The Story-A-Week and Holiday Extension Challenge Fails Wrap-Up

Last December, I undertook two challenges: The Story-A-Week and Holiday Extension Challenges.

The criteria for these Challenges were as follows:

The Story-A-Week Challenge: Write and submit one short story (of between 1,500 and 12,000 words), each week for the next twelve months (the 55 weeks from December 13, 2015 through December 31, 2016). (55 short stories)

The Holiday Extension Challenge: During the summer break, and the mid-semester break next year, write one Carlie Simonsen chapter book each week, and have it uploaded for pre-ordering within six weeks from completion. The periods for this challenge were as follows:

Summer Holidays (7 weeks from December 13, 2015 through February 15, 2016); the Mid-Semester Holidays (7 weeks from May 28, 2016 through July 16, 2016); and the End-of-Year Holidays (6 weeks from November 20, 2016 through December 31, 2016). (20 chapter books)

An Untimely End and Results

In February, when university kicked in, again, I realised I couldn’t complete the challenges until I worked out how to balance the study load with family, writing and publishing commitments, so I made a choice to study and revisited things in June. At the time of their premature ending, the results of the challenges were as follows:

The Story-A-Week Challenge

Week 1: ShortStory61—Seppelitus: reached 13,500 words and wasn’t suitable for submission to more than one market. It was submitted, rejected and published with a release date of October 30, 2016.

Week 2: ShortStory473—The Severine Sidestep: reached 5,300 words and was submitted to a major competition and several professional markets until being slated for a release date of December 2, 2016.

Week 3: ShortStory630—Rendezvous at Raptor’s Rest: reached 11,239 words, and was scheduled for release on January 13, 2017.

Week 4: ShortStory508—Lord of the Vortex: reached 4,045 words, and was submitted to several professional markets until being published with a release date of September 23, 2016.

Week 5: ShortStory483—Headlines from the Starman (was The Royal Starman in the Moon): reached 3,669 words, and was submitted to several professional markets until being published with a release date of August 12, 2016.

The Holiday Extension Challenge

Week 1: Nil—see Week 5;

Week 2: Chapbook14I—Legacy of Hope (Wheelchair Adventures #2): was completed on time, and released on April 15, 2016;

Week 3: Nil—see Week 5;

Week 4: Nil—see Week 6;

Week 5: The book scheduled for this week was not completed until Week X, but I used the time to start to catch up on two of the chapter books I had missed earlier in the challenge. The first of these was Chapbook5C—Rocky Rides the Space Range (Otherworld Adventures #4): which was meant to be completed in Week 1, but was not completed until this week of the challenge. It was released on February 19, 2016. It was followed by Chapbook14J—Legacy of Hearts (Wheelchair Adventures #3): which was meant to be completed in Week 3, but was not completed until Week 6 of the challenge, and was released on May 20, 2016.

Week 6: Chapbook5D—Rocky Touches Down (Otherworld Adventures #5): was not started until Week 6 of the challenge, and was completed in Week 7. It was released on March 18, 2016.

Wrap-Up.

Only 5 out of 55 short stories completed, and 4 out of 20 projected chapter books were completed. It was not the most inspiring of efforts, I have to admit, but I did learn that I had limits, and that there were choices I had to make. Seeing as I still wanted to successfully complete my university studies, my writing had to give that a bit of time. Come June, and I wanted to try to get things back on track, to work this business at a more professional level, and that’s what I’m trying to do, now.