After six hours, you might expect the story to be magnificent, the best thing ever written! Sadly. No. It’s not bad. But it’s not particularly good either. Not six hours worth of ‘good’.
Yesterday, I spent a considerable length of time finishing off my latest Open University assignment. It took around 6 hours, from start to finish.
What was this mammoth task?
A simple 250 word story.
After six hours, you might expect the story to be magnificent, the best thing ever written! Sadly. No. It’s not bad. But it’s not particularly good either. Not six hours worth of ‘good’.
Here is a list of things I did between starting the story and finishing it:
1. I checked Facebook to see what my kids have been up to.
2. I played a few games of Zuma Blitz. (OK, to be honest, I played till I ran out of lives.)
3. I checked Twitter. Maybe I was missing something exciting happening in the world.
4. I checked my email account because, it is just possible, somebody had sent me something of vital importance in the half hour since I last checked it.
5. I visited my blogs (and I have three, so that took me some time) to check the stats and see if anybody had left any comments.
6. I remembered a recent article in E-Health Insider about a service I am responsible for and decided to spend some time replying to it. This required some research on my part to assemble the data I needed.
7. I saw a paper on my desk with a deadline of two weeks to respond and decided to respond straight away.
By this time, I was hungry and required lunch, coffee and a catch-up with Neighbours on the tele.
Finally, before the end of the afternoon, I managed to finish the story.
Now, if you will excuse me, I have just remembered I have some urgent ironing to do ….
Final part of the final assessment for my Open University course (A174 Start Writing Fiction) is due in at the end of this week. Friday lunchtime, to be exact. 
Ruth Livingstone 