10/26/2014

12/31/2019 9:40 PM

1708

1

0 wins / 0 losses

Marauder Exemplar

Bestist Frend Jane

After his best and only friend's brutal death, a seven-year-old boy sets out across the country hell-bent on fulfilling her dream. Along the way, he must overcome his deficiencies—both real and imagined—to assuage his own pain and guilt.

Winner of the 2018 EPIC Contest!

Thanks to everyone for pushing me throughout the contest so I could actually finish something for a change—especially the other contestants who were both helpful and competitive. And thanks to BradinDvorak for help with CSS.

You're still here? Anyway, I've only been a member for roughly half a year longer than you so I probably need my head examined, as well.

Anyway, congrats!  I can hardly wait to read your future stories.

Sorry. I just now noticed this thread.

I've been an insomniac for a couple decades now. Both sleeping and pain pills don't agree with me and I end up seriously considering ways of opting out. That's not who I am, though, so I steer completely away from them nowadays. I have taken an aspirin shortly before going to bed after it was recommended to me, but I couldn't tell if it had any effect.

I don't know if anyone else has mention this, but I find that just dragging myself out of bed and doing some sort of heavy labor seems to help with the following night. Maybe taking a brisk walk a few hours before bed might help? Or just rearranging a few heavy pieces of furniture might work, too.

I also have less trouble in the Spring after doing some heavy gardening prep. I don't know if that's an option for you, but there may be something similar you could try.

Anyway, I hope it gets better or, at least, not any worse.

Thanks, guys!

98 words:

Taking the time to be alone with my thoughts was the only thing that kept me sane. Now, that is all there is. Just me alone with my thoughts. There is no one left to bounce ideas off of. No new ideas to break up the boredom. I had always heard that everyone creates their own private Hell in life. I didn't take it seriously. The phrase meant something completely different to me, then. Now, I know what it truly means to be alone. If only someone would stop by. My plot is in dire need of tending.

Sorry. I can't spare the time.

I've been juggling work, family, and adult responsibilities since I was about fifteen (more than thirty years for anyone who's counting) so I haven't a clue what you're going through. And back then I juggled sometimes as many as three girlfriends at once, so you should count yourself lucky that you only have the one to worry about.

Right now, I'm still working nearly every day from sunup to sundown/seven days per week to keep customers happy, having to keep everything sorted out for my dad (medical and financial) long distance since his stroke back in March, do all the things that need doing around my place so it doesn't end up falling in or looking like a salvage yard, plus the hundreds of things that adults have to do just to keep on keepin' on. On top of that, I'm remodeling my house in my spare minutes so I have somewhere to live in my old age or else sell to buy something better.

One of these days, I hope to find time to write again, but staring at a blank screen or else getting caught up in Discord seems to be the only way I get to rest my weary bones. It's okay, though, when I'm shuffled off to the nuthouse or nursing home, I'll probably have more than enough free time to do enjoyable things.

I guess I'd change white to black so I'd have an even better shot with white chicks so...

Straight White Male - Straight Black Male

If I did the math right, my storygame has netted me 410 points overall. It's all in the presentation and timing is everything.

I have a difficult time taking people like this seriously. If she were an actual creative person to begin with, there are plenty of ways she could share her gift with the world. Most of them pay much more than that of the photoshopped crap everyone and their dog uploads nowadays. Back in my day, real artists didn't even use pencils, they used pens or paint. There was no "undo" button for mistakes. Heck, even having an eraser was a luxury. I remember digging holes right through my paper trying to erase mistakes before someone had the good sense to go and invent a special kind of ink. Now that I think about it, where's her proof that she's even an artist? For less than $10 she could buy enough spray cans to tag some building near where she lives and upload the pics. In fact, I have more than enough half empty cans lying around from previous projects that I'd donate to her cause. All she'd need to do is pay shipping. Does anyone remember the good ol' days when people used to write or draw on paper? I even crammed my work in the margins of newspapers and the like or on cardboard boxes when I couldn't afford a spiral notebook or package of loose leaf. Furniture, walls, the side of your neighbors' house or car, even your own body can be used as a canvas if the drive is strong enough. Before I'd resort to begging strangers for money, I'd buy a $200 laptop and get the free, no longer supported version of Scrivener. In fact, that's exactly what I did, right after installing a free operating system. And it's not just because I'm a cheapskate. It's because I have better things to waste my money on; like buying a used piece of equipment that also has the added benefit of wasting whatever free time I can manage to glean from my busy day in order to make enough money to buy another used piece of equipment, and so on... In conclusion, I can only think of one word to respond to someone so entitled: HA! Now, will you be so kind as to GET OFF MY LAWN!!

Another great update! Thanks! The word count on my story is slightly lower than what Scrivener says just the page text is now. At least it isn't artificially inflated due to the fancy formatting I had to painstakingly insert to make it readable on the site. Also, it doesn't look like it includes link or page title text in the new calculation? And it dropped from a play length of 7 to a 6 which still isn't too bad, I guess. All in all, I'd say this is fantastic! Great job and hope you'll eventually get everything ironed out.