CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

"Why do you still do NaNoWriMo?" people ask. "Why are you actually here?" It's a legitimate question, and I guess people have a right to wonder. "Hey," they say, and go on with any combination of, "you write double the NaNo word quota each month, you're a published writer, you've got a successful eight-book series under your belt, your own stuff is coming along, and you even do work-for-hire, so, what's the deal?" Why ARE you taking part? Are you showing off? Grand-standing? Trying for an easy feel-good success? Marking time? Wasting time? Every year... Why do you do it? It just doesn't make sense. You know what? It makes perfect sense to me. It's part of the path I've chosen. I take part because NaNo reminds me of where I came from. It reminds me of the work it took to write more than 1k a day - and that that's not an easy thing for some writers, especially those just starting out. NaNo keeps my head grounded. To

 Well, it got busy, but the words got done. Today, I completed NaNoWriMo - and, to be frank, there were days I struggled, as you can see from the word counts below. Fortunately, I'd worked far enough ahead of the minimum, that when I needed to rest, I had enough words in the bag to make the bare minimum and crash. However, I also believe I owe you some word count accountability and some words: Day 22 NaNo Starting Words: 44,055 NaNo Ending Words: 46,115 NaNo Words Written: 2,060 Words on Other Projects: 6,078  EXTRACT DAY 22: In which Oliver and Lewis are almost found out: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lewis went through it much faster than Oliver did, and then he went through it a second time, giving the senior were querying looks as he did so. The team leader watched them for several minutes before asking, “How long has it been since he was bit?” Now, that showed more knowledge