Checklist of Unanticipated Novel Elements

*assumes it is things in our own novel o.O*

- 1 small teddy bear with pink ribbon bow tie
- 'Alice in Wonderland'

Nothing particularly unanticipated as yet, except that my MMC is a bit of a charmer, spreading flattery about like it grows on trees. One does not tell a young lady of 1812 how pretty she is on your first introduction. He needs some lessons from Darcy and Rochester on how not to be so damn forward. Mind you, it means he'll get the girl a hell of a lot faster than those two boys did.

Apathy. I completely did not anticipate not giving a damn about either of my novels. Not even the competition of word counts can motivate me. Although I am feeling ill. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

1 FMC passing out and not wanting to come round after 2000 words and lots of cajoling...

*wanders off to find a new MC!*

1 extended metaphor comparing the eating of a Roast dinner in a pub with the narrative form of the narrator's tale.
0 collisions with the actual plot.

Uh oh.

1 dawn raid by some pasky French cuirassiers, who were handily seen off by the arrival of the !3th Light Dragoons. The dragoons were wholy expected, but the French cavalry were a bit of a surprise.

Yay, go Dragoons.

Hey, didn't we have zombie cheerleaders last year? I thought there was something missing but couldn't put my finger on it. So far things have been rattling along nicely for my heroine who has been more than a match for an unexpected technical problem with her DH4 biplane. No snow leopards yet.

Interestingly enough, while doing some typing on the beach yesterday, I was attacked by zombies (well, people dressed as zombies), and there appeared to be some kind of cheerleader event going on in the Brighton Centre.

A MC who is rapidly turning into a most annoying brat who needs a good slap - maybe I'll just have to kill her off...

But what happened to Sprinkle? The people need to know.

You know, I was about to say "Brighton centre? You from Brighton too then?"...

Then realised which bit of the forum I was in XP

Another thing I've run into is the inability to write... doesnt help very much sadly...

Oh, and

- 1 (real-world, physical) sheet of paper, containing a *very* complicated family tree
- 1 car journey to Glastonbury

Sparkle. She has since decided that she hates that name, but refuses to give me another one to call her. Currently I believe she's trying to persuade some half-orcs of the benefit of becoming vegetarian. I think I completely over-planned and now there's nothing in the story that interests me.
Then Alice from my other story gave me such a headache that I agreed to write that one. Only, the scene that she wants me to write is in the middle of the story involving a character that I don't know very well. So I'm trying to write the beginning of the story to find out about him. So obviously he's hiding. I might just kill him now & get it over with.

Words written: 0/50,000
2ams seen: 0/30
Characters killed:
Censor gnomes:

I'm a believer, help me believe.

Any snow leopards in Glastonbury?

I can now add:

- altitude sickness
- a Libyan rebel on horseback
- 1920s Brummie accents

It's a metafictional snow leopard.

So, indirectly - yes. :D

- 1 office crush on the young mail-clerk, complete with (thankfully interupted!) sexual fantasies.

In real life, or in your novel... :-)

Come to think of it, both! But the real world mail-clerk was just let go :(

1 very depressed MC - he was meant to be a bit moody but he's a tad more than just moody. I'm trying to get him a nice lady friend to cheer him up a bit, but then that's going to backfire and make him even more moody. Can vampires take Prozac?!!?

Maybe they have to find the right donor? Come to think of it, that could be a bit of an unanticipated side-effect for a vampire. Especially these days - you never know what people might be on. Really got to be careful with that whole victim selection procedure.

- 1 sci-fi / Michael Biehn-athon.
- 1 MC getting drunk and trying to sleep with her stoner flatmate, very shortly after fantasising about the young mail-clerk.
- 1 stoner flatmate refusing, citing satisfcation with his spliff as the reason.

My MC is such a slut - I'm so proud of her!

- 1 Nazi
- 1 Dwarf
- 1 Character named Mary Sue MacGuffin

The need to do extensive research (thank you wikipedia and google earth!) on the area around Goma in DR Congo.
An encounter with a gorilla
An extremely messed up corpse
A body search in Newark airport

This is all very much out of my usual domestic territory, which I have pledged to try to avoid.

However, my main character has changed into a woman of 45, who feels she had given up on her adult son, so I'm in a bit of a dangerous spot. I have already lovingly described the neutral decor of her home, and got her making coffee with her Gaggia machine. Help!

sternum piercings and a dentists chair in the cellar (with velcro restraining straps), woohoo

I just got around to reading this thread, and I don't know why but I was expecting the Spanish Inquisition.

My mistake.

My most unanticipated novel element so far is that nobody unexpected has turned up yet ...

Hmmm. That gives me an idea: they're certainly not expecting the Elvish Inquisition - next chapter maybe, I've just got to get the pirates back to their pirate base for some roistering first.

1 unexpected marriage to (and impregnation of) a native.
1 unexpected shag.
1 unexpected possible murder (by my MC) of a defenceless sleeping woman (post shag).

Somewhere along the line my MC apparently went from being a criminal but otherwise quite a nice chap to a proper sociopath, murdering unarmed women just for the lulz. It was subtle, though, so she might actually just be sleeping. Only my MC knows for sure.

- 1 Chinese laundry, 1870s style.

- 1 busybody old codger who nearly got himself shot for being too damn nosy.

- 1 MC who it turns out is a war vet. He was on the side that didn't lose so badly.

- 1 ten thousandth word (Twisted).
- 1 Brutal rape scene...I'm really upset now
- 1 dead housemate (possibly two)
- 1 actual plot event

I'm more than a little distressed right now. I wasn't really expecting all this, and I'm worried that it's broken my tone. But this means that things are happening. Horrible things, but things that could be described as plot.

I'm going to have a cup of tea and a bath. I think I've earned it.

1 mayor, designed as a minor and rather ineffectual character for one of my POV characters to talk to while waiting for the important stuff to happen, becoming a shrewd, coldly calculating politician who'll have a large impact on the plot.

That I'm still going strong and meeting my 1667 words per day quota up into week 2...

A lack of dragons.

I thought they were going to be key to the plot!