What is the plot of YOUR novel?

let's see who is writing mainstream. i wan't to see your plot ideas, even if all you have is the main idea in your head. nice, outlined plots are apreciatted.

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i'll start:

plot:
Samantha has a job. A nice job, new friends and coworkers, a good boss. Reading the wrong file and realizing potential of the information ends with Sam having a couple more zeros added to her bank account and a new job. The new job and the new boss seems nice. She meets a guy. Everything is good. Until Sam discovers that her new boss is trying to destroy her previous boss, there is a hacker having fun with the company's website, and there is also an oncoming federal investigation, but she has a way to turn all of the happening to her advantage. Ensue power play, intrigues, placing blame on a third company and Sam right in the middle of everything.

comments:
in my head it's as mainstream as it gets, with a flavour of a thriller.

@EvelJerome: I think that's a really neat idea. It looks like you'll have a few subplots and people can relate to that kind of thing. Thumbs up!

As my way of exploring American history (being Canadian), my novel is about a guy (John) who is finding stories about his deceased father's life. [Note: his father was a bit mad]
His father (currently named Jerry) was born in the south of the US (not sure where yet) in 1928 and grew up there, smart and educated, and spent most of his days on the side of town where black people lived. Being the thirties, this was not exactly normal.
He fought in World War Two along with his brother, Simon, and his good friend, who was black (unnamed, any suggestions?). His friend died, but both Jerry and Simon survived.
After the war, people noticed Jerry was a bit mad (well, more mad than he used to be). He also blinked a lot and cared far less for strangers, and was even a bit estranged by his family.
Nevertheless, Jerry married the girl(unnamed, suggestions?) he had been in contact with during the war in 1951. Two years later, John was born.
He worked as a radio broadcaster and became very popular during the Vietnam war, giving regular updates and lightening people's mood about the tough situation.

I will be telling the story through different mediums and likely out of order. Different people will tell different stories, I'll have some of the letters he wrote during the war and a few radio broadcasts, too.
Oh, I've been asked this, and yes, it's fictional. Jerry is not based on anyone I know, knew, or have heard of.

Suggestions (names!), tips, comments?

I daresay this is the first year I have no main plot. I have a subplot or two, and my main cast of characters though. I've always written the same cast every year, but this is the first year I plan on focusing on my usual protagonist's best friend- how exactly is what I can't figure out.

Gary is in his mid-twenties and works in the accounting department for a nonprofit that does... things... that aren't going to be relevant ever. He's quite extroverted, loves jazz and his clarinet, and makes his girlfriend roll her eyes on a regular basis. One subplot involves Emperor Norton, a locally famous hobo who lives in the park, vanishing without a trace. The other subplot involves Gary's best friend, Tim, being set up on progressively bad blind dates because a couple of biddies at the graphic design firm he works at have decided that there is no way he can be happy single. Somehow I also have to throw in the five people that donated to my Night of Writing Dangerously page (one of them will work as a park groundskeeper).

I'm hoping in the next week the real story will come so I can start outlining it.

Unnamed Boy is depressed for unknown reason and jumps off a bridge. But he doesn't die; he wakes up somewhere that I'm just going to call Narnia right now but I'll have to find a new name for. Point being, it's a lot like Narnia. Magic and whatnot.

Anyway. He lives here, meets a troupe of people who shenanigan all over faux-Narnia, either Robin-Hooding (helping the poor) or pulling a Prince Caspian (overthrowing a corrupt government). Anyway, they're doing something for the greater good. He meets Girl Wonder and starts to think, hey, maybe life is good after all. (Maybe this is more of a fantasy novel? But fantasy isn't the point I'm trying to make. God, I don't know.) He starts to realize that this troupe of people are others who tried to kill themselves. New people join them fairly regularly; on occasion someone simply disappears (like Girl Wonder). Eventually, Unnamed Boy is pulled out of the river in which he tried to drown himself. Who saved him? GIRL WONDER! end scene.

How fake-Narnia works:
You try to off yourself. You are unsuccessful. Alright well welcome to fake-Narnia, you're there until you decide that you are happy and don't want to off yourself anymore. Or until you have escaped (maybe people who have closed their mind to the idea of happiness? then they succeed.) It kind of works like actual Narnia, in that 1 year, 2 years, 30 years in fake-Narnia may be a matter of minutes in the real world.

I don't know if that made any sense. But I know where I'm going with it.

There are two (fictional) countries sitting right next to each other: Jerrinstan and Wipal. Jerrinstan is a free, democratic nation, and Wipal is run by a dictator. My MC, Tamra, was born in Wipal and grew up there and had a pretty normal, happy life. I mean, as much as she realistically could, under the circumstances. She was happy, though. Then when she was 18 her parents took their whole family and escaped into Jerrinstan in search of a better life.

When my story opens, Tamra (who is 21 at this point) is living in Jerrinstan but wants to go back to Wipal. So she does, and she brings her Jerrinstanian girlfriend Felix, a professional comedian, with her. For reasons unknown to pretty much anyone, the dictator offers her a job as his personal assistant. And about halfway through the novel, Wipal is going to conquer Jerrinstan, bringing about a whole other mess of problems. And there are going to be other complications and subplots, but the basic idea of the story is Tamra kind of drowning in darkness and becoming evil right before her own eyes, but she doesn't realize it until it's too late, and then she's left to decide what's really important to her and how she should proceed to live the rest of her life.

I wrote the prequel to this novel for NaNoWriMo last year, and I've had the idea for the story since I was about 17, so I'm really excited to finally force myself to write the whole thing next month!

I am also pretty confident in the mainstreaminess of my novel- it's far too frothy to be literary fiction for a start and there a no crimes (save for avoiding the home office and slightly bending the VISA rules) and no one has magical powers:

Above a Burger King in South London, The Lewisham School of Language welcomes a new class of students wishing to learn English as a second language.

Meet Raj Puri,a twenty nine year old Pakistani-born and proud first generation British Citizen . He loves fish and chips, football, Princess Diana and his dream is to meet Ian Beale from EastEnders.He is also a woefully incompetent language teacher just starting out his career.

The Students, including a Korean divorcee, a cantankerous seventy five year old Polish builder, an African refugee and a glamorous mail order bride all have their different reasons for studying English;and indeed vastly different reasons for leaving their homeland but they are all the same in their isolation from the country they inhabit- hindered and hidden behind that very large barrier of language.

And then there's Heather, the best student in the class- which is unsurprising given that she was born in Ealing and has a C in english literature at A'level. A lonely college drop out and failed writer, she joined the school,posing as a foreign language student, just because she's never been the best--or even good-- at anything before.

Raj's methods are unorthodox, his pronunciation and grasp of basic grammar is poor but over ten week's through terribly written essays and an overdose of British soap operas both the students and Raj learn something--if not how to pass their end of year exams-- about struggles that transcend language, about prejudice, friendship and what it means to be a citizen of the world.

Shortly before her first Reconciliation my seven-year-old MC (whose name still eludes me) tries to kill her older sibling (who I thought was a sister but may in fact be a brother). Sure that she is going straight to hell, she is determined to give the Best Confession Ever, convincing God to forgive her and rid her of the horrible violence that defines her thinking. The book follows her from the scene of the crime through the realm of child psychology, to school, to church and back.

In the late 21st century, the meat industry transitioned to completely lab-created animals. Several companies got into a size war with their lobsters, culminating in a model that was the size of humans and walked on its hind legs. Twenty years later, these lobsters, whom we had accidentally made sentient, staged a revolution, enslaving the entire human race for three years before we were able to defeat them.

Now, at the dawn of the 23rd century, giant tacos from space have arrived and have started consuming people. When we fought the lobsters, we could kill them, but the burros can't be killed, because they're not alive. This war will never end.

The story follows a young soldier who leaves his squadron and is nearly mortally wounded, then nursed back to health by members of a lobster sleeper cell -- one of whom he may be falling in love with. Can humans and lobsters put their differences aside and stand in solidarity against the burros?

(Spoilers: Probably not.)

I love knittingneedle's plot - definitely a book I would read, maybe because I teach English to speakers of other languages.

My novel has an adult education theme too. It's about a group of mums from an inner city area who get together to do a parenting course. I haven't worked out the details yet but the novel will explore their characters and their reasons for doing the course, and how they change as a result of doing the course. At the end of the course they have a session on getting back to work and they end up starting a business together making and selling cakes.

This year's is (hopefully) the last of a (hopefully accurately-named) trilogy, and I haven't worked it out very well yet (least of all the ending), but the basic conflict of this one is:

Two vigilantes. One, motivated to destroy the prolific mob in her city, newly reformed under a cold and ruthless boss, and avenge her dead mob boss brother while she's at it. The other, pulled by the desire to end the mob, as well, but constrained to do nothing in order to preserve his anonymity (as the entire structure of the New Mob knows them by name and sight). Meanwhile, the city is utterly falling apart, because until this point, they HADN'T been doing nothing and now the city is falling under mob rule.

I actually have no idea how this is going to be resolved, and this is my first year doing NaNo as a college student, so what I'm saying is it's gonna be a fun ride.

I wrote the first of three parts for the 3-Day Novel Contest in 2009. A high school senior is stalked by a classmate. She graduates and moves off to fashion design school, hoping she covered her tracks well enough to leave her stalker behind. He finds her, abducts, tortures, rapes, and leaves her for dead. She begins to recover when he turns up and is shot by police while attempting to abduct her again. She attends his funeral and stabs his corpse. The first section ends with her being charged under the Criminal Code of Canada for this crime.

Part Two (that I'm writing this year) is the story of the investigation and trial. Part Three will be how she picks up her life again after the trial and punishment.

I originally envisioned this as a trilogy, but I think it works better as three parts of a single novel.

I wasn't sure I belonged here, but I read the defining mainstream fiction thread and I can answer yes to all of those questions, although I dislike the "stereotypical" bits.

Meagan Hoyle's life has been on hold for eight months as she hides in a witness protection program. Only allowed to see certain people until the conclusion of a trial accusing the son of a prominent man of murder, she has developed an affectionate attachment to the defense attorney. Now that the trial is done, Derek has admitted his interest in his ex-star-witness and proposed. Even though the trial is done and the "evildoer" has been put away, though, Derek continues to receive death threats and has decided to get out of Cincinnati for the winter.

Finally able to go places and resume her career, Meagan is instead whisked away to New York City, subjected to a very large surprise, and abandoned as her fiance is forced to choose between safety and sweetness. Coupled with Derek's twin brother, she must get back to Ohio, make a stand, and catch a killer - and time is running out.

Two possibles that have been rumbling around for a long time ...

These are my two seeds ... I have a lot of ideas for each one but looking forward to seeing which ideas develop ... just not sure which I am going to do in November!

1. Fast Car (provisional title): a family's journey to their remote Lake District holiday home takes a sinister turn, with abandoned service stations, violent squalls and a horrific motorway pile-up and abandoned theme parks ... Eventually arriving in darkness at their destination, they find that someone has got their before them, and locked them out. Meanwhile, in the seemingly dead world beyond the light, something stirs.

2. The Christmas Storey: in the freezing gutter beneath a snowbound Glasgow tenement, a man lies half-naked, bleeding and broken, and looking down at him are a small group of boys. One of them lifts the man's coat, whilst another urinates into the gutter, whilst another looks with increasing curiosity at the tramp's face. A girl, leaning against a lamp post. watches them all. "... looks like Father Christmas," the third boy observes. Whether he is, or he was ... the residents of Windest Place will win, lose, suffer and survive to pilfer, provoke and finally protect the stranger that from nowhere, came to town.

Jeslyn is in high school, and loves to write. However, her parents and her English teacher are doing all they can to discourage her. She is on the verge of giving up when a new boy named Cory starts going to her school. They become good friends, and he keeps her from giving up her creativity to avoid criticism. Jeslyn begins a novel, and it's becoming really good when her English teacher finds out that she is in the last few chapters of her book, and thinking about trying to get it published. He'll do anything to stop her from finshing, and Jeslyn and Cory fight back. In one of their most intense fights, Cory is killed. Jeslyn is furious, and so are all of the other students. They finally rebel against the English teacher and all of the other teachers, and get them fired, despite the fact that there's no proof they ever did anything wrong. Jeslyn is really sad over Cory's death, but is eventually sent a letter he wrote her a few hours before he died. She recovers enough to continue living, and has a long, happy life, but never forgets Cory.

I'm not 100% sure where exactly the story will end, I don't really like the last line. Do you guys like it?

This is my first NANO ever and I'm a little aprehensive about it. I'm pretty sure I belong here..
Anyways, My story is about a high school whose football program dominates every aspect of the school. It is a huge deal for the school and the entire town. It's a small town (havent decided where yet) and the entire towns life revolves around the high school football program. The football team makes it to the state playoffs and leaves early on a bus to head to their rival school to get ready. On the way the bus gets totaled by a logging truck, leaving most of the team dead or in the hospital with fatal inguries with the acception of a few players. My story will focus on the loss the school feels from the loss of their students, how the survivers change their lives, how relationships were crushed, and how old pregiduces dont seem to matter anymore.

sound ok?

Rebecca, Jack, Katie, Wes, Adam, Amelia, Deborah, Abena, and Dan live in five different countries, are all different ages, and live completely different lives. However, they have one thing in common.

They are all sad.

This one similarity leads to danger and mystery, other-dimensions and mad old women. Will they ever escape?


You could say that I'm excited :)

Juliene Cortez has wanted nothing more than to be a chef like her mother. So when her only parent died, Juliene decides to honor her legacy by pursuing the culinary path. To quicken her pace, she decides to reveal herself to the father she never knew: executive chef Jamie Gonzalez of the world-renowned amaranth. Juliene doesn't actually have any physical evidence of being chef Jamie's daughter, save for the fact that her mother's last words were his name over and over again. Despite not admitting anything, Chef Jamie immediately makes her his apprentice, an honor everyone else has been working their respective asses for.

It isn't smooth-sailing for the young chef as she soon finds out that the glamourous restaurant isn't at all that glamourous from the inside. Both sous chefs seem to be sleeping with her father: sous chef Nadine seems to be dating one of the line cooks as well while sous chef Caitlin's daughter has chef Jamie's financial support for what seems to be obvious reasons. Plus, one of chef Jamie's line cooks used to be his college rival, the maitre d' is a two-faced bitch, and the kitchen assistant is just plain creepy.

Juliene must be way in over her head if she thinks she can even survive this hell of a kitchen.


Yes, this is my synopsis. xD

This is also my first Nano and I have my plot planned out in broad strokes. It's still a general idea but I'm pretty excited at the potential. I decided to stick with what I know for my first attempt. So hopefully it will make things easier.

The MC and her boyfriend have been dating for six months. He has decided to take her home to meet his quirky, female dominant Italian-American family. The story explores the boundaries between what is funny and what is dysfunctional, when it comes to family dynamics.

I still have time to flesh out, right? ;)

I'm a newbie to NaNo and creative writing in general, so I'm not entirely sure I've got my genre right, but I do have a basic plot idea that I'm fiddling with. Pointers/feedback greatly appreciated! =)

Georgie is a single 32-year-old career woman who works as a naturalist at a preserve in central Florida, where she specifically focuses on exotic animal dentistry and alligators. She's obsessed with her job, and it's really the only thing she has in her life - she lives in a doublewide trailer with her parents because she can't afford rent, she's never been in a romantic relationship, and her only friend is the preserve's groundkeeper, Sam. Due to budget cuts, however, Georgie loses her job and is left with an utterly empty life. Dazed, she ends up in a used book store and starts browsing the shelves, where she stumbles on a Swahili-English dictionary. The dictionary sparks her to do something impulsive and "crazy" for the first time in her droll life. Georgie buys a one-way ticket to Nairobi. From there she travels to Nyahururu, a town by the Ewaso Ng'iro river, to try and start her life over while studying the river's Nile crocodiles.

From there I'm not sure what exactly is going to happen. I'm mostly trying to explore how people can start their lives over at an age that's typically seen as "too late" for that sort of thing. Human malleability and resilience, yes? Right now I think a big emphasis is going to be the relationships that Georgie forms with the people who live in Nyahururu, including a romantic interest. Major sources of conflict that are coming into play so far are the obvious culture clash, poacher issues, HIV/AIDS crisis and its impact on the community, et cetera. It's a little open-ended and fuzzy right now, honestly... I was sort of hoping I'd just get started and things would become clear as I went along. xD

Mine is called The Cat Burglar's Club

Four women who are very different from each other are all conned/seduced by the same man online. They discover each other as they each discover their own betrayals. After meeting, they decide to find out exactly who he is and make him pay. And they find out that they are pretty damn good at it. The authorities get wind, and they begin working as a team on a regular basis. Each woman's story is told, and of course there are twists and turns along the way. I guess it is sort of Stephanie Plum meets First Wives' Club meets The Net.