Novel-in-a-Day (NIAD)... Day

[Rollerdiva]

Forgive my ignorance of copyright lingo, but can I put this on my Facebook page?

[pigfender]

Please do.

Basic restrictions are: don't change the files, and don't sell 'em.

[robertdguthrie]

[quote="Foxtrot"] I think the book so far (only got to chapter 10) is really enjoyable.[/quote]

Just wait until you get to chapter 12; you may die from joy*. Hmm. On second thought, maybe skip it, or at least put your affairs in order first.

In all seriousness, it was a great deal of fun, and I wish I'd not fallen victim to having a social life on the (local) Friday evening when it started. It could have benefited from my sleeping in between rough draft and final edit. Thanks to Rog for pulling this event off, I've never written and edited fiction at that kind of frenzied pace, but it was exhilarating.


* Putting the Lie to Keith's "none of us makes any great claims about the literary quality" statement. For contrariness's sake. Because I'm ornery like that. :P

[VDGriesdoorn]

Many, many thanks to Pig for doing such stellar work and many, many thanks to Keith for taking that stellar work and turning it into marvellous ePub and mobi files!

Excellent job, guys.
V.

[AmberV]

Just another thanks to the Pig for pulling this together! I still haven't finished reading it; but so far I've enjoyed every page of it. It's almost like I'm reading of an event from many parallel universes; each one slightly (or way) different and you can only ever see one piece of time in each framework, with only hints of what the past and future might have been like, based on the other pieces.

[KB]

Just another thanks to the Pig for pulling this together! I still haven't finished reading it; but so far I've enjoyed every page of it. It's almost like I'm reading of an event from many parallel universes; each one slightly (or way) different and you can only ever see one piece of time in each framework, with only hints of what the past and future might have been like, based on the other pieces.

That would be a great concept for the next one - have the lead character shifting through parallel universes so that all the inconsistencies are excused!

[VDGriesdoorn]

It would indeed. I support that idea!

[vic-k]

[quote="AmberV"] Just another thanks to the Pig for pulling this together! I still haven't finished reading it; but so far I've enjoyed every page of it. It's almost like I'm reading of an event from many parallel universes; each one slightly (or way) different and you can only ever see one piece of time in each framework, with only hints of what the past and future might have been like, based on the other pieces. [/quote]

Sounds a lot like pub closing time, Stockport City Centre.

[bargonzo]

I'd just like to add my congratulations to Pigfender and all the disparate authors. I haven't finished reading yet, but I'm impressed with the quality and intensity of each and every chapter, as well as the organizational skills involved overall.

Great work, Scrivgang!

[homeport]

I too would like to thank Pigfender for all the work he put into making this a successful project. This really was a fun project that I hope we can do again.

[pigfender]

KEITH SAID: "That would be a great concept for the next one - have the lead character shifting through parallel universes"

I had hoped that the subject matter would somehow suit the multiple personality disorder that would inevitably be displayed by the narrator, and I know I must have disappointed some with the absence of robots and ray guns (and Swarovski crystal necklaces).

This is easily rectified with your word processor's "Find and Replace" function. I suggest changing any location based word ('cottage', 'house', 'hospital', 'office)' with 'space cruiser', 'phone' with 'communicator', and 'Detective' with 'Robot (Investigation Class)'. Any confusion over what Nick's wife looks like can then be explained by corrupted datafiles from all the magentic equipment in the hospital. I mean, space cruiser.

Those who took part (or have read 'Chapter 7') will know I took a light-touch approach with the briefs, trying to find the sweet spot to enable telling a single overarching story alongside allowing everyone the flexibility to put their own creativity and voice on the page. There are a lot of lessons learnt for next time, but I'd be interested to get people's thoughts on a couple of over-arching principles we had this time:

1) Would you rather have an idea of what the basic plot outline is and where you fit in it, or did you like having to wait to find out what happened to set up your scene, or what happened next?

2) Would you rather have had more character sheets for secondary characters, locations etc? Were the briefs too restrictive, or not detailed enough?

3) How did the different timezones work?

For my perspective, I thought
1) I liked the 'idea' of people not knowing, but then I was in the luxury position of knowing all of it.
[EDITED TO SAY: that didn't stop me being surprised and impressed with the directions people took]

2) Perhaps a live updated list of new characters introduced on the forum might be a good idea, for cross-referencing.

3) Fine for me, but I was in the UK with the standard 00:00 - 23:59 hours of operation.

[pete340]

Pigfender: 1) Would you rather have an idea of what the basic plot outline is and where you fit in it, or did you like having to wait to find out what happened to set up your scene, or what happened next?

I liked not knowing the overall plot. I'd have liked to have some more low-level details (I didn't know that there was soap in the water in Claire's lungs, so I had her drown in the stream), but I don't think it's realistic to provide that level of detail.

Pigfender: 2) Would you rather have had more character sheets for secondary characters, locations etc? Were the briefs too restrictive, or not detailed enough?

Pretty good. Again, I felt (afterwards especially) that I didn't have some of the details I needed. And the business about eleven o'clock that I felt I had to force into the chapter because it was in the brief turned out to be irrelevant. But that's just little stuff.

Pigfender: 3) How did the different timezones work?[/quote]

Fine for me (Eastern Daylight time, GMT-4). I got to read the brief and think about it some, then sleep on it.

[pigfender]

PETE SAID: (I didn't know that there was soap in the water in Claire's lungs)
I didn't know there was soap in the water either! I have to give credit to Barry for that one.

[pete340]

Pigfender: PETE SAID: (I didn't know that there was soap in the water in Claire's lungs)
I didn't know there was soap in the water either! I have to give credit to Barry for that one.

Aha, I had the wrong culprit. And mine was right!

[pigfender]

Never underestimate the creativity of a writer!!!!

EDITED TO SAY - neither of you were wrong... It's just an area where I only gave so much detail. So you had the right culprit in me first time!