Small personal record

Yes, as you can see in my WIP counter, I have gone over 32,000 words (32 Kwords).

Why is this relevant? Well, it's a matter of records, and how you record different things.

My longest written work of fiction to the date, that I have recorded and can somewhat easily track, was my 2004 NaNoWriMo novel attempt, which is a "coherent" retelling of the leyend of OEdipus of Thebes, written as if they were historical facts, with as realistic as possible Mykeanean culture. Very interesting, and I almost got to the 50% of the story.

For novel-like-length stuff I've written, this is the fardest I have ever got in a plot, and it's still unbeated, with some 30,958 words. I'll probably re-take that story in the future, there's a lot of interesting stuff, dramatical pool and lots to learn for the modern, western Humans to learn from the Elders.

Thus, Damned Lineage is my longest fiction work in percentage of the story actually told.

Then was that long-tale-grown-into-short-novel what-if story about a possible past if Aléxandros Mégas (Alexander the Great) wouldn't have died at Babilon in 323BCE. Really fun to write, as it finally involved (good) Makedonian phalanxes and Roman (pre-Livy) legions. Not that Pyrrhus's phalanxes were not good, but Philippos's phalanxes were probably the best trained armies in the ancient world. It got up to 31,372 words when I stopped writing it (it was getting a bit boring, inventing history, but I may re-take it later, who knows?). Maximum number of words written.

Therefore, Aléxandros Megiston was my longest fiction work in number of words written (it's also the one with most battles in it, lots of cool battles, and a few preludes to what Pyrrhus and Hannibal did in the normal timeline).

That's why 32 Kwords was important. I have beaten myself. At 27% and 32,497 words, The Lybian has beaten one of my personal records. Now you can guess when I'll beat the other (around 60 Kwords, of course, which is the next goal).

As I plan to participate in this year's NaNoWriMo, with the goal of writing 50 Kwords more on the draft -- a bit cheating, but they will be 50 Kwords in 29 days nevertheless, Oct 31 night is Samhain (Irish, read as "Sawin"), which is the most important festivity in my religion, and the start of the New Year, I'll be too busy celebrating well into Nov 1st to actually write anything significant, -- I hope to add a bit chunk to the novel. If I start at 45 Kwords, I'll get around 90-100 Kwords by December. Not bad, but let's not sell the milk too fast... :-) (actually getting to 75 Kwords will be a feast for me, but let's aim for the stars, shall we?)

As for an update, I can tell you that after being at Dor, the Delian League fleet is arriving into Pelusium only to learn that the Phoenician fleet is on her way to Mareia and the rebelled towns in the West. Nice race against time, and a big, beautiful naval/fluvial battle, which I guess will take the next 5 or 6 Kwords of the draft.

Kallisti!