biscotti by my side and a cat on my lap.

[Amelia Hooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a lot of fun reading this book. It was a great reminder of how a short story every day, or every other day when times got busy, is a nice way to squeeze in some reading. And this book is quite eclectic in its content: a haunted gun, a bullied piano player, an elderly lady who likes leather, a man determined to believe aliens have come to his town. And that's just to name a few topics. As an aspiring author, I also really enjoyed the author's brief tidbits about how he came to write these stories, and it's very admirable and inspirational that he stuck to his goal of writing a story every week for an entire year.

[Vikk Simmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

What fun! There are many good reasons for writers to give short stories a try. As a fan of Ray Bradbury's work, I've known for years of his dedication to short story writing, as well as his admonition to young writers to write one short story a week. So you may imagine how much I enjoyed reading through of Phillip McCollum's successful attempt to write 52 stories in 52 weeks. Not only did I get to read each story but he also included a short project summary detailing each story's development and the lessons learned. Looking forward to reading more from this author.