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Ah, dammit, I may not be able to participate this week, Tuesday is completely out. Monday is a public holiday, though, so maybe I can do two days' worth? We'll see.
Awesome. I'll be participating unofficially. I'm using 7Day7K to work on a fic I've had going for a couple months now. Would it be appropriate to post daily wordcounts in this thread, do you think, so everyone can see how everyone's doing?
Hey, here's an idea: what if each participant is allowed to post an excerpt here of a paragraph or sentence or so each day that they're most proud of? Kind of a way to keep this thread active, even when we're all busily at work on our fics. (And NaNo just adores its "post your favorite/first/last/fanciest/silliest sentence here" threads.)
I'll start mine tonight (midnight), but I'll have till thursday night to post it, cause I'll be out vacationing.
If I don't finish before I leave, I'll attempt to end a chapter, and post what I have as a regular fic I think.
Actually, for the sake of my sanity (lol at 9-5 shifts for the rest of the week, before I get to go), I'll drop out of this, until perhaps I come back.
Would it be appropriate to post daily wordcounts in this thread, do you think, so everyone can see how everyone's doing?
Hey, here's an idea: what if each participant is allowed to post an excerpt here of a paragraph or sentence or so each day that they're most proud of? Kind of a way to keep this thread active, even when we're all busily at work on our fics. (And NaNo just adores its "post your favorite/first/last/fanciest/silliest sentence here" threads.)
I like both ideas, and you're certainly free to do so if you'd like. Or, if you'd rather be sneaky-ninja and not post a thing until you're finished, that's cool too.
In the meantime, I'm at the 5200 mark, and I'm trying to finish before I go to sleep tonight. Why? Because I fail, and tomorrow, I'm going away for a week. So, uh, no prompt until I get back, and I -- much to irony's lulz -- will not be able to be around for the rest of the seven-day stretch. So, I'm leaving it up to the rest of you to throw live hedgehogs at whoever tries to cheat.
And if I actually fail the challenge, I might finish this thing and post it anyway. I kinda like it.
Certainly it seems quite a very interesting idea, and I am stressing out that with repetitive and figurative iterations of all too similar patterns of speech.
I've just hit the 800 words mark. Yeah, that's eight hundred. I had completely forgotten this challenge till Tuesday, so I'm trying to tackle things up for as long as I can expecting that by tomorrow I'll be able to decide wether this work goes in the challenge or not. I'm not even wondering about spellchecking (only grammar, to the best of my ability), word count or plot correctness, although this is an idea I've had roaming in my head for a while.
So if this doesn't make to the challenge, I'm still posting it, it will just take a lot longer...
Here's an excerpt of what I've done so far:
Spoiler:
I've been spending my days musing about the images I see in my dreams. I guess there was a time when my kind would have gathered together and marched out of the seas to the territory of the four-legged, and they would have gathered too at the sandy battlefield where their cries of "invader" would give way to the bolts and the bursts, and those would give way then to the endless riot of our kind as we marched as one giant wave to take the blood of the four-legged ones as compensation for their offense.
If it was not because I know I am alone, I would swear the meatfest every night was real...
Such a delightful activity of remembrance is sparingly interrupted, when the human called Trainer sits by my side and starts talking about things I don't understand. Beyond his battle instructions, pretty much nothing he says makes sense to me - I think, actually, that unlike the others, I am not event meant to understand the words of these creatures called human to begin with. But from what his assigned Pokémon has told me, he essentially tries to explain the world to me. He says a word that I don't know, like "snow", and then proceeds to talk at length about what it is, or what does it taste like, and what does his species use it for, all the while probably believing he is actually explaining himself; although maybe it's better that way, because when he made one of his Pokémon, the white goofy one with stupid whiskers and no claws, produce that thing called snow, it was only an all white, somewhat clingy and, for the worst, chilly substance that would melt into water if Trainer held some of it in his hand. I did not like it.
What do you think?
I would like to see glimpses of what other people are succeeding to do.
Hmm, it's hard for me to pick out any one part of my story that I'd like to share. It's at the 5k mark now and so far I'm liking all of it. As I was planning it is indeed a splatter horror fic, tentatively titled "Haunting at the Old Chateau." In all likelihood it won't be finished by the end of Saturday, but it will no doubt be at least the needed 7k by then. I was thinking of finishing it up for the next challenge but I'm not sure that'd be allowed and don't think there'd be enough left for another 7k anyway. So, I'll probably just finish it up on my own time.
Well, I guess this excerpt will do as well as any. It's not directly very gruesome, but from it you should be able to tell just why I have decided to classify this as not just a horror fic, but a splatter horror fic. ;)
Spoiler:
From the shadows in a corner of the courtyard, a green aura suddenly appeared as a lawn mower slowly rolled forward on its own power, its front gaping open where some of the metal chassis and casing had broken away as if it were a mouth eager to feed. Inside the opening was the lawn mower's blade, spinning about fast enough that it could barely be seen as it cut through the long grass, rolling towards its target. Aghast and in disbelief, Christine realized that it was moving straight towards where Staravia now lay tied against the ground by the vines, the bird letting out a shrill cry as he tried to free himself, noticing the approaching lawn mower.
Not wanting to see another friend die, Monferno, Luxio, and even Buneary joined together again to try to fight back the lawn mower, choosing to attack it this time instead of the rapidly regrowing vines. Not wanting to stand and watch without acting again, Riolu sprinted forward, leaping over the bound bird and spinning through the air as she sailed at the approaching mower. Drawing a palm back, she concentrated as she approached the possessed machine, knowing that the timing had to be just right for the force palm attack to be effective.
Before the virtually flying Riolu could reach her target, however, she was pulled out of the air by a shadowy black tendril that spun the dog-like Pokémon about as if it were a toy. The tendril suddenly let Riolu go, sending her straight at Christine. The Pokémon impacted the girl square in the chest, knocking the trainer back as she closed her arms around the small Riolu. Regaining her senses, Christine stood back up as she cradled Riolu, who had been knocked unconscious from the throw. After ensuring that her Pokémon was safe, Christine looked up to see the same inky black apparition that had prevented Luxio from saving Buizel. Its tendrils swung through the air as if they had a mind of their own, spinning about the shadowed body at the apparition's core. Another cackle as before joined the voices in Christine's head as the apparition floated backwards, fading into the shadows the lawn mower had emerged from and disappearing.
On a more technical note, I think the style I'm writing this in is worth a mention. I'm using one of my lesser used styles for this, one which has only ever before been used for those fics inappropriate for this site which I hitn at all the time. The defining aspect for me is the utter lack of dialogue; any actual, spoken dialogue is at most one or two words max. Anything longer is just described and basically skipped over, such as in this other single sentence excerpt from the work in progress:
"Landing on bent knees to absorb the impact, she looked back up at the top of the shaft and gestured for her Pokémon to follow, yelling that she'd catch them."
To me, this style is best used for fics where the actual dialogue isn't important and where the driving factor is the interaction between the characters and forces at play in the story, which is basically why this is the first time it's been used outside of those other fics. By virtually eliminating dialogue it allows me to focus purely on description and developing the setting and imagery that is so much more important in these stories. Regardless of my reasons for using it, I certainly find it interesting and am curious what the more...literate people here will think of it. This is why I wish I could just post my other stuff here; it's some of my best and most unique work but no one where I post it can take it that seriously. Really, it isn't porn but it's still kinky fetish stuff that I'm sure wouldn't be allowed here... This story will probably be about as close as I'll ever get.
...I should bring this up in the lounge sometime. Surely I'm not the only one with secret work that can't be posted here. <_<
My word count is currently 2555 words. That's a nice number, so I decided to post it before I write more. I'm running a bit late with this, since I started on Tuesday and so forth. Also, my family has bought five seasons of the TV show Scrubs, and I love it and simply can't stop watching it. But anyway, I'm still doing pretty good and I believe I can finish this before midnight on Sunday.
To make things harder, I kind of decided that I want to write exactly 7000 words... Well, we'll see if I end up actually doing so or not.
My work currently looks like it's going to end up being a mystery fic with some comical themes. The plot's still trying to take its shape, but it changes constantly while I write, so I can't really say what's going to happen yet. I'm really liking it on the moment, though. Writing mystery is really fun, I think I should start writing my actual mystery fic soon... Anyway, here are my favourite excerpts:
Spoiler:
The mention of his last name snapped Rodney out of his thoughts. "I don't like to be called by my last name, Lorraine," he told her with a strict tone. The woman looked at him, and Rodney noticed she was very, very angry. "Uh, you're not Lorraine, are you?" He asked.
"What?! Of course I'm Lorraine! Didn't you- What were you- What's wrong with you?!" she was screaming from the top of her lungs and her face was alarmingly red. "Tell me, Russell, how did you ever reach your current position?"
Rodney opened his mouth to arrogantly tell Lorraine exactly how he did reach his current position, when realization hit him. He closed his mouth and opened it again, and all the colour left his face, making him look like he was from a black-and-white picture. He shrunk noticeably and large drops of sweat started appearing on his face.
"W-well," Lorraine asked cautiously. Her anger really suffered from his reaction, as she started to feel sorry for him. "Spit it out, Russell."
Rodney gulped. "I don't know," he whispered barely audibly.
Spoiler:
"Fire?"
"Fire, you jackass! The forest fire, remeber?"
"Oh, right! We should probably do something about it, huh?"
Looks like I'm going to have to drop out of this for this week. I hardly got anything done. And I curse my procrastination. . >.> Ah, well, better luck next time.
I actually got up to 8k and am in the process of proofreading it. I wanted to make some adjustments to the ending but I'll have to wait and see now if I have the time. If not, oh well.
Heh, I've been trying to get away from the 3,000 mark for the entirely of the day. I do not intend to drop yet, let's see if my muse cat decides to stop complaining about the cold and helps me with some ideas for the ~4,000 extra words I need.
7k? That's it? I've already written a over 100,000 worded fanfic, and I wrote a 3k one-shot in one day. 7k is nothing, I'm definately joining the next game.
There we go, it is done. My entry has been written, proofread, and posted right here, one hour before the deadline (going by US central time). It's certainly one of the more interesting things I've ever written, and one of the most violent as well... Ah, I'm just too sadistic.
That was a fun challenge. I may join the next one, I may not. I've got to get the final part of this story done plus I have my chaptered fics to do, so we'll see. I don't even know what I'd write about; this was something I'd been considering writing for a while...
Then I failed miserably, only 3200 words written. :(
However, I don't consider this a failure. This small adventure allowed me to sort out and put on paper ODT several ridiculous ideas that were freely roaming in my head. I feel a little bit more confident now that I can keep my ideas under control and pace myself to translate them into something readable.
Here a last excerpt of my work then I'm still going to publish it, only later.
Spoiler:
Eventually I was allowed into a water chamber, where I could crawl and eat as I wanted, and sometimes emerge across a slope, out of the water, to enjoy sunlight. One day another Pokémon was introduced in the chamber, and when I saw her for the first time I almost gasped. I was sure this long, serpentine creature of blue and white scales and a massive mouth was commanding and powerful, and I knew somehow that she was supposed to be a sister in arms... I just couldn't remember what war it was, or if there was a war any longer. Also one particular thing that was out of place was that she was supposed to be smaller, bulkier, more fish-like, and red to begin with.
The other Pokémon introduced herself as Gyarados, and she told me my name, which I had heard from the human before. I did not like the idea that she (or maybe the human) had chosen my name instead of me, but given that I did not know how was I supposed to be named, with my parents nowhere to be seen, I decided to take the name.
Then she told me one more thing, and I instantly understood I was in the wrong place:
The reason why it's only 7k is because of NaNoWriMo. While it's cool that you can do more, NaNo's minimum count is 50k words in thirty days. That comes out to about 1667 words each day, which in a seven-day period is technically 11k+ words. But I decided to round down and make it 1k a day to be nice. I could round up and make it 12k in a week, but that just doesn't roll off the tongue as easily.
Incidentally, the prompt will be up sometime soon.
Haha, I love this week's prompt. Maybe this will get me to writing The Last Rocket, which is about a Rocket making many mistakes and looking for redemption and all. ;)
Yeah, I know what you mean. I really intended on writing something this week. In fact, I have yet another half-finished one. But unfortunately, this week has been mostly taken up by a combination of my job and betaing a 20+-page piece. ;_;
Ah well. Next round should be good. I'll be settled down, and boot to the head to any other distractions.
Aww, don't worry. It's really not that difficult to come up with something. The majority of the challenge is an exercise in putting down whatever crap pops into your mind first and nudging it until it becomes a coherent story. Or, uh, leaving it as-is if you want to pass it off as avant-garde.
