Novel-in-a-Day 9½ - SPECIAL APOCALYPSE EDITION

[Accordion Noir]

Up for my final polish. Turned my draft over to a friend's extra eyes.

Reading the Forum I realize I wrote 1600 words about Washington DC and forgot about handguns.

Only fifteen years since I moved from The States, I've become Canadian.

[Jaysen]

Another question...Would guns work? I know anything that needs power wouldn't, like electricity or batteries and stuff, but I have no idea how guns work, so I have no idea if they would in this scenario.

Oh, yes. They'd work. Making more guns or ammo without electricity would be hard, but, yeah a handgun or rifle should work fine.

Actually ammunition would be very easy to make as it’s an entirely manual process (unless you mean manufacturing bras casings from sheet stock). Most competitive shooters make rounds to ensure ballistics.

And you can make a simple zip gun from a pipe, a shotgun shell and a nail in a board. Reloading the shotgun shell is cake if you have skills to make gun cotton (for primmer) and powder.

Ok... maybe I am a nutcase ...

[pigfender]

Well, there you go!

Unrelated point - what mild expletive might an American use instead of "bugger" or "bollocks"? I want something just slightly North of "damn",

Thanks in advance!

[thegirlclaudia]

I am finding this brief extremely challenging.

When I feel that -- and I feel that a lot! -- I always make sure I understand if my story is POOEE.
P -Protagonist - who is my protagonist for this scene?
O- Objective - what are they trying to achieve?
O - Obstacle - what is stopping them?
E - Escalation - what happens to make things harder / worse?
E - Ending - how am I going to resolve that objective (either successfully or not)
I find knowing that helps me on whatever scale I'm looking at -- whether it's a book, a chapter, a scene, or sometimes just a paragraph.
Plus I drink coffee.

Thanks piggy, Done and polished.

[Jaysen]

Well, there you go!

Unrelated point - what mild expletive might an American use instead of "bugger" or "bollocks"? I want something just slightly North of "damn",

Thanks in advance!

Sh!t
Jesus Christ
There are softer variants but they are south of damn as proper people in the US don’t get that upset.

I’m sure other will offer different options.

[Deruji]

Well, there you go!

Unrelated point - what mild expletive might an American use instead of "bugger" or "bollocks"? I want something just slightly North of "damn",

Thanks in advance!

I probably would have chosen, in no particular order:

Darn!
Tarnation!
Sweet Jesus!
Sweet Lord Almighty!
Shake it twice fer Texas

[homeport]

Just sent it off I am sorry to admit I never waited to open champagne for our anniversary thats what isolation does to you, god knows what champagne does to my offering

[JacquelineM]

Hi Rog/Pigfender,

I finished it and have emailed it to you.

This was a challenge.

Phew!

[JacquelineM]

Btw I’m also doing Campnanowrimo, but I shall add this word count to my total.

[Dan Gregory]

Finished first draft which may be the only one as I have runny eyes. Will read through for obvious errors and post. All the best DeanForestGato for my Nano friends

[pigfender]

Shake it twice fer Texas

That's delightful!

[xandria]

Phew! Finally got it finished. Tropes, clichés, and crap dialogue aplenty! I found this one hard to start, but I ended up having lots of fun with it. Ferrari Franken-Wagon anyone?

I can't wait to read what everyone wrote!

[AB17]

Final polish starting now. I will submit on time, if only just.

However, I'm really glad I'm not a US resident. If I were, given my internet searches of the last few hours, I'm pretty sure I would be having some armed visitors knocking my door down about now...

I suppose I could always threaten to cough over them?

[Evil Overlord]

Done! I have seldom felt more thoroughly out of my depth. US politics I understand (or at least can talk about), and there are floorplans of the White House online (didn't find anything for the PEOC, shockingly), but I made up a bunch of stuff about the Secret Service. On the other hand, I did learn about tritium night sights, so that's something. (I imagine I got them wrong anyway, though). I'd have to qualify my chapter as more functional than attractive, but it's done.

I had fun, as always. Looking forward to the book!

[gr]

Ok... maybe I am a nutcase ...

I feel I was just waiting for that other shoe to drop.