CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

So, yesterday, Mack 6 reached 48,000 words. Now, this should be over the half-way mark, and I think it is, but we'll see. The journey continues. Here's an excerpt from yesterday's words: Words from Day 10 (Chapter 21): “We weren’t going to stop.” Mikalesket had joined us, again. “Well, we are, now,” Mack told him. “We took a hit.” “I know. We scanned your system.” “And?” If Mack was surprised the lizardine were monitoring the ship that closely, he didn’t show it. “The repairs are important.” “And the engines?” “They will need a little longer to recalibrate. The repair stop will not interrupt the process.” Mack nodded and looked back to his boards. Mikalesket returned to his position at the back of the command center, and I realized he looked like he was alone. I narrowed my eyes, wondering exactly how many of his security team had accompanied him, and were now scattered around the command center. Mack glanced at me, and then glanced around, fixing the liz...

Last week, I had some good news. It was awesome, but, combined with the short story I prioritised, and a rental inspection—because it never rains, but it pours—it meant a lot of reshuffling, and I didn’t get any words down on Mack ‘n’ Me: The Wolves of Alpha 9 .This was okay, and I caught up the words on Sunday this week… but completely missed it on Monday as I got my head around what to do for a short story release done as part of a group, a short story acceptance, and getting ready to visit my mum. Like I said—rain, pouring—and I’m enjoying the challenge. So excuses aside, when I started the words on Sunday, Cutter ---------------------------------------------------------------- In the end, Rohan let the cub go, and it was just Tens and one very angry wolfling. I’ll give the Tens this, once the cub took him off his feet, again, he at least remembered he was dealing with a child—a very tough child, who was beating twenty kinds of crap out of his face, but one that was barely...

Today, I tried to focus on the commitments I’d made outside myself. It kept me busy most of the day—well, that, and being a mummy, and a daughter, both of which are more important than the words—so today’s first words are down a little later than I'd like, and I’ve only just reached the minimum 3,000 words on the focus project. Yesterday’s family news was updated, today, and it didn’t get any better. When I can talk about it, I will, but that’s not happening, just yet. In the meantime, the words give me shelter, as they always have, and today, despite being written late in the day (or, perhaps because of it) they came quickly and well. Today’s first words find Cutter in the middle of the job Mack ‘briefed’ her on, yesterday. ---------------------------------------------------------------- The boy was good, so I guessed it would only be a matter of time before they wet-wired someone in to go hunt him down. I sure as shit hoped Tens would be on-line to help him out by t...

Yesterday was a slow day for the words. I was distracted, and not very disciplined about not letting the business side of things interfere with the writing side of things, and, even though I managed to work 1,000 words an hour, it was difficult. You get days like that, as a writer; the trick is to keep working, but let yourself take frequent short breaks, and come back to it. The words get done, and so do other things, and you don’t hate yourself for not being a super-hero, later on. Anyway, I had almost reached 5,000 words by the afternoon, and was on track to reach my 7,000-word goal by shortly after dinner, when my father rang with some really not-so-great family news, and I had to change to track to deal with the implications of that. Family has to come first. Now, I’m still dealing with those implications, and will be for some time to come, but the writing continues, albeit with a slight schedule change, and an understanding that I'm going to need to priorities tasks tha...

There are some days when you realise that the thing that’s worked for you for countless books before, just isn’t going to work for the projects you’re working on. Today was one of those days. Usually I can work between three and four projects simultaneously along a timeline, but I’ve struggled to do that over the last week, and I realised today was going to be another day where I wasn’t going to be able to flip between the two—so I tried something different. The theory is this: If you write 3,000 words a day for 30 days, you can complete the draft for a 90,000-word novel in a month. If you do this for two projects, you can finish up with two novels at the end of a month, AND if you put down a thousand words a day on something else, you can get short stories and part of another novel done in that timeframe, as well. This is true. I’ve done it, before, and was just starting to make a habit of the single novel a month, when June arrived, and I was incredibly sick. I’d almost gotten ...