CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

Word target for today’s story was around 4,350. Once that’s done, the plan was for more editing, admin, or maybe some more writing. In the end, that wasn’t how it happened. After sleeping late and waking feeling under the weather, I found I couldn’t concentrate on the story, so I did some of the administration that needed to be done, hoping my head would clear. That worked to some extent, and I finally got the story underway, some five hours into the day. About an hour after that, I had to go and sleep. I was hoping I’d feel better when I woke. And I did, only realising I’d been sick that morning because I felt well when I woke. I got back to writing and the story started to develop nicely, but other responsibilities interrupted and I had to stop. I returned to it after dinner, and typed until 11:15 pm. The story ( The Royal Starman in the Moon -science fiction) has reached 2,674 words, and two other stories also demanded a start along the way ( The Pink Unicorn -140 words; The ...

Before: I woke and checked out how Dean Wesley Smith was going on his July Story Challenge . He’d completed another story, amongst all the other publishing things he does, and then he talked about short stories and how they’re helpful in discovering novels. On this, I have to agree. I have found three or four different worlds in writing my flash fiction and poetry pieces, and there are several of those that are demanding to have novels of their own. Today’s word goal is 2,400, match or minimum, depending on what the story wants, and then I hope to catch up on some other work. I also didn’t want to still be typing at midnight. During: I started writing at 09:30 with the opening line: Serpent by name, serpent by nature , and the idea that I wanted to revisit one of the worlds I had discovered. My mind was hedging towards the pixie dust or Odyssey settings, and I ended up finding myself writing about one of the lizard creatures from yesterday’s story. I tried to keep the story ...

Okay - so, I wasn't going to post this until August... but then I decided it was time to have a bit of courage. So, here goes: On July 1, 2015, professional writer, DeanWesley Smith , started a challenge he’d set himself: to write a short story each day for the entire month of July, which he then intended to publish in a single volume. In his blog posts leading up to the start of the challenge, he blogged about what he was going to do and why he was going to do it, and then he blogged about the power of the challenge as he wrote. You can find the first ofthose blogs here , and I recommend them. I didn’t come to it until early in July, and I read it backwards from where he was at to where he had been. It was nothing short of inspiring. And I thought, I thought, I should try that . So I looked over the challenge he’d sethimself , and I realised I had been doing what Dean was doing, but more inconsistently and on a much smaller scale. He’d been writing a novel a month an...

There weren't a lot of these, this month. Writing Bits: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nicola-kraus/5-things-published-author_b_6707086.html : about basic writing procedures and processes Research Bits: http://io9.com/10-worst-misconceptions-about-medieval-life-youd-get-fr-168679998 : about misconceptions in fantasy work versus the reality of medieval life.

It’s Australia Day, today, and that, coming so soon after Christmas got me to thinking about what significance this sort of even might have for world building. After all, every society celebrates or commemorates something, whether those events centre around a religious festival, an event rooted in history that helps define national identity, a culturally significant day, or a personal event. Each and every one of these helps to give a society structure, and to build individual identity. They are often used to cement a society of individuals into a cohesive whole, and as such are an essential part of social fabric. And this means that a variation or replica of some or all of the events below should exist in every story that is peopled by individuals and communities: Religious Festivals: Christmas, Ramadan, Passover, and Easter are the four events that come immediately to mind, and this reflects my own cultural bias and experience. Those of you from other backgrounds will come ...

Keeping tabs on the industry is very important. Watching trends and garnering opinion and advice with with to feed our own decisions is vital to making a living at this profession. As such, I made a specific effort to actually do some reading this month. Here are the blogs I found helpful or articles I found inspirational. Craft of Writing http://jakonrath.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/guest-post-by-chris-eboch.html http://project-middle-grade-mayhem.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/middle-grade-plot-maps-by-lee-wardlaw.html http://project-middle-grade-mayhem.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/revision-technique-book-mapping-by.html http://mollyblaisdell.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/blooming-plot.html Publishing http://kriswrites.com/2014/04/16/the-business-rusch-generational-divide/ https://twitter.com/ChuckWendig/status/456809435353350144 http://jakonrath.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/guest-post-by-dale-t-phillips-and-vlad-v.html http://jakonrath.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/no-one-knows.html http://jakonr...