lulu.com has a short story comp -- winner gets a NOOK and five hundred bucks.

19, 312. A plot still hasn't shown its face.
I'm resorting to ridiculous measures to increase wordcount.

Anyone else have anything to report?

EDIT: 21, 363.

It's been quite a few days since I (or anyone) has posted here, but I am currently at 44,000 words or so.

Anyone else?

I think I'll add a giant, Tolkien-style index at the back with places, people and things to give the old word count a boost.

I started and made it to around 10k words but got kinda busy. Not gonna make it for November but I might keep at it for fun.

I ended up having to throw in the towel due to other commitments. It's a shame because I would have liked to have finished, but I do have a contract for next year, so it wasn't in vain.

I knew going into it that I was over committed, and I turned out to be even more over committed than I was expecting. Hopefully next year I'll be able to finish.

I finished my Lulu.com 600 word short story for NaNoWriMo.

http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/mr-murphys-attic/18631831?productTrackingContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/1

Teaching gig.

And by over committed, I mean that I've been tutoring, assistant teaching, studying Mandarin and applying for jobs, too many high priority things and too little time.

Impressive! That is indeed a lot of things.

Note to thread, unrelated to above quote: I am finished, at 50,240 words.

I had to add a 3,700 word index, like I said I was going to before, and since that still wasn't QUITE enough words, I put in a 1.5k short story about the same world.

Congrats, on the accomplishment.

And yes, I think in the long run it was the right decision, I just wish I would have had time to actually finish the book. I'll probably have to just write my book little chunks at a time over the next year as I'm likely to be too busy next year as well. Although, I shouldn't be quite as busy so I might be able to manage anyways.

So you're continuing with the same book? Did you start it during NaNoWriMo or was it based on a partly finished novel?

Could you mention what the premise is? I remember you saying ti was like a slasher movie.

Unlikely that I'll continue with the same book, I didn't get very far into it before it became clear that it wasn't going to work without a lot more time and planning than I had.

I definitely can mention the premise and if anybody wants it they can just have it, I think it's an interesting idea but at the end of the day it just wasn't speaking to me. If anybody does take it though, I'd like to be kept apprised of the situation, because there's quite a bit of room for interpretation.

The basic premise was that a group of people are invited to an island by a mysterious host and they start disappearing one by one. I had planned to give them all character flaws in line with the seven deadly sins, not so literal as the movie Seven, but as a way of nudging them along.

I still think the basic idea would be good for a book, but it was an absolute nightmare in terms of planning it out, far more so than I was expecting. And ultimately, I just wasn't seeing the story.

In the next few days I'll probably start researching my next attempt and probably start writing as soon as the research allows. And just do so as I have time over the next year, sort of seems a shame to do too much writing while abroad.

That kind of story is usual interesting, yeah. But, forgive me for asking (I mean no offense) isn't that similar to the plot of And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie? Or some of those stories like The Most Dangerous Game where humans hunt humans on an island? I don't mean the SAME, I just mean there have been a few stories (seemingly) similar. I don't mean anything by it, I'm just noticing. Obviously I can't comment in any worthwhile capacity because a) I don't know what you had planned for the story and b) I haven't even read the stories I cited!

Of course it is, you'll find that there are very few stories left that aren't similar in that respect. I've read both of those books and there's at least a dozen or two ways in which one could write it without copying the plot.

There's a reason why you can't copyright ideas.