To stop Lottie having all the fun (and because she whined about it at the pub) I figured I should kickstart a topic, and here it is: the Challenges thread!
The idea is to post here any madcap challenges you have for people to incorporate into the NaNo plots, this can be anything from a ludicriously named village to the discovery of a room full of kittens named Steve (both of which I remember reading somewhere last year).
Lazy person that I am I'm starting the thread by stealing the first challenge issued on the boards by Mr Prophet to RikGG:
I hereby challenge you - because someone has to - to include, as naturalistically as possible, the line: "These aren't the druids you're looking for."
Now, this unfortunately means I can't come up with a Star Wars challenge of my own (yet, give it time!) so I'm going for something else instead:
+ In some way, shape or form, let there be a Keith Richards cameo in your novel
+ 1 - Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow
+ 2 - Keith Richards as Captain Teague
+ 3 - Cliff Richard as Keith Richards as Captain Teague
IMPORTANT NOTE: all points strictly a guideline, this is for fun. And if you can get +6 above that's going to be legen-and-I-hope-you're-not-lactose-intolerant-dary
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2004: Merging of Worlds: The Rising Darkness (32K)
2005: 8-I (51K)
2006: Dreamweaver (53K)
2007: Timeshift (51K)
2008: 8-I: Second Iteration (53K)
2009: Emissaries (??)
93,030 / 50,000
Oct 13, 2009 - 11 12
Include as many different types of cheese as possible. I'm nicking this, kind of, from the thread about dolphin cheese.
----------Also, lazily half inched from the dare thread but re-formed, as many different references to Morris Dances/Dancers as you can stomach. Extra points if you can include a wicker horse.
I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters.
Frank Lloyd Wright
Banish the Guilt Monkeys
50,405 / 50,000
Oct 13, 2009 - 12 53
+ Use a line from a well-known song as a line of dialogue, without interupting the narrative flow.
----------+1 Use a second line from the same song.
+2 Use a third line from the same song.
+3 for putting all three in the same chapter.
+4 for using another line from the song as the chapter title and have the title fit the chapter's other content.
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It is a truth universally acknowledged that a small nation in possession of a great Empire must be in want of a secret service.
- Jane Austen, Secret Agent
18,383 / 50,000
Oct 14, 2009 - 04 13
+ One of your characters says absolutely nothing throughout the novel but still plays a vital role in the story...
----------++ If said character is human!
+++ If his name is Marcel. :)
2005: The Last Wish of Owen Flint
2006: Insomnia and Other Ways to Die
2007: The Ipswich File
2008: Rain is Expected Tonight in London
2009: Hate to Say I Told You So
42,023 / 50,000
Oct 14, 2009 - 06 34
+ If you deny your characters the use of cutlery.
++ If they nonetheless eat at least one meal 'on stage'.
+++ If that meal is spaghetti bolognaise.
++++ If they have jelly for pudding.
81,965 / 50,000
Oct 15, 2009 - 12 50
Have a random wild creature suddenly run in front of your MC.
----------+ if it happens in every chapter
++ if the animal isn't normally found where your story's set
+++ if none of your characters find it the least bit strange
++++ if it's integral to the plot.
Lottie
I'll sleep when I'm dead.
46,273 / 50,000
Oct 16, 2009 - 15 48
Ah, I feel warm and fuzzy. The thread I love, but daren't seem to use much. :P
Firstly I have an addition...
+1 Use a second line from the same song.
+2 Use a third line from the same song.
+3 for putting all three in the same chapter.
+4 for using another line from the song as the chapter title and have the title fit the chapter's other content.
+5 If said song lines are used quite naturally as part of a single exchange of dialogue.
x4 If your name is sniglet and you achieve +5. :] ;)
I'm tempted to use that, but we'll see. (It'll only end up being a weird song anyway. :P)
And from me (and strangely related, though I won't go into that), shamelessly stolen from Farscape (A Human Reaction, if anyone is interested):
In a fit of disbelief have your main character burst into the toilet of the opposite sex to prove that the world is fake.
+ If this fails, and he bursts into the toilets to find that they do exist. (Won't Get Fooled Again, if anyone is interested. :P)
++ If someone is inside and proceeds to react badly at the intrusion.
+++ There was no reason for the MC's original outburst in thinking the world was an illusion.
++++ After bursting into the toilets the first time, the MC makes a double take (perhaps doubting themselves?) and goes back again.
+++++ The MC actually burst into their own sex's toilets first by mistake before correctting themselves.
++++++ If previous person occupying the toilets isn't meant to be there either.
Ah, Farscape. :]
----------- Yoz -
2007: The Dust on the Wind - 50K
2008: The Rise of King Drust - 50K
2009: Terrebus Rundstadt: From Child to Lord
81,965 / 50,000
Oct 19, 2009 - 14 09
++ If they nonetheless eat at least one meal 'on stage'.
+++ If that meal is spaghetti bolognaise.
++++ If they have jelly for pudding.
Hmm... as the first part of my story takes place in a roadside restaurant, I should be able to achieve this. :-)
Leaving another one:
Name your characters after the characters in Cluedo
----------+ if your story isn't a comedy
++ if your story isn't comedy or crime
+++ if someone is murdered in a drawing room with a candlestick
++++ if that murder is essential to the resolution of the plot.
+++++ if no-one makes any reference to the game or finds any of this odd.
Lottie
I'll sleep when I'm dead.
50,105 / 50,000
Nov 13, 2009 - 08 49
I dare you to write in The Worst Sex Scene competion.
Make the underware funny. (No whips of lace)
Here are some ideas.
Do they have clowns on them? A favortie Cartoon Character? Are they green because they have mould on them (or other stuff to disgusting to mention) Do they have a secret compartment that no one knows what it is for? Are the too big for the person?
Good Luck
----------Take care,
Snarfgirl2007
Bad decisions make good stories.
39,010 / 50,000
Nov 13, 2009 - 16 25
++ If said character is human!
Ooh!
My silent charcter who is important to the story's progression was just about to say his first word. I may have to keep him silent now.
50,105 / 50,000
Nov 15, 2009 - 02 52
I think all these words should count double or triple instead of just one long word.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_word_in_English
----------Take care,
Snarfgirl2007
Bad decisions make good stories.
38,265 / 50,000
Nov 15, 2009 - 12 07
+ Introduce a talking whale named Ooohooohoo (that's whalespeak)
++ Ooohooohoo is leader of a country/planet in your novel
+++ Ooohooohoo was previously a lawyer who was pushed out of a boat into the sea and was transformed into a whale by whale scientists to stop him (or her) drowning. The boat Ooohooohoo was pushed out of was a Japanese whaler, but the whales didn't know this
++++ Your main character falls in love with Ooohooohoo and has whale/human hybrid babies
+++++ The hybrid babies can fly for no logical reason and take part in a famous air or space battle to save the city their whale parent runs.