Stasisesque

In other words, Laurell K. Hamilton's work is a refreshing read compared to Dan Brown's.

A waste of perfectly good chocolate, and effort!

Really, people - if a foodstuff is described as being "ready to eat", why on earth do you insist on cooking it? Unless you're buying cocoa beans and milk, and having to make the chocolate from scratch, why bother putting it anywhere near a heated flame? On second thoughts, why bother making chocolate out of the raw ingredients? Just eat them - it's all the same in the end.

And cooking sherry! It's not an order, it's a suggestion.

There are only three things you need to bear in mind where the ingestion of chocolate is concerned:

1). Buy the chocolate.
2). Open the chocolate.
3). Eat the chocolate. Attempt to savour it during this step, but don't worry if you can't manage it. If you find yourself devoid of chocolate, return to step one and repeat until sated.

A cooker, a saucepan, a heat source, any type of flavouring, a plate, a knife, a fork, a spoon or even a napkin shouldn't be considered. Leave them in their rightful places.

This public service announcement was brought to you by a woman...surprising, isn't it?

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Enough of the subtle hints guys! Tell us how you really feel.

<-- this means I'm trying not to offend.
<-- this means I'm sorry if I have.
<-- this means thank you for accepting said apology.
<(''&lt <-- this got lost.

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Thank you.

FFM - unless you actually have a job as a moderator then please butt out. Jeez.

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Sorry, I think you misunderstood me. The apology was for people who deserved it.

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Are your chocolate hoards well stocked?

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Always.

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Do you have enough coffee or other highly caffeinated beverages at hand?

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Yes, but I'll die if I drink them - so I'll just stick with water .

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Do all those wonderful people who'll be supporting you for the next month (known as friends) know not to bug you with party invites or that thing called 'social life'?

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I don't know.

Guys - you know I'm gonna be around the computer a lot more next month yeah? Awesome!

Awesome! I can ask them for tips!

*fingers crossed for Oscar Wilde, HG Wells and Jules Verne*

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Well, care not what your novel turns out like - remember this: Jilly Cooper still manages to get published - and this is the very same woman who, in her book Apassionata, managed to use something like twelve pages for the 'cast list'. And that was in the hardback edition.

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And Tolkein had fourty-eight pages worth of background information.
Richard Adams included thirteen pages of maps.
...even Terry Pratchett could fill up a whole novel with his various footnotes.

But they're not parts of the story .

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I wish everyone here the best of luck. Just... try not to sully yourselves by writing purple prose! You'd have to live with the shame forevermore!!

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But...

Mine heart! It doth ache like that of a young suitor who has recently lost the love of his beloved to a mighty dragon, whose eyes burn like the fires of hell - and scales gleam and twinkle like luminescent diamonds under the dull and morose night's sky. My lips, red as freshly picked apples, wish - oh how they wish - to speak, sing my love, my adoration, for the wonder that is...

Sodding awful purple prose.

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"And he said to himself, "That's a fine looking flat and smooth wall. I wonder how on earth it got so flat and smooth. For it is, so very flat. And oh so beautifully smooth. Like a very thin baby's bottom.""

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I may have to steal that come page 79 or so.


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Plagiarist! I'll sue you for every last penny...

...crud, you're a student. Well, I suppose I can buy myself a blackjack at least.

That's coming out of your pocket, boyo!

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Alraedy had to tell FG off

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Correction, sir, you "told me off" when you were under the impression that I listened to Stasis when she told me to put Dark Mirror up, which already HAS about 40,000 words. Since that isn't what I'm doing...nyeeeeer.

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Oi. Don't drag me into this!

"And he said to himself, "That's a fine looking flat and smooth wall. I wonder how on earth it got so flat and smooth. For it is, so very flat. And oh so beautifully smooth. Like a very thin baby's bottom.""

Aha, of course, of course...

...uhm, ahe - yes. That notebook that I'm writing in isn't anything to do with NaNoWriMo. Nonono, I'm most certainly not taking direct quotes from you or even thinking about writing a story about a Hoplite by day, Alice by night...

...look, would you just stop staring?

...honestly, it's nothing to do with my entire plot and the possible mental, emotional and physical problems it could cause you.

Honest.

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Although, around the weekend of the 25th November, my time gets spent with someone much more important

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"Curiouser and Curiouser" said Alice.

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Sooo...he's meeting this "Alice" is he?

Makes me think of Hovis and Werther's Originals . I like it!

Enough of the subtle hints guys! Tell us how you really feel.

<-- this means I'm trying not to offend.
<-- this means I'm sorry if I have.
<-- this means thank you for accepting said apology.
<(''&lt <-- this got lost.

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X bottles of beer on the wall is fine - but what's their motivation for being there? Where is the wall. What lead them to being there. Why must they be drunk, what do they think?!!

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Gah! It's a writing exercise, not a psychology class! *whimper*

I'm so tempted to scrap my original idea and try to write some erotica. Just so I can include the amazing over-the-head underwear and as many stomach churning snake analogies as possible.

Really tempted.

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Really unsure how to word it.

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Not the best thing to say when talking about writing a story .

But aha! I get it now. You can always make IC references to the story, just need to be sneaky with the wording.

i.e. One of my characters is supposed to be an ex-Paragon Protector, and will reference it. However, another character could also be an ex-Paragon Protector, but had never met my character. That doesn't mean either of them have to keep schtum about their backstories - it just means that they both have to take it with a pinch of salt and remember that other characters will have conflicting backstories.

Luckily, we have very little canon in this game, and so any backstory is plausible. If, however, someone was to come along with a character claiming to be Statesman's wife - there might be a bit of confusion - but there are always alternate universes/delusions and other characters entirely.

Creative licence is, I think, the best way of playing it out. Well, that or lying .

Now get on with the story, you two!

Edit: Because I forgot half the post.

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`He shuddered, awash in adrenaline, his sphincter pulling unpleasantly tight as he recognized his own youthful scrawl on the outside tab. ... and he felt an ache, a curse of time racing across the ridge of his knuckles.'

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The worst part is, I've met people who think that style of writing is acceptable.

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`The agony went on and on as she threshed about the room, oblivious to nothing but the pain.'

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"Oh look, shiny things!" *thrash* "I must dust that counter, it's filthy." *arm falls off* "Blimey, when did I buy that?" *spontaneously combusts* "Oh, now, look at the mess."

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`He lifted her tee-shirt over her head. Her silk panties followed.'

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o_0

My plan is, 2,000 words per day. It doesn't matter whereabouts in the story they end up - just as long as I hit that daily goal.

Some days I'll write more, I know - but I'm not letting myself write any less. So from the 1st, I'll be carrying my trusty "lucky" notebook around (what? It's blue and fluffy and has an Eeyore on the front) - and looking like a complete nonce as I try to write in bizarre locations.

Warning: If my forum posts during November make less sense than usual, it'll be because I've used up all of my creative juices and will be running on lighter fluid.

And I'm signed up to the site, it shouldn't be too hard to find me - the name might look a bit familiar .

Well, my notes so far make up 20ks worth of words - so as long as I use an awful lot of conjunctions, I should just scratch the tip of 50k.

After all, punctuation is for people who don't have a wide...lots of words which make up a mental dictionary...thing. Yes.

For anyone who's worried about the amount of words needed:

It's only 80 A4 pages, using size 12 font.

Doesn't sound too daunting that way .

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As for the "different Paragon" thing: if this was to go ahead, then it would be part of Syracuse's story on Union. It "would" be taking place in the world, so to speak, rather than outside of it.

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Unless you specifically asked the devs to change the game world to suit your story, nothing in your story - no matter if it affects one character or 40,000 - would happen in the same Paragon/Rogue Isles that we visit everyday.

You can change Paragon/Rogue Isles, but you'll be changing your version of the world, not the actual world . That's why you can do whatever you want to it, and suffer no repercussions ingame.

Between Weasel and myself, we've blown up half of Crey's Folly, moved Manticore from Brickstown to Perez Park and changed the geography of Atlas - but in-game, Crey's Folly is still there, Manticore hasn't moved and Atlas looks exactly the same every second of everyday.

As long as you aren't taking someone else's character (without permission)* and changing the game world for them, you can move this, eradicate that and add another zone wherever you wish.

* As I, and many others, have used the signature characters in stories, I think it's safe to say that they're free-range. Can be picked up and killed/moved/altered in anyway you want.

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Nuking the city hall would be hard since people will see that it is there. As a rule go for targets that people can imagine without visible game world going directly against it and then just have a ball.

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Destroying the UK is hard, as everyone can plainly see it's still here - but it's done regularly in books, films and television alike .

Unless you're writing a factual piece - nothing is real or tangible. The Paragon you write about isn't the Paragon we visit everytime we load the game. They're seperate places, so anything that happens in yours - stays in yours.

Am I making sense?

Edit: If someone reads your story and thinks, "Oh cool! I love the idea of that war taking place!" and asks to use it in their own character development/backstory, then that's awesome - but, my advice would be to think of that as a bonus, and not to write the piece in an attempt to affect anothers' character or gaming world.

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*rolls eyes*

MOB hate lists you sarky people. The thing the squishy classes *really* don't want to be number 1 on...

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They weren't being sarcastic The term "hate list" doesn't really come up in conversation on these forums or in the game.

In fact - this is the first I've heard of them.

You're writing, for your own character - hence you have your own instanced version of Paragon and the Rogue Isles - therefore, you can do whatever you want with it .

Normal, everyday authors blow up cities everyday. And just look at screenplay writers! How many times has England suffered total annihilation at the hands of an ice age, comet, volcano, hurricane, tidal wave, alien invasion? We shouldn't, by rights, still be here.

As long as you don't try and force your ideas onto other people (i.e. create a crater in the middle of Atlas and assume every character you come across knows the crater is there, and must act accordingly), it's perfectly acceptable.

Take out a skyscraper if you wish, but understand that the skyscraper will still be there for everyone else.

As long as what happens in your story stays within your story, go for it!