Chick Lit Dares, 2011!

Dare your fellow Chick Lit Writers to include challenges in their novel! Great for building word count!

Example (thanks tresfolle22!)

Here are mine for the chick literati:

*- include a character who has a deathly fear of yellow cabs
**- give the character a back story explaining said fear
***- make the character fall in love with a cab driver

*Difficulty of the dare

Leaving some dares:

-- At least one super-obnoxious, totally Starbucks-y coffee order. Bonus points if it's a character's "usual".
-- A conversation between two people who don't speak a common language.
-- Include a blogger/mention of a blog post.
-- Dragons!
-- Reversed gender roles (the princess saves the knight, the female president is super-hawkish, the father/grandfather in the small southern town is the meek one in the family)

--Ninjas.

The conversation between two people who don't speak a common language is like bread and butter to my word count stuffing strategy.


*-Make an MC that's otherwise completely normal, but is a chronic funeral crasher. Include at least three crashed funerals in your story, to really emphasize this problem.
*-Have a major revelation at one of the funerals.
**-Have the MC bring another character to a funeral.
**-Have the MC get called out by one of the decedent's loved ones.

"A conversation between two people who don't speak a common language."

I've actually done this.
Her: [Pointing at a new restauant in France] Ellie [Stream of French] pizza?
Me: I wouldn't. I've had it before and it's not good.
Her: *Blank stare.,*
Me: It was bad.
Her: *Blank stare*
Me: Bad. Rotten. Unedible. Horrible.
Her: Ah. Horri-blay! No pizza!

Leaving a dare...

Have a character who constantly has something wrong with her appearance - mismatched earrings, food stuck in her teeth, lipstick smudged on her face, bra strap showing through her shirt - no matter how hard she tries to come across as "put together".

Your character stands by her white car on a busy highway and points a hair dryer at cars as they pass...bonus points if this is your MC's favorite hobby and past-time.

Your character steals lawn gnomes!

I am totally stealing the strange coffee order, 2 baristas in my family should be able to help with that, and the inability to look completely put together, both perfect for my slightly neurotic FMC.

I am seriously trying to figure out how to do the funeral crashing thing, that would be so interesting. Especially the big revelation at one of the funerals.

THANKS :D

I think I can do the conversation with no common language pretty easily... ditto the cross dressing pirates...so I'll take those and the habitual funeral goer is hysterical...I think I can do that...ditto the bring someone to a funeral. *ding* I can TOTALLY do that! Thanks! ( Can't do a lot of these because they are out of my time periods...but blog posts totally puffed my wordcount before- it's a great strategy!)

I should leave a challenge...hmm...how about a MC who gives lawn flamingos as gifts?

Def doing the one about how they cant look put together(: one of my MC's should be able to pull this off perfectly.. thinking it'll be the shy one

I think my MC can for surely give lawn flamingos as gifts!

How about a character who sings the never ending song? Bonus points if you can have your character thinking the song while stuff goes on around them!

This may be totally silly, but mention NANOWRIMO in your story!!

I'll leave a dare...

Your main character believes a fictional character is actually real. Bonus points go to those brave enough to go for the more extreme ones (not just the wonderful Mr Darcy). Think Professor Dumbledore, Mickey Mouse and Tinkerbell!

So very many wonderful Ideas here, this thread is the perfect stimuli for my novel!
Here are some dares...
-Break his nose and one of his toes! – While it does not necessarily have to be his nose or his toes, include a brawl or an ironic event that causes the ‘prince’ like character some small injury. Evidently it happens to end up being one of those “remember that time when you...” moments.
-Include a talking parrot that can list traditional anniversary gifts
-Have a character take in an aged woman who speaks nonsense and maybe a little bit scary looking as a good karma project , Later find out the woman is actually very astute and powerful.
-One Ultra Geeky Romantic Line – Example “I brought you some flours.”

* a character who is a total hypochondriac and uses WebMD and those terrible TV commercials for self-diagnostic purposes. Should be extra neurotic and a total doctor shopper, too!

My dare:
I will craft a sympathetic heroine who is delightful, fun and the kind of woman you'd want to be friends with. And, she's a bit of a slut. (Hero's must have a fatal flaw, right?)

I dare you to tart up your chick-lit MC!

the dares thread is my absolute favorite <3 one of these days i'm just going to end up doing a dare novel

include a character in your novel who is obsessed with the cw's shows (the vampire diaries, one tree hill, gossip girl, etc.)
-BP if said character frequently misses important events because they refuse to record their shows and watch them later
-DBP if said character constantly brings up characters from the shows in reference to real-life situations (ex. "this would never happen to blair!" "i can't believe your boyfriend cheated on you! stefan would never cheat on elena!")
-TBP if the references are relevant to the story
-QBP if the character meets a star of one of their shows and refuses to acknowledge them as an actor, instead addressing them by their character's name

i thought the chick lit writers might be able to do something fun with that one :)

<~used Blair as a face for another project, but that's about all I know about her *shuffles*

Also, I'm taking a bunch of these dares YAY! the parrot is going to create hilarity in one of the drunk scenes. :-D

New Dare! Courtesy of Miss @BreeGlenn on twitter :) Put this tweet/story somewhere in your novel!

"Totally got owned, by a nun in a VW Beetle, on my way to work today. She may have even given me the stink-eye, as she passed me by."

Another dare from twitter!

@warblermillie: "We dare you to add a scene where time stops. What happens because of this is up to you to decide." #NaNoWriMo dare!