DId anyone here start out with the perfect outline and then trash it at the last minute?
Did you make a plan for a mystery story that somehow turned into a sci-fi thriller?
Have you done anything crazy in the past while writing you NaNoWriMo?
Like stay up all night and then find out in the morning tomorrow was only the 29th?
If it fits into the description of the title tell it!
I started out my story as a sort of autobiography of a teenage boy's school and at home life, now it seems it will either end up as zombie invasion, terroist invasion, (I still can't speel terrorist without spellcheck) or a sort of sudden hurricane appearing over a small New England town.
Tell your story's story!
-Just south of 12k words, Hornets12
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The sight was horrendous, men and women of different color, race, ethnicity all united under the most final thing anywhere, death. -Burn Before Reading
2009- Burn Before Reading - So close but so far
50,602 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 18 15
Let's see...
I first came up with the idea for this story when I was in high school. I think I was a junior. So I sat down and decided to write it. The two main characters were Claira and Frederick. And I epic failed. I could not get the story onto paper and have it sound good. I hated every part of the story.
Then I realized that with every time I tried to fix the mistakes, the whole story got worse. So I threw it. Not away, just threw it into the closet and hid it. I haven't looked at it since then. But the basic idea for the story nor did the characters ever leave. I still loved that part, even if I remembered hating everything I had written.
So now I'm writing it all over again, from scratch. A mideival story. A love triangle. Claira is now named Johanna and Frederick is now named Henric. And already the story is farther along than I got when I tried to write it back then. It's longer. It's more drawn out. It's just in all ways better, even if there are a few chapters that I already know need to be re-done.
----------Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it rest, heals the heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul
84,305 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 18 47
I started with some tomboy story, thinking to follow in the footsteps of last year's success, with an MC named Emma.
But then one night I was staring at the armchair in my bedroom waiting for sleep, and it came to me like an epiphany. Helen of Troy. Helen of Troy in a new way, as a standalone which could also be integrated, if I so chose, into the new world I'd created for the trilogy I had just finished writing.
Helen of Troy with a twist, if you will. What if Helen had been warned of what was coming? What if Helen had begged her father not to marry her to Meneleus? And more importantly, what if it was more than Troy that stood to be destroyed if Helen ended up with Paris? What if it was the world that hung in the balance, too? Everyone she loved, everyone she had ever cared about? What would Helen do, what would she be DRIVEN to do?
The next day I started reading The Iliad, and just a few days after that I was reading every primary source document for the myths around the Trojan war I could get my hands on. The greatest thing about these classical sources is that they're available all over the internet for free--without which Helen would not have gotten off the ground. The more I dug into the myths, the more it all started to fall into place. And so here I am, rocketing to the finish line. Pretty sure I'm only a third of the way through the story though.
And that is the story of my story so far.
----------Sometimes I blog.
http://hellia.blogspot.com/
Other times I contribute.
http://www.geekachicas.com/
But I really just want to novel :)
25,390 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 08 00
Amalia - I just love your story. I really enjoy reading historical fiction w/ twists - different viewpoints of what could of - might of happened if x happened or y didn't happen. It's those questions that pop into your head when you are reading any story or watching any movie - and I love when someone else answers them.
Have you read Michael Scott's series, "The Imortal Secrets of Nicholas Flamel"? There's three books out so far, "The Alchemyst", "The Magician" and "The Soceress". He has put in so many different mythical and real historical characters together - in one series that transpires just over one month's time. Joan of Arc is in it and when I read your story it made me think of it.
Keep on writing - you are almost there!!!
Michelle - who really needs to get writing today to catch up.
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25,390 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 08 06
Musicalgal - Isn't it amazing how you just can't get a story out of your head! I wonder if by changing their names that released you to move forward? Very interesting.... So happy that you've gone farther in your story - what a great feeling it must be to KNOW you are moving foward and beyond.. and able to see where the story is taking you. Keep going.... even if you find errors or don't like the direction - you can always change it. In my story right now I have two different beginnings because I really don't know which one is the right one. I won't know until I get to the end.
Cheering you one to 50k!!!
Michelle - who better get her own butt in gear and write something today.
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25,390 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 08 15
I was all geared up for Nano. Had my outline done -although it's be changed a number of times and had some character sketches done. It's a YA faerie story about fae and humans not able to get along together and a villian who wants power/immortality. Unfortunately when I started writing it out, my initial villian because a sorta hero so I'm in need of a new villian now. I researched yesterday a bit so I would be able to write today but I'm still now sure where my story is going now.
While writing my first couple thousand words on my faerie story I also got an idea about a MC novel about a jealous girl who plays with the wrong Muse - literally. I love Greek Mythology and would really love to see how this story plays out. So I started writing both - not realizing only one would count for Nano so.... now I'm just concentrating on my villianLESS faerie story.
If anyone has any ideas - I would greatly appreaciate them:) I have a feeling though I'm one of those people who really want bad people to turn good....
Hope eveyrone's writing is going EXCELLENT today!
Michelle -- who really has to stop responding to the forums and get to her own writing:)
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84,305 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 08 22
Thanks! I'm really enjoying writing it. The different characters are really surprising me. I had ideas of how I thought things were, and I'm discovering that it is not the case. haha. But that just makes me more excited to keep writing and see how it turns out.
I haven't read any of those, but I will put them on my Christmas list. thanks for the suggestion!
I'm aiming for 50K today! :)
Write on! You can catch up and get ahead!
----------Sometimes I blog.
http://hellia.blogspot.com/
Other times I contribute.
http://www.geekachicas.com/
But I really just want to novel :)
37,009 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 08 43
Michelle: Rules were made to be bent. I am writing two stories, and I am counting every damn word of both :)
----------Don't you know there ain't no devil? There's just god when he's drunk.
29,200 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 12 26
A few years ago, when I was probably a sophomore in HS, I wanted to write a story where Dorothy and Alice were sisters... I think I wanted to make it a "dark" story, but I'm not sure.
This year I remembered that. I quickly nixed it. Then I thought it would be interesting if there was a girl who went crazy and thought she was Alice or something.
Then, I hated it, and my MC is now an alternative model. She has Alice sleeve tattoos, heh, and goes by the name "Alice" to protect her identity.
Basically, it went from a possible retelling of a children's story to a crazy girl story to a.. whatever I'm writing now, lol. I'm still constantly changing the plot.
----------50,602 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 12 35
Cheering you one to 50k!!!
Michelle - who better get her own butt in gear and write something today.
Oh, yes it definitely is. I'm not sure whether or not it was the changing of the names or the putting a ton of time in between what I had originally written and now. I do know that when all is said and done, I will be going back to the original manuscript and rereading it to pull out what was well done and see if I can mesh it into this current draft. We'll see. But yes, I'm loving every moment of it.
And hope you figure out which beginning is perfect.
Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it rest, heals the heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul
----------Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it rest, heals the heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul
25,390 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2009 - 19 24
I know.. I've thought about it and I'm going to add it in. I would love to have two books 25k each to work with in December. I'm much better multi-tasking so I don't get stuck in a rut. Glad I'm not alone:)
Michelle - Who needs to get up early tomorrow to get the kids ready for Picture Day! Yeah for me.
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