Mark, Mark,Mark, MARK, MARK!!!

[salamanca]

Why are you reading this thread?. Your word count is in the same place it was earlier. Get back to typing you slacker.

[Black Jack Rackham]

Thanks Dave.

[Black Jack Rackham]

As you can see by my wordcounter, I have finally made it over the hump, WAAAAHHOOOO!!!

[Black Jack Rackham]

So here it is Nov 14. I have thus far taken one day off from writing (the day I went up to run at Carnage) and have, at the very least, hit the minimum goal every day I actually wrote. 13 writing days later, I am just under 6k words short of the 50k goal. So my writing competition (Megan, known around these parts as Nutmeg_25) and I decided to race for 75k now (it seems like an easy goal but given that I am leaving for Turkey day on the 25th and won't be back until the 30th its a bit more difficult, though I think still achievable).

I also finally decided on a name. Old Friends

And here's the blurb about it:

December, 31st, 1930. Four friends, each a stalwart adventurer in their own right, meet in the West Smoking Room at a famous – and very exclusive – private club in downtown Boston. As they have for many years now, they get together to share a drink in celebration of one another and remembrance of friends past. But little do they know, this year will be quite a bit different as sinister outside forces conspire to bring them together for an adventure which could, quite literally, mean the end of the world as they know it.

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Awesome about your word count!

Not sure if I like your name you picked out though (Just being truthful). Doesn't have much kick to it. Needs to catch the attention of the readers, so they want to read the book. I know, you've had a hard time deciding on a name, but you still have a lot to write, so still have time to change it should a good one come along.

Just for an instance, one of my favorite authors wrote a book and named it "The Bonedoll's Twin". I looked at that and went "Huh? What is a bonedoll and what is it about the twin that makes the story?", which caused me to pick it up to look at it and read the blurb on the back. I have re-read that story many times because it is one of the scariest books I have ever read (for a fantacy Si-fi), and I normally do not read what I consider "horror type stories), but she wrote it so well, I think, that it still gives me goosebumps when I read the way the bonedoll was created and the ghost of the "doll" when it first appears in the story creeps me out too.

[Black Jack Rackham]

Fine Laura, JUST FINE!

Am now toying with the idea of naming it Pulp Heroes! (Yes I know HERO Games has a supplement called Pulp Hero, but this will be Heroes with an exclamation point)

[Rebecca Iavelli]

I've been thinking too, and since you wanted to use "Old Friends", why not just add a bit to the name and call it:

"Old Friends and Fiends;
Adventures of the most daring!"
Or:
"Old Friends and Fiends;
Adventures of daring do!"
(checked the second one on google, and looks like some one used the name for a deviant art story - the Adventures of Daring Do - part, but it also showed reference in Indiana Jones movies. I was trying to google when the phrase was originally created, seems like a 30's kinda thing) Also had a ton of story stuff for My Little Pony for some reason, way too much stuff, lol.

(Or something like that. Mentioning that it is an Adventure, is sort of the genre of the time, and the word Fiend kinda seems like it too. I think it will also help grab attention, letting people know what type of story it is.)

I'm sorry Mark, but to get readers, you need to grab their attention, and to me, a pretty avid reader type person, the name did nothing for me.

[salamanca]

If you name it, you will write to fit the name. If you just write it, it will find it's own name. (probably during the edit).

[Rebecca Iavelli]

A perfect answer Dave!

See Mark, listen to Dave; Dave is wise. Sounds very much like Yoda.


P.S. CONGRATULATIONS MARK! As I posted this I saw that you had 50203 words and had reached your 50000 word limit you had set yourself. I know that you have a on going race with Megan, and that you have upped the total word limit to 70000 (if I remember correctly), but you have reached your original goal in record time, so are due a Congrats! (Need to have exploding fireworks in the background, but the smilies don't have one. Best I can do to show you co-does is this smiley )

[Black Jack Rackham]

We're actually going to go with 75k as the new goal. That should be about half the novel. I am so excited by our progress!

[salamanca]

Judge me by my syntax do you?. If I was being helpful, I would point out a best seller needs to center around a teenage girl seperated from her family by a harsh government operating via an impossible to maintain set of dictatorial mandates. Said lass needs to be an expert in some archaic form of martial skill and be forced to kill her new found friends with poorly spelled names to survive. It's got better chances to succeed if they wear black too.

[Nutmeg_25]

Catch back up will ya?

[Black Jack Rackham]

Catch back up my heinie! You're lagging behind by 2500 words now

[Black Jack Rackham]

Megan's lagging a bit behind (had a couple of very long days at work) but she still has all of next week to make me eat her dust. As for myself, I just hit my next goal of 75k so I'm gonna see if perhaps I can get to 80 before I have to leave Monday morning. The book is looking real good, and thus far my proofreader (who's really just reading for continuity) has been captured by the curiosity bug.

Yay me!

In the meantime, Megan, get your butt in gear!

[Rebecca Iavelli]

Not that I am making excuses for Megan, she is slacking a bit , but she does work in a grocery store, during one of the busiest weeks its going to have this week, with Thanksgiving and Hanunaka (misspelled I know, but too lazy at 1:35 am in the morning to look it up) falling one day apart, so not sure how much she will make up this week. Only day she will probably have off is Thanksgiving, and then she will be busy with family, so I'll let her slide a bit, but she should have a couple of weeks from after Thanksgiving til Christmas week, to speed back up and run you over, lol

[Black Jack Rackham]

She only has until next Saturday (one week from today), then the contest is over. Besides, sleep is overrated anyway

[Black Jack Rackham]

Well, I did it. Late last night I go to my official stopping point (80k if you can't be bothered to look at the bottom of the page) so I'm officially taking a break. After turkey-day festivities are over, I will get back in the saddle to finish this up in December.

[Black Jack Rackham]

Well, since 14˚N of Prophecy is finally available for sale, it's time to move on to another book! I am currently writing up one of my very favorite 7th Sea adventures, Beauty-ful Dreamers though rather than a group perspective (like 14˚N was), I'm writing it from Randolph Knox's (the Lecherous semi-reformed pirate) perspective. That way, readers will be surprised, when... oh perhaps I've said too much.

Anyway, my contest with Megan is ongoing, and, I believe, I am currently in the lead with over 9500 words. Gonna make that little girl eat my dust once again