The Closing of a Chapter
Well, the Card Challenge is officially over. I am having a bit of trouble moving on, as I have caught myself on multiple occasions reminding myself to pull the card for today so I can start thinking of a story. I’m also uncertain how I’m going to go home and not write anything. It’s a little taste of freedom.
If anyone is a number person like me, I have some stats. So, over 90 days, I wrote 84 short stories. While they were originally only supposed to be 1,200 words long, that restriction did not last long. In the end, I finished the challenge with 126,516 words written, so my average ended up around 1500 words per story. When you put all of those words together, I ended up with 316 pages worth of stories, which means each one averaged 3.75 pages long (With some extra pages added due to spacing to make it readable). Whoops. I did not do well sticking to my two pages, either.
There were a total of at least 110 named characters, though some minor characters I did not record. I decided about halfway through that I wanted to have a male and female character with a name that began with each letter in the alphabet, something I accomplished with Queenie on Day 75 (So, if you noticed weird names, that’s why).
Regarding the types of stories, I kept a log of that, too. Some of the classifications are a little weird and debatable, but there were 17 Supernatural stories, 12 Realistic, 12 Supernatural/Horror, 10 Horror, 8 Fantasy, 6 Sci-Fi, 4 Realistic/Horror, 3 Romance, 2 Sci-Fi/Horror, and 1 each of Spy, Western, Supernatural/Romance, Sci-Fi/Adventure, Humor, Realistic/Supernatural (What? Day 11?), Fantasy/Supernatural, Supernatural/Sci-Fi, Supernatural/Adventure, and Fantasy/Horror. If that does not add up to 84, whoops. So, stories with a supernatural element were obviously my most common, followed by Horror and Realistic ones. I am going to be adding an index page soon (i.e., once I get the HTML to work for me) with the days, genre, and summary in case anyone ever wants to find a particular one.
Since beginning on January 1, there have been 333 visitors and 645 views to the blog. Day 15 has the most individual views, followed by Day 29. Days 35, 40, 4, and 17 tied for 3rd. I have my favorites, but I think I’ll hold onto those for the moment.
So, what now? I am going to take a break for a week or two and get some life things settled. Then, I hope to return with new stuff. My goal is two posts per week, with more as the inspiration strikes. The posts will be a mix of short stories, chapters from a longer piece I would like to begin, and some reflections/discussions I have been toying with. I would also like to edit or expand some of the Card Challenge pieces, or other old items on the blog. I proved to myself that I could write daily (and stay relatively competent in my life) if I made the time, so I hope to continue to use that effectively. My husband also bought me a new set of cards, so there may be another challenge in the future. Just not right now. 🙂
So, for those regulars who have been checking in, thank you! Also thanks to all the followers who have jumped on along the way. I hope you enjoyed the ride. I also hope this log of the process encourages others to try to find inspiration, to push themselves, and to just put words on the page. Don’t go too far, because the page will be back and active shortly. For now, I think I’m going to play some video games. As always, feel free to drop me a comment here, or send me email at atticussattic@gmail.com.
Thanks as always, and happy reading!
Atticus's Attic 
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