So with my thesis topping 14000 words (and going strong), I started thinking about other things I've written. I had a fairly good idea of what the longest thing was that I wrote, and I'm sure the MS Thesis will eventually be Number 2... But what was number 3,4,5...?
So I decided to take a little break and see what the largest things I'd written were. So far, I've come up with 15 items. There are two guidebooks - the 1998 NRO Guidebook and the 2001 MAR Guidebook - which I wrote but aren't on there because I can't find the files. (they may be lost). They would probably be somewhere around 10,000 words apiece. Also keep in mind this is just things typed. There's a few stories I've started which were long and were handwritten and never made to the word processor
| Title | Word Count | Finished? | Date | Notes |
| 1 | Cathedral Cave | 57299 | y | December-04 |
|
| 2 | Three Counties (total) | 41437 | y | April-04 | compilation of stories written between 1995 and 2005 |
| 3 | Florin's Passage | 30952 | n | May-05 |
|
| 4 | Traffic Jam | 15765 | y | August-03 | (rewritten 2005) |
| 5 | MS Thesis… in progress | 14000 | n | July-09 |
|
| 6 | Wiz and the Dragon | 11485 | n | December-07 |
|
| 7 | Foresight | 9662 | n | May-00 |
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| 8 | PJ's Story | 7394 | y | December-97 | (written with Paul Steward) |
| 9 | Wiz | 6516 | n | February-06 | (history of Wiz) |
| 10 | MS Thesis Proposal | 6378 | y | September-08 |
|
| 11 | Geol 666 Final Paper | 6339 | y | December-06 | (for Geology 666) |
| 12 | Atmospheric Carbon, Its Reservoirs Processes and Effects | 6056 | y | November-06 | (for Geology 488) |
| 13 | The Pit | 4427 | y | February-99 |
|
| 14 | Devils Hole Discovery Trip Report | 4233 | n | August-95 | (was supposed to be Chp 1 of "Caves of Our Backyard") |
| 15 | Babouk, Black Thunder, Marx and Race | 4389 | y | April-04 | Marxist Literature Class |
So a little about the big ones:
Cathedral Cave was a novella written when I was unemployed for the NaNoWriMo competition (competition to write 50,000 words in the month of November) - NaNoWriMo stands for "national novel writing month")
The 'Three Counties' are a compilation of short to long stories written for grotto Newsletters and the Arts and Letters Section of the NSS. Its horror based caving long before 'The Descent' became relevant and a hell of a lot more interesting.
Florin's Passage is a DnD type fantasy story about dwarves living underground. It makes a lot more sense, both geologically and socially than most of the things out there. Most writers have spent some time in a forest, so they can write about elves. How many do you think have spent serious time underground?
Traffic Jam was written for a creative writing class in 2003 and rewritten in 2005. It is literally about that - a traffic jam in New Jersey. Social Commentary and a lot of fun to write.
Wiz and the Dragon is a story about my DnD character, Wszebor Uriev (its actually backstory) from when I was a teenager.
Foresight is about a person struck by lightning and the unusual things which happen to him afterwards.
PJ's story is a story written by myself and Paul Steward. Its the only one actually published - appearing in 'Tales of Dirt, Danger and Darkness'
Wiz was supposed to be Wszebor's whole biography. It doesn't get much past the first couple of chapters.
And lastly 'The Pit' is about some cavers who try to escape the end of the world by hiding in a deep TAG pit.
And for those who feel better seeing it as a number of pages my Thesis proposal was about 20 pages, as was my Geology 666 final paper.
