Ooh, your book cover looks so cool, hyaline!!

Betsie and Destined: I hope you guys won't mind. But for some reason... hm... well... Here's a paragraph I wrote yesterday...

Bets and Dusty, our two faithful horses, plodded quietly along...

Um, heh heh. For some reason "Bets" just popped into my head... And Dusty followed.

Awww. I'm thinking that someone in my story is going to have a Window Sill Cat named Susan.

How does a man of 48, who is of no importance to the story (he died about twenty years ago, and all that is imperative is that he is dead) die nicely and untraumatically? Heart attack?

I'm at 4000 words. This is fun! But most of my writing is awful. And that's a little discouraging. I shouldn't have any trouble getting to 50,000. But if there is any merit in my book, and it's actually finished, I'll be surprised!

My Word document is simply littered with red and green squiggly underlines, and it's killing me.

However, I think it's going pretty well. I'm managing to stick to my target of 2,500 words a day and it's been a lot easier than I thought it would be.

My story, though - eek! There are so many things I hadn't thought through properly before I started! Like character names ... I had my main characters' names, but I hadn't even thought about the whole supporting cast. Oh well. I think I could have been a lot more organised, but I'm kind of enjoying the way it's going at the moment.

It's good to see how everyone's doing! And that several people are also suffering from Dire and Dreadful Dialogue ... I don't think I've used "Yay" yet, but I rather hope I don't as it's supposed to be set in the 16th century.

Window Sill Cat named Susan.

An un-traumatic death? Hm. Heart-attacks seem a bit traumatic to me. Dieing in sleep seems quite un-traumatic, but of course, if he's only 48...?

AJ: Mine's set in 1800-1850 sometime or so. And I've used Yay. Oh dear.

I'd agree that dying in one's sleep would be a quiet, peaceful way to go. A bit unusual for someone who's only 48, but not unheard of.

AJ, I'm also having some randomness with the supporting cast - names and roles. But it lends some unpredictability to everything. Coming up with descriptions for new characters should be easier than I'm making it.

My story is set in the near future; no specific date has been mentioned, which allows me some flexibility with technology and gadgets.

I'm around 7000 words now, with more coming up tonight - but my suspicion that my current plot ideas are going to run out before 15,000 words is stronger than ever...

I'm at 1373 currently. I almost had to restart my story and then found a way to make it work. It's very rambly and not very good, but my new main character is snarky and fun.

Thanks Betsie, and Queen S!

Well, my long short story is becoming longer than I thought it would but I figured the best ending at midnight last night, and started jotting it down.
I was unconsciencly about to make my main character seem like a liar, double agent, and traitor but my sister saved me from doing that and I fixed it, so he's about an angel. (Yes, it's a huge adjustment for me to make my main character a boy and write in first person for him...)
So, I've found out a good ending and stuff! Yay!

Is it normal to be confused with one's own plot?
Also, I hope it's not violating any law of literature to switch from first person to third person... Part 1 of my story worked right in first person, but I can't get all the political happenings of the kingdom without changing it to third person. Oh, well.
Anyways, I'm going to try get another 5k today and finish this story and work on another!

My sister, CSLewisNarnia, is doing it too but she won't quit thinking her plot is weak and she keeps editing it, so I'm trying to make her stop. *sighs* It's working! =]

Is it possible for someone to go above 50k? I still doubt if I'll make it to that, but I have a tendancy to make short stories longer than they should be, so...

Bella: By all means it is alright to go over 50,000! Some ambitious people go at least over 200,000, at least. But I don't think I'd attempt it. My story would probably run out and that would mean I would start another one and that would mean more planning and.... let's just say I'm not that ambitious.

Betsie: Hmm, maybe your character could have had a weak heart since childhood and it was something only a few knew about, so when he died it seemed peaceful but it really wasn't? Or maybe some other disease that one could keep hidden, or something of that sort.

hyaline: I love your cover! It looks really really good!

*can't wait to see how far FF is*

*as Mel already knows the word count of the person in question FF sees no reason to answer*

FF, your word count is... flabbergasting. To me. You must be writing a lot!

I am just curious, can any of you relate the 50K word count to a famous book; which is to say, is there a really famous book out there that you know of that has about a 50K word count? I'm just curious because whenever I've read a book I didn't count the words so I have nothing to relate to 50K words. I say this because I would really seriously like to try my hand at this one day and want to get a grasp on how big a book we are talking here.

Thanks for clearing that up, Fanny! Wow, 200k seems....amazing. It would take alot of planning and ambition. I ditto Queen S, you're word count is almost breathtaking to me! When the page finally loaded, I saw it, got surprised and called across the house to Ella how much you had gotten! :O

Watziznehm, I can't say I know of any book that has. I'm sure there might be one, but I don't know of any; which probably doesn't help. :/

Well, writing in third person isn't working very well. I constantly have to stop myself from writing "I" when it concerns the main characer.

Watziznehm: If this helps any, Nathaniel Hawthorne's book The House of The Seven Gables is roughly around 50,000 words, and that is by no means a long book. One of Charles Dickens' work was over 640,000 words, so if you are familiar with the size of any of his books, think quite smaller.

Queen Susan & Bella: Awww, you gals are sweet! Thank you!

Oh, okay. Thank you foreverfan. I confess I was thinking Charles Dickens and Jane Austen long type novels, and it seemed to be quite a stretch for me. Now, I think that I could possibly do it, given that I would have a full month and all.

FF, your word count is... flabbergasting. To me. You must be writing a lot!

I second that! I didn't even think it was humanly possible to write that much in three days. And I thought I was writing a lot. No. Not any more.

Oh, and FF, I never mentioned it before, but I love the title for yours! It's super awesome.

I still have to write like 1500 words today and I'm very sad because I finally went and bought myself The Thief and now I don't even get to read it. Sigh.

Aww, that is sad, Hyaline! I've been wanting to read it too.

So.... does anyone want to do a word-count challenge/war/whatchamacallit? Because I am in desperate need of motivation...