What is a Slice of Life?

The month long Slice of Life Challenge will begin in March. Until then, we have Slice of Life Tuesdays, where we encourage you to share a Slice from your life. It’s a simple way to practice what we ask of students — to write for ourselves and be part of a community of writers. I was talking to some friends about Slice of Life and the question came up: What exactly is a Slice of Life story?

You can check out our page about the Slice of Life Challenge for more information, or you can clicky-click some of my slices for more examples.

In a nutshell, a Slice of Life story is simply a small sliver of your ordinary life. It’s not the whole, but a slice. The only point to it is sharing a piece of your everyday. I like to try out craft moves, test personification, take a risk with alliteration, or push myself to craft authentic dialogue. I look at it as a chance to try out the things I’m noticing other writers doing. Basically as long as you are sharing a piece of your life, you can’t do it wrong! The only wrong way is to not try.

Please let me know if you have any questions about Slice of Life. You can leave a question in the comments or email me. Also, for the readers who don’t have blogs, I’ll be dedicating an upcoming post to starting your own blog. You can’t join the challenge unless you have a blog. Many Slicers have a blog just for slicing. You don’t have to post daily, you just keep it for Slices. This allows you to become part of our writing community. So be thinking of a name for your blog and get ready to start a whole new writing adventure!

Here are some of my Slices I’ve written over time. I chose a variety to help answer the question: What is a Slice?

Hello March (2009 & 2010)

Walking on Sunshine

Keep You Forever Hug

Today I —

I’ve Gotta Secret

Nate