Unbelievable that Roustwriter could write one story for 16 years and not miss a week...
👏
The main reason I gave it a 10. The dedication.
Is it really the end, or is that a mixup? I'm 153 chapters behind. Not something I thought would ever end.
Between posting chapter 1 and chapter 717 four days and 828 weeks have passed.
So even allowing for multiple posts per day or week, over a hundred weeks were missed.
Boeing took 8 years to build 156 717s ending in 2006. There are no recorded fatalities or losses to date.
Roustwriter started in 2006 and took 16 years to build 717 chapters. Innumerable people have suffered and many have died as a result of his efforts.
843 Chapters.
Picky picky, besides, Boeing has not yet made an 843...
So I'll stick with what appeared on the main page.
Arlene and Jeff by RoustWriter
[More Info]
While Jeff is away finalizing the sale of his invention, a local bully coerces Jeff's wife and daughter into having sex. Jeff has to put his family back together and clean up the situation with the bully, while at the same time, moving to a retreat that they are converting to an enormous home, high in the Rocky Mountains. He has to juggle keeping his family going, while protecting the secret of the healer, and where it came from. Smoking fetish.
Added Chapter 717 (final)
Maybe it is a 'bug' that books within a story are not accounted for in the total?
Maybe it is a 'bug' that books within a story are not accounted for in the total?
Each of the three books start at chapter 1. 717 is the chapter count for book 3.
Each of the three books start at chapter 1. 717 is the chapter count for book 3.
Correct, but as quoted above, the story details show the final chapter as 717. NO mention is made of that appertaining to book three of the story.
End of Book 1, Ch 26, says cont'd in Book 2.
End of Book 2, Ch 100 (actual Ch 126), says cont'd in Book 3.
End of Book 3, Ch 717 (actual Ch 843), says "the end - for now." Then notes he's starting a new story ... and may revisit the Matthews sometime ....
The story information doesn't count chapters. It reports the recently posted chapter(s) as they're identified in the submission. Often that's a sequential chapter number, but not always. Sometimes it's "Book #" or "Part #", or "Prologue" or "Epilogue". Frequently there are more actual chapters than "Chapter #" indicates, because of unnumbered introductory chapters. And if the chapter numbers don't monotonically increase, the number shown is the number the chapter is tagged with, not the current total chapter count.
For instance, if, as a purely random example, you're writing a story about a guy who keeps dying and getting reincarnated, and you start the chapter numbers over from 1 every time he starts a new life, then that posting is reported as "Chapter 1", even if there are already 40 chapters in the story, and half a dozen previous "Chapter 1"s.
On the flip side, aroslav just posted a new chapter of Bob's Memoir today. It's reported as "Chapter 71". There are only 18 chapters in the volume; a Prologue and Chapters 55–71. The numbering continues from the previous volume in the series — which is a separate story on SOL — which contained Chapters 27–54.
Each of the three books start at chapter 1. 717 is the chapter count for book 3.
And again, that is NOT made clear in the story description as displayed on the main page.
Do you think the word count as displayed should be for the whole story? Or just book 3? And either way, do you think that it should be clear which it represents?
I believe you are incorrect about the number of week since Book 3's first chapter was posted.
Jeff and Arlene Book 3, Chapter 1 was posted on January 17, 2009. That was a little over 13 years and 37 weeks ago. I get about 713 weeks.
That would be about chapter a week plus 4 chapters.
Why assume I was referencing only Book 3, when I specifically stated the first chapter was posted in 2006?
Edited to correct a typo, I hate autocorrect.
Why assume I was referencing only Book 3,
Because, you said, "Roustwriter started in 2006 and took 16 years to build 717 chapters." I focused on the "717 chapters", and since I knew Book 3 had 717 chapters I focused on just that Book.
Roust
"roust
/roust/
verb
1.
NORTH AMERICAN
cause to get up or start moving; rouse.
"I rousted him out of bed with a cup of coffee"
2.
INFORMAL•NORTH AMERICAN
treat roughly; harass.
"detectives had rousted him the night of the murder"
Not sure reading a story about roust is worth the effort, since it is hundreds of chapters.
I'm 153 chapters behind, but I think it was at 17 wives then, so yes? I paused on reading when I realized 1) I couldn't remember most of the wives and 2) I didn't care about those characters and 3) they didn't matter to the story. Every time the story seemed to go somewhere there was a halt for a a new wife.
Aieee! I've put off starting this because:
1. The description turns me off,
2. Everything I've read in these forums suggests the first few chapters are going to be every bit as bad as the description suggests, and
3. The thought of a never-ending story left me cold.
On the other hand, lots of raves about later, and the thought of a really long story that eventually ends is a very different matter.
Decisions, decisions...
Having read every single chapter, I would say that if you read it as if each chapter is an episode of a soap-opera, you would probably find it more enjoyable. Reading a chapter a week was doable. I do not think I could read it straight through. Just my opinion though.
I'll keep that in mind. I have started to realize, reading a few serials, that some are just better in that form. As you say, something like soap opera -- and the narrative drive for such stories probably works more like a soap opera. And foreshadowing has to be different, especially when it may be weeks between foreshadowing element and payoff!
Damn. This will hit hard on Friday morning when I grab my first-morning beer and sit down to get the next bit of important information in the Magnum Opus of Jeff and Arlene.
Ugh. I'm not looking forward to that I can promise y'all.
He's started posting a new story, 'Times 7'. IMO it's off to a better start than 'Arlene and Jeff' got.
AJ
I'd really like to know if his new story "Times 7" is going to be as long as "Arlene and Jeff". I'm old and doubt that I'll last another 16 years. I hate to start a story and not finish it!