What is your story about?

Mine is the story of the wife of a National Guard soldier as they navigate the pitfalls of his first deployment. Its fiction, but just fictionalized truth. Most of what she and her friends will experience, either I or someone I know went through or heard about.

Mine will be a science fiction about humans first realizing that they aren't alone in the universe. Its something that I started years ago and have tried rewriting. The rewriting didn't work too well so now for NANO I plan on taking my characters, designs, and some notes on the background of my 'universe' and completely start the story over. Maybe this time I won't have the urge to send my doctor character out the nearest airlock.

Hopefully this will be a fun story to write - with lots of little bunny trails detailing the ways in which people have died at theme parks ... with a horror flare and an insightful look into the human condition ... *ahem*

Mostly this story is about a family who takes over a run down theme park - closed, they later learn because of tragic events in it's gore-ific past - and a theme park that doesn't want to open so much as open it's guests ... bwaa ha ha ha

The family is escaping something - or trying to put itself back on a path that's healthy and happy - but this idea of rebuilding, opening, and running a theme park with a tragic history turns out to be more than they bargained for as they discover some of the terrifying events that took place there, and meet up with a would-be caretaker who is in reality taking care to keep people far away from the theme park - with sometimes nefarious methods - - to somehow protect more people than he hurts in the process

It promises to be a good romp through a theme park, with lots of exhibitions into ways in which one might meet their ends!

Fun for all!

I'm working through two different ideas right now so I'm not positive about what I'm going to write.

The first idea is a dystopian vampire novel. My female MC has a fairly rough childhood - orphanages, foster homes, and a lack of friends. She spends a lot of time in the library reading everything and anything she can get her hands on. She becomes very discouraged with the greedy and backstabbing nature of humans very early in life. In her early 20s she is reborn a vampire, and she's now stuck in this world of humanity that she hates. The novel focuses on the failures of humanity (bigotry, corruption, etc) and the MC lives through this cycle of trying to catch a break and just when something gets good something else falls apart.

The second idea is a cyberpunk vs steampunk sci-fi novel. The world is split between the city folk (cyberpunkish) and the country folk (steampunkish), and there are conspiracies all over the place. The main heroine was in a terrible accident, taken by a highly-classified government group, and fitted with cyborg parts to act as a soldier for the group. As an early model, a mind-controlling/wiping process backfires and she rebels, destroying the entire sector on her way out. The novel is her story about how she tries to make a difference in the world around her after escaping, sprinkled with some flashbacks of her time before she was a cyborg.

I picked up a book about writing a novel in 30 days, and I'm getting No Plot, No Problem! from the library as soon as they transfer a copy. So I'm hoping to work through some exercises to narrow down my choice by Nov 1st!

"Any sufficiently advance technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke

'09 - Untitled

My novel is about a young farm girl who lives in south central Pennsylvania in the 1860's. Her name is Emma and she has an insatiable thirst for adventure. She dreams of traveling the world and writing about her experiences. The country is being torn apart by civil war. Emma feels compelled to do something to stop the war. Encouraged by her long-dead grandfather (who appears to her in her dreams) she runs away to join the battle at Gettysburg to gain first-hand knowledge about the horrors of war. Her adventure will change her life.

More than likely:

My novel will follow a wandering band of Doforrians, the followers of the Goddess Doforr in my world of Ahlterre. Since they are travelers, it will most likely be an outlet for me to explore the landscapes, geography, as well as other details of this world that I have yet to flesh out.

It will probably take place in the time period twenty years before the Medari (Nano 06), and be focused upon the single Doforrian that has shown up in my story about Kyrin (Nano 07). I'm hoping that not only the geography of the world, plus the reaction to a wandering band of nature-lovers of the other inhabitants of Ahlterre will make for 50k.

If not, I'll just delve into the story of the attack of the People with Violet Eyes (not-yet-named-aggressive-race) a bit more.

2006: The Chronicles of Ahlterra: Medari (winner)
2007: The Chronicles of Ahlterra: Kyrin(winner)
2008: The Chronicles of Ahlterra: The Devoted (winner)
2009: The Chronicles of Ahlterra: The Wandering

I have three ideas floating around right now, all Delmarva-centric (so I can just head outside for some inspiration!). One is historical fiction, about the Nanticoke Indians. The second is a teen adventure novel set on Maryland's Eastern Shore. And the third is also quasi-historical fiction, centered around some of the history of Cape Henlopen State Park. I'm planning to pick one within the next week.

I still have no idea what my novel is going to be. I have something tentative on my novel info page, but that's bothering me.

This is a bad omen that I don't have anything that excites me enough to discuss with ANYONE. :( Has anyone ever had (or does currently have!) this problem? Please tell me I'm not alone.

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2005: The Pig Woman (6K words)
2006: Truth or Dare (14K words)
2007: -----
2008: The Chocolate Festival Murders (50,270 words)

Therinian, that happened to me my second year and voila: what I came up with gave me my planet. But, for once, I'm not writing about anything having to do with the Omri-verse (ie, any novel taking place on the same planet as the story centered on Omri).

This time, I'm overhauling a slash fan fiction I started a MILLION years ago (read: junior year of high school) that had a kickass concept for something that was just supposed to be a bit of smut. So, there are angels and there are demons. The story follows the newest-born angel (name yet to be determined) on his first guardian case. He finds himself up against the worst thing imagineable to him and the other angels/arcs: one of the original demons, Remy (Ramiel, who is not in fact an arcangel anymore).

There's a supporting cast and secondary threads that are actually going to lead to a series about a vampire missing-person-locator, but I've learned through experience that if you're going to write a prequel you have to do it before you write the original or else it just doesn't work. That was my first year nano-lesson.

2005 - Omriverse: Caanan Succession 11,000 words
2006 - Omriverse: Caanan Prequel 7,000 words
2007 - Omriverse: Omri's story 11,500 words
2008 - Omriverse: Recycled Omri's story 12,000 words
2009 - Shades of Gray 2,000 words so far

My story is set in a timeline far in our future (like 5500-ish AD) in the world's history we go through three more wars before the Story actually takes place, A minor world war at the start of a major Ice age which lasts only about a decade or so as the advancing Ice starts to cause trouble on the home fronts and ends the war. The Next war occurs a good Hundred years after wards as resource dwindle and Nations collapse and new ones rise up, and Then a third one after the Ice Age ends and more habitable lands start to open up again and nations make a grab for more and more land.

By the time the story begins thats all ancient history to them.

The story actually technically covers two wars, a Revolutionary war fought inside a small nation that mostly consists of a single Mega city in what used to be USA, specifically in the California/Arizona area with a large river running through the middle of it, other than the river and the life that it supports the area around the City is a desert.

The second war comes not too long after the Rebels succeed, Fought against the Nation of Terre which has claimed almost all of what used to be Europe, with its capital sitting on top of what used to be Paris, another Mega City.

there are a total of 13 mega cities each stretching farther than any existing city today, Xi Leyuan and Cathédrale Brillante are just two of them. There is one that covers Britain and Ireland completely. One in Russia, one in old China, one in Australia, in Brazil, India, Peru, one in the middle of the Atlantic, one underneath Antarctica, and two in Africa.

The story follows mostly a small band of Rebels as they discover more about each other and about the world around them as each nation and city has its secrets.

The world was crafted slowly over a world through two failed writing projects, and a short story. I have notes scattered around and the more I write and then find notes the more I notice things that I managed to remember correctly and alot that has changed, though mostly its just minor stuff (names are different, names switched, and apparently a gender changed) But with resources at hand, a goal, and friends to help me to stay focused and motivated...I might just pull this off. So heres to hoping.

In an update to what I posted previously, when I had only a couple thousand words, now that I'm over 6,000 I feel compelled to edit my earlier description. My novel's about a young dude with cancer who physically should be rallying--he has an excellent prognosis--but he's dying. His mental state is such that he's given up, and no one knows why--it's as if someone flipped a switch and he went from doing well to just wasting away. My novel is influenced by a bunch of things--you can see my novel info for that--and so in the spirit of one of those influences, my MC takes a trip into the afterlife, led by a guide I've yet to fully map out, but he's Virgil-esque. It's not a trip through heaven or hell, per se, but it is definitely more of a Dante-esque thing than it is a Mitch-Albom's-"Five-People-You-Meet-In-Heaven" thing. I'm going for fantastical rather than spiritual, although I wouldn't group my novel in the Fantasy genre. It is definitely grounded in realism. Anyhoo, my MC travels through these vignettes of the afterlife, and I haven't yet decided whether this will be a "real" journey, or just one that he takes in his dreams, which are part of the contributing factors in his swift decline. He meets loved ones, enemies, and even strangers who have passed on, and he relives episodes from his life that have led him to feel the way he does (a sort of pseudo-Christmas-Carol, minus the Christmas part. And minus the moral-of-the-story bit, too). By the end, I'm hoping to have him reach his realization that all will be well, "this too shall pass," he can make it if he tries, it's just the two of us, you and I...wait. What I mean to say is that by the end, I hope that he, for lack of a less-cheesy description, has found the will to carry on. Also, I want to note that I'm not mocking either cancer or depression, and I'm not intending to make light of either situation, or to pander to the whole "positive thinking" movement. My ultimate feeling or tone with all of this is more like, "Shit happens. But that's life. You can live with it, or not. It's up to you."