Topic of Writing

I think I'll be delving into horror/suspense. I was going to stick to mainstream fiction, but something about scaring the bejeezus out of people makes me tingle, lol.

I think I'm going to be going into the realm of fantasy. One of my professors told me that for my first year I should try to mimic a writer that I really admire. I think I'm going to try a retelling of Peter Pan, I know that it has been done before, but I think I have a great new view to the story.

Last year I did the deep, thought-provoking "story that needed to be told." This year it's back to inspirational romance fluff, a sequel to the one I did year before last.

I was going to give the same thing I wrote last year another go, since it has already changed quite a bit but I am going to be writing a different science fiction story instead.

Originally, I was planning on reattempting my failed NaNo from last year (I got NOWHERE with that the first time around!), but then Kaila introduced herself to me about a week ago, and I realized that I need to tell her story instead!

Kaila, a rodeo rider (barrel racer) met a boy in an art class in college and fell in love with him... but no matter how hard she tries to get his attention, he doesn't reciprocate. Then enters Jace, a cocky bull rider that's got his eye on Kaila, and has ever since they first met on the rodeo circuit. Only problem is: Kaila hates him... Oh, and somebody dies, ...but I haven't figured out who yet...

Right now, my novel is going to be a hybrid angsty romance with some drama and who-knows-what else mixed in for good measure. Actually, I really don't have any clue as to what I'm doing! ;)

I know what you mean when you say that you don't have a clue as to what you're doing. I am feeling the exact same way. I want to write my story in a Gregory Maguire (author of Wicked) sort of way. The only problem with doing that is that I have no idea how to do that. Oh well. I guess I just hope that I will be able to get an okay word count for my first year of NaNo.

I was planning on restarting the first book that I ever started writing, Destiny Bites. I started writing it during the summer between my sophamore and junior years (I'm curently a senior). I sat down this last summer to continue with it, as it had been negleted duing the year, due to school, work and the fact that I got two other ideas for books during that time period as well. But when I finished reading what I wrote, I decided to scrap, not the story, but the way I had written it. It was total crap and most of it didn't even work to push the storyline in the direction that I wanted it to go.

I can see the whole story playing out in my head--sometimes it becomes a movie for me when it infitrates my dreams--so I know what needs to be written. The only hard part is actually writing it down. But, I hope that the fact that it plays in my head will help me to reach 50K in my first year. *knocks on wood*

Plus I think it also helps that I don't have to imagine much for locations--I set the story to take place mostly in Bismarck (specifically my school, Bismarck High) !

Fantasy/Romance/YA

I have this idea stuck in my head. It starts off in the late 1700s, England or France. The main character is a young girl, currently unnamed, probably about 14, who has fallen in love with a boy her father doesn't approve of. His probably going to be around16 or 17. He's sent off to serve in the military (I'm thinking some place like Romania or Austria, and she runs away to find him. Instead of finding him, she falls into this cult-like group. I want to say that they're like gypsies, but not really. They live in a "secret world' and then I'll develop my fantasy world later. Ha. It sound kind of lame when I write it out like that... but I hope when I get going on it, it'll sound better.

But I've always had a deep passion for Young Adult Lit, so I think I'm going to go for it this year.

The feisty, independent, wheelchair-bound sister of the MC kept trying to take over my 2005 NaNo novel. The only way I could shut her up was to promise to do her story later. Now that she's going to get her way, she'd better keep on being 50K words worth of interesting!

And if anyone NEEDS ideas, I've got plenty that I know I'll never get to but would love to see in print...

I think you should post some of these ideas and people can maybe take bits and pieces. Maybe we could even open a new forum for writing ideas. What do you think?

Good plan. A new topic is on its way.

ryanjohnlesnau, I liked the suggestion your professor made about imitating the style of an author you especially liked. I may imitate Vinita Hampton Wright. I like how she made the story about a small town (Leeway, OK) into a page turner. Her characters were interesting and her plot was entirely believable. I also like the way descriptive details put you right in the moment. (i.e. the way the buildings cast shadows on the sidewalk as he crossed the street and walked the block to the town square where two older men were sitting on a bench, speaking to him as he passed by.)

I am leaning towards a personal "story that needs to be told," as WyndSpirit calls it, but also am considering a story about prairie life 100 years back. It will be Isolated and fiercely egalitarian whichever way I do it.

I'm not sure what genre this is in yet. I've been thinking of it as a psychological ghost story, but I guess I'll see how it plays out. The story is about a boy who channels the ghosts of the people who died in a TB sanitarium -- though he doesn't know that when the "dreams" start, as he's only 7. When the dreams, which have become such a part of his life, abruptly stop, he goes searching for answers and discovers the actual sanitarium, which he had visited with his parents when he was only 2 or 3. I don't know what happens then. I'm sure they will tell me when I get there (as that's about halfway through the story).

As far as genre goes I haven’t quite decided what it is yet, though I’ve placed it in Fantasy for the time being. However, I’m going about this from a purely enjoyment/hate-myself-forever-if-I-don’t-accomplish-this perspective. I’m in the middle of a very large novel undertaking which I’ve been working on for some time and found that when I think too much into what I’m writing and get really serious about my writing that I burnout. So for NaNo I decided to do what I did last year: think up a random idea and run with it. I’m not going to think too far into it or get too serious about it, I’m just going to let the novel take on a life of its own and, very possibly, become a monster…

Thus, I’m writing about zombies…again (I did it last year too) only this time it’s about zombies infecting and infesting the world from the point of view of dogs...who have been personified, of course. Basically answering the question: “so…what happens to all the pets in those zombie movies?”

This will be interesting and hopefully therapeutic just so long as I don’t think too hard on it, which I most certainly will…

I'm cheating this year by telling the history of one of my most favorite characters-- Smuggler and Space pirate supreme, StaAm Casid. She's mine, but her universe is, unfortunately not.

Fanfiction FTW!

Just out of curiosity...how much preparation did everyone do? Did anyone make full outlines before you started writing? I had the idea for my novel rattling around in my head before November, but I didn't really plot any of it out beforehand. I'm diving into the writing headfirst, without a clear direction; it's an odd feeling. Does anyone else feel the same way?

About a day or two before it started, I wrote something like an expanded jacket blurb summarizing the story. That's it. That's about all I ever do. If I know exactly how the story's going to go, I lose interest in writing it. Of course, it's set in the same place and using the same characters as my 2005 novel, and, as I said earlier, this character kept trying to take over that story. But don't hate me too much. Now that it's her turn, she doesn't seem to have much to say!

I made all kinds of preparations again this year but I've already deviated from my outline and I think that it is going to be next to useless if I continue in the direction the story is going. I'd rather let the words flow than to force them to conform but I did TRY to prepare.