you start measuring time in watches and get confused when someone gives you the time in "o'clocks" :) I'm not quite there yet but I sense that it's coming.
Also:
When you decide to rank your co-workers according to the "captain, lieutenant, midshipmen" system. It's made for some interesting inner dialogue.
Ex: (when at work)
Me1: When is that Lieutenant X going to let me off watch? I was suppose to get off at two bells!
Me2: Uh Freya... thats x, work, and 5 o'clock...
Both at same time: You're Insane!
When you watch the Hornblower movies over and over again for research even though you are kind of mad that they killed your two favorite characters.
When you start dreaming exactly where you stopped writing and you say in the back of your dream: No this is supposed to happen next! And the first lieutenant is forward not aft! Stop going that way!... and so on.
Not that any of this has happened to me of course! :)
This thread is for those of us who are bravely sailing on the ship fiction-writing seas and have something amusing to tell. Let the sea yarns spin!
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When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on!
NaNo2007:WON! ... FIRST YEAR!!!
Screnzy2008: Lost... painfully
21,155 / 50,000
avr. 6, 2008 - 18 06
...you get shivers whenever a math problem comes out to 74.
...your biggest file of bookmarks is "For Sea Stories," followed by "Miscellaneous Historical Fiction Stuff."
...you can never find anything in the university library, but know exactly where the naval history section is. (11th floor, off the elevator to the left, directly to the right of the open study area across from the air force stuff--or on the fourth floor, off the elevator to the right, three rows to the left of the open study area, at the far end on the lower right shelf. N.A.M. Rodger's "Wooden World" is immediately above the three shelves of biographies of Lord Nelson.)
...you're on fire to know how to dance a hornpipe!
...you decorate your room "in a nautical theme" and are disappointed when it comes out like a seaside cottage and not the Great Cabin of a man-o'-war.
...you spent three consecutive weekends trying to figure out the time of high water on October 7, 1795, in Ponta Delgada. Hey, if you're gonna sail with the tide, you need to know when it is!
...you pick up the phone and answer "ahoy." (Haven't done that yet.)
...not having rum in the house of course, you mix molasses, vanilla flavoring, etc etc etc with lemonade in a 1:3 ratio to see what grog tastes like. When your parents aren't home, naturally.
...you walk by newly paved roads to get a whiff of tar.*
...your ringtone is the Hornblower theme song even though they killed your two favorite characters.
...you don't get sick on a real boat but you thought you were going to while writing your big storm scene!
...your entire karate club (except for the 3 other girls) has been assigned watch, mess, part-of-ship and action station.
...when you open your window in the morning, you tie back the curtains with a perfectly symmetrical reef knot. Which is a lot less intimidating than it sounds.
*paving bitumen and Stockholm tar are two completely different things (and smells), but I really have done that.
50,576 / 50,000
avr. 6, 2008 - 19 43
...You search your customer's credit cards suitable names for your 550-something crew members. Guilty, not that it helps much.
...you salute your boss with two fingers to your hat and say "aye-aye sir" when he asks you to make a mint oreo shake. Oh I pray I never get to this point.
...you wake in the middle of the night and the first thing you think is : what watch is it? Guilty
...your parents roll thier eyes when you beg them to let you watch Master and Commander. Guilty
...your younger brother who would never even dream of getting on your nerves in any way tells you to shut up when you start rambling about how much you your MC and are going to give him seasickness to "reform" him. Heh heh I do not like my MC
... you lay awake at night wondering why you have to kill your favorite character and yet save your MC, who both incidently get shot in the same area, only 205 years apart, yet one dies because of lack of modern medicine.
Wow Commodore, you are obviously much more obsessed with ships. *bows in appreciation* Out of curiousity, which two characters?
21,155 / 50,000
avr. 7, 2008 - 08 57
same two.
50,576 / 50,000
avr. 7, 2008 - 09 17
Weird.
21,155 / 50,000
avr. 7, 2008 - 09 35
...you parody the Articles of War!
50,576 / 50,000
avr. 7, 2008 - 18 23
...you understand more than half of what the Hornblower characters are saying when they're shouting out orders. Quite amazing.
...guys try to hit on you and are becoming rude and you reply: And I want to see you hung from the nearest yardam after being keelhauled and flogged around the fleet a few times!!! And by golly I will!!! See if I don't!!! ... generally ends the conversation...
...you are caught several times staring at your dad's replica of the HMS Victory, even though its a horrible replica and deserves to be broadsided a few times for its lack of detail.
21,155 / 50,000
avr. 8, 2008 - 07 35
...watching the early scenes in Pocahontas, when John Smith gives the order to "reef the tops'ls" you point out to your little sister that the topsails are already furled and can't be reefed.
...you suddenly remember that 1607 was before reefing was invented.
21,155 / 50,000
avr. 8, 2008 - 14 12
...other history majors don't know what you're talking about.
...your partner in karate doesn't know which direction he's supposed to countermove in and you tell him "starboard."
...your siblings are discussing something utterly nasty and you plug your ears and sing "Heart of Oak" instead of just saying "la la la la..."
50,576 / 50,000
avr. 8, 2008 - 15 45
...you send an e-mail sounding like a full written report for the Naval Gazatte to your friends and they reply back, asking you if you've been researching again.
...you wake up in the morning thinking you smell the sea when live in the middle of the desert and have your entire life.
...you've spent the entire day watching the entire Hornblower series and plan on watching Master and Commander after dinner, even though you have the worst headache imaginable. I'm not even going to comment on how guilty I am on this one.
21,155 / 50,000
avr. 8, 2008 - 18 06
Hey, I just checked my uni email and there were 74 messages in the inbox!
50,576 / 50,000
avr. 8, 2008 - 18 48
Scary...
50,576 / 50,000
avr. 9, 2008 - 10 19
...you wish freverantly that you had a time machine, purely for the sake of getting the smallest details of the ship right:)
... you realize that some of your character names have been "borrowed' from the Hornblower books because your subconscienceious mind has remembered them instead of what ever you were trying to find out. X(
I think we started a new trend!
21,155 / 50,000
avr. 10, 2008 - 07 01
...you realize half your plot points came from Alexander Kent.
...you've taken the stairs to that naval history section on the eleventh floor. (Well, once last semester I was late for philosophy class because I was in the library elevator. It's so slow...)
...you've printed off pages from the "Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris for the Year 1795" off Google Books and still have them in a drawer of your desk.
...you wish to complete the redecorating of your room by replacing your bed with a hammock.
(Every other genre has a "you know you're writing X when..." Why not us?)
(are we a genre or a subgenre?)
21,155 / 50,000
avr. 10, 2008 - 07 05
I forgot to mention:
...you're on your last two pairs of jeans but aren't replacing them because that money is earmarked for Patrick O'Brian books.
21,155 / 50,000
avr. 12, 2008 - 13 36
post deleted. Oops. Was going to recommend a website, then saw what was on it.
50,576 / 50,000
avr. 14, 2008 - 08 02
... you write out your work schedule and start it out with "you are requested and required to..." to make it more interesting. Been guilty of that lately.
... are daydreaming about ships while taking an important test and fail as a result of it. That's going to be an interesting score to explain to my parents.
Me: But you see, Dad, my first lieutenant was lecturing my MC about not showing up on time for his watch and I just had to eavesdrop on the conversation...
Mom: You had better believe there's going to be some lecturing around here.
Dad(holds up test) And what does this have to do with WWII?!?
(I think we would be a sub genre, and I would consider it a new trend because we're the first to start a "you know you are writing a X story when.." thread for a sub genre.)
21,155 / 50,000
avr. 14, 2008 - 11 40
hmm, yes. Why don't we have one for just historical fiction, though?
About the Patrick O'Brian thing...I give up, I went clothes shopping.
50,576 / 50,000
avr. 14, 2008 - 12 33
I think we do some where, but its been buried. Besides, this is more fun.
... you are able to draw the midshipmen's, lieutenant's, and captain's uniforms without having to look up the Hornblower videos on Youtube for referance.
... you are constantly humming the Hornblower theme music and your entire family tells you to "get over it and we're sick of Horblower!" even thought most of them haven't seen any of the Hornblowers in at least three years, if any of them at all ever.
21,155 / 50,000
avr. 14, 2008 - 16 32
rodl
(Rolling on Deck Laughing!)
...you say to someone who's really annoying and tries to control you, "be careful or someone might push you down a hatchway!" (It was my brother, and he said, "what's a hatchway?")
...you wish for a time machine, not for research, but so you can send said brother to the gunroom of a very taut frigate.
...you tap your biscotti on the table at Starbucks.
50,576 / 50,000
avr. 16, 2008 - 07 46
rodl right back at yah! I'd do that to my sister (my brother and I get along really well actually), execpt for the fact that they'd treat her with respect because she's a . Erm... at least the officers would... My entire family sounds like your brother, even my dad, who happened to be into ships at one time and actually got me into Hornblower when I was... 7, or so... and started this whole thing.
...you prepare for a lecture with the stony features( at least what you hope is stony) that you hear about in the Hornblower books when some one knows they're about to get a good dressing down. Heh, and my parents haven't even heard about that test score yet!
...your town is hit by a windstorm and your mind atomatically goes back the scene in "Mutiny" and wonder: is this a "stiff breeze"? or is it "more than a stiff breeze"? and how would the Sunrise be doing under this breeze, stiff or more so? I say this as I watch the tumbleweed roll down the street furiously. And I'm reminded that I live in a desert and probably be writing westerns instead because I might be able to find some books at the library on "the beauties of the desert"... bleh, what ever.
:)
50,576 / 50,000
avr. 16, 2008 - 07 49
...you dream constantly about ships. And your characters doing things on ships...
...you are constantly saluting everyone as if they were lieutenants or the captain... This is even driving me nuts, not to mention my family.
21,155 / 50,000
avr. 16, 2008 - 08 58
...wow, you thought I was far gone?
50,576 / 50,000
avr. 16, 2008 - 09 52
Your the one making grog and trying to find a specific tide on a specific date in a specific place! But yah, I'm far gone too, I just don't know as much as you do. :)
21,155 / 50,000
avr. 16, 2008 - 12 24
Yes, but my parents didn't find out about the grog. Notice, no actual rum involved. I don't salute people! Actually, on my Facebook page I never mentioned ships or sailing except that my bookshelf is more than half sea stories, but only slightly more than half. And I can't do the accent; I can't even talk like a pirate.
21,155 / 50,000
avr. 16, 2008 - 12 32
...and your house turning into a ship...but that had to be one of the worst nightmares I've ever had.
50,576 / 50,000
avr. 16, 2008 - 13 39
Wow, I've being looking back through my posts and I realized how many words my computer takes out... Which would make sense if they were offensive but they're not. Weird...
I did exaggerate a bit. It's not EVERYONE but a good deal of people. I think I've watched the Hornblowers so many times its become natural.
Why would that be one of your nightmares? Was it because your family is so bad at sailing?
50,576 / 50,000
avr. 16, 2008 - 16 54
I can't even do a reef knot!
21,155 / 50,000
avr. 17, 2008 - 06 24
Why would that be one of your nightmares? Was it because your family is so bad at sailing?
Oh, way worse than that. Battle. Smashed fish tank. Trashed living room. Everyone panicking.* Kitchen=orlop deck, and you know what that means is happening on my kitchen table. To one of my favorite characters, no less.
*even if nothing particularly bad is happening, dreams are always scary when other people are panicking.
50,576 / 50,000
avr. 17, 2008 - 08 39
Ah, I see.
...you now think fluently in ship's bells and watches system. Yay! that was one of my goals.
...you almost have your entire family understanding the bells and watches system. I'll get there someday...
0 / 50,000
avr. 28, 2008 - 19 25
[laughing and laughing!] I am new here and this is my first post ever. I had to tell you the biscotti comment resulted in a spit take!
My contribution (I am a librarian):
...you approach a table of noisy teens with "Silence fore and aft!!"