Possibly premature post - it's mid-October and some of us may not have decided what we're writing yet - but my old boss used to talk about something he called "the Elevator Speech." This is a short-and-sweet idea pitch that can be made between the first and fourth floors on an elevator. The discipline of framing and pitching a story in a single sentence can really make an idea pop - make the reader sit up and take notice, and make the author hone in on the heart of the story.
So, what is your story in a single sentence?
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Hamilton-Wenham Public Library loves Nanowrimo. Consider writing YOUR novel here!
http://hwlibrary.org/Nanowrimo.html
1,815 / 50,000
Oct 16, 2009 - 09 23
A coming of age novel for a young girl in a time when even being human is not easy. Girls have it even worse. But she knows that she is gifted and will triumph over adversity.
3,139 / 50,000
Oct 16, 2009 - 10 53
An evil tyrant issues a decree that is the last straw for the gypsy minority of his island nation, but one of his son's is willing to stand up to him and his murderous reign!
11,763 / 50,000
Oct 18, 2009 - 21 54
Well, I'll try, but it's a little trickier for me since this is a sequel.
Vashkoda, now in her mid twenties and more experienced as a half demon in the multi-verse, slowly starts to realize that the feud between the 'Angelic' society and the 'Demonic' society is not even remotely close to the good vs. bad idea she had in her head, but instead a much more diverse situation.
Eh, doesn't quite capture the entirety, but again, would have been much easier with the first in the series, but I already wrote that and that's currently in the editing phase, hopefully to go out to publishers next year.
----------"Stop that rhyming! Now I mean it!"
"Anybody want a peanut?"
31,091 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2009 - 18 01
Every member of the Zimmer family that has lived in their ancestral home has wound up with problems - big problems involving money, disease, family life, trouble with the law, and an accusation of murder. Is it genetics or is the house the true cause of the Zimmer's sorrows?
----------4th Year Nano Veteran
2009 Novel - Irukandji Diving - (thinking I need a better title)
(Irukandji are extremely venomous jellyfish)
80,811 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2009 - 18 07
Dun Dun Dunnnnnnnnnnn???????????
0 / 50,000
Oct 22, 2009 - 11 59
It's a wicked little novel of duplicity, destruction, and death in corporate America.
80,811 / 50,000
Oct 22, 2009 - 17 03
Okay, let's give this one sentance thing a go, shall we?
On a different planet where humans live along side another species, Elissa is fourteen year old girl who finds that she is not human as she thought but half human and goes on an ADVENTURE to find her other family.
That wasn't so bad.
0 / 50,000
Oct 24, 2009 - 06 26
My story is called Into the Shadows , here's my sentence:
Teenage girl died in a car accident and has to become a shadow until her judgement day (1000's in front of her) or until her shadowee dies, so the shadow plots to kill her shadowee.
Confusing, but you only gave me one sentence! :-)
-----------Emily
37,553 / 50,000
Oct 24, 2009 - 07 45
Not *that* confusing. It seems like a surprisingly novel concept! I mean fresh - I've not seen anything quite like it before. She has to become somebody *else's* shadow? That's eerie and interesting.
----------Hamilton-Wenham Public Library loves Nanowrimo. Consider writing YOUR novel here!
http://hwlibrary.org/Nanowrimo.html
54,546 / 50,000
Oct 24, 2009 - 10 05
Tentative title is The Black Desert.
A woman becomes trapped in a web of danger and intrigue when her companion disappears while they are on vacation in Morocco.
Does that work for you as a hook?
gg
38,388 / 50,000
Oct 25, 2009 - 19 25
One sentence, eh? Ok, here goes:
Marielle (who woke up one morning to the paralyzing realization that her life is half over, her grown daughter no longer needs her, and her youthful aspirations have all passed her by) is starting to wonder if she has anything worth living for when she tumbles headlong into a fantastic and unbelievable adventure that will either reignite her zest for life, or send her to the madhouse.
Notes:
* "Marielle" is a placeholder - name not picked yet
* Boiling down to one sentence is HARD
* I'm in big trouble ... this simple, little exercise took me twenty minutes during which I put laundry in the dryer, made a cup of team checked my email, and became disturbingly fascinated with my own cuticles.
FWIW - I'm really enjoying Chris Baty's book (No Plot, No problem!), and another great resource for story structure is "A Story is a Promise" by Bill Johnson. I've highlighted nearly every other sentence. Good stuff.
----------Jamie Lee
Long-time wannabe novelist, first-time NaNoWriMo participant.
Seeker, thinker, dreamer.
Believes in small kindnesses, daily chocolate, and happy endings.
32,012 / 50,000
Oct 26, 2009 - 18 10
Title: Memento Mori
Companion to Deus Vitae which I wrote last year for NaNo
prequel or sequel (I haven't decided yet) to My Morning Star which I am still in the process of writing.
I haven't hashed out the plot yet, but it's going to involve Immortals, Angels, magelike humans, and regular human social outcasts in a Gothic subculture-y setting. About half the story is going to be showing how much a character from Morning Star changed in the ten years since... okay, about a third of Morning Star involves the coming of age of a girl whose father was legitimately a fallen Angel, but she isn't aware of that 'cause she was brought up by her human mother. Her first love... she accidentally and inopportunely falls quite hard for an Immortal that she doesn't know isn't a plain, normal human, has her heart broken through no fault of anybody involved, and ten years later she's quite a different person. Just a point of comparison. It's one of those deals where you don't need to read one story for the other to make sense, but if you read both, some of the details have a lot more meaning than they could.
Wow... that was not one sentence. XD;;
47,696 / 50,000
Oct 27, 2009 - 06 12
I'm being a Rebel: writing my memoir, entitled "I Really Shouldn't, But...". HAH!!
44,056 / 50,000
Oct 27, 2009 - 15 55
Set in Paris's Pere Lachaise Cemetery, this novel tells of the shenanigans of the residents who 'dwell' there, and while a version of this story has been told in 'Waiting for Gertrude' (much to my chagrin -though I liked the book a lot- as I thought I'd had an original idea when it occurred to me), I hope to give it a twist and a very different flavor.
0 / 50,000
Oct 29, 2009 - 05 51
This is my first time trying this....but I've been playing with the idea of a story about a mother coming to terms with her feelings about motherhood, her child's disabilities and the role of women in modern society.
37,327 / 50,000
Oct 30, 2009 - 05 46
Lonely librarian plagued by hostile paranormal types meets man destined to initiate her into her power as the door between realms - chaos ensues, is somehow resolved.
Can you tell I haven't thought this through all the way? I've been trying not to let myself think about it too much, so hopefully I can just puke up a novel without freaking out about the details. Big idea is just that it be a dark paranormal romance that isn't afraid to get its hands dirty.
45,260 / 50,000
Oct 31, 2009 - 17 37
Four dragons created the world, infusing it with magic; now those dragons are dying and the forces against creation are seeping into the world. Only a child who still believes that anything is possible can discover the truth of the curse, heal the dragons, and restore creation's balance.
Sorry, two sentences! =)