CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

Of all the options, I chose this one. The others… well, some I can’t imagine, and some are too close to home—and I have reached an age where my responses to the questions aren’t going to change. When I was a child, however, the early morning when we lived in remoter parts invited exploration, before the sun and the heat of the day made being outside intolerable. Exercise 5: With Age, Comes Wisdom Two sentences on how I respond to waking up early. I lie there, having reached out quickly and shut off the alarm on my mobile, hoping it hasn’t disturbed the sleep of my husband, or the child that’s snuck into my bed—again. Gathering my thoughts on what needs to be done, what I will write, and the order each task must be undertaken, I close my eyes, knowing I won’t return to sleep, but will be up in three, two, one... Two sentences on how I responded to waking up early as a child. The air is cool and the light is grey, and I might see a kangaroo! Creeping outside, ...

The final 30 Days of Writing Activity I completed first thing this morning, was the activity for yesterday. I think this one is also going to double up as my second flash fiction piece for the day. Activity 4: Choose Your Own Adventure It’s morning, early by some standards, and I’m sitting at my desk with a cup of coffee set carefully between my forearms as I type. One careless move, and it’ll be everywhere. Outside, the roars of the trolls have died away, as the big monsters seeking shelter in the world beyond the bridge—and I don’t mean in the park on the other side, although that’s one of their favourite hunting grounds; I mean that they pass under the bridge and through a portal to the Other Lands. Outside the window, I can see the ornamental whatever-they-ares, bare of fruit and with their leaves turning yellow at the top. Soon I will have nothing but bare branches to protect me from the curious gazes of strangers using the walking path beyond. Soon, I will be able ...

From the second day’s activity for Shut Up& Write’s 30 Days of Writing , I rolled straight into Day 3’s activity, and had to take a minute to contemplate the problem. I write in first person in a number of my books, and in a lot of my flash fiction, but I’ve never really deliberately sat down to write a journal entry, and not from the perspective of an animal… so I bent the exercise, a little bit, using a third person narrative to set up the journal entry, and then adding a tiny twist. Day 3 Activity: Eye of the Tiger Temperance eyed the world with a jaundiced eye. She felt sad, neglected, and homeless, and that last was even though she had a home. As she lay on the path leading to the back gate, enjoying the morning sun, she composed a journal entry for the day: Today, I woke up and looked for private place to pee. I was never meant to be a completely outside pet, but my people don’t quite get it. It took some time for me to find the right spot, out of sight, with...

In the name of catching up, I moved straight from Day 1’s activity to Day 2’s activity. As I said, these activities have started out as relatively simple exercises. They are, however, useful and educational, no matter how long you have been writing. Day 2’s activity, for instance, looked simple at first glance, but it taught me the value of occasionally testing assumed skills, and working at them. The exercise itself didn’t take very long, even using the timer to ensure I worked at synonyms for two minutes apiece. It was educational, though: I’m going to have to work on expanding my vocabulary, or, perhaps, be more aware of the words I most commonly use when I write. Activity 2: A Rose by Any Other Name Warm-Up Exercise Walk: stroll, meander, wander, hike, move, step, saunter, stagger, limp, shuffle, stride, head Exercise Proper Said: answered queried, questioned, demanded, reported, interrupted, interjected, replied, whined, snarled, roared, shouted, yelled...

I’m still acclimatising to getting 5k per day down on paper—and trying to balance the daily poems and flash while making up the ground I lost in the last two weeks to a sore back. I’m getting better at the balance, but I’m still catching up, and there are days when I don’t get to everything. So far, I’ve been cutting the writing activities from Shut Up & Write’s 30 Days of Writing , but there’s also the flash and poetry, which take a hit, when I’m scrambling for time. The two things I’m refusing to compromise are the 5k on one project, and two half-hours slots of walking. If I don’t get fitter, my back will go, again, and I can’t afford that… not to mention the fact that it hurts, and I’m not fond of pain. Anyway, this morning, I caught up on the 30Days of Writing activities. These have started out fairly simply, but they’re getting more complex as days go on. Day 1’s warm-up activity was to write the first word that popped into my head, and then follow it with a secon...