What's Everyone Writing About?

Well... I'm working on my last NaNo novel, BY HEART, which is about a girl in high school who takes it upon herself to help her ex-boyfriend, who, over the course of the past year, got involved with drugs and lost his memory. And I'm planning my next NaNo novel (maybe... pre-NaNo novel, at this rate...) that I don't really have much of a plot for yet, just a bunch of themes and ideas. I do know that it will star a male main character named Sterling who gets recruited by the baddies of the urban fantasy world. All I know is it will have a lot of commentary on nature and man's relationship with her, as well as the definitions of good and evil =)

“You lot, you spend all your time thinking about dying, like you're gonna get killed by eggs, or beef, or global warming, or asteroids. But you never take time to imagine the impossible. Like maybe you survive.”

I'm writing about a popular girl having to transfer to a school of nerds. It's called Brainiac High. Basically, it's a reversal of the usual situation, designed to show what it's like to be a nerd in a normal school.

I'm writing about a sophomore teen who goes through all these tragic and life-changing events that will eventually lead him into his own destruction. I'm almost done with the novel too, just two and half more chapters =]

Is all that we see or seem but a dream within a dream?
- E.A.P. -

My Writing Blog:
http://anywherebutup.blogspot.com/

I'm writing a story about an 11 yr old girl who is trying to cope with her father's disappearance and her mother's budding relationship with a new man.

It's a lot more complicated than that but that's the basic plot. ;)

I am writing about a teenage girl who starts using drugs and really messes up her life.

Actually, I've got a basic plotline. I'm writing on the frog/teddy-bear wars that have been going on for the last two hundred years. Fantasy, sure, but geared more for the younger ones than my last NaNo work.

Pyxi

I'm writing about a girl who gets tricked into doing something that helps destroy a country. And then she has to clean up what she did while everyone is trying to kill her.

Fun fun fun.

NaNoWriMo 2006: The Wizard's Medallion (Winner!)
NaNoWriMo 2007: Pending Title (Winner!)
Script Frenzy 2008: (Coming soon!)

i'm writing about a teenage girl that has to come to grips with the fact that she has to live the rest of her 'life' as a zombie.

"I died on my 15th birthday and it was SO lame."

- as you can see, she's not thrilled about it. ;)

I'm writing about a boy who grows up in a small town in Missouri, and it tells what happens from the years he is 10-18. A lot of it is about his relationship with his best friend and how it changes with all the changes in their lives. It's really hard to explain, but that's the basics of it.

I think i'm going to write about a girl who joins up with a band of gypsies (modern-day gypsies, the kind who travel all the time/free spirits, etc) after graduating high school because she doesn't want to go to college. The gypsies sing/play instruments on the street, in bars and wherever they can to get money, and they travel in a big van. My MC gets to see how they live, what they've all been through and why they decided to leave their old lives behind to become gypsies.

What do you guys think? This is my first NaNo, so i'm really excited about it!

"If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it."
-Toni Morrison

This November I'll be writing a sci-fi story about a kid who gets stranded on an alien planet and has to make his own way home.

Amy Ford: Your story reminds me of something from my youth. I think it was in seventh grade, but in one of my classes we had a guest speaker come to talk to the class. He was a guy in a wheelchair (which, this being the early 80s, was in itself kind of shocking; times weren't so tolerant or accomodating to the disabled back then), who talked to us about what happened to him and what his life was like now. He was a paraplegic, and told us that he'd broken his neck diving into a swimming hole in a nearby canyon (one familiar to everyone who lived in our town). He told us how in the ambulance the paramedics touched his feet and asked him to push with his legs against their hands. How they said "no, really push!" and he said "I am pushing!" only of course he wasn't. How when he got older and bought a house, he had to remodel it because all the counters were too high and the doorways were too narrow to easily accomodate his wheelchair. How he had a scab on his elbow that wouldn't heal, because, since he has no feeling in his arms (although he could still use them) he kept accidentally knocking his elbow against things and re-injuring it.

The point of the guy's talk was, of course, "be careful, you dumb kids, you're not as immortal or indestructible as you think!" Made an impression on me, anyway, being as I remember it so well all these years later.

Anyway, food for thought. If I were writing that story, I'd have the character develop a fear of water due to his accident, despite having previously loved swimming more than anything. The fear will be a metaphor for the character's problems/struggles/resistance/etc to adjusting to his new life circumstances. Only when he makes whatever emotional breakthrough is necessary can he then get back into the water which he once loved so much. You can close the book with a lovely scene of the guy swimming a lap in a quiet pool or whatever.

Wiry Fellows
A lively tale of adventure on the Pony Express trail. Because the mail MUST go through, no matter what.

I'm planning on trying a story about a child of God going to a typical American high school. She's put on this earth, along with six other siblings, to learn about how things are really going on earth. She did not grow up here so everything is new to her. She's used to looking down from above and things are quite different when she's actually on earth. Her "guardian" is an archangel who is completely oblivious, but is supposed to be sending her reports back up to her father.

I'm not sure what the huge conflict is going to be yet, but I'm sure it will come to me before November.

Ken

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"Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards." R Heinlein

These all sound very interesting!
My current main project is about a girl who had her best friend kidnapped and is having to cope with his dissappearance. Meanwhile, a new boy comes to school who once knew the boy who was kidnapped. What the girl doesn't know, though, is that this new boy knows more about the best friends kidnapping than anyone else, apart from the kidnappers. He is sent to steal something from the girl, and in return the kidnapped boy is released and he gets what the kidnappers stole from him. There is much more to it, but thats the story in a nutshell.
I'm planning something totally different for this years NaNo, though. Its about a boy who gets involved with drugs and becomes a prostitute to get the drug money. He has to hide this from his temporary foster parents, but it gets too hard and he ends up running away. However, this is seen from anothers point of view, not the view of the addict. This is something I've never done before. Honestly, I have never read books/seen any movies about the issues this kid goes through. All I have to work off of is my understanding of human emotions/behavior and the personal stories of others. I'm excited!

I'll be writing the next novel in my horsey series for Simon & Schuster's Aladdin MIX line. I can't wait to get started!

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http://jessicaburkhart.blogspot.com
TAKE THE REINS, 1/09 from S&S's Aladdin MIX

TAKE THE REINS, Jan 2009 from Simon & Schuster's Aladdin M!X
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Um...to sum it up in a few sentences, a girl who lives in a city half-submerged in a lake is kidnapped when she goes to shore after seeing something flying in the sky. She's taken to the underground black market and is introduced to the illegal 'animal trade.' ('Animal' as in 'magical creature.') I don't know the rest of the plot though yet. :P