On Friday night I wrapped up my entry, which topped out at 2.5 million words. “The President Who Exploded” is the story of a covert government assassin who pursues the President through the space-time continuum to the 41st century, where humans have evolved into super-intelligent insects who live on Uranus and worship Obama as their Messiah.
"The President Who Exploded" is a sequel to my 17-million-word “Marienbad My Love,” the world’s longest novel. I resurrected the protagonist of "Marienbad My Love" to serve as a sort of psychic body guard for the President. When I entered the National Novel Writing Month contest on Nov. 1, the story concept had no body guard. I pictured the new President – either McCain or Obama, we didn’t know yet who – on a mission to establish diplomatic relations with the Land of the Dead. But soon after the election I read that ‘Obama’s Assassination’ had become the most searched phrase on Google. How could I pass up a huge current event hook like that?
Although someone may have written a longer work, I can confidently say that no one has exceeded my official word count,. The word count validator tops out at 999,999 words – less than half my 2.5 million-word total.
How did I write so many words in so few days? I leaned heavily on the Internet. I generated what I call a “non-linear literary collage” by mining various blogs, chat rooms and fan fiction sites, grabbing whatever words caught my eye. The talk pages of Wikipedia and the reader comments on io9.com were my absolute favorites. These are my people. I shamelessly plagiarized their words -- even their misspellings and gramatical errors -- at every opportunity, combining the anonymous messages with recycled content from "Marienbad My Love" and entries from my dream journal. I repeatedly cut and pasted and searched and replaced, transforming the various writings into a completely new and unique literary work.
Best of luck to all of you who have already crossed the finish line. If you haven't hit the 50K mark yet, give me a call. I've got a couple of million words I could loan you!
Cheers,
Mark Leach
P.S. A free ebook download of "The President Who Exploded" is available at http://marienbadmylove.com/thepresidentwhoexploded.aspx
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Mark Leach
50,106 / 50,000
Nov 29, 2008 - 15 38
ok...
I'm sure your already aware of this, but I don't think that counts XD
Edit**
good plot though...
50,401 / 50,000
Nov 29, 2008 - 16 26
...yeah, what you did there was plagiarize.
80,147 / 50,000
Nov 30, 2008 - 05 01
I don't know what to say. 2.5 million words.... right!
At least you admit you plagiarized.
----------___________________
That's Tee kee' rahm
The fox-like, auburn-furred, bushy-tailed alien
50,106 / 50,000
Nov 29, 2008 - 17 00
I don't understand why people are saying they would rather see 50K words good words than 1 million words of crap.
I'd just like to say that I've written 50K words of a Fanfiction literary train wreak. I won't deny it, its probably the worst piece of fiction I've ever attempted. But I did hit 50K.
But I don't see how someone who has not read the material can say that because they have a large amount of words, its crap.
Those people that hit 1 million, or 500K, or 250K, or 75K (exempting the original poster) may have (or not) written a lot of filler, but they also wrote a lot of good stuff.
Just because they have a high word count doesn't mean you should automatically stick it in the "Crap pile" because, quite frankly I think that 90% of what has been written by the various nanoers around the world is "crap". We are just writing the rough cuts of our novels right now and they will improve with editing.
but yeah, i'm not trying to direct this post at anyone in particular but I'd like to remind you all that its about quantity not quality.
50,091 / 50,000
Nov 29, 2008 - 17 10
Actually, there are at least two other people who have hit the 999,999 cap.
Since this is promoting your ebook download, I'm going to move this to Marketing and Self Promotion.
------------
Heather Dudley
Forums Moderator - Broke? You can still donate!
Couldn't verify your winning novel? Contact the general hotline for help.
200,030 / 50,000
Nov 29, 2008 - 17 11
Lol, people, don't get so worked up. It could be that it's 2.10am or that I skimmed through the post but to me this just seems like the person is making fun of the million word people.
999,999 / 50,000
Nov 29, 2008 - 17 26
Hi loncarichh,
----------Thanks for the comment on the plot. But I am wondering -- why do you think my word count doesn't "count"? I'm not doing anything new. Fifty years ago William Burroughs created a sensation with his "cut-up method," stealing the work of others and combining it with his own text. Today, poet Kenneth Goldsmith advocates an "uncreative" writing approach in his classes at University of Pennsylvania. Anyway, congratulations on your novel!
Mark Leach
50,106 / 50,000
Nov 29, 2008 - 23 42
thanks :D
well, I can understand why you think your novel is 2.5 million words. hmm.. that doesn't sound right, your novel is 2.5 million words. But you are using other people's words. I feel that the point of NaNo is to write in your own words. I did quote several songs and poems in my own NaNo, but I didn't count them towards my own word count.
I just don't really think its fair for you to take credit for what other people have written. This doesn't really have anything to do with noveling, but I will use Henry Clay as an example. He is credited with the creation of the Missouri Compromise when in reality, the only real thing he had to do with it was getting it passed. Someone else came up with the idea and wrote it.
Now, Henry Clay was the one that put it together and it probably wouldn't have happened if he hadn't of tried to get it passed.
The way I understand it, you have taken something that other people have written and you've put it together to make one big story.
I'm sure people have many different views about this, but I hold to the steady belief that if I didn't write it, then I need to credit whoever it was that wrote it and not count it as something that I wrote. (A result from competing in National History Day)
I do applaud the fact that you've been able to take so many different sources and merge them together into something that forms some kind of plot. I'm sure that wasn't easy and there probably aren't that many people that would ever be able to do it.
51,287 / 50,000
Nov 30, 2008 - 09 01
Plagiarizing other peoples' words is not writing. It's plagiarism, pure and simple, contrary to the spirit of Nano.
Not to mention that your pretense is so thick you could stand on it and not worry about sinking for a good three hours.
------------ C.
63,888 / 50,000
Dec 1, 2008 - 02 47
Exactly.
I have more respect for someone who struggled to cross the finish line with 50K of their own words than I do for a plagiarist who filled a document with thousands of pages of nonsense.
50,693 / 50,000
Dec 1, 2008 - 03 11
Next year, I plan to do the same thing for my NaNo. I plan to title it "The Stand by Stephen King."
----------"A computer terminal is not some clunky old television with a typewriter in front of it. It is an interface where the mind and body can connect with the universe and move bits of it about."
-- Douglas Adams
51,701 / 50,000
Dec 1, 2008 - 09 46
Thanks for the comment on the plot. But I am wondering -- why do you think my word count doesn't "count"? I'm not doing anything new. Fifty years ago William Burroughs created a sensation with his "cut-up method," stealing the work of others and combining it with his own text.
....However, William Burroughs did not trumpet the length of his work from the rooftops as if the word count itself were the selling point, as you have done. Even with his cut-up method, he was focused on the quality of the content rather than the amount.
However, the primary element of your work which you have chosen to spotlight is....the word count. This is the part that is giving people pause, I believe. You've told us how many words you've written, but you haven't said thing one about whether any of those words are good.
it is an omission which leaves most people, myself included, rather skeptical, and gives the appearance that you are trying to amplify the noise to wipe out the signal, as it were -- it gives the appearance that you have so little confidence in the words you have written that you are trying to impress us with the number of words you've written. The two items are not identical.
If you disagree, then ask yourself -- why was the word count the very first thing you mentioned in this thread?
74,144 / 50,000
Dec 1, 2008 - 13 08
I want to clarify that I am writing this as a 6 time NaNoWriMo winner and not as an ML or Mod.
I cannot believe you'd actually accept a win on such a piece of work.
Mingling plagarizm in with your work is one thing. Many authors add song or poetry into their work, but they make notations and give the original authors their due. Those who do so during NaNo do not ount those words as their own. From the sounds of it you do not. You have said that you have gone all over the web and stolen pieces of writing from many, many people. I would be mortified to find someone had stolen my writing - any of my writing - and put it in his/her novel and claimed it was theirs. That's when the lawyers would (and have) come out. Just because it's on the web does not mean it's public domain and there for anyone's taking.
Unless there's 50K of your own, personally written/typed words in this 'original' piece of work, then no, I do not think it qualifies as a NaNoWriMo win and I think you're just making light of those people who work(ed) incredibly hard to write 50K words in 30 days.
Maybe you should try actually participating in NaNo next year and create 50K words of original fiction written by your own hands from your own mind. But I also know, especially from reading your website, that nothing anyone says to you here will get through. You're so mired in your personal beliefs that you will not believe you have done anything wrong in any way. You honestly believe you're right in believing you have created an original piece of fiction and have the right to call yourself a winner.
Ken
----------ML - Maine: Portland to Augusta
Mod - Y/A & Religious Genre Forums
"Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards." Heinlein
999,999 / 50,000
Dec 2, 2008 - 15 12
Hey MrHeywire, your post is one of my favorites to date. A couple of people have wished violence upon me, but you’re the first who actually wanted to see me dead (in a loving way, of course). Still, I liked this post slightly better: “But you are using other people's words. I feel that the point of NaNo is to write in your own words.” Here is my point: They are my own words! I stole them, and now they belong to me. That’s what I do. I’m an auto thief. I knock out the driver’s side window, hot wire the ignition and take off for the local chop shop. I file off the VIN numbers and strip out the valuable parts. I bolt various body panels together into a stylistic abomination. I re-spray the thing vomit green, add insulting graffiti along the fenders and hang a crap-scented air freshener from the rear view mirror (to cover up the stench of the dead body in the trunk). Twenty-eight days later, I drive it to the local car show and park it alongside the other entries. Look, people are throwing rotten tomatoes at it. What fun! How will I top myself for the 2009 NaNoWriMo? Here’s an idea: steal synopsis and excerpt texts from the “Novel Info” sections of this year’s winners. Already a story idea is beginning to form… A guy in a government post, who has an entirely contended existence, abruptly and lacking reason, packs his vomit green automobile with objects such as his nativity record, crap-scented air freshener and a severed head in a bucket of cement and maneuvers away.
----------Mark Leach
800,854 / 50,000
Dec 2, 2008 - 18 54
erm...if you steal my novel excerpt and use it in ANY shape, form, or manner, I don't care what the hell you do with it, how you claim to scramble it...it's still my work. Every word of it. Every word of the 800k I wrote this year, every word of the million I plan to write next year, they're mine, as in, they're not yours. As in you'd better f-ing not take them and claim that you wrote any of it. At best, I'm going to call you a parasite.
--------------
2005: won!
2006: won!
2007: won!
2008: Lost Years quintet
http://kateness.wordpress.com
61,433 / 50,000
Dec 2, 2008 - 21 04
You're kidding, right? Oh, wait.
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50,374 / 50,000
Dec 2, 2008 - 23 46
I'm locking this thread as it appears that many folks who have posted here are not inclined to observe the Codes of Conduct.
As for the initial poster and the claims made ... nanowrimo has no rules about plagiarism however, the internet does. So if the book is published and you happen to find parts of your copyrighted material, there are remedies.
----------NaNoWriMo & ScriptFrenzy Staff