CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

The Theory behind the Challenge   Chuck Wendig’s flash fiction challenge on the Terribleminds blog, this week was to write a short story, in 1,000 words or less, in response to, and including, a prompt created by this random sentence generator . My random sentence was: Should the mum divert the drill? I received the sentence on the morning of the 11 th of March, 2013, and completed a rough hand-written draft of the story at around midnight, just before I went to bed, after spending the day mulling it over, in fits and starts. I made very few changes when I typed it up on the 12 th . I admit to being a little consternated as to where the story was in this sentence, but then I broke the sentence down. A ‘mum’ could be a mother, while ‘mum’ also had the meaning of ‘silence’, as in to ‘keep mum’. If you really stretched it, ‘mum’ could also be considered a diminutive of the term for mimes, or actors in silent plays, known as ‘mummers’. I decided that all these terms c...

This Week's Challenge So, my random sentence for this challenge is: Should the mum divert the drill? And now I have 1,000 words to play with, and a deadline of 15 March 2013. The Why behind the Challenge So, why, when time is so short, am I back to undertaking these challenges again? Because I miss them; Because I can; Because they're fun; Because they challenge me to try something different; Because, when I was going through the work published last year, the pieces created for the Wendig challenges were amongst the better pieces produced; Because I get to see how others tackle the problem and learn from them; Because I get to hang, even if it's only virtually, with a bunch of other writers;  Because, with a little time management and prioritization, they're achievable within the timeframe set; And because the challenges make me write, and complete, something every week. Seriously, as a tool for actively working to develop your craft, these challeng...