She's knitting something, no doubt baby related and these represent knits or purls or whatever they are called.

What do I win?

You'd think she was in heat, or something.:rolleyes:

22,785

I hope I don't have to wait until the inch starts soccer:eek:

no, of course not!

btw, of course I now know the answer and will be auctioning it on ebay....... :p

Big V - I'll do it.
19,301

Whatever it is, her pace has increased significantly (581 per day recently).

I think we're motivating.

I'll take the credit for that, thank you very much..... :lol:

It probably has something to do with her requirement for less than 10MB.

18,839

18,352

at 581 she's a solid month away from being done

Yabbut I've had a run of good days. Sometimes there are stretches of 2-3 days where I get nothing done...

OH OH I got it! she's writing a bodice ripper and she's getting paid by the word.

Write faster Clod! you need more than 500 words a day! You'll starve in some garret, please more adjectives!!!

Maybe she's inventing a bodice ripper... you know, a tool.. sort of like the jaws of life... for when you can't get that bodice open fast enough by hand. The count represents the number of transistors she needs to fabricate onto integrated circuits to get it down to a marketable size.

17,635

717.

She's up to something.

SHENANIGANS!

Wait, what? :confused:

...Up to less drinking than some others I could name, that's fer sure...

I'm not actually drinking as much as I'd like, since every day is a school/work day... But a boy can dream can't he?

42.

16,221 on August 25.

Looks like the $100 is safe.

Probably the $50 also.

There's still $250 available for a 30-Sept finish.

I hope she is finished by Sept 30 AND doesn't tell what she was doing.:lol2:

15,188 (yesterday)

14,659

It's kegels, did someone already guess that?

That's a marvelous guess, and if you get first prize with it I claim second prize

14,068

Alright, the unvarnished truth is, and I'm sure Clod wouldn't want me telling everyone, but I do know, is that those represent hours of community service she's been sentenced to perform because of an unfortunate incident in the parking lot of Target.

There are you all happy now? She feels like shit about the whole thing and you all are just rubbing salt in the wound.

Sorry, Clod, I just had to spill.

That's okay, foot. I'm just glad there are 500 hours in a day, or I'd be doing this forever...


Also, I'm really sorry I punched that baby in the Target parking lot. In my defense, the baby was being kind of a dick.[/obscure reference]

37,000 hours? What did she do, run over a Republican?;)

Nah, it's pushups, situps, or those isometric exercises that make your boobs bigger.

LOL:lol2: That's some funny stuff there clodfobbble.

The last bit was from here.


Also, ah... sorry Tony, but I really don't think I'm going to make the Sept. 30 deadline for the mad tip jar bonuses. It'll be close, but I think I'll need another week, at least.

Never a need to apologize.

13,169 - there's still time.

Oh hell, I might still make that! 12,695 it is!

She'll be able to shoot ping pong balls across the room by the time she's done.

11,228

sorry I missed yesterday's value.

10,711 as of now...

10,512

10,051

10,051

I know.



Okay, look, here's the deal: I'm writing a book, in the vain hope that it might eventually be publishable and thus provide some income to my family. (And that really is the motivation: I love writing, I always have, but while it would be cool to say that I'm good enough to actually get one on the shelves, it's always just been for my own entertainment--up until I lost my steady contract audio gig awhile back. Being really and truly "unemployed" hit me a lot harder psychologically than I thought it was going to, and I really need some way that I can contribute. Yes yes, I'm contributing by raising the kids, blah blah blah... tell that to my psyche.)

So anyway, I decided I was going to finish and polish the story with the best chances of being marketable. For a first-time sci-fi novel, the standard range is 80,000 to 120,000 words. Any less, and it's not a novel, any more and publishers want you to be an established name before they'll make that kind of commitment. So the number in my sig file is counting down from 80,000, because while the final product will be longer than that to some degree, before that point it doesn't matter how good it is, it's not a novel.

But being so close to the end, my work has shifted much more toward revision. Don't get me wrong, there's definitely content still missing--three and a half scenes at the very least--but I need to revise what I have before I can really know where those scenes are going, and I need time away from it so I can revise with fresh eyes. In the meantime I've let my mother and husband take a look at the work in progress so they can hopefully offer some feedback, but I'll need to digest what they say and incorporate those changes in addition to the other revisions, so it's going to be awhile before I really get back into forward motion again.

Long story short: I'm still working on it, it just doesn't look like it. I'm very confident at this point that I'm going to really finish it, probably by the end of the year, which was my original goal. I really appreciate everyone's support.

I'll buy your book when it becomes published. :)

Thank you for correctly interpreting my post as support, and not nagging or worse.

I feel for you Clodfobble. I've been out of work before. I wouldn't wish it on a snake. And I have a well developed fear of deprivation for my family. I know how I felt when my situation was similar to yours. And it sucked. I'm with you there.

But don't blithely discount your current "contribution", please. And, more importantly, don't discount your potential. I say potential, because you're not gettin' paid, *right now*. But that doesn't meant it's not there. It *is* there, you know it and we know it.

You're smart, funny and articulate. And your work is simply unripe, not unworthy. Just so we're clear, ok?

Good luck and git 'er done!

Oooh ooh sci-fi, my favorite! :yum:

This is so much better than I was guessing. I pictured deleting/cleaning up computer files, but this is WAY better. I'm impressed.

That's awesome, Fobble. I'll buy it too -but I want mine signed :D

Me three - what Monster said

That's great, Clod. Have you considered reworking part of what you've done so far as short stories or a novella? (I admit I know nothing about it, except that many SF writers seem to have gotten their start that way.)

From a financial perspective, it's reasonable to get your start that way because there are magazines that purchase shorter works. But A.) they don't pay much, B.) they're pretty much only purchased by other writers (and with the advent of the internet, the short story mags are all slowly going broke because even the writers aren't buying them much anymore,) and C.) I suck at writing short stories. :) In all objectivity, my biggest strength is character development, and my weakest is plot. I don't care so much about what happens as opposed to how it happens. You can certainly have short stories that are more about a mood instead of an event, but it's hard.

My first thought was "that is so fucking cool!". I hate, detest, and abhore creative writing. Scientific writing is different. There isn't supposed to be any fiction ;).Good luck. I'm not a sci fi fan, probably because I just really haven't read any, but can't wait to someday read your novel! Awesome awesome awesome.

Ohhh, never would of picked it.

You will be awesome, Clod.

I will buy a signed copy and I will market signed copies on ebay for ya...I rock at ebay.

Holy Crap! I can't believe you all fell for that crap. You should be a writer Clod! But first finish that community service. You should have thought twice before making that drunken threat call to the kid's house at dinner time. And in the future when they ask "Who is this?" don't give them your real name.

Okay, now get out there and service the community. I mean serve. I meant serve.


The rest of you, "gullible" isn't in the dictionary.

Aw, leave her alone... she's got work to do, if I'm going to get a case of her books before Christmas.

Oh, and if she decides to give up writing, and turn to prostitution, I'm in for that too. Beast told me she's got a great arse. :drool:

Clod knows I'm in her corner big time. And not just for her arse either. I respect her as an artist. Or an arsist.

I am sorry she let the cat out of the bag though. As a creative person that kind of thing can have the consequence of distraction or diverting pressure which may be better harnessed to writing.

Someone once said something to the effect of "Writing is easy. You just stare at a blank piece of paper until blood starts dripping from your head."

I have the most confidence in and admiration for CF of any dwellar.

To be clear, my comment wasn't directed at you 3foot. I was just saying, ya know. ;)

Aww, writing science fiction is easy.
Watch a TV Cop show and take notes. Replace the cruisers with hover cars, the guns with lasers, and the illegal immigrant character with a disguised alien. Done.

Not really. Big cheers to Clod for tackling something hard and emotionally challenging. I look forward to the finished product.

Amazing.

I have so many heroes on here and you've always been one Clod, for your reasonable approach and your concise way of putting things. I can't promise this means I'd love fiction by you, but it does go a long way towards making me willing to part with cash to read it.

So following on from Foot's comment, all I can say is keep bleeding.

You are only 51 words and ten pictures from being done!!!

there ya go!