The Story Match Challenge—Day 25: July 31, 2015

Today, the challenge was a total bust. I felt unwell and, after yesterday, I had to catch up with the study and the first half of that took all day. But it was still a valuable learning curve. I had to accept that life is full of choices, that sometimes stuff happens that we have to swing with.

Could I have focussed on the challenge and written another story? Sure, and I was hoping to.

Would that have been the best thing to do? If I wasn’t trying to walk two life paths at once, sure.

Do I really want to write full time? Yes, but I have to finish this first. It’s important. I can’t explain why. It’s important to me that I complete the degree I’ve started.

Why, when I might not use it? I have no rational explanation, save that it is something I will regret if I do not finish it—and I am aiming to keep my regrets to a minimum. And I will use what I’m studying in my writing. I’m using it already.

An understanding of international relations is helping me understand the political dynamics that will hold worlds together or pull them apart. From a writer’s perspective, it’s kind of like an extended course on world building and character motivation… and I’m enjoying the learning.

From a more holistic perspective, it could lead me to a new non-writing career path, or it might not. All I know is that by the end of it, I will be sure of what I want to do. No doubts. No regrets. And that is important.

So, writing is important, but it is not a decision to be taken lightly, and I need to complete this degree in order to decide, and to be sure of where I want to go. And that means I have to prioritise… which is a long-winded way of saying that I chose to fail to meet today’s challenge—and that’s a bit sad, but I can live with it.

And what did I do instead? Well, I got through seven mandatory readings of 30+ pages each and prepared the study questions and notes I would need for class. As a break, just as I would for story writing, I studied a language and did the washing. It was a long day.

If I’d gotten into the challenge, the title would have been Dreams of the Serpent, and the word goal was 3,100.

Word Total for the Day: 2,897 – all study related.