CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

Those of you who’ve followed this blog for a while will have seen it go through seasons – and most of you will know how torn I have been about the future. Will I write? Will I follow my love of languages? Should I continue to study, now I no longer have the job that inspired the study? And so on and so forth. It has been a battle, let me tell you, but I think I have a direction to go in, now. So, some of you will have noticed I’ve altered the blog description. I did this on Thursday, August 25 – yes, today. And I did this, because I’m ready to admit to my degrees, and all the rest of it. I’ve done this, because I have been inspired to try for something I think might actually be impossible, and to do that I have to accept where I've been. And all this is all because I went to a conference at the ANU (Australian National University). This conference was about Russia. It. Was. AWESOME!!! There were so many people who were as interested in Russia as I am, who didn’t think lear...

An interesting week, starting with a doctor’s appointment and ending with a mild dose of sunburn, but a feeling of wellness I haven’t had in a while. Exercise, folks, is more than worth the time you spend on it. Of course, this disrupted all routines and I didn’t manage to maintain my writing, but I’ll do better this week. I’ve flunked NaNo again this year, I think, but I learned a lot (see the post coming on Tuesday), and it was time well spent. My life is changing, but it’s not without its challenges.   Overview New words produced: 3,297 Old words revised: 0 Outlines and Notes: 1,314 Works completed: 0 Works revised: 0 Covers created: 0 Works published: 0 Works submitted: 5 Competitions Entered: 0 Bloggery: 4,492 University Prep and Assignments: 0 Back-on-Track Challenge: Design covers for, edit, format, and upload the following: Nil Finish Nil New Writing Nil Publishing Tasks Created 5 blog posts for this bl...

Day 14: A.M. Before I was up at 0430 this morning as I had an 0730 bus to catch for university. After updating the blog and pfaffing around for a little bit, I checked Dean’s progress on his challenge —another short and another confirmed novel start. Also, some good advice about writing what you love. I now only have 1 hour and 10 minutes left to write in. Better get to it. A.M. Start Title randomly rolled this morning: 75-The Magicians and 51-the Silk Road. Well, crap – that one required a little research. I took a quick look and discovered lots of desert, camels and two more routes—the Southern Silk Road and the Silk Road by the Sea. This is definitely something I will revisit. With no time to research further, I decided on a fantasy and had 956 words down before I had to get into the before school routine for my littlest, and leave for my own classes. Poetry and flash fiction are scheduled to be written on the bus. Results: Story Match Challenge: Incomplete— The Magici...

Score Card At the beginning of the year, I laid out a writing and release plan. It went through two changes before I put it into action… and then it went through a third before the end of the quarter. The following score card is based on the goals as they were before the third change: 1 dark fantasy: 3 completed, 2 released; 1 romance novel: 1 completed, 1 released ; 1 annual: not completed; 1 novella: 1 completed, 1 released; 1 chapter book: 4 revised and released (but only 1  illustrated as originally planned); 0 short stories: 6 revised and released. What I learned. I have discovered that goals change, as plans progress and we learn how to do things better or differently. So, here’s what I’ve learnt in the first quarter of 2013: My initial release plan was okay, but did not let me respond to areas that sales showed my readers were interested in. I changed it, and the new tiered system is working fine… for now. Writing new words is different to preparing ...

A much more respectable effort this week. Still not ideal, but improving. Current Projects The following progress was made on my current projects: ·          Novella2A (PenName1): Added 5,000 words. ·          DarkFantasy1A: (Rewrite) Added 1,000 words. ·          SciFiNovel4: Revised first two chapters. Started fleshing out outline and backstory so writing could commence. ·          Anthology7: Four poems complete (see below). Three forms: two haiku series, one non-rhyming verse, and one 100-word non-rhyming paragraph. Publishing The following publishing tasks were completed this week: ·          Formatted and uploaded ShortStory12—Peace Flower to Amazon and Smashwords. ·          Updated blog x 3 ·    ...

Current Projects CrimeNovel1 is progressing slowly. Even though the outline is written, I am occasionally having trouble with scene transitions. RomanceNovel1 is in the last part of the last chapter. For some reason, I find this part of a story, regardless of length, the hardest to get down. Still plodding forward, but I’m struggling to get more than 300-400 words out in a day. DarkFantasy1A is being entirely rewritten to sharpen point of view so that readers don’t become confused by the multiple threads that run through it. When I started it, I was playing with what it would be like if readers saw how several stories intersected, but this led to too many characters, frustration at not seeing how their stories ended, and confusion over why they had held focus for very short segments of the book. This will take me a little time. Backburner SciFiNovel1: I had an idea that needed a universe, and this novel needed another plot thread, so some developmental plot work was d...

Current Projects Annual1: Added 2,000 words. Annual2: Added 1,000 words. ShortStory19: Added 250 words and reworked the first 1,000. Publishing Under this heading, I will list the non-writing tasks associated with independently publishing, accomplished in a week. Having made the decision to take this route, I must now budget time for tasks beyond writing. Anthology1: Final decision on cover made. Release blogs prepared. Anthology2: Roughed out design for cover. Anthology3: Roughed out design for cover. Anthology4: Roughed out design for cover. Annual1: Roughed out design for cover. Annual 2: Roughed out design for cover. ShortStory36: Cover and blog entries completed in preparation for individual release. ShortStory37: Cover and blog entries completed in preparation for individual release. ShortStory38: Cover and blog entries completed in preparation for individual release. ShortStory2: Cover and blog entries completed in preparation for i...