We've got the general progress thread, sure, but if there's one thing that the first write-in proved it's how dangerous novelling is to our characters!
How many of your characters are dead already?
How many aren't dead but are potentially about to be so?
Maybe you haven't killed anyone yet, but there's a lot to be said for physical and emotional trauma...
Have you made one of your characters cry?
Given someone a nervous break down?
Shot, stabbed, or otherwise hurt one of your characters?
I'm almost 9,000 words in and already I've thrown one of my four main characters out of a second storey window (still alive), burnt the second, slashed the third, and the fouth is currently bleeding, possibly to death, I have yet to decide if I'll spare him or not...
Sometime I wonder what the level of destruction and death we inflict on our characters say about us, but mostly I just think it give you a really good place to start week two from: there ain't nowhere to go but up from here!
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12,743 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 18 05
Well there is no death and destruction yet for my characters. I like to build them up let them live a little then destroy them. (evil laugh)
42,027 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 20 58
No human body count, but I killed my first bunny for the year.
42,415 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 23 44
Well, I haven't killed anybody yet, but I'm currently at about 2000 words, and my main character has already cried and is currently standing in the middle of nowhere with a arrow pointed at her chest (why does it sound wrong to say 'with a longbow pointed at her chest' when you can say 'with a crossbow pointed at her chest'?).
----------Everyone has an inner geek. Mine is just a bit less 'inner'.
42,045 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 00 03
So far... A few old ladies, some waitresses and two characters that are important to the plot have been killed by a car-bomb. Haven't pinned a number on that just yet, but probably about a dozen.
One of the bad guys has been tortured to death as well in a seperate incident, and there's an illegal immigrant who's bleeding a lot, but I think he'll pull through. The main character also has a several broken ribs and a hairline fracture in his Radius.
On the emotional trauma side of things, one of the characters killed in the bombing was found by his twin sister and the other was found by her former lover.
So far my novel has covered about two hours, so I'm starting to worry about myself, particularly as I know things are going to get a lot worse for characters before they get better.
----------2009 - Angelborn - Urban fantasy
34,988 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 00 47
Well, I've not killed any of my characters yet, but I did slaughter most of a village in the first chapter, including locking about forty villagers in the great hall and torching it...
Violent, me?
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2009 - Ice and Fire (working title)
2008 - The Mobster and the Mermaid
2007 - A Consequence of Living
2006 - Blue, Part 2
2005 - Blue, Part 1
41,185 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 01 05
Nice SheBit...veerryy nice! Kudos for the vikin' stylin'! lol
No deaths, but one hell of a pant wetting encounter. my MC is a bad ass cop/junkie (original...yeah right!), with a very poetic concious, and the mark he is talking to is such a pathetic looser just having a 10 inch revolver pointed at his head is making him sweat like a greased pig. He is seriously sh*ting him self...and will have nightmares...and possibly have to see a shrink.
----------That is, if i don't decide that the MC is just bad assed enough to make a mess ;-)
(ooh, i'm getting all tingly thinking about the writing that splatter!)
Ok, decision made. No deaths yet, but just you wait!!
If you travel faster than the speed of light, do you get where your going, and see your self comming?
46,190 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 01 41
I think we need some kind of pact here, like... no one shows this thread to a psychiatrist. Or a police officer...
;)
----------41,185 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 01 48
deal!
----------Especially considering the...rather cruel and unusual things going on. the violence is not so bad, but the potential for mental anguish give me the willies.
*sheds a happy tear*
It makes me smile
If you travel faster than the speed of light, do you get where your going, and see your self comming?
34,988 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 02 26
It was in fact a viking/saxon village - well, my fantasy setting's very Norse-inspired culture, anyway. All beards and braids and pretty thatched buildings.
One guy died still holding his big sword, but with a lap-full of his own guts.
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2009 - Ice and Fire (working title)
2008 - The Mobster and the Mermaid
2007 - A Consequence of Living
2006 - Blue, Part 2
2005 - Blue, Part 1
33,229 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 03 30
I've already killed the nicest barman in the worldTM, and entirely trashed his pub too. I feel terrible. Now my main characters are hiding in a church cellar panicking. Well...one of them is panicking. The other's a narcoleptic, so he's asleep. Might give him horrible dreams to make up for it.
------------------
This was unlike the story
it was written to be
I was riding its back
when it used to ride me
- Joanna Newsom - Peach, Plum, Pear
6,501 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 04 26
No deaths thus far but a pilot has been turned into a monkey & there has been plenty of anguished flinging of faeces ... & haven't yet reached Chap 1.
50,321 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 05 02
None so far. In a few chapters time, however, I will wipe out a train load of commuters.. I SWEAR! Mwah-ha-ha! There's nothing like a good main-line tunnel collapse...
(Talks to man in white coat at door: 'Yes, I'll come quietly but they are imaginary characters and not real, you know.')
----------It's not the winning or losing...it's the taking apart that matters.
41,185 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 06 27
Right, i now have a kill count of TWO!!! in the name of efficinecy, they were both got by the same bullet. (the first guy was being held Sam Fisher style in front of the second guy, so the bullet passed straight through the first guy and mashed the second as well.)
Personally i am very proud of this poetic execution, but i feel really bad about it. The second guy was a cop, so he doesn't really matter, but the first was a slimy little bas**rd, with a really distinct character, and i feel really bad about blowing his head up like that.
I think its time for some Android based reincarnation. or some hamlet style haunting (thanks to my friend Nicole)
SheBit... at least mister Big Sword will get a good seat at Valhalla. ^_^
----------If you travel faster than the speed of light, do you get where your going, and see your self comming?
37,667 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 10 22
i started with a big underwater battle and some very unfortunate lady got ripped apart by a shark. Another one got knifed in the neck. Two more have gone AWOL and there are several cuts and bruises.
But the death toll is only going to get higher when i unleash the crazy mass murderer.
poor little lambs, they don't stand a chance
V
84,084 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 12 59
My protagonist's father died during the prologue of mine for being a pirate. But my MC thinks he was actually killed BY pirates. I'm fast running out of ideas for the rest of the chapter I'm on now, so it's likely the body count will increase shortly XD.
----------2008: Bittersweet Decay
Final Word Count: 100,000
2009: Mortals, Maps and Underground Traps/The Forbidden City
Final Word Count:
44,005 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 00 29
Well, I haven't actually technically killed anyone yet, but one character had his heart removed but an 18th century surgeon, and another has been horribly mauled by an as yet unidentified demon thing. I reckon that counts for about half...
----------2006 - Dance of the White Smoke: 51,191 words
2007 - The Wyching Hour: 50,100 words
2008 - Lost In Thought: 35,504 words
2009 - Queueing For Purgatory: ?
The Tsp as in teaspoon.
5,163 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 01 05
Absolutely none yet. I'm still building up the back-story of my main character. However, I know of one death already which will happen in the present day and four corpses the main character will stumble upon. I have to admit that it's a little boring writing, almost, teenage drama and I want to get to the main chunk already; but if anything, it'll only serve to help pad more words onto the word count.
39,573 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 05 41
My last novel was a romantic tragedy where, as often happens with tragedies, everybody died! Well, nearly everyone. Stella got bitten by Colin the grass-snake and smacked her head on a wall and went into a coma and died, Digby the parakeet got eaten by the peregrine falcons and Roger the gregarious badger got taken out by a lorry. Oh, and Laa-Laa the chihuahua got kicked into the fishing lake and snarfed by a pike. That was it though.
Anyway, in this novel, I wasn't planning to kill anyone but I do have a character who is the Eternal Flame. She is immortal as long as her fire continues to burn... so she's sort of 'at risk' I guess.
----------www.helenjbeal.com
45,004 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 06 07
I'm deeply shocked by this thread.
My characters are in no danger as I am following Health and Safety Guidelines at all times. I have exposed some of them to a bit of light knitting and occasional risky business involving tea cups and a kettle of boiling water, but protective clothing was worn well in advance and they made it through unscathed.
I'm wondering what kind of a group I've joined here.
----------44,973 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 16 11
My book starts near the end, after someone's died, but we don't know who.
As we go on, there's one death, then two, then possibly the whole cast, but we'll see. Oh, and there's a body in my next chapter, but it's already dead, so that probably doesn't count.
33,229 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 16 15
So, in a kind of slight tangent, I wanted to know if anyone else has found themselves with ominous foreshadowing looming unexpectedly.
Basically, I've not killed anyone since the bar explosion, but two characters (who popped out of nowhere into existence in other bits of Denmark...who knew?) are already clearly doomed.
One's getting a train onto the island and apparently will never be seeing the mainland again (erk).
The other one is quite clearly planning to kill himself after breakfast.
Okay, the last one isn't foreshadowing...but this guys only existed for about a 800 words, and he's already planning suicide.
Why so foreboding?
Anyone else clearly never gonna see their 'girl back home'? Anyone else only got 'one more day left on the force'?
We're all doomed (or they are, at least).
------------------
This was unlike the story
it was written to be
I was riding its back
when it used to ride me
- Joanna Newsom - Peach, Plum, Pear
42,045 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 17 10
On the ominous side of things, I've just introduced an eight year old girl who, it has become increasingly obvious to me, is not going to live to see the end of the novel. I don't know exactly how or when she'll die yet, but her mother is important to the plot and she's far too adorable to live, so she's going to die. Most likely in front of her mother.
I feel genuinely guilty for doing this to my characters. Is that insane?
----------2009 - Angelborn - Urban fantasy
41,615 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 03 27
What a load of woos-bags!
Come on, kill 'em off!
I had one brutally murdered in the first chapter. In fact, she might have been dead before it started... we shall see.
I haven't even started yet - I've got an evil rogue vampire on the loose so anything could happen!
mwaaahahaha!!!
57,806 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 04 46
Absolutely! My character has slaughtered an enemy by first shoving a dagger into his belly and then whacking him round the head with a nunchaku (it was a it's-him-or-me situation - so it had to be him). Then later on, she came across the necessary bamboo forest scene, where there's always a kung fu fight, and she managed to slaughter about a dozen more (I'm not sure, I wasn't counting).
She hasn't killed any more since but there'll come a time in the not-too-distant when she'll have the time of her life hacking someone to bits (after kicking them in the mush a few times first).
Man, I love kung fu :)
----------Kung fu changed my life