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1:49 PM
I've shared my novel with my co-workers. luckily none of them promised to read it
 
I'm a bit nervous that my aunt said she'd read it. I haven't even edited it yet!
 
you've still got time! I'm only up to day 12
 
I thought you said you hadn't changed it that much, but I've already gotten confused about where I left off because you rearranged things.
 
oh. sorry. I didn't think it was any different, just making sure things fitted together
 
> Suddenly, with an almighty bang, the locker doors all burst open and the benches went flying.
Oh right. That's where I left off.
 
1:55 PM
ah! then there's the bit with Nicolas Cage and Ving Rhames
 
I think the medics would have put her on a clean sheet to move her to the gurney.
 
good thinking. I'll try adding that in.
 
> almost lost his rag
I've never heard this expression before.
I laughed right out loud.
 
:D glad you're enjoying it!
 
I'm guessing you were trying to pump up the word count on that crazy elevator ride.
 
2:06 PM
obviously not to be confused with being on the rag!
 
Oh, don't joke. I despise that expression.
 
@KitFox yeah. I was trying to squeeze them in everywhere.
 
Hahahaha. You named the neurologist Kit?
 
yeah :D
thought you'd like that
 
In the US, a tech would have done the scan and then sent it to the neurologist.
@MattЭллен I'm flattered.
 
2:08 PM
probably the same here
 
Even if it is a boy's name.
 
Do you talk about the heroic efforts of the programmers who lovingly massage the signals?
 
I don't. I assumed they'd bought a software package to do that
 
Hahaha.
I suppose.
 
2:11 PM
So should I wait until editing is done? Or dive in?
 
Oh, I think I'm going to write a second before I edit the first. It's rickety, but you should feel free to read it now. It should be fine if you keep in mind that it is under construction.
Matt's is much more cohesive.
 
okay. I plan to read both after I finish my library book.
 
@KitFox Yours is more exciting
 
@MattЭллен pish posh Apples and oranges.
"newsagent" Wow. I'm learning all sorts of British.
 
fascinating. I don't think I've noticed anything of yours that is USA specific. I wonder why...
 
2:22 PM
"taxi rank"
 
oh dear. perhaps I should supply a glossary :D
 
It's all perfectly understandable. Even the "orientate" which set my teeth on edge.
 
oh gosh, did I leave that in. I don't like that either
I'll have to replace it when I get home.
I must have been tired when I wrote that bit
 
They were chatting about stuff and things, eh?
 
quite an engrossing discussion. The Stuff vs Things debate rages on
 
2:36 PM
Wow. "A jack the lad" I guess that means player?
 
indeed. and a bit of a ruffian, too, I think.
 
This is a good extended bit. I'm enjoying the transition from one scene to the next as she wanders through her subconscious.
 
thanks!
 
Oh right. And pants=underpants, not uh, trousers?
 
2:40 PM
I might have to draw a diagram of that scene though. The mechanics seem a little odd.
Maybe they do things differently in British subconsciouses.
 
maybe. what in particular?
 
I'm trying to figure out how she sat up and he ejaculated on her sort of simultaneously.
 
OK. Yeah, that's not entirely clear in my mind either. maybe knelt up?
 
Maybe. Is it important forensically? Or could he just rape her proper?
 
it's important in terms of it not being rape.
I think rape would have entailed a rather different end for him
 
2:50 PM
Hmm, maybe. But you could have ditched that part and paralleled it with Lucilia's experience. You could use that to support the transition and blurring between the two.
Of course, it was also funny.
 
true. my plan was originally for Alex to rape Susan, but I chickened out a bit
 
It seems like they were a couple and then weren't. But in the memory, it seems like she hardly knew him long enough to tell her parents about him.
What if they dated for a bit, she thought he was great and then he drugged her in order to do perverse things to her?
 
yeah. I felt that too. but the memory bit isn't exactly cohesive
 
Ergh. But I should finish reading the story first.
@MattЭллен Well, and if your writing went like mine did, then things just sort of did whatever.
 
@KitFox aye :D
 
2:57 PM
"Let's call in a chopper," said Figgis.
"That's your answer to everything," joked Jones. "I'll call it in."
That's funny, too.
 
Thanks :)
 
3:12 PM
How big is Minura?
She seems like she must be a giant compared to Sergius.
 
I'm not sure. they do the old school cartoon shrinking/growing thing
she's meant to be shorter than Sergius
Sergius is meant to be giant
 
Her arms must be very long then.
 
She needs more speed.
Here is where it bothers me:
> He thrust his sword towards her exposed midriff, but he was too far out. Minura easily dodged to his right, planting her fist firmly in his side.
She had to dodge and close a lot of distance to be able to hit him.
 
she's nimble?
 
3:16 PM
Yes, I can believe it, but it doesn't seem like it there.
So it makes her seem big suddenly.
 
OK. I'll have to make her nimbler
 
And the women are trained to fight, but they don't have any weapons, is that right?
 
I don't know if they're trained to fight. They can fight, but I think Lucilia's training with Searigis was abnormal. Done on her own recognizance
theyr'e strong, though, because they do pretty much the same stuff the men do
but the men also fight.
or train to fight
 
Scythes were a good idea. Sickles too, maybe?
Because they would certainly know how to use them.
 
yeah, sickles and any other farming tools
I wasn't sure whether the woman in the field had a spade or shovel, but it's a distinction most people won't worry about.
 
3:24 PM
Haha.
Except for me being annoying.
 
lol (I was thinking more someone like tchrist of the gardening world)
 
agrochrist
 
What's builder's tea?
 
ummm...
cheap tea made quickly, I guess
I've never really thought about it
apparently it's also strong.
 
3:32 PM
Huh. I've learned all sorts of new things this morning.
 
Uh!? What happened to the ending?
 
that's the end. you find out who did it and it's over
happily ever after
 
punches @Matt's face
 
ow!
what?
 
3:33 PM
Some old guy who we don't really know who it is did it?
 
I took The Mentalist approach
 
...Simon Baker did it?
 
lol
I was toying with it being Monica in league with the mystics, but I like Monica too much.
 
But...but...I thought for sure it was Dennis.
 
whoa. wait. I don't even remeber him
hang on
 
3:36 PM
The annoying reporter.
He's perfect for the culprit.
 
ah
yeah. That was another posibility
also I wanted to make the guy who turned up at Susan's door into the person who did it, but I couldn't think how
(not Alex, the person who offered to take her to hospital)
 
Dave? There were a lot of Daves.
 
there were, I noticed that as I read through.
 
Hmm. Maybe it could be all of them.
 
yes, his name was Dave :D
as I finished I did have a weird conspiracy theory idea
 
3:40 PM
Well, I wasn't thinking conspiracy.
 
but that would be a huge overhaul
 
More like a comedy of errors.
So originally, the hippies spike her tea, and then the neighbor slips her a mickey, and then the mental Dave swaps pills with her, etc.
 
You read very quickly. I probably already knew that
 
I had already read the first half.
 
3:42 PM
So are you going to keep working on it, or try your hand at something new?
Oh, hey, it's chat day.
 
I'm not sure. I really need to do my taxes, which will involve me being on hold for hours and then filling out a form
then I'll decide what to do next
 
Hahaha. Taxes suck.
 
yeah. it's not like they're not already paid. this is for money I didn't earn, because I'm not self employed any more. stupid tax man.
they never answer the phone, either. I need to reset my username and password and they just won't let me do it.
 
shakes fist @taxman
 
4:05 PM
WTF? This works if I keep the checkbox, but if I remove the checkbox, it doesn't work anymore.
 
you have code that depends on the checkbox
 
Yes, but why?
 
the checkbox is needy?
 
I guess. I just moved the code. I don't know why I need the "currentInt > 0" if I'm filtering by an intervention.
It work fine now, but I should probably figure out why that works that way.
I must return everything.
Oh. I bet that's it.
Lunchtime then chat?
 
OK
I'll be heading off in 35 minutes
 
4:09 PM
Off? Home?
 
aye
then I'll be back an hour after that
 
So you will be offline for...I see.
Well, we'll probably still be chatting then.
 
4:55 PM
@KitFox By the way, did I ever link you to this piece before?
The writing style is very interesting.
 
I don't think I've seen it before. One of yours?
Written in LaTeX. Very sexy.
First glance, it seems interesting. I'll read it when I have a minute. Thanks.
I suppose I should start chat, but we seem slim on our regulars today.
And I get tired of hearing myself talk.
 
@KitFox Oh my no.
 
We had a pretty good number of participants in NaNoWriMo this year.
I think eight of our users decided to give it a go.
 
@KitFox I came across it online sometime last year.
@KitFox If you guys are doing the 10-minute writing thing I might give it a shot.
 
OK, great!
You want to do that now? Or wait a bit and see who else turns up?
 
5:03 PM
Doesn't matter to me.
 
OK, then. Let's go now. I can always do another later.
Ten minutes. Are you ready?
 
Uh... sure
What's the topic?
 
You pick.
 
I don't want to. I suck at picking things.
 
OK.
Let me think a bit.
sighs My brain is so tired after writing for a month. Um...
 
5:07 PM
Just a sec
 
Hullo @Grace.
 
Hi Kit.
 
I wrote a whole novel. I didn't think I had it in me.
Now I want to write two more.
 
@KitFox Wow, congratulations!
 
@GnomeSlice Oh thanks.
@Matt and @El'endia and @Mahnax all finished theirs too.
@waxeagle Did you make your goal?
 
5:10 PM
That's fantastic guys. =]
 
@KitFox no, got busy on Friday, couldn't make it back to writing
 
@waxeagle Gettin' busy, yeah. Good reason for missing.
wink wink
 
@KitFox :p I wish
 
We suck at this.
 
We had others who made a go of it too. @Mussri, @QuestionMarcs, @pureferret.
@JSB Did you make your goal?
@GnomeSlice I would rather suck at writing novels than not suck at not writing novels.
Or so I've discovered.
 
5:13 PM
Heh.
 
But we were going to pick a writing topic, right?
 
I asked in the gaming chat but nothing useful has been suggested.
in The Bridge, 35 secs ago, by Gwen
"What is winter like in your dystopian future?"
 
Perfect.
See you in ten. Go!
 
@KitFox Wait a minute, what's the style supposed to be?
Is this like a short story?
 
Just write for ten minutes, using that as your prompt.
 
5:15 PM
Whatever you like, whatever comes out of your pencil (or, I guess, keyboard)
 
Alrighty then.
 
You just write for 10 minutes, starting with the topic and just write what comes to mind.
 
Don't worry if you stray from the topic.
Time's up!
I think.
Here is mine.
 
And here is mine, for what it's worth.
@KitFox Guh, I was originally planning on a lot of visually descriptive dialogue, but I guess I didn't.
@KitFox I'm not sure I understand what's going on, but I like this, good work.
@KitFox Just out of curiosity, that opening line in your second paragraph has a lot of commas in it, was that intentional?
I should start a blog.
Argh, Google docs, why do you show me as a duplicated new viewer every time I switch tabs and back?
 
5:33 PM
@GnomeSlice It does have a lot of commas. I probably would edit that out.
 
The wind was here too soon. The pole star was obscured by red dust. A devil hoovered to and fro on the plain.

Henry tracked it with his eyes as he fastened up his parka. He would have to get the barriers up this morning or the algae pond would be dry by nightfall.

Static crackled, then Emily’s voice buzzed tinnily in his ear. “Lunesat is tracking a storm in the Pacific basin.”
 
Man, you guys are good at this.
 
I'm thinking Wizard of Oz meets global warming.
 
@MετάEd I love your stuff, dude.
 
@MετάEd My first thought was 'Mars Colony'.
 
5:34 PM
@GnomeSlice We come here to practice. Let me read yours. I've been distracted by...
 
Probably because of the red dust.
 
@GnomeSlice Yes, exactly. What Earth became, basically.
 
7 mins ago, by GnomeSlice
And here is mine, for what it's worth.
I sort of lost my train of thought at the end.
And it's not very articulate. Oh well.
That was still fun. =] Do you guys do this every week?
 
@KitFox yes, i did. i got five short stories finished.
one of them was inspired by a comment in the ELU chat
 
I totally failed to complete a story though. That was just the opening gambit.
Even cheated and took a couple of extra minutes.
 
5:38 PM
I'm not happy with mine, but oh well!
 
@GnomeSlice Generally. We sometimes do...
 
@KitFox I've never seen you guys do this before. But I might join in if this is a weekly thing, that was fun.
 
FFS. I never get phone calls and I've had about six just now. In like twenty minutes.
@JSBձոգչ Sweet!
@GnomeSlice I'm glad you liked it.
 
I got back a bit late... I sort of wrote about a post-apocalyptic future.
 
The idea is just to warm up your writing brain...
 
5:40 PM
Anybody have anything to say about mine? docs.google.com/document/d/…
@Krazer ...post apocalyptic candyland?
 
This is just. Unbelievable. My phone keeps...
 
@KitFox Should I post it here?
 
@GnomeSlice something more morbid... delusions of a man as he lays dying in a cold, ruined world.
 
@Krazer Aha... interesting.
 
@GnomeSlice I like the dialogue. We did a dialogue only exercise one time, and I really enjoyed it. You did a good job setting a winter scene, but also conveying something of the relationship between the two people talking.
@JSBձոգչ Which one and which one? Was it cannibalism, because I almost put that in mine.
 
5:45 PM
@KitFox That's what I was going for, so I'm glad! I'm not really happy with the diction though, it seems a little forced.
 
@GnomeSlice Practice, practice. You can fix things like that when you edit. If you edit.
 
@KitFox no, it was about Yuri Gagarin
 
I've joined the chats since summer and the biggest thing I've learned is to stop worrying about what I'm writing when I'm writing it.
@JSBձոգչ Oh. And what a friggin' hottie he is?
 
@KitFox ha ha, no. it does feature his wife, though.
 
@Krazer Eep! I picture laughing elves.
Scary!
 
5:48 PM
Shameless plug for my friend who's behind a web startup that's been getting some attention. NoteShares
 
Hey @Mitch!
 
hey!
nice word count.
 
Oops! closes robe
 
@KitFox ._.
 
Oh. Word count. I thought he said something else.
 
5:51 PM
Hey, someone sold a story, according to the stars list. Nice!
I made my first music sale a little while ago.
 
@KitFox My mind is spinning trying to figure out what you think I meant.
 
So I'm trying to remember what we did before we started Nano stuff. We did the ten-minute write. Oh! If people wanted critiques, they could ask.
 
@Mitch Your internal dialogue is showing!
 
@GnomeSlice Yes! @JSB. He's right here!
 
5:52 PM
hi, @GnomeSlice
 
@JSBձոգչ Congrats on the sale! :D
 
@GnomeSlice blushes
 
I hope you got more for it than I did for mine... :P
 
@GnomeSlice i sold it for pro rates ($.05/word)
 
@GnomeSlice Sweet! I forgot I'd heard some of your stuff before. I think. You've posted in the bridge before right?
 
5:53 PM
@JSBձոգչ Awesome!
 
thanks!
 
@KitFox Yeah, probably. This is the only stuff I've tried to sell though, but I wasn't really expecting anyone to pay for it, since it's 'pay what you want'. The annoying thing is that the game's release was supposed to be my advertising, but it's been months and months with no word from the development team, so I guess it died.
 
I should have you write me a theme song.
 
@KitFox Hmm...
 
I figure if Darth Vader has one, so should I.
 
5:55 PM
Heh.
I don't know, I'm very musical, but I find creating music very difficult and stressful.
It's... really unfortunate.
 
Well, then. Don't do that.
Maybe writing will set you straight.
 
@GnomeSlice perhaps you lack a muse?
 
I don't know though, music is one of my great loves. And I am very musical.
 
So does anyone have anything they want critiqued by our crew?
 
I just have a hard time applying myself to anything.
 
5:56 PM
@GnomeSlice That's true of most people. Especially the young ones.
I blame the Internet.
When I was young, I had to go to the library to look stuff up.
 
I feel like I don't improve at anything, because everything creative is stressful. I've thought about becoming a critic, hah. A professional consumer.
But I like lots of bad stuff, so that's out.
 
It takes time to get good at things.
 
@KitFox I'd be interested to know what you guys make of Monkey On My Back.
 
Lots of time and practice.
 
@KitFox Yeah, I know, more than I ever put into anything.
 
5:58 PM
@GnomeSlice OK. How about we put it up as a topic for discussion next chat, so people have a chance to read it?
 
@KitFox Sure? I hope it's not a bad topic though.
 
And do we want to do a writing exercise for next week?
@GnomeSlice What's the worst that happens? Nobody likes it, it kills chat, and we never speak again. I think I can live with that.
:-P
 
@KitFox Works for me!
Buh, I really need to get my ass in gear and finish the video intro I started for the gaming site months ago.
They've been using the half-finished one and it's bad.
 
I wonder where @Mr.Shiny's gotten to? He must be reading all of our novels.
@GnomeSlice Eep!
 
It's not THAT bad, but the sound effects are hideous. Lemme find a clip using it.
Ergh, shouldn't have any game audio at all. But this is the wrong chat for that. =]
It's the bit at the very beginning.
 
6:04 PM
Looks fun.
Oh, this is silly. I can't believe how much real life is interrupting me today. My gf now wants to have a little text chat about the holidays. WTF? Can't be bothered to talk to me for two months and now wants to be all chummy?
Women.
 
Amen.
 
Right. OK. So.
Writing exercise for next week. Who is in?
 
@KitFox You mean, like the one we did today?
 
For the December 11 chat, we'll talk about the story Monkey on my Back. The writing exercise is three paragraphs. In the first, describe an object. In the second, describe a person. In the third, describe the interaction between the person and the object.
@GnomeSlice No, we'll do that anyway.
 
I might be here. =]
 
6:16 PM
Cool.
 
@KitFox Also, there's a 'game' some of you guys might be interested in playing with another called Sleep is Death.
You cleared my star?
 
What? What star?
 
@KitFox I starred the message you just pinned and it says it's been cleared by a moderator.
 
Oops!
I meant to clear my own star. Sorry.
 
But anyway, Sleep is Death is a multiplayer storytelling 'game'. It's extremely engaging if you can get the hang of the controls...
 
6:18 PM
@GnomeSlice Oh I bet @Mussri would dig that.
 
@KitFox Well, if anyone is interested but can't figure out how to connect to other people or something, have them pop into arqade chat. =]
I'm out for now. Adios!
 

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