Christoffer Petersen

Authentic Arctic Crime books and Thrillers

writing challenges

Who wants to be a millionaire?

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Scene from the hospital in Ilulissat, Greenland when I was having something or other stitched up. Well, after I was stitched up, of course.

I’ve been dialling in on my challenge for 2022, and with just four days to go, I have made a decision: I’m going for a million!

While I would love to think I’m going to earn a million, let’s face it, that’s not going to happen. But, there’s another million that will make me just as ‘rich’ and it is within reach.

Kind of.

In 2021 I wrote roughly 700,000 words (still counting). Those 700,000 words include the following:

  • 13+ novellas (15,000+ words each)
  • 3+ novels (40,000+ words each)
  • 52+ short stories (mostly 5,000+ words each, often longer)
  • plus several unfinished projects of varying length

That’s what I have ‘found’ but there’s more that I have put to one side, or simply forgotten. Note to self: better filing needed!

However, it’s still a lot of words.

The short story challenge stretched me as a writer, and gave me plenty of opportunity to have fun with different ideas, POVs, genres, etc. But it distracted me a little. Okay, it distracted me a lot. I mean, I enjoyed it, but it took a lot of focus.

The rewards included stories like Witch Bluff and Witch Hunt that I wrote for Jane, but had so much fun with the characters – and setting (it was warm), that I didn’t mind the distraction. The science fiction and fantasy stuff did the same, but I wanted to do more with each of them, i.e. I need more sci-fi in my life. (Don’t worry Petra fans, I won’t forget about her. Or Maratse!)

So, at this point in the post, some readers might think that’s a lot of words already, and it is. But they were specific words if that makes sense. Focused.

2022 is going to be different.

I intend to write 1,000,000 words of fiction in 2022.

The rules –  there are always rules – will be such:

Rule 1: Countable words will be publishable fiction only. This means, in my head at least, that I must edit and proof these words and publish them. So no blog posts, or emails, or anything like that. Only fiction. Poetry – yes, there will be more poetry – can be counted, but it’s often just a handful of words. But likewise, the ‘words’ can be published in any length – from short story to novel.

Rule 2: I can count the words in 2022, but am ‘allowed’ to publish in 2023+. In other words, I can spread the publishing over time.

Rule 3: Omnibus editions and Collections don’t count. Those words are second-hand, so not valid. Only ‘new words’ written in 2022 are countable!

Rule 4: I must hold myself accountable. Meaning, I will blog about my progress, typically at the end of each month, adding an updated total of words written, and links to the works published. But I can already anticipate blogs through the month with a bit of progress, or a finished project.

Rewards: A huge chunk of inventory, and the fun of exploring new stories and characters.

That’s about it. I just need to get going.

I’ve committed to some ‘external projects’ in 2022, so there will be some weeks and months when the wordage is low, maybe very low, but I’ll make up for it along the way.

The words won’t all be Christoffer Petersen projects, and I will slot projects in under different pen names, including the secret ones, along the way. Some of the projects I allocate words to will be decidedly not Greenland, crime, or thriller related, mostly in order to stay sane.

There will also be challenges within the challenge, such as Barbarian Week, which will be self explanatory when I get that far, but will make zero sense to those following this blog purely for the mystery(ish) and crime stories. But Barbarian Week is definitely going to happen, along with other weeks through the year.

So that’s it.

All that remains is to say: challenge accepted.

Chris

P.S.

Shame about the blog posts not being counted. This one clocks in at six-hundred and seventy-five!

 

 

The Short Story Challenge

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If you’re reading this then I succeeded in a personal challenge I set myself this time last year. I signed up for the challenge to write one short story a week for fifty-two weeks, and I recently uploaded the last one.

For those of you following my blog, or curious/concerned about the variety of pen names, genres and other “stuff” I’ve been writing this year, the challenge goes some way to explaining that.

What I discovered was, I like short stories. I need to get better at them, but I enjoy writing them. Some are available to buy, some are in collections, and some are in a digital pile as I wonder what to do with them. But they are done.

What’s next?

Another challenge?

That’s the question I’m asking myself at the moment. And while I think I have an idea, I’m still mulling it over.

Chris

The Short Story Challenge

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Shortly after Christmas last year, still dealing with the fact that we cancelled Jane’s family Christmas due to COVID-19, I discovered that the writer Dean Wesley Smith was running a sale on his courses to help writers during the pandemic, among them was The Great Challenge.

The challenge was to write a short story every week for a year.

52 stories.

Now, I write a lot – not as much as some, but tonnes compared to the majority of traditionally published authors. But the thought of taking on the challenge appealed to me, especially after a weird year.

At this point, I might add that I found 2020 to be a fascinating year – difficult, yes, but fascinating – largely because I read David Quammen’s excellent nonfiction book Spillover in November and December 2019, and then suddenly, damn me if it didn’t come true! I honestly think that book helped me get through the year, just like watching the film Contagion did – an earlier favourite of mine, pre-pandemic and also frighteningly prescient. I should add that I’m not blind to the horror of COVID-19, but reading that book allowed me to take a step to one side and to think of the virus as a living thing, and the challenges of stopping it.

But I digress.

I was looking for a different kind of challenge, and I found one.

I started in the first week of January this year, and have hit the short story a week every week alongside my other projects. Sometimes I wished I didn’t have to write another short story but I did, every week.

Some of the stories have been Christoffer Petersen stories, others by other pen names such as Bran Nicholls. In addition to the fun of writing stories, I’ve had a blast making the covers for them too.

This week will be number 46.

A new story, a new cover, and a new pen name – this one’s secret, the second of my secret pen names. 😉

I’m getting there.

Chris