What comes first......

I'll start!

For last year's nano, the seed of the idea came first, but it was quickly followed by the character of Seth who demanded that his story be told. I actually wrote 20 pages of a prequel about him before nano started. I am actually thinking of doing a complete rewrite of this story for nano -- keeping the same basic plot, but attempting better words. If I don't do this, I'll write Going Long. Noah's character has been living in my head for the better part of a year. He wants to tell his story too. The one problem with this is that I only have about a 1/4 of the story plotted and it doesn't want to share time with TDC so I'm thinking that I will have to wait to do this one.

Go Tigers!

Hmmm, you couldn't possibly have meant to aim that at me, could you? Your critique partner who writes about a litter of shape-shifting cats? ;-)

Yes, that is exactly how I got the idea for Familiar. I read the first three Shifters books by Rachel Vincent (very good books, by the way, for anyone who is interested) in four days, and then took a nap on the fifth. When I woke up, Natasha and her littermates had taken up residence in my imagination and were demanding quite insistently that I write about them. Lots of meowing, and whining, and nudging, particularly when I was trying to do other things. Like cook. Or bathe.

You know how cats can be when they want attention...

I get all my inspiration that way. A character pops into my head one day and starts yammering away and I can only listen and write it all down and hope something resembling a plot shows up at some point. Sometimes they bring friends (though Natasha is the first one to invite in four other shape-shifters, a thrall, a witch, and a mesmer demon all in the first week) and it can make things very crowded.

I wonder if my muse has a "Room for Rent" sign up somewhere that I don't know about.... I feel like I should at least be getting a cut of the proceeds.

~Nikki
http://www.nlberger.com

NaNoWriMo 2006 - Aundroma I: Memories
NaNoWriMo 2007 - Aundroma II: Missions (won!) AND Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
NaNoWriMo 2008 - Aundroma III: Momentum (won!)
NaNoWriMo 2009 - Death Makes A Lousy Dinner Date

I've been suddenly struck with an image of a muse logging on to craigslist and typing away at your keyboard:

"Wanted: Roommate.
Must be plot element worthy of urban fantasy genre.
Must not be prone to leaving empty bottles of Mountain Dew strewn all over premises.
Pets allowed.
Right brain with window, newly refurbished, fresh imagination.
Please apply during REM cycle.

This poster does not accept phone calls."

To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive. --Robert Louis Stevenson

StarStones: NaNo Novel 2007
Eyewitness: NaNo Novel 2008
Broken Spark: NaNo Novel 2009

For me, it depends entirely on the novel. Chronologically, of the ones I've seriously attempted:

Stormy Side Up came from the plot. The characters make this very, very clear. I wanted to flip fantasy stereotypes on their head -- the church/"light" power was the antagonist, my characters were seen as brigands, and my MC was excommunicated (and eventually exiled) for being an atheist in a religious state. Turns out he was also the final prophet, and his familiar was a goddess in disguise. Forgive my lack of ingenuity -- I was fourteen.

Generation Zero: Harvest was originally a plot story that got quickly ambushed and hijacked by a character who wasn't even supposed to be in the story. He just.. showed up. And suddenly, it was about Novien.

Only Child came from the concept, pure and simple, and Tanuel just kind of tagged along to tell the story. The other two books in the trilogy, on the other hand, were completely character-motivated -- I had Tanuel in existence, and I wasn't ready to see him retire when OC was over.

Prophet's Bane came from a plot generator. I fell in love with the combination of characters -- a good-natured ratcatcher, a sarcastic grave robber, a bickering astrologer/prophet pair, and a cowardly necromancer. The plot generator gave me the baseline for the plots, too, but I wouldn't have glanced twice at them if it weren't for the combination of odd occupations.

Sarcasm, Sex and Demons was some of both. I recruited a real-life person as a character, then realized he would fit perfectly with a story I'd come up with a few years before. Chaos ensued.

Crave was all about the idea. Plot and characters just supported the idea of lycanthropy as a sort of on-and-off rabies (so while they act feral, they don't physically shift shape), and a culture of those affected which has sprung up around it.

The Minutes was based on real life.

With Of Servitude and Silence, I really wanted a character who was in a bad political situation out of misguided gratitude. I was also still enraptured by the thought a reluctant prophet. Teshkiona came around, shortly followed by Ardovian, much-later followed by plot.

With Kinsman Redeemer, I wanted an irresponsible character to deal with the guilt of having caused his brother's death.

With Spinner's Inheritance, the name came first, which implied the plot (I'd been writing about a time of political upheaval, and I wanted a middle-class, no-one-special guy to inherit for like, a week). Still working on character.

With Garnet, I literally have the title, and the knowledge that the MC is Tanuel's daughter by Vaiko. "Garnet" apparently refers to the color of the royal house, which she can't escape -- there are guards who follow her everywhere.

The one I'm never going to finish before WriMo, Consequences, definitely started as a plot, but the characters made it a billion times more interesting.

So, looking over the list, it looks like I'm around fifty-fifty. I tend to like my concept stories better because of a bias toward roleplaying. I don't like character-driven stories as much, because it's often almost impossible to roleplay in the world they establish. With a world- or idea-centric story, the interesting part remains even if you never use canon characters, and I like that.

http://www.nanowrimo.org/NanowrimoUtils/MyMonth/95590-goal=200000-pc-day...
Ideal Goal: 200k
Minimum Goal: finish Only Child

Well for me, I tend to think of a story idea and then the characters form as I need them to fit what is going on in the story. It's kind of crazy how visualize it in my mind. The characters kind of just come out of thin air and work them selves in to whats going on. I later find out that I have not idea who these people are and have to get to know them in order to move the story along.
It can be quite taxing doing it that way for me because I feel like I have a million dollars, but no where to spend it, until I can get to a store...Does that make any sense?

- What doesn't kill will probably make you wish you were dead -

With the last few attempts, I think the image comes first for me, along with maybe a line of dialogue. Everything else comes after.

Trebuchet Club member
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It's the end of November and you're still twitching? Come over to www.ToBoldlyNano.com ; we've got what you crave.

It just depends for me. Sometimes the characters come before the stories and sometimes the stories come before the characters. And, there have been times when the character came with her story. :-D