What are you writing about this year?

I was thinking about combining my background in politics and science into something...maybe what the world will be like in 2045 or something. You know, like robots, cyborgs, power, guns, etc etc

Recently I've been reading "The Second World" by Parag Khanna (sp?), its pretty interesting in that he describes the world from the perspective that geopolitics is really just the competition between the three empires of the day: United States, EU, and China to claim influence in the second world. So I would say that is influencing my writing but at the same time the Iraq War, the financial collapse, and the "flattening" of the world is too....

At the same time, though, I think if I were to craft a story around geopolitics it would have to be accessible to the general public...so I was thinking bringing in some Kipling, Greene, and Lord of the Flies influence...that is describe something complex, simple and easy...distilling a large swath of material to something understandable...

Generally most of my writing has been academic, both journal and article based, so this year I'm taking a crack at fiction writing outside of the couple of creative writing classes i've taken...

Anyway, I hope that helps...its a little long winded...bwahahahaha!

I am either a really dedicated NaNoer or just a really weird person, but I've actually been thinking about what my NaNovel might be since the beginning of summer (like June). and I STILL have not decided. I've waffled around with everything from Dan Brownish type genre to classical space opera sci fi. Still no decision.

Oh, and I thought I might introduce myself 'round these here parts since I'm new to Lawrence. M'name's Alex and I'm a KU freshman and I've done NaNo before, though for me it's always been a solitary business with the occasional swing by the forums.

It's a pleasure to meet all y'all!

----------

-There's no excuse not to dream-

I've been thinking about my Nano idea since about June, too. :)

I'm playing around with a science fiction idea with my own personal spin on vampires. There's a lot of vampire literature out there and I got to thinking how I would spin it if I were to write my own. That's pretty much my idea for now, but it's subject to change because I have a couple other ideas out there. Whatever strikes me on October 31st is what I will end up writing, preparation be damned. ;)

----------

"A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people."
~Thomas Mann (1875 - 1955)

I have this feeling that I want to write something about nuclear power that isn't science fiction.

Well, I could work with science fantasy.

But anyways, though I have no idea how I would go about that, I've been messing with the concept and the idea of nuclear fission and fusion for a while. I'll have to try to come up with something before November.

One of the main reasons I'm doing this is to find my writing voice again. So, basically, I have absolutely no effing idea!!

I used to be able to write about painful topics really well. But now that my own life doesn't have so much pain in it, I no longer feel driven to write with that emotion. But I don't know what to replace it with!

I'm toying with the idea of an Italo Calvino-esque collection of loosely related stories on a theme. But I have yet to become inspired by a theme.

Well, I started out knowing exactly what I was going to write. And then as the month got closer, another little someone popped up and started nagging me for a novel. So I'm not sure. But I may go with the new one. Only because I know she'll keep bugging me all month if I don't.

not a clue... But I have twoish weeks to figure it out, right :)

I had a new -- and quite good -- idea for NaNo this weekend while mowing the lawn. Which is actually how I thought up last year's idea as well: epiphany while mowing the lawn.

I need to start a landscaping service. I could be the Lawn Mowing Author!

Yay, my idea is coalescing...

That actually sounds like a really cool character to have in a story -- a lawn-moving author or like a landscaping service murder detective. He can tell how the victim died by how the yard looks and stuff :)

----------

-There's no excuse not to dream-

Ted - Whatever works! Were you using a manual or riding mower? If I use this technique, I want to make sure I do it right! I find myself leaning toward something humorous at the moment, and I am not sure if that will add up to 50,000 words. Is this the time to write humor? Will anything seem funny after the election? Or even now?

Is Aimee's handicapped accessible? I keep thinking it would be fun to show up and say hello. I will be there in spirit if nothing else.

SunflowerSage

----------

SunflowerSage aka Grandma Marge

Push mower. Although I think the technique might work for anything mind-numbingly boring. :-)

Hmm, I don't think it is, unfortunately. Stairs in multiple places. Which makes me think that finding another venue is an even higher priority. I want to be inclusive of everyone.

This is my first year doing this, but man do I wish I had known about it sooner.
I usually come up with stories in my mind over a period of months, then just let them drift away because I don't think I can honestly write them down. With a time crunch and a goal, I am hoping to change that.

All I really know about my story so far is that is in a medival setting. I considered a modern setting instead, but I don't think I could pull off a lot of things right.

The current idea is that there will be some kind of magical maelstrom of sorts that links two realities. One of good, and one of evil. That makes the idea much more cut and dry than I hope to write about, but...yea.

There will also be something about people from opposing worlds having power in their unnatural home. Good has power in evil, evil has power in good.

*shrug*
I'll figure it out...I hope!

----------

In times of trouble, trust the dancer from the shadows to guide you.

A plot, a premise, a theme, and a title - none of which connect to each other:

Plot: I was in the grocery store the other day, and two check-out people were discussing whether or not they feared haunted houses of the commercial variety. One was afraid, and one was not. I chimed in with "I always figured that, were I to totally lose it . . . like

killing people

lose it . . . I would use a haunted house to mask my crime. Just choose a few people from line and pick 'em off, one by one, after which I would make my easy escape out the employee's entrance." This would be a pretty good terrible novel.

Premise: I've had this idea bopping around in my head for a while - time travelling bounty hunter from the future gets sick of sitting around, waiting for business to come his way. He combs through old newspapers and microfiche to identify the presence in history (heh) of large potential rewards. It was a series idea, at first, but I could adapt.

Theme: I was thinking the other day about the purpose of the kiss. Kissing is weird. Who was the first set of people to say "You know what we ought to do? We ought to press our lips together and sort of squish them around a little! That would be fun?!" I got to thinking that the urge to kiss others is a way of assuring the presence of intimacy and/or reproduction even in the absence of a pre-existing connection. That is, we're sort of doomed to find ourselves in relationships. This is something I would enjoy exploring, if I were to happen across the right plot for it.

Title: The Bell Czar

Randy

My idea kind of came to me the other night.

I was watching "John Q" (which isn't a great movie but not bad) and it got me thinking of a number of different conflicts. If you don't know the plot of the movie it's basically as such:
1) Denzel Washington's child needs a heart transplant
2) Denzel's character doesn't have money to pay for it.
3) His insurance won't cover the procedure.
4) He takes a hospital hostage with a transplant as the ransom

Now, my idea that sprung from that is, while never going through a transplant, what happens AFTER? Does someone take advantage of everything in their new lease in life? Do they constantly worry and hide away from any danger of losing something? Do they let completely loose?

A lot of character building wrinkles which, ideally, can spill out into 50k+ in 30 days.

Move over, Mike. That seems to be what NaNoWriMo is all about. I had one idea that I was completely comfortable with and had outlined some characters in my notes I was well on my way. It was not a TV show but another writing assignment for an on-line writer's group that made a couple of bold older ladies pop into my head clamouring "Write our story first." I got them down for the writing assignment this week, and now they are telling me that's not exactly who they are. I think this is leading to a somewhat humorous pair -- female Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Dr. Watson -- sharing a Victorian house in an old mining town in Colorado after it becomes a casino destination, mixing a lot of the old with the new in the plot. Now I'm trying to flesh out the place and the people so they can take me where they want me to go. I don't think it is going to be a great novel, but it might be a fun project to write. Lord knows, I do know enough middle-aged and older women to understand some of the quirkiest. These are not based on real people, but hopefully they will seem real to readers. So six days ahead of the starting hour, and I have a complete change of mind.

Good luck with your ideas. I read a book a long time ago (or maybe it was just an article abou how people who have heart transplants often emerge with some characteristics of the donor's personality. That might be a thread for you to explore along with the ones you mentioned. Good luck. May your idea be productive and give you at least 50,000 words.

SunflowerSage

----------

SunflowerSage aka Grandma Marge

Then there was that "Spare Parts" movie from the 80s . . .

I've found the only year I got through NaNo with enthusiasm and days and words to spare was when I let the characters and ideas "hit" me right as I was starting. I had some vague ideas of what I wanted to do and let those tumble around in the ole noggin beforehand, but when I simply allowed someone to come through and say, "hey, write about me!" I got on a roll.
This doesn't always work, however. See years 2004-2006.
Last year I thought I'd try a different tactic. I had a whole series of events and characters fleshed out in my head beforehand: a beginning, a middle, and something like an end. I had a location, I had some turning points, I had some tough philosophical and theological battles thrown into the mix. I was super-excited and thought it all very interesting. I got less than two-thousand words in before I unwittingly asked a friend for advice on a plot point and subsequently crashed and burned in a ball of confusion. I stopped noveling entirely and went back to being depressed and watching DVDs.
Things I learned: 1) Never, NEVER ask my non-noveling friends for advice on my story; 2) Research doesn't work for me *during* November; 3) Sit quietly and ask who wants to come through and what they want to do; 4) Should nobody stand up and speak, start typing like hell and see what happens.
That said, I think my story will revive a few of last year's characters, maybe keep the location, and involve a grocery store basement (write what you know, right?). That's all I've got so far.
See many of you today, I hope! -- alison

Of all the various ideas I posted earlier on this thread, I think I'm going to end up going with the one that came out as a theme . . . the more I think on it, the more gets hung on its skeleton. I am still not quite to the point of having a (air quotes) "plot" (end air quotes) per se, but I like what's taking shape. With a little luck, it might even be pretty good. I've got a few pages of notes on where I want things to go and what I want to express, and one particular note of import:

"FUCK veracity."

(Pardon my freedom.)

~R

I get most of my interesting ideas at work.

Honestly, I have no idea what this year's novel would be called. What I really want to write is my original fiction piece, not the fanfic bits, which can easily be written at another time (one will be a Screnzy). As of this edit, I can say that I am doing fairly well at talking myself into it. This is a good thing! Because, yes, my ultimate goal for one of these is to get published. Shoot for the moon and all that.

~~~
You know; black clothes, talks with her hands....cat tag?

Dear Ted,

Please come mow my lawn. I will only charge you $5.

Randy

Dangit... Now I have no excuse not to rake the leaves this week! I'll have to keep a notebook handy just in case inspiration hits (hopefully not in the form of a falling hedge ball). Anyone interested in trying Ted's yardwork method with me, I've got plenty of rakes on hand.
Hmmmm... rakes. Rakes... raconteur... Leaves... Storytellers leaving... something.... involving poker wages... something... something... Maybe I don't have to rake the yard afterall...

:) alison

I wanted to pop in and add some more thoughts about what I'm writing about. Most of you heard this on Sunday, but I have a list of 16 emotions and I want to write short short stories on each of them (2 each, for a total of 32, although if I start writing and each section requires a longer wordlength, I'll just do one each). These will tie together... somehow. Hopefully. I'm crossing my fingers that the connections will somehow manifest themselves as I write and this will actually take me somewhere.

I want an element of surrealism to this. I want to exaggerate the way humans feel emotions in the way that Calvino exaggerates cities in Invisible Cities. (Not that I expect to achieve that, but that's one of my inspirations.) I have few concrete ideas for surrealism and links between stories, but I was slightly reassured today when I remembered that everything is always better when it's in space. So if all else fails and I have no ideas, I'll throw a space elevator into a story. Et voila, surrealism (kinda).

That actually makes a nice challenge: Include in your novel something that would be entirely normal if it weren't for the fact that it's in space.

Can it be pigs? Because I'm pretty sure that if you include Pigs In Space in your novel, you automatically win NaNo.

:-)

On a more serious note, since I'm in the sci-fi genre, I don't think I get credit for your challenge. But this year's story is entirely grounded in terran affairs, so I'll have to think about it...

Oh, and hayley, I think your general premise is great! I'm glad you'll be addressing each emotion twice, it gives you an opportunity to take dramatically different spins on each one if you want, mix and shuffle things, etc. Plenty of room to maneuver during November. I hope you'll share some of your work as it progresses!

"I'm glad you'll be addressing each emotion twice"

Twice . . . IN SPACE!

I'd have to agree. If I get really, really stuck, I'll remember that. :)

Also: suddenly Russell T. Davies' obsession with alien pigs makes complete sense.

(Kudos if you know what I'm talking about. And apologies if you don't--I normally don't like when people make obscure references, yet just can't help myself sometimes.)

As much as that can ever make sense. :D

~~~
You know; black clothes, talks with her hands....cat tag?

I have no idea and there are only 2 days left. I am just now getting started on any and all of this. I've only even read just one or two novels in my life. I am overwhelmed but hope to give it a try.

You enter the process with an unprejudiced mind.

I've committed to my new story idea. Nothing like waiting until the last minute! I guess I could've held off on committing until I was eating cookies at Muncher's tonight...

That said, I am now officially excited/nervous about starting the NaNo process. Woohoo!