Echo Elms
May 09, 2007 3:07 PM
Novelling Fury! Informational Meeting by Echo Elms
Midterms were over, and classes were back in full swing and with February in just a few days, it was definitely high time for an information meeting about Novelling Fury!. He'd tried to rally up some interest by posting fliars in the common rooms (or, at least, there were fliars in Pecari and Aladren), and spreading around his flying fliars again in Cascade Hall. His spellwork on that was better this year.All the posters and fliars said to meet here today for more information and Echo was once again hoping for a big turnout. Last year hadn't been too impressive, but he thought maybe the successful Charms Club was a sign that this year firsties wanted to be involved in stuff... stuff like novelling.
"Okay, guys" he said glancing at the time, "it's about that time. How many of you have written a 50,000 word novel before?" Not very many people. Well, duh. "That's what we're going to do here. 50,000 words in 30 days. That's like 2,000 words a day. We start on February 1st, and end on March 2nd. But don't get let it scare you. It's so much fun. Like, really, crazy fun."
"That's because you're insane," Brett Hodges called out, helpfully.
"Yeah, well," Echo grinned, "It helps. Anyway, so the point is not to like write the best novel in the world. In fact, it actually works best if no one ever reads what you write because then you're not worried about if it's good or not. And good is not what you'll be going for. Your concern main concern is your word count. Length. Quantity. So you can be verbose and use like 10 words where two will do the job. You can write complete nonsense. Drivel. It's all good, just so long as you hit 50,000 by the end."
"Okay, so, that's the main jist of what Novelling Fury! is all about. Just... writing. And it can be anything. Fiction, humor, nonfiction, screenwriting, you know, anything. Last year we had four participants: Zack Dill, Caedence Redoak, Saul Pierce and me. It'd be really awesome if we got more people this year. Does anyone have any questions?"
--
When the questions were over, Echo finished it off, "To kick off Novelling Fury! we're going to have a big writing sit-in, right here, all day on February 1st. I have these brochure things with more detailed information about the Fury, too. See you on the First!"
Subthreads: Okay, you got me. by Elly Eriksson with Saul, Echo Elms, Elly
Well, you seem hyper active... by Hikaru Kasuragi with Echo Elms & Brett Hodges
It <i>sounds</i> like fun by Hyana Kamiya with Zack Dill, Hyana
A drama queen and her cousin walk into a meeting... by Gwen and Amber Carey with Oliver Abbott, Oliver, Careys
looks like the crazy people are here... I'm not though by Stephen Baxter with Mia
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Echo Elms
Novelling Fury! Informational Meeting
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Echo Elms
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Elly Eriksson
May 09, 2007 4:00 PM
Okay, you got me. by Elly Eriksson
Novelling Fury! Elly didn’t know quite why she’d decided to come. She had Quidditch practise, she had Charms Club, and now she had to write a novel in a month. She had to be crazy. On the other hand, Echo put such effort into organising and advertising this novel writing thing for two years now, and last year hadn’t been a very good turn out. As one of his best friends, Elly wanted to help out. She also had the tiniest smidgen of guilt about having helped Josiah with his club without having helped Echo last year, so now she was hoping to make up for that.So, not completely aware of what she’d gotten herself into (how long was 50,000 words anyway?), Elly headed to where they were supposed to meet. She lingered next to Brett, giving him her usual broad smile. Echo was pretty good at talking in front of people, which surprised Elly because he was often so shy and reserved. Well, not really with her, but with other people. But then when Echo said it was 2000 words a day Elly nearly choked. How in the same of all things sane and normal was she supposed to manage that? They were due to start their extra flying lessons with Coach Fox soon, too. With homework and eating, and Quidditch and Charms, that left Elly with very little free time. It now seemed all that would be taken up with writing a novel. Good grief.
Elly couldn’t help laughing when Brett pointed out Echo’s insanity. He had a point – you had to be crazy to want to do this. She liked the idea about never showing anyone what she wrote. She certainly wasn’t the most creative individual in the world, and had a strong suspicion that her 50,000 words – if she got that far – would be at least 80% tripe. She started to think what she could write about. Fiction, definitely; she didn’t know enough about anything real. She didn’t get much further than that, though.
Once the meeting was over, Elly headed over to Echo. “Hey, cool intro,” she said, grinning. “Did you mean that about nobody ever reading it? ’Cause mine’s gonna suck.”
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Elly Eriksson
Okay, you got me.
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Elly Eriksson
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Saul
May 09, 2007 6:26 PM
Totally by Saul
Saul was here again. He'd gotten tricked into it last year, by Echo's rallying cry, but this time he had no such excuse. He knew what he was getting into. Still, it was immensely satisfying to be able to raise his hand, waving it enthusiastically, when Echo asked who had ever written 50,000 words before. Saul's had been exactly 50,000 words. Even if forty-six of those words were a little bit like cheating, Saul figured he'd been close enough for it to count as a success.He was pleased to see that Elly was here this year, and Brett, too. That Zack guy was present again, as well, but Saul noticed he had not raised his hand for the 50,000 word role call. Maybe he hadn't finished his last year?
Saul was distracted back to Echo's speech by Brett calling him insane and Echo shooting back that it helps. Saul stuck his tongue out at Brett, but refrained (with difficulty) from further interrupting Echo's introduction to the club.
Once Echo finished, Saul couldn't help but overhear Elly's comment, and this time he couldn't hold back his response, "I promise, nobody will read it. I've tried to get people to read mine, but nobody will. Neil started warding off evil every time he saw me carrying it around last summer. I think Simon told him I wrote it with a Quick Quotes Quill."
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Totally
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Echo Elms
May 11, 2007 7:59 PM
Sweet! by Echo Elms
Echo beamed at Elly's compliment not so much because it was a compliment, but because she was here at Novelling Fury! He'd been a bit sad last year striking off on his own to do this weirdo club that not even his two best friends joined. But this year was different. Elly was here, and Saul was a better friend than just a potions partner, and Brett was even here too. Brett and some of the guys did the Fury last year, too, but they weren't here. Everyone was here!Well, not everyone. It could have been a bigger turnout, but Echo was satisfied with the meeting. He didn't fall on his face in front of everyone, did he? Not at all. And, best and most importantly, people seemed interested.
"Yeah," Echo collaborated Saul's answer about his brother warding off evil. "And I think if anyone tried to read mine... well, let's just say my handwriting wasn't always the greatest." It wasn't so much the handwriting, really, as his own invented abbreviations.
"Oh, hey!" he remembered, turning suddenly to Saul and then realizing Elly might actually be interested now too. He gestured wildly, "Did I tell you I found a wordcount spell? Oh man, it's so cool. You can put it on a journal or a scroll or anything! No. More. Counting! Hoo-wah!" It hadn't actually occured to him to look for such a spell, but he ran across it in a book of study aid spell in his endless search for transfigurations assistance. That was like months ago, but he just tried it out yesterday and, whoa, SCORE.
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Echo Elms
Sweet!
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Elly
May 13, 2007 9:23 AM
Yeah, we rock. by Elly
“I promise, nobody will read it. I’ve tried to get people to read mine, but nobody will.” Elly laughed. She didn't respond to his next comments because she didn’t know who Neil was, or what a Quick Quotes Quill could be. Echo said that nobody had read his novel, either. Elly thought that was a bit of a shame. She wasn’t sure she wanted anyone to read what she would write, because it was likely to be awful. But for others, like Echo and Saul, who’d put a lot of effort into their stories and actually wanted people to read them, it was unfortunate.“Aw, I’ll read your stories this year, if you like,” Elly said, grinning. “I don’t mind, and I can read your handwriting,” she added to Echo.
Then Echo got all excited about this word count spell. From the sound of it, it was like the word count of a computer. Well that was useful – Elly didn’t think she’d have much patience for sitting and manually counting all the words she had written, it would lengthen the process considerably.
“That’s great,” she joined in Echo’s enthusiasm. “You’ll have to teach us,” Elly said. She also though that maybe later she could ask Echo if it was okay with him for her and Josiah to teach the word count spell at charms club. Right now was his parade, though, so Elly would wait until later to mention it. For the mean time, there was one questions that needed to be answered.
“Whatever am I going to write about?” she asked in desperation, though her eyes were gleaming with excitement at the challenge she faced. “That’s a lot of words. Do you guys have any ideas? What did you do last year?”
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Elly
Yeah, we rock.
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Elly
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Saul
May 13, 2007 12:11 PM
How to plan a story by Saul
Saul perked up in excitement as Elly asked what she could write about. He'd been wanting to tell about his Divinations/Runes class to Echo for a while, but somehow, he kept getting distracted into talking about something else every time he saw him. Now, though, he'd been given a straight invitation to talk about just that."It's easy!" he enthused. "Last year, I just wrote about you and Sir Echo and your adventures with dragons and saving the world and stuff and, of course, your wedding at the end, but this year, I'm gonna write a mystery about a missing pregnant lady! I cast runes about it in Divination class. It was way cool."
He pointed over to where Zack was talking to a first year girl, "Zack's got a set of runes. I'm sure he'd be glad to help you translate a reading, if you ask." Saul wasn't actually entirely sure about that at all, but the fifth year was all gung-ho about his CATS this year, so surely he'd want the practice, right? Besides, he was a Prefect, so he was supposed to help people.
"Anyway, I did a reading for my story, and by the time we finished, I had a couple of characters and most of a plot already, which is way more than I had when I started last year. The only reason I think I got anywhere with last year's story was because the Quick Quotes Quill kept writing what I said down wrong and I had to try to make the new version make sense."
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Saul
How to plan a story
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Elly
May 29, 2007 6:10 PM
I'll find my own way, thanks by Elly
Elly liked Saul a lot, despite his oddities and the fact that he couldn’t seem to get anything right in class. Though sometimes he was just so unusual that she had to laugh. Now was one of those times. She laughed as he told them his plot for last year, which Elly thought was pure genius, and she was disappointed to have not heard about it before now. She wondered if Saul still had the story somewhere so she could read it. “So when are you going to propose?” she asked Echo quietly, grinning and winking at him playfully.Then she laughed at how Saul had come up with his new plot. Elly didn’t know an awful lot about runes or divination, but somehow she didn’t think that the lessons had been designed to create Saul’s plot – especially as a mystery about a pregnant lady was a very bizarre plot choice indeed.
By the time Saul had finished talked, Elly was still giggling, highly amused, and she also had an idea about what that quill was. “Saul, you’re the most original author ever,” she said, still chucking. “And both of you are crazy,” she added. Shaking her head, she walked between the boys, heading back inside. “I need to go plan a story. Later!”
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Elly
I'll find my own way, thanks
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Echo Elms
June 02, 2007 12:00 PM
I'll give it a go by Echo Elms
Saul wrote what for his novel last year? Echo was horrified. Not because of, uh, the whole Elly thing... like, it wasn't that, but... Saul knew. Saul wasn't supposed to know. He was supposed to be like whoa-fun-Saul and not getting in his business or teasing him about crushing on his best friend the way Brett always did. Saul was supposed to be all with the crushness under the radarness.Apparently not.
And he said it right in front of Elly, like it was fact. Oh no. Echo looked down and away and wiggled his toes in his shoes. Dude. Saul's a weirdo. Elly won't take it serious if you don't do something dumb. Make a joke, FAST.
He couldn't think of anything.
"So when are you going to propose?" Elly asked him in her teasing voice.
"Propose what?" he asked, his embarrassed grin freezing a bit as he tried to understand the joke. He was missing something important here. Propose...
“Saul, you’re the most original author ever,” she said, still chucking. “And both of you are crazy,” she added. Shaking her head, she walked between the boys, heading back inside. “I need to go plan a story. Later!”
"Good luck!"
Oh... Oh! That kind of proposing. His hand jumped to his mouth and he took it away and rocked up on his toes and pivoted toward Saul.
"Yeah, real original," he said as normally as he could. His eyes darted back toward Elly and he lowered his voice, "How'd..." I do it? How'd it happen, you know, like, the Elly and me thing? Ahem. Right. "How'd you use the runes?"
He, too, had a story to plan.
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I'll give it a go
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