For some of you, ideas flow like water – your own personal babbling brook of creativity, ready to be spilled onto a page at your earliest convenience.
For others, the well runs a wee bit drier – you close your eyes and wiggle your fingers, hovering them over the keyboard, waiting for inspiration to strike!
Do you know what you’re going to write yet? If so, tell us a bit about it! Genre, general story, or a cryptic description that will leave us wanting more!
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-=-=-=-=-=- Earth. Air. Fire. Water. Write! -=-=-=-=-=-
52,744 / 50,000
Okt 2, 2009 - 13 21
Hm, I thought Karen was the water clan's sensai... ; )
I've decided to go with what I know: I'm going to write the Great Canadian Curling Novel. It'll be a coming-of-age story about a young man, forced to skip a team with no knowledge of curling whatsoever. As he teaches them how to curl, he learns something about the game... and something about himself, as well.
And, of course, since I don't want it to be boring, it'll have a few Muppet Babies-style dream sequences where he views his curling match as:
-deep space exploration ("There's only one way into that freighter... we're going to have to board her with the docking engines off. Get ready to sweep, men.")
-a wild west gunfight ("That's a pretty good take-out there, partner. But I reckon I'm just a little bit better.")
-a castle siege ("He's only sending one man to our left! That's suicide!" "But sir, our artillery can't reach him there, and he's... he's starting to come closer.")
-and a cloning research facility. ("The front guards! They just keep multiplying... and we can't stop them!!!")
...what? LIke I said, I'm going with what I know.
----------Denton, a.k.a. Aquadeo - ML for the Alberta::Elsewhere Wrimosaurs
I'm typing this year's novel LIVE on:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/late-write-featuring-aquadeo
19,257 / 50,000
Okt 2, 2009 - 13 29
Hi everyone,
I'm Tina, and I'm trying to decide between two book ideas for this year's NANO.
1) A dark fantasy novel.
"In a world where magic is controlled by the plants and animals, humans have striven for generations to gain the upper hand. Scientists went to war with the religious communities about how to harness magic for human controlled power, and in the end the scientific community was sent underground. Soon after a mysterious Mist appeared and no one ever returned alive, until now. Four people with no memories of who they are are found wandering the mountain side, and with the help of a mercenary, a noble women on the run, and senile old man they unlock the mystery of the mist and very magic of their world."
I think this will be part of a trilogy but I'm not sure. I'm also not sure what the whole plot is, but I have a bunch of cool characters that want to come out and play.
2) A dark science fiction novel.
"In the far future, the Interplanetary Alliance has crumpled and the Myriths, a warrior human group, have begun their war on the remaining pockets of resistance. Even neutral planets like Adrossia are not safe, and Kori is among those abducted when Adrossia is pillaged for habitat, animals and slaves. She was luckily to survive the cull but when she is forced to become a sex slave, survival takes on a whole new meaning. "
This is not an erotic or even romantic piece, and I want it to highlight the struggles of overcoming captivity, learning to fight back and how hope can change the course of war.
So.... any one have a suggestion? Which one should I pick?
----------Website: http://www.TinaHunter.ca
NaNo 2009: Riot Girl
37,122 / 50,000
Okt 2, 2009 - 13 40
A keen observation, Aquadeo! I was merely attempting to hone my skill of subterfuge... perhaps I've said to much...
-----------=-=-=-=-=- Earth. Air. Fire. Water. Write! -=-=-=-=-=-
51,531 / 50,000
Okt 2, 2009 - 14 12
I was intent earlier this year on writing a space opera. Then I thought steampunk would be cool. Then it was back to space opera. Then I went camping in Dinosaur Provincial Park and steampunk came back full force! So I thought I might write a steampunk space opera. It worked for Treasure Planet, I reasoned.
Then I thought I might want to write bad Harry Potter fanfiction (A: I find myself incapable of writing SHORT pieces anymore, and B: there was a reason for it, and it had to be bad ;) ). That was as recently as 2 weeks ago! But then I spent a week climbing mountains around Banff and steampunk came back and is hopefully here to stay. I have a few characters and even the "back of the book" written...
Sadly, no more space opera. It's landed firmly in romance territory. Of the five nanos I've won, four of them were romances. I guess if something isn't broken, I shouldn't fix it :)
Steampunk romance with laser guns, cyborgs, chases through the rain in the Badlands and death-defying adventures through the Rockies, here I come! (now, how to work out the technology...)
----------The one, the only, the amazing, the I-can't-believe-it's-not-butter Crystalkins!
@livejournal
0 / 50,000
Okt 2, 2009 - 14 18
I'm thinking, heist. Granted, it'd be easier to write as a script, but still. I've got little bits running through my head. I just need to think of motivation for their bank heist. Trying to decide between: illness in the family; gambling debts; family members have been kidnapped and they need to pay the ransom; or something better.
27,273 / 50,000
Okt 2, 2009 - 14 38
Well, as I said in my intro thread my idea is for a romantic comedy about zombies. TheFinn gave me the idea to call it "For the Love of Brian" (as a play on brains).
I envision it opening with a couple on their wedding day, and the wedding being crashed by zombies. The new husband gets turned into a zombie and his new wife just doesn't want to let him go. The story is about the relationship she tries to maintain with her now un-dead Brian. I haven't decided what direction it'll take yet, though.
----------Nano History:
2007 - "In the Blood", historical drama
2008 - "Earth", post apocalyptic fantasy
2009 - "For the Love of Brian", romantic comedy and zombies
23,045 / 50,000
Okt 2, 2009 - 14 53
I've got 3 ideas at the moment, none in any way fully realized, 2 sci-fi/space opera dealies and something about vampires.
1) Probably the most fleshed out idea. X number of years ago humanity launched it's crowing achievement, they're first faster-than-light exploration ship out toward alpha centauri. It vanished without a trace and never came back. Flash to the 'present' and space ship mark 2 is about to make the same jump. We follow the captain and crew as they jump out of our solar system only to find themselves captured by a massive alien ship where they learn that humanity is the youngest intelligent race in a galaxy populated by thousands of intelligent and powerful species. They discover that earth has been cut off from the rest of the galaxy to protect our development and the people that run the galaxy have decided that we're still to young to have FTL so they grabbed our first ship and now they've grabbed the second. Our intrepid crew must do something.... This is where this idea craters...
2) Young man coming into adult hood in an agrarian society who are 'descended from the heavens'. They worship 'the captain' as the savior of their race and the evil 'stationmaster' is always waiting to drag them back to the heavens. Of course they're the survivors of some space ship crash or something and the young man discovers this when he uncovers a buried escape capsule. He and his friend get it running and activate it's return system or something and get launched into space and meet up with the ancient station orbiting the planet. From there they do something... I don't know what.
3) Vampire story. I've got nothing here other then the vampires are not the sort they've become in most of todays TV and Movies. Think '30 Days of Night' not 'Twilight'. These things are monsters, there is nothing sexy about them. They hunger for blood. Our yet-to-be-determined heroes must stop a batch of them who've moved into town.
That's what I've got. Feel free to rip me off :D
37,736 / 50,000
Okt 2, 2009 - 15 16
I started off wanting to do a fantasy about an unseen world co-existing with our own but I didn't want to take the faery/vampire route. I settled on an underground society of primitive cavers but as the story's evolved it's become a lot less fantasy-based. Right now I'm trying to keep it as plausible as possible, nothing that couldn't fit within the laws of nature, etc. as we know them:
A girl falls into uncharted cave passages either through the floor of a cave she's exploring or through a sinkhole from the surface. Nobody knows she's there so she has to try to find a way out. Luckily she finds an underground stream right away ; ) She follows the stream, trying to reach the surface, and just as you think she can't go on any longer, she encounters a small group of nomads. They live underground in a maze of lower-level passages that rarely connect with 'known' caves. So, all well and good, she lives with them, learns about the strange 'dark life' that forms the basis of the food chain that supports them (which is consistent with current scientific theory), but then she's no closer to getting home. Then at a gathering of some kind, she meets up with another surface human and being two equally strong characters there's tension there from the start. He turns out to be the caver father who 'died' cave diving when she was a baby and she identifies him as such by a tattoo she's seen in photographs. She's angry that he never came home (he couldn't find a way out, but has now) and that he settled down in the caves and started a new family.
Here's where I'm still undecided. Either (1) HE wants to take the underground people up to civilisation for their own good because he had a child in the caves who died for lack of routine medical care,or (2) SHE wants to take them into civilisation because she's introduced the flu virus and they're dying like flies. Either way, the father and daughter will take opposite sides and the father will be willing to use nefarious means to force the outcome he wants. There will be a subplot of political intrigue amongst the underground people, with a bad guy who tries to leverage the conflict between them for his own gain. The father and daughter conflict will come to some resolution I guess. And there may be romance. And lots of survival stuff a la Swiss Family Robinson and My Side of the Mountain. Whew!
On the other hand, there's a long time to go till November and the whole thing could have changed by then!
37,736 / 50,000
Okt 2, 2009 - 15 26
Ooooh, that was a long one, but once I got started I couldn't stop. Sorry! Good practice for November, though : P
Samantha
38,679 / 50,000
Okt 2, 2009 - 15 27
I'm writing about a society of demonhunters that lives within Victorian-era society. They worship angels and practice magic- I think they may be descended from the nephilim or doing penance for something long in the past.
The main character is Virginia Milton, sixteen who's been raised by her 'mother' and 'aunt' who are actually a lesbian couple who adopted her when her mother died in childbirth and her father left on a long hunting mission. She grows up to be a hunter herself.
Other than that I don't much know the plot besides her at one point being kidnapped.
40,446 / 50,000
Okt 2, 2009 - 16 08
Victorian demons? Chloe! I am signing up to beta read that one. *bounces in seat*
The working title of this years NaNo is Taken because that's about all that I know is going to happen. A group of talented youths who know each other in a "six degrees to Kevin Bacon" way are taken by force and candy. They are trained, reeducated and forced to fight one another in a brother-sister conflict blown way out of proportion. A third force in the family feud steps in and then . . . then I have no idea. But there's lots of room for nightmarish monsters that can be described as "mutated octopus polar-bear with your grandfather's mustache".
I know. Needs a bit of work.
85,830 / 50,000
Okt 2, 2009 - 18 55
I'd write the fantasy myself. I wanna know what the mist is!
----------05: Through Silver Glass- 50k
06: The Legend of Scarecrow-76k
07: On The Edge-103k
08: Revenant Lights-111k
39,474 / 50,000
Okt 2, 2009 - 20 06
I'll admit it -- this year I'm writing fanfic. Like I said in my intro, it tends to be my default when I can't come up with anything better.
This time last year, I had a plot, I had characters chatting away in the back of my head, framing out potential scenes, I had ZOROASTRIANS! This year... not so much. Right. Well. Back into my favourite borrowed sandbox I go, to play with four wonderfully malevolent psychic assassins from the anime series Weiss Kreuz. Add in one vaguely sketchy plot and some antagonists with one or two bones to pick, and we'll see what transpires.
It may not be as well thought-out as last year's novel, but it's been a good long while since I wrote any WK fic longer than a few pages, and I think I'm rather looking forward to it. ;)
----------Harper Grey
Sensei for Clan Commandment
27,543 / 50,000
Okt 2, 2009 - 21 53
A horrible movie with a really bad overdone ending ...
oh wait ... wrong mist.
Inspired by Saat Po Long (a martial arts flick involving five cops pursuing a mob leader with somewhat of a vengeance), I've decided to write a current-day beat-em-up novel with police, vigilantes and you guessed it, a mob leader.
----------The plot is still being hammered out in my mind (as are all my plots), but essentially it's five vigilantes dodging the massive police hunt for them as they attempt to bring the mob boss to justice. Once the plot gets going, their goal changes and so do their allies.
I'm gonna post a sticky note on my monitors to remind myself a) no sci-fi and b) lots of bloody action.
100,002 / 50,000
Okt 3, 2009 - 10 02
Truthfully? I have no idea what I'm going to write about. My first year I went into NaNo with careful notes and outlines and diagrams. I was on plot point, oh, four out of nineteen or so when I hit 50k. The three years since, I sit down at midnight with my computer, and I just start typing whatever comes into my head, and let it go from there. I usually end up writing Young Adult type stuff, with a rather pronounced slant toward GLBT lit, though this year I have a hunch I may end up doing fantasy. I guess I'll find out in a few weeks what I'm writing.
10,142 / 50,000
Okt 3, 2009 - 12 22
I have settled on writing a sci-fi/post-apocalyptic novel this year. I got the idea from an FFRP a buddy of mine was running and it just kind of took off in my head.
--
It takes place about forty years into the future. The United States ended up having most of its government taken over by right-wing biblical fundamentalists. After years of antagonizing the middle eastern Islamic countries, they ended up setting of a nuclear war. As it turns out, this was all part of the plan of a very small sect of christian zealots who believed that it would be possible to bring about the second coming through an enormous loss of life. After the dust settled, they realized that they had only gotten about half the job done, as most other countries ended up not being targetted by each other in the cross fire.
This did not stop their predictions from being accurate, however, because soon after a multitude of inter-dimensional gates opened up throughout the world. Out of these gates poured wave upon wave of demonic creatures, and there rampages across the world ended up claiming even more lives than the nuclear war had. The attacks eventually tapered off however, and people have begun to settle down. Their have even been rumors of those who have gone over to the demons and bred with them, but these stories are mostly just hearsay.
Since then, the world has entered a sort of mini nuclear winter. Governments around the world have collapsed due to the gaping whole left in global trade due to the United States' exit and the waves of demonic slaughter. The USA proper, the middle east, and most of southeast asia are a nuclear wasteland. Power is now concentrated into a multitude of ancient greece style city-states, all varying wildly in political ideals and laws.
My story is going to involve a group of characters who end up having their town wiped out in a demonic attack, and then are forced to trek across the barren wasteland of the world in hopes of finding a new future for mankind.
---
Phew. Bit of a long write-up. The Dungeon Master/Campaign Writer in me came out and wanted to write up as much back story and plot hooks as I could.
10,142 / 50,000
Okt 4, 2009 - 19 03
Edited to account for the fact I double-posted like a noob.
32,010 / 50,000
Okt 3, 2009 - 22 10
I'm writing book two of the series I started in my first year with "Wizardess."
This one will be "Sorceress," and it will follow Thiella as she encounters a previously undiscovered, reclusive race, and their matriarch, who is only known as The Sorceress.
We'll see how it comes around while I write.
I'm thinking this could be a six-book series if I play it right, I have titles and plotlines for another four.
----------The illustrious Edward D (emdash) Ellipsipuff Jr...
Slew the fire dragon to save the Ellipsis...
From certain doom as a snack.
For the dragon thought the Ellipsis...
Was a line of marshmallows...
And had a craving for Smores.
55,020 / 50,000
Okt 3, 2009 - 23 21
I'm doing the same thing as yowiemommy.
I'm writing book two of the series I started last year. I originally had nothing planned for this year. But I got attacked by a rabid plot bunny after a week or so of editing last year’s NaNo and had to fend it off for a year so I could write it this year.
The series is general fiction with traces of chick lit since I based it off of an original RP I was a part of that died a few years ago. I’m just continuing the story of two of my characters; Abby and Brandon, seeing what life after college takes them. (And they are not the couple, really close friends and I refused to have a good strong male character turn into the “falling for my best friend” route .)
As of right now I have no clue what the title will be for this book. I usually get an idea sometime when I see where the story is going.
----------44,010 / 50,000
Okt 4, 2009 - 01 57
Only because you asked....
Tara Stanford (38 year old college teacher) is driving home, emotionally upset, one foggy night when she has a car accident. While not seriously injured externally, she remains unexplainably unconscious for (not sure how long yet). When she wakes up, she has no memory of anything, even her own name. As she struggles to recover her memory and cope with life in the meantime, friends and family, including her husband Grant (43 year old corporate type), try to help her accurately remember her past (or do they)?
- other main characters: her parents in the midst of nasty divorce, her younger troubled sister, her best friend (female), her husband's twin brother
- secondary characters: 2 other female friends, colleagues who visit (two teachers- sex TBD- and maybe the principal she works for - sex TBD- not sure about having this character at all yet)
- further plot info: not to be revealed here; you'll need to read it when it's done!
Which brings me to a question of sorts.... how much is too much (in terms of the trauma/drama the MC could go through before it becomes over the top and/or unbelievable and/or exhausting to read/write)??
Thoughts welcome (this is my first crack at a novel)!
Tracey
----------I get knocked down, but I get up again. You're never gonna keep me down. - Chumbawamba
157,047 / 50,000
Okt 4, 2009 - 06 33
Tracey, as to your question how much is too much, the answer is there is no such thing as too much! If it feels like it's too much, don't worry about it and keep writing. After you've reached 50K and after the month is over, when you edit your novel, you can cut out parts you don't like and change others.
As to what I'm writing, I'm also doing a sequel to close off my trilogy (although there may be a fourth in three years). It's "cyberpunk" and I put that in quotes because I don't know how cyberpunk it will be. My main character is now 30, so the whole punk rebel attitude is mostly out the window (or is it?). This time Devlin has to stop her old mentor from taking over the city and at the same time wrestling with issues of old age! Er, um, totally not about me *hides* lol.
44,010 / 50,000
Okt 4, 2009 - 09 05
"Old age"???? At 30??? Hmmmm...
----------I get knocked down, but I get up again. You're never gonna keep me down. - Chumbawamba
24,592 / 50,000
Okt 4, 2009 - 17 41
I had a rather frightening number of ideas accumulating in my head, actually, but I've finally settled on one -- and it's a little different from the fantasy-set stories I usually write.
It's hard to explain. Y'see, I got this idea while I was in Katimavik last year and was suddenly struck with how cool and scary a plot I could make out of the program (despite the fact that I loved Katimavik). So my story is, essentially, a highly convoluted rendition of what was once a true story. It's sort of an urban fantasy, I guess, with several elements swiped from science fiction and old comic books.
It's about a girl named Sketch and the events that befall her after she signs up for KanataQuest, a critically-acclaimed, year-long program that promises to give confused teens direction in life through public service. Sketch and the nine other people in her project group quickly learn that KanataQuest is not what it seemed to be in the brochures. Strange things are happening all around them, and Sketch is beginning to suspect that they may be trapped inside a conspiracy that goes much deeper than KanataQuest's magnanimous goals of reaching out to the younger generation.
It's going to be a fun story, with lots of brainwashing and espionage and spontaneous combustion and euphemisms including shrimp and such.
----------38,561 / 50,000
Okt 4, 2009 - 18 18
I'm still waffling myself. I have a number of partly-begun fantasyish projects that I've ruled out, but I don't have a solid idea yet. I do think I'd like to start in baseline reality, but have things branch off...but I don't know which way. I may be using Sims 2 characters, possibly renamed.
I was intrigued by an idea that was brought up in a panel at Pure Speculation, about having a virus created for gene therapy that accidentally ends up being contagious... Especially with the example on the panel about the gene that results in hugely increased muscle mass. Or something. Who knows?
--
--Alfvaen(Web page: http://www.telusplanet.net/public/alfvaen/ )
Current Album--The Kimberly Trip:You'll Get Nothing...And Like It!
Current Book--Robert Jordan:Winter's Heart
I like to torture my plants by watering them with ice cubes.
37,736 / 50,000
Okt 4, 2009 - 18 49
Allister, your idea sounds great: conspiracy, political intrigue, apocalypse, alien invasion, fraternization ... lots to play with!
Samantha
10,142 / 50,000
Okt 4, 2009 - 19 02
Thanks eggs. Hopefully I can string something coherent out of it.
@Arnold: As soon as you said Cyberpunk I was interested. If you open it up to general readership once you're done I would love to take a look.
19,257 / 50,000
Okt 5, 2009 - 07 42
@Tamia
Hurray! A Katimavik based novel. I did the program in 2003-04 and it was the hardest and best thing I've ever done.
I look forward to hearing more about it.
----------Website: http://www.TinaHunter.ca
NaNo 2009: Riot Girl
37,122 / 50,000
Okt 5, 2009 - 07 51
To be perfectly honest, I'm a little terrified - I have NO idea what I am writing about.
For the last two years, I've had at least an idea or two knocking around the ol' noggin' space by the beginning of October. This year? Crickets chirping. Well, no, less than crickets chirping because if I at least had crickets chirping I would be contemplating writing a story about crickets and why they chirp.
It's sad that that's the best idea I've had so far.
I thought about writing a story about a dayhome for super-babies (since right now I run a dayhome, though the only superpower I've observed is that they all have an uncanny knack for running at the nose), but I don't really see that working for me in the end. So, back to square one. Or, well, a lack of squares entirely because if I was at square one I could at least turn that into a story about squares and the numbering of them.
Second best idea, noted. :)
-----------=-=-=-=-=- Earth. Air. Fire. Water. Write! -=-=-=-=-=-
610 / 50,000
Okt 5, 2009 - 12 57
Something about...paranormal investigators, and their day jobs and misadventures and relationships, and an occult bookstore above an addicts support group space...maybe a single roller-derby mom thrown in there somewhere.
That's the sum total of what I've got. If my usual MO holds up it'll be a faintly ridiculous sad/funny kinda story.
I'm comfortable not knowing any more than that. For the time being.
0 / 50,000
Okt 5, 2009 - 16 05
I'm thinking about going sci-fi. Pretty much because it's what I've been reading recently. But it may end up turning into more of a dystopian novel, depending on how things go. I'm a big fan ot that sort of stuff too. Character wise I've got zip. Hopefully the ideas start flowing in November!