Last 100 Hours

Posted on by scott

In one hundred hours, I have to turn in the first draft of Extras. In the unlikely event that this fact slips my mind, this piece of paper on my wall will remind me:

Note the word counts scrawled (by a madman, apparently) at the bottom of every day. As you can see, Extras has already surpassed Pretties (81,250 words) and Specials (77,500 words) in length. It may even reach the brick-like thickness of Uglies (87,625)!

But things are getting tight on the time front. For this reason, I have taken to writing in strange new environments. Including this hotel room:

Clockwise from far right: me, Lauren McLaughlin, Maureen Johnson, and John Green. Justine is being the hovercam.

Why this hotel? Well, a small collective of us have been writing together, I found a random deal on a suite, and decided that a new spot might be stimulating. The views were cool.

John Green, who makes a video for his brother every other day, documented the event. You can watch that here. It shows you exactly what a writer’s life is like. (No, really.)

For more evidence of my deadline insanity, here’s Maureen’s interview with me while I’m trying to write.

I think I’m the only one still writing. The others just blog about writing. It’s all very self-referential.

If you’ve written me fanmail in the last few months, this approaching deadline is why you haven’t heard anything. I’m sorry!

In 100 hours I will be free . . .

134 thoughts on “Last 100 Hours”

  1. so yea i totaly cant wait until extras comes out!!!! its going to be amazing!!!!! im sooooo excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  2. I just wanted to let you know that the chapter that describes Anathea inside the darkling and chapter 32 where Rex has woken up as a halfling will probably haunt me for years. You have scarred the mind of a young child. I think I may be morbidly curious also, but I can’t stop wondering how the darklings transformed Rex into a halfling. You think you could answer this in a next blog entry, or maybe email me?
    But then, for some reason Peeps didn’t freak me out nearly as much. I think I’m too used to the idea of vampires by now…and I thank you for giving me lots of interesting knowledge about parasites that I can gross my friends out with.

  3. yeah the whole rex turning into a halfling… how does that work? how do you combine a human and a darkling? and why does it only work with seers? or would they just not want a halfling polymath or halfling mindcaster or something?

  4. I think it doesn’t only work with seers, it’s just that the darkling groupies need to communicate with the darklings through lore symbols, and only seers read lore.

    I always pictured the transformation as, like, slicing open the darkling and sticking the midnighter in, and sewing little pieces of darkling flesh to the person. It totally, totally creeped me out.

  7. or how about darkling flesh sliding over the midnighters skin, like in the trailer for spiderman 3. (has that been released in america yet, we’re still waiting in England)

  8. i think indigoeyes is right about the darkling transformation
    OT
    i got 6 friends (and 1 teacher) into the uglies trilogy
    i got 2 friend + same teacher into midnighters
    the other trilogy : 3 friends, same teacher
    i no, i just felt like sharing that

  9. so that means that Scott’s books are a meme! well pretty much everything is a meme (its something that it passed on from one generation to another but is not genetic, like religion or festivals or fashion or teachings)

  12. I guess all of your theories could be true…I just haven’t been able to imagine it yet. Just…wondering. I keep thinking of those human arms sticking out of the darkling’s chest (the image of Anathea as a halfling is, I think, much worse because she looks like a twelve year old) and the body is almost SUBMERGED into the darkling flesh…But see, if the darkling flesh was just sewn into Rex’s skin, how would they combine their minds? This has been bugging me for days. I can’t really explain my disgust at the idea–it just freaks me out so much, being stuck halfway inside another creature, sharing its mind, let alone an EVIL creature. Ugh. I just…ugh. *Shivers*

  13. hey guys, are the midnighters sifi or fantacy? I’m trying to get a hold of a copy but I want to know some stuff about them first.

  16. yeah i know we’re on 116 in comments! scott get done fast so we can write ona page without scrolling down for two years…lol! extras will be awesome I am SO excited

  18. Um….I watched the video….you are as random as me and my friends.

    I’m still wondering if that really really really bad, or good.

  22. as in to kill the darklings, im not happy about it
    though they made the blue time to get awy from things like computers

  23. yeah but in case of halflings that are surfing the web: *abbreviations*abiogenically*abnormalities*
    *abolitionisms*abolitionists*abortifacient* *absorbability*absquatulated*absquatulates *abstractional*abusivenesses*accelerations *accelerometer* (13 13 letter words!)

  24. Well all I can say is that you better have gotten that done and turned it in because I want to read it and I know that everyone will love the book after all the work and time you put into it and that will be the greatest part of all!!!!!:)!!!!!

  26. Wait, what? *stares in confusing* *re-reads passage over and over and over and over and over.* i sorta get it…uhg, no wonder ppl call me slloooww…^_^ sorta..

  30. yup, i’m actually writing a story of my own! its really action-packed with twist and turns, quite interesting (if i can say so myself)

  31. OMG! i’m reading something posted way more than a month ago RIGHT NOW!

    My friend and i wher talking about during the 7th grade gradution (extras that is!) we can’t wait.

  33. I couldn’t understand some parts of this article Last 100 Hours, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.

Comments are closed.