3-Day Novel Contest: Day 3

From: Fantasy_Writer_Guy Sep-4 8:25 pm
To: ALL

ARGGGH!

19000 words, 76 pages. This does not cut it!!

Too much time spent re-writing!

the upside: very happy with the piece. The characters and I have laughed and cried together. If only one of them would rub my aching back for me!

desperately looking for a short cut to the ending!!! after all this work I must find a way to submit SOMETHING!

MY KINGDOM FOR A 4-DAY NOVEL CONTEST!!

So where are all the Roronro-area writers meeting for a drink at 12:30?? I'm in!! I'll buy!! Oh crap. R and T labels have worn off my keyboard -- I've become Scooby Doo! TORONTO writers I mean!

snakes alive



From: Fantasy_Writer_Guy Sep-5 1:33 am
To: ALL

Incredible! What an experience! I feel like I just survived a plane crash. Typed 'the end' at 11:59pm! I swear its true. serious as a heart attack.

original objective: involved 19 chapter outline, 7 major characters, 3 major plot-lines and 2 minor ones. 1 theme. Way too ambitious. Rookie mistake. failed miserably.

learning opportunity: chance to defeat the over-editing monster. Decision: Unanimous: monster wins. re-reading wasted too much time.

on the upside:

1. pulled off a miracle to carve a submittable piece in the last few hours. Had to delete two (long) written chapters, one major character and one major plot line and severely abridge one minor plot line to do it! Oh - and scratched 7 chapters right off the outline!! Chainsaw literature at its finest!

2. Coined the phrase Chainsaw Literature!!

3. Fell in love with the piece. Pending 3-day results (I’m almost certainly to short to be considered), I shall recover the deleted text and write up the 7 missing chapters soon and have a full-length novel to run with! Hooray!

Body count ended up 2 instead of 1. Ex-wife character expired from cruel aids virus. best-friend character annulled! all references to him (including 2 chapters) deleted! could never have tied up his story by the deadline

With all the deleting my final word count was lower than it was at 8PM. my goodness. what a larf!

Desperately hope I am allowed to run spell-checker and search-and-replace post-deadline! Must change names so that my ex and best friend never find out what I did to them! Can anyone clarify that?

Been reading all the late posts here - catching up. Very warm congratulations to those who achieved their goals and/or found an ending. And warmest wishes to those struggling at the deadline - especially you Rusla! With all your adversity you're a trooper!

Zoomy: I hope your arm is better! The tendons in back of my hands are shot!

Metro! your posts are too funny! If your novel is humor you should win!

HyacinthH - again, so glad you stayed and congrats on completing it! I had trouble with transitions too. My solution -- 2 blank lines and off to the next vignette!

Tikinagan - thanks for excellent advice re Wikipedia!

KJ MacLean - my heart goes out to you re rushed ending. Same here. I fear my last chapter will seem contrived due to rush job. had to scream it out in 15 minutes.

OnMyWay: You have all the time in the world! Go find out what you can do!

BradyDale: thanks for great tips. I'll have to check out this 'Friendster' thing!

Visaman - YES! I popped the champagne. Henkell Trocken! Not officially champagne but German bubbly! I'm almost finished the bottle!

Toronto Area Writers: anyone interested in getting together some time soon at a pub and sharing snippets of our novels? let me know. rich.landriault@mosaic.com

Congrats all! you're all winners! Love you madly!



Day 3 highlight:

"It's not that easy!"
"Of course it is."
"They won't accept Croation diploma here!"
"I know. And I'm sorry for that. Our government's fucked. Our politicians are all ass holes here but there's nothing I can do about that. Not enough of us vote with a conscience. But that doesn't matter. Listen - you can take tests to get a Canadian diploma. I'll help you study."
"It's too expensive."
"It's not too expensive! It's fuckin' peanuts for me. I got money coming out my ying-yang!"
"What is ying yang?"
"Listen! I can give you everything you need to find your way. Trust me, Cas. Move in here and I will pay for your food and your clothes and all your necessities. Cell phone. Gas. Whatever. But I won't pay for drugs. The drugs have to go!"
"I can't move in with man! My parents will be crazy!"
"Why? That makes no sense."
"If they thought I'm being gay they would never see me again!"
"They're loss."
"I love my parents!"
"I know." Hap was now standing and clambering on their laps and licking each of them on the arms and wherever he could get his tongue.
"It's okay Hap," said Cas, stroking the puppy. We're not fighting. Your papa is just in love with me and wants to get in my pants!"