Skywatch div (draft four, not an abbreviation of divination. I like Roman numerals, okay?)

[anthimeria]

Word count when I started this afternoon: 47,163
Word count when I finished just now: 47, 897
Scenes deleted: 3
Scenes added: . . . I'm not actually sure.  Several?  More than 3.
Total new words written today: ~1300

The word count is inching ever so slowly closer to 50k, which was my original word count goal for this book.  When I finished the bloody rough at ~44.5k, I was convinced the damn thing was never going to get there.  Now I'm thinking it'll get pretty damn close.

Also, if anyone can think of a suitably steampunk version of the word "helicopter" that doesn't make ears accustomed to American English bleed, I will love you forever and put your name in the acknowledgments.  Apparently helicopter twigs as too modern (every reader I've had thus far has commented on it).  Language-of-origin options include: English, French, Dutch, Cantonese, Hindi, Arabic, Swahili, Greek and, of course, Latin.

Comments

[lotesse]

idk if you're avoiding stealing/referencing, but Dune has "ornithopters/'thopters," which always sounded pretty cool to me.

[anthimeria]

Hmm. Possibly, though I don't know that my middlegrade steampunk mystery is the best place for a Dune homage. Thanks!

Possibilities?

[(Anonymous)]

I got:

halaera/halaero (Arabic + Greek for "spiral air")
rotaera (Latin + Greek for "rotating air")
roteli (Latin + Swahili for "rotating ship")

Or if you still can't find a replacement for the generic word helicopter, try coming up with specific models for various types of helicopters. Just like we can fly in a big Boeing 747 or a tiny CRJ440 (Canadair Regional Jet 440), your world could use a similar naming convention.

Ex. A large cargo carrying helicopter is called The P-12 (Phineas model 12), and a smaller more maneuverable helicopter is named The VX (the next generation Verdi model)

Plus it makes sense that if your world is set in a sky city where presumably there's a lot of flying going on society would be able to distinguish between different types of aircraft models.

Just my two cents. Take what you will and leave the rest :-)

Re: Possibilities?

[anthimeria]

Ooh, interesting words. And a very good point on naming specific models. It doesn't apply everywhere, but I can think of at least one plot point where it should and doesn't right now.

(If you want credit in the acknowledgments--assuming I ever get published--leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail. My e-mail's in my profile.)

Thanks!