Bodington
Virgin
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2009
- Posts
- 257
I joined Literotica some sixteen years ago, and after acquainting myself of the workings of this site I decided to try my hand at submitting some fictional stories. I was most keen in writing novels and as result I’m working on my ninth novel. Incidentally, I consider a novel to be at least 100K words, although I’m aware that the consensus in the publishing world is that a work of fiction containing 40K words is sufficient to be described as a novel. Needless to say, all my published novels in Literotica contain at least 100K words.
When I started writing, and since I live in Michigan, my ambition or goal was to write novels wherein each of my MFCs attends one of the universities that competes in the Big Ten college football conference. At the time there were eleven universities in the Big Ten and so I thought writing ten or eleven novels was doable. However, there are currently eighteen universities in the Big Ten which surely thwarts my original plan.
I should point out that I am old. I’m about one year older than President Trump but three years younger than former President Biden. I’m not as spry or energetic as Trump but I’m in a hell of a lot better shape than Biden. Although currently I’m not suffering from any illness or infirmity, nevertheless, it is axiomatic that if I do not happen to wake up from my slumber some day, it would be surprising to my family but not shocking.
Now in submitting my works of fiction for publication on Literotica, I have submitted some novels complete so that first readers can read the novel uninterrupted by long pauses in publication. For other novels I have submitted the chapters in piecemeal fashion. Before, the longest period of time between the appearance of the first chapter of one of my novels to the last chapter (in that case the novel, “Vivian Laaning” contained 63 chapters) published was two years and one month.
I am presently in the process of writing my ninth novel titled “Maia Laaning”. I haven’t yet finished writing this novel, but I do know how it’s going to end. I’m just not sure how many more chapters I need to write before I’m finally done. The first chapter of this unfinished novel was published on June 1, 2023. I submitted chapter No. 40 in May of this year, and I expect to submit three more chapters in September or October. Thereafter, I imagine there are any more than four to seven chapters still to come.
With such situation, I am intrigued and influenced by analogy to the short story by O Henry titled “The Last Leaf”. That story features a young woman suffering from a severe case of pneumonia and as a result has lost the will to live. As it was autumn she declares that once the last leaf of the nearby visible tree, drops she will surely die. A neighboring artist, also suffering from pneumonia, appraised of the despair of the young woman draws up a leaf to secure onto the tree. Thus, when the young woman espies that the last leaf was still surviving after a terrible snow storm, her spirit is buoyed sufficiently to induce her to recover from her illness. Alas the artist does succumb. For full details of this story, you can easily goggle it on the internet- one of the links is:
https://www.sparknotes.com/short-stories/the-last-leaf/summary/
Now in my case I do possess the will to live as long as I can. But I can’t help wondering that when I ultimately submit the last chapter of my novel, “Maia Laaning” that my time will be up. Perhaps to forestall my inevitable death I should immediately start on a tenth novel and submit the first chapter simultaneously with the last chapter of “Maia Laaning.”
When I started writing, and since I live in Michigan, my ambition or goal was to write novels wherein each of my MFCs attends one of the universities that competes in the Big Ten college football conference. At the time there were eleven universities in the Big Ten and so I thought writing ten or eleven novels was doable. However, there are currently eighteen universities in the Big Ten which surely thwarts my original plan.
I should point out that I am old. I’m about one year older than President Trump but three years younger than former President Biden. I’m not as spry or energetic as Trump but I’m in a hell of a lot better shape than Biden. Although currently I’m not suffering from any illness or infirmity, nevertheless, it is axiomatic that if I do not happen to wake up from my slumber some day, it would be surprising to my family but not shocking.
Now in submitting my works of fiction for publication on Literotica, I have submitted some novels complete so that first readers can read the novel uninterrupted by long pauses in publication. For other novels I have submitted the chapters in piecemeal fashion. Before, the longest period of time between the appearance of the first chapter of one of my novels to the last chapter (in that case the novel, “Vivian Laaning” contained 63 chapters) published was two years and one month.
I am presently in the process of writing my ninth novel titled “Maia Laaning”. I haven’t yet finished writing this novel, but I do know how it’s going to end. I’m just not sure how many more chapters I need to write before I’m finally done. The first chapter of this unfinished novel was published on June 1, 2023. I submitted chapter No. 40 in May of this year, and I expect to submit three more chapters in September or October. Thereafter, I imagine there are any more than four to seven chapters still to come.
With such situation, I am intrigued and influenced by analogy to the short story by O Henry titled “The Last Leaf”. That story features a young woman suffering from a severe case of pneumonia and as a result has lost the will to live. As it was autumn she declares that once the last leaf of the nearby visible tree, drops she will surely die. A neighboring artist, also suffering from pneumonia, appraised of the despair of the young woman draws up a leaf to secure onto the tree. Thus, when the young woman espies that the last leaf was still surviving after a terrible snow storm, her spirit is buoyed sufficiently to induce her to recover from her illness. Alas the artist does succumb. For full details of this story, you can easily goggle it on the internet- one of the links is:
https://www.sparknotes.com/short-stories/the-last-leaf/summary/
Now in my case I do possess the will to live as long as I can. But I can’t help wondering that when I ultimately submit the last chapter of my novel, “Maia Laaning” that my time will be up. Perhaps to forestall my inevitable death I should immediately start on a tenth novel and submit the first chapter simultaneously with the last chapter of “Maia Laaning.”