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Doorstopper
Doorstopper
#1
I was pretty sure that DW already qualified for the "Doorstopper" page on All The Tropes. I was all set to list the story, until I saw that fan works are divided by length... so I had to go count words.

Good thing Notepad++ tells me how many lines or characters are in a file. So... copy the text (not the titles, credits, formatting, or page dress) from the chapter pages on Bob's website, strip out the leading and trailing blanks and the blank lines, then replace each space with a newline. That isn't be exact (each dash get its own line, for example), but it's close enough to "one line = one word" for private sector work.*

Add up the number of lines, plug the numbers into a readable paragraph, and here's what I just added to ATT:

Quote:''Drunkard's Walk II'' is complete at just over 320k words, and ''Drunkard's Walk V'' is complete at just over 171k words. As of December 2019, ''Drunkard's Walk S'', ''Drunkard's Walk VIII'', and ''Drunkard's Walk XIII'' were still in progress: ''S'' at about 42.5k words in 2 chapters, ''VIII'' at 116.8k words in 4 chapters, and ''XIII'' at 23k words in one chapter. The other nine arcs do not have any published chapters as of December 2019, but there are five "Steplets" with 7.3k words between them. And none of these numbers include the various concordances. So... one story in many arcs, over have of which are completely unpublished, with over 680k words so far in what has seen the light of day.

And that doesn't include anything that Bob wrote and posted only on the forums... or is only in the devfile and hasn't been sent to the prereaders.

Bob, the story needs another 70,000 words to get into the next section, and another 250,000 words after that to qualify as a Really Big Work. But you still have eight arcs with nothing published...


*: Government work would need to be more precise.
--
Rob Kelk

Sticks and stones can break your bones,
But words can break your heart.
- unknown
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RE: Doorstopper
#2
Note the (in progress) size of DW-S chapter 3... <grin>
-- Bob

I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber.  I have been 
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
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RE: Doorstopper
#3
Yeah. still hoping against hope You will chose to split that and publish, Bob. cause... um... I could use some Looney Toons to offset my current agnst.
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to rock the sky?
Thats' every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry!
NO QUARTER!

No Quarter by Echo's Children
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RE: Doorstopper
#4
(01-19-2020, 06:57 PM)Bob Schroeck Wrote: Note the (in progress) size of DW-S chapter 3...  <grin>

Assuming an average of seven letters per word, that's halfway to the next threshold... and the other two chapters on the status board should get you the rest of the way.

Now you just need to write another quarter-million words... Smile
--
Rob Kelk

Sticks and stones can break your bones,
But words can break your heart.
- unknown
Reply
RE: Doorstopper
#5
DW8-5 shouldn't be too much of a problem in that regard, but DW13 is stalled until I either get Helen to start writing again, or take it over entirely myself.
-- Bob

I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber.  I have been 
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
Reply
RE: Doorstopper
#6
Based on what I was taught in high school, and at later so called functiuonal rehab training, as far as typewritten words per seond, a word is five keystrokes, not seven, Rob?
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to rock the sky?
Thats' every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry!
NO QUARTER!

No Quarter by Echo's Children
Reply
RE: Doorstopper
#7
Five letters plus a space, so six -- at least according to my high school typing class.
-- Bob

I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber.  I have been 
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
Reply
RE: Doorstopper
#8
Guessing large is the worse case in this situation, so by counting them at seven letters it's managing expectations. It also depends on writing style quite a bit, I'd imagine. Grabbing around half of DW2-6 just now and dropping it into LibreOffice to use the word counter, I get 12,649 words with 59,097 characters excluding spaces, which does indeed look pretty close to five letters on average. 4.67, to be precise, so yeah. Actual results should be higher by up to around a third.
--
‎noli esse culus
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RE: Doorstopper
#9
Exactly - estimate on the pessimistic side and be pleasantly surprised when the actual results come in to your advantage.
--
Rob Kelk

Sticks and stones can break your bones,
But words can break your heart.
- unknown
Reply
RE: Doorstopper
#10
a point of order... five KEYSTROKES includes spaces. or at least so I was taught during the appropriate period? the only thing that counted against it was actual keystroke errors, since at that time one had to backspace, strike out the wrong letter (we are talking Selectric Era tech here, folk. Not remotely modern word processors) and correct it, or retype the whole (deleted) page?

Cause... um yeah. I am just that old, along with Gryphon from Undocumented features or Bob Schroeck. (though at the moment I think both of them are 5-10 years older than I am????)
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to rock the sky?
Thats' every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry!
NO QUARTER!

No Quarter by Echo's Children
Reply
RE: Doorstopper
#11
I'll be 58 in June. Gryphon's about ten years younger than me, +/- a couple years.
-- Bob

I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber.  I have been 
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
Reply
RE: Doorstopper
#12
holy schnike Bob.  that makes me only 3 years younger than you!

cause, um... yeah.  DisneyLAND (the one here in Anaheim, less than an hour from me) was celebrating its 10th anniversary when I was born?
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to rock the sky?
Thats' every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry!
NO QUARTER!

No Quarter by Echo's Children
Reply
RE: Doorstopper
#13
I shan't say how old I am, other than to say (1) I learned to type on a manual typewriter, and (2) I'm so close to retirement that my pension is now vested.
--
Rob Kelk

Sticks and stones can break your bones,
But words can break your heart.
- unknown
Reply
RE: Doorstopper
#14
*thhhhbt* Depending on who you ask I was 'vested' years ago Rob.

*keeps rolling around on the floor laughing*
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to rock the sky?
Thats' every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry!
NO QUARTER!

No Quarter by Echo's Children
Reply
RE: Doorstopper
#15
Geez, am I the youngest here?

I mean, when I was born the Berlin Wall still stood. When I first went to elementary school, it had fallen.
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RE: Doorstopper
#16
You just might be, Hazard. I remember when I felt like you, and I am glad I might have the chance to hand this particular title off?
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to rock the sky?
Thats' every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry!
NO QUARTER!

No Quarter by Echo's Children
Reply
RE: Doorstopper
#17
It is kind of sad that we don't seem to have a younger element to the board population. (Or if we do, they're not very vocal.)
-- Bob

I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber.  I have been 
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
Reply
RE: Doorstopper
#18
Us younger crowd are too busy TikToking our Instagrams.

I am two years older than the Azumanga Daioh cohort would be today.  Or, based on the manga, one year older than Sana Kurata.

So not really that young.
"Kitto daijoubu da yo." - Sakura Kinomoto
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RE: Doorstopper
#19
Don't know that I'd really consider myself young per se, but I'm definitely younger than several of you. Turning 39 in about a month and a half. I do consider myself one of the "not very vocal" population, tho Tongue
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RE: Doorstopper
#20
(01-22-2020, 03:44 PM)Labster Wrote: I am two years older than the Azumanga Daioh cohort would be today.  Or, based on the manga, one year older than Sana Kurata.

So not really that young.

I think it's probably a contributing factor that many of our favorite properties here are comparatively old -- for example, Tenchi and Ranma would both be in their late 40s now, and Usagi Tsukino would be 41... (although in the latter case, the earth would be in a deep freeze and she'd be either outside time or in hibernation depending on how you take your canon, and wouldn't age anyway).  Likewise Buffy Summers and most of her contemporaries would just be cresting 40.
-- Bob

I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber.  I have been 
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
Reply
RE: Doorstopper
#21
Same, only mid 30s here.
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RE: Doorstopper
#22
(01-22-2020, 04:40 PM)Niteflier Wrote: Same, only mid 30s here.
Durned kid! Get off my lawn!

What do you mean, "it's Bob's lawn"?

Big Grin
--
Rob Kelk

Sticks and stones can break your bones,
But words can break your heart.
- unknown
Reply
RE: Doorstopper
#23
Also, Bob offered us a standing invitation so long as we behaved, including you old folk. On pain of him personally tossing you out and I've seen the thing he calls a banhammer lying around.
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RE: Doorstopper
#24
Mid 40s for me.
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RE: Doorstopper
#25
(01-22-2020, 06:41 PM)robkelk Wrote: What do you mean, "it's Bob's lawn"?

Big Grin

mmm... Not sure I should follow up on that Rob.  *thhhbbbt*
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to rock the sky?
Thats' every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry!
NO QUARTER!

No Quarter by Echo's Children
Reply


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