CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

So, it’s the end of the challenge, and I must say that I’m basically happy with the results, but still disappointed that I failed to complete it successfully, if totally unrepentant. Tomorrow, I will post about the lessons I learned during the challenge. Today, I’m still catching up with my study, so I’ll just give a quick overview. Stories Completed: #2 Goal:3,000; Hammer and the Trolls ; Final: 3,676 #4 Goal: 2,950; Miss Delight’s Mistake ; Final: 6,030 #5 Goal: 1,250; Tischa’s Rescue ; Final: 2,078 #6 Goal: 2,400; Melerom Joins the Dance ; Final: 4,607 #8 Goal: 1,900; Autumnal Threat ; Final: 4,301 #9 Goal: 2,400; In Service to the Pinnacle ; Final: 3,402 #10 Goal: 1,650; Earth and Lunar Dreaming : Final: 5,316 #12 Goal: 3,350; The Taleteller’s Slumber ; Final: 5,926 #13 Goal: 3,600; A Legacy of Elves ; Final: 6,400 #20 Goal: 2,800; The Heights of Winter ; Final: 5,146 Stories to be Completed #1 Goal: 3,000; The Sevarine Sidestep ; Current: 2,315 ...

Final day of the challenge and I still have lesson prep to do. Word goal is 4,450 and the title should be 60- Ships of the ; 94- Beginning . That’s one tricky title. I still have two and a bit subjects to go and an 1,000 word document analysis to go, so I’m not sure I’ll get to it, today. I think I may have already moved on from the challenge onto the next phase, which I spent much of the morning planning. Now I know how much writing I can do, and that I can organise my day, I just can’t wait to get started. So I think I’ll draw the line early and say today’s a bust—but it’s a bust by choice. I know where I want to go, and what I want to do to get there, and I want to start now. I think the main purpose of the challenge has been served - even though I didn't realise what it was, when I started: to work out what I could do, what I wanted to do, and where I wanted to go. The challenge has done that, and I'm ready to move on to the next phase, or challenge of this writing l...

I honestly thought yesterday was the last day of the challenge, and that I’d completely missed it so, when I went to Dean’s blog, I discovered the entry was for July 30, 2015, which meant there were two stories to go. Today’s randomly rolled title was: Lord of the Vortex , and the word goal was 2,700. It’s 1400 and I haven’t started yet. I’ve spent the morning doing odds and sods and am about to get into more reading for university. I really need to write. Not writing is making me grumpy… aaagh! So writer admin got done, and I caught up with the stories and poems that had ended up in my notebook, and got them drafted onto the computer. Total Words Today: 3,000

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 politic...

I woke up at 0500 and got straight into the readings for my first class for next week. The plan was to clear two classes’ worth of readings and then reward myself with fiction. I had the first class’s readings complete along with a load of washing before I had the little one off to school. A good start—and then had to take my biggest to see the doctor with suspected appendicitis. That was at 1100, after the second load of washing and starting the notes for the second class. I got home at 2030 and spent the next hour and a half reassuring and settling the littlest, doing some quick house chores and wondering why I was feeling so tired. No writing got done. At 2250 I still hadn’t checked out the word goal (2,300) or random-rolled the story title: 35-column 1- Season of , and 66-column 1- the Starman . Good title—I’m looking forward to writing this, but it won’t be tonight. I did a quick catch up of the past few days of Story Match and headed to bed after posting the blogs. Word ...