Talk about your NaNovel

I think I do... I've been jumping between plots like crazy... But I think I have something worked out. I'm not sure if it's extremely ridiculous or not. Sometimes I think it is. And sometimes I think that it's too dark, I mean, I have to get through a month of it!

Urban fantasy sounds great! Have any more plot specifics you're willing to share?

Well I have a plot worked out and several detailed characters...
However, I've come to find that I can't make my MC come to life, so I'm thinking of writing from multiple perspectives.
My novel will be teen fiction, but with many detailed references to the theatre (my passion) so I don't know that it would appeal to a wide audience.
The plot is rather cliche but the last 2 years I've tried way too complicated things and I decided I needed to nail down my writing skills this year by picking something I could easily write for hours about.

2007 - untitled - miserable fail
2008 - untitled - slightly less miserable fail
2009 - *The Secret Life of Art Kids* -

I've got a weird Fantasy/Romance/Spiritual (ish)/Action/Adventure type thing going on. It's about a girl, her guardian angel, and her girlfriend. I've got those three characters worked out to various degrees (the guardian angel needs more fleshing out), an ending, and various events kinda floating around aimlessly waiting to be put in order. So we'll see how that turns out. It's about the main character finding faith in something and then making you question whether that's good or bad.

Ive got a few ideas, one of them being pure fantasy, one being sci fi, and one being a post-apocalyptic vampire story. Im leaning towards the vampire one, cus im pissed off at the existence of twilight and want to fix the vampire image (no twinkling and sunlight here!) But i have no planning yet, so we'll see how things pan out.

I'm taking my failed attempt from a few years back, and now that it has been percolating in the back of my mind for a while, I've identified some of the problems, and I am doing some preliminary outlining in preparation for attempt number two. It's a fantasy novel about a young woman in a grimy part of town who accidentally unleashes a monster on the city after stealing the summoning device and has to figure out how to stop the monster while staying out of the hands of the person she stole the device from.

Lianne - you know how much I DISPISE fantasy, but even that sounds like something I would read. (your baby sis with a new name this year)

For me, my novel is going to be really easy this time. They always say "write what you know" so that is what I am doing. I am writing about ME. It is fictional but based on current events. I figure that is the best way to make the final word count. Someday I want to make a second attempt at last years novel but I got stuck halfway through and I STILL don't know what I want to change in it.

I had two parallel plots worked out for a fantasy/thriller. I've had the basic idea for the story for five years and have been working on the outline since the middle of September.

Then today it occured to me. If I've had this idea for five years and haven't written the story yet, it's probably because I'm not actually that interested in the story as it is.

So I'm pretty much back to square one for the outline. I'll take the ideas I originally had and adapt them into something that's worth writing. Or I'll do something entirely different.

I'm not actually sure why I even bother planning at all. The characters almost always take the story in new, unintended directions.

Skating on the fine edge between creativity and disaster.

Not sure what I'm doing this year, exactly. My initial plan was to take a series of short stories my father's been writing and use them as a framework for the setting, but he takes a week to write 250 words (although they end up being 250 of the best words you've ever read) so I'm not sure he'll have the latest one done by November. Fallback ideas include an island-mentality magical realism piece, which is heavy on characters and light on plot at the moment, as well as the usual counterculture (and hence potentially counterproductive) experimental structure involving a wiki.

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Well, I'm going with Science Fiction, it's an idea I've had rolling around for some time now, never really gotten going on it.

The one thing I'm definitely happy about is now that I've committed to NaNo, the pieces are starting to fall into place. The various parts of the plot are suggesting how they should fit together and which of their friends are missing, and the main characters are starting to step out of the fog they've been hiding behind.

It's the characters that have been the most surprising so far. I'm still discovering who they are, but ideas I had had before on gender, age, race, relationships to other characters, etc. seem to be falling by the wayside. Instead, new ideas pop into my head unannounced, and just fit.

I'm feeling better about writing than I ever have, as characters were always my weak point.

NaNo 2009: Lost and Found (19,052/50,000+)

I did the 3-day novel contest and used my annual plot for that, so I had no ideas at all for NaNo.

Idea one: 30-something single girl wins a big lottery and it causes all kinds of upheaval in her life until she discovers she has really only one true friend.

Idea two: Set in 2012 and planet X comes around for a visit. The inhabitants of planet X are here to harvest humans.

Idea three: Based on the Bat Out Of Hell CDs

Yeah, I like that one. At least I get to listen to some great music for inspiration. Gotta love Wagnerian-style rock.

An author spends months writing a book, and maybe puts his heart's blood into it, and then it lies about unread till the reader has nothing else in the world to do. -- W. Somerset Maugham

Well, I'm seriously considering something influenced by Criminal Minds. (I know, I know...) So, it's gonna be a Mystery/Suspence novel. I'm working on the plot and all... Hope this works!

~ Yami Jay ~
Year 1: This is my challenge this year. Let's do it!
Year 2: Suspence novel...

The idea came to me one day while I was playing :Left 4 Dead with my friends. Basically it's based off my actual friends (and myself) going to E3 in Los Angeles (which is next year) and there is a deadly virus that transforms the residents of LA into flesh eating zombies.
The planning is turning out wonderfully because my friends are really into it and are excited to read the finished and edited version at the end of November. They also, for some reason, think it's going to be as awesome as Zombieland. THAT I highly doubt.

Also...

I think I might do a second story. I haven't thought of it yet, but I think it might be some stupid romance story. I have to fill my daily dose of love and romance and all the gross stuff that I hate seeing in public but like to write about :).

"I think I might do a second story. I haven't thought of it yet, but I think it might be some stupid romance story. I have to fill my daily dose of love and romance and all the gross stuff that I hate seeing in public but like to write about :)."

Second story? I smell a sub-plot!

"Love Among the Ruins" sorta thing, no?

I'm just using this as an excuse to actually write a story that I've been outlining and planning for ages. I guess it's fantasy, but there's no magic. It's just... not our world. It's going to be one of those long-winded boring political novels set in a medieval-ish setting.

Well I was thinking of just doing the romance thing in my main story, but since I have my friends reading it I'd much rather just cut it out or allude to a relationship between characters. Personally, I'd rather not have them know I have a crush on one of them. DRAMA! lol

This is my first Nanowrimo. I've got the basic outline of a plot, which involves a woman, online dating, and a collision of personality disorders.

This is my theory on why writers tend not to have many friends. We stir things up just to get a good "story" going!

An author spends months writing a book, and maybe puts his heart's blood into it, and then it lies about unread till the reader has nothing else in the world to do. -- W. Somerset Maugham

Mine has the working title of Picasso in Sussex

It is told from the POV of Alexandria Wainwright, who has the simplest of ambitions. Obsessed with the great operatic composers of history - Verdi, Wagner and especially Puccini - she has decided that she too will write an opera. First she must overcome a few obstacles: the fact that her Mum and Dad were psychotics and that they were murdered (on the same day but in separate incidents); that prior to this she had divorced her parents in a court of law to escape them; she is busy studying AND running the pawn shop she inherited; oh, and she doesn't read, write or play music.

So she writes the libretto - about the little known visits of Pablo Picasso to rural Sussex, England in the 1940s, 50s and 60s - and then hunts down someone she can hm the tunes to, translate it into Italian (naturally - it's an opera!) and produce it.

I'd be a better writer if I could concentrate for longer peri.... oh! oh! I hear an ice cream truck!!

Is anyone else, by the way, writing from the point of view of an character of the opposite gender?

I'd be a better writer if I could concentrate for longer peri.... oh! oh! I hear an ice cream truck!!

I am. Should go better than my first attempt, though.

ML Ottawa, Ontario
NaNoWriMo 2006: Lethal Ladies (complete!)
NaNoWriMo 2007: Digital Magic (win!)
NaNoWriMo 2008: Crossover (win!)
NaNoWriMo 2009: The Soul Blade

An author spends months writing a book, and maybe puts his heart's blood into it, and then it lies about unread till the reader has nothing else in the world to do. -- W. Somerset Maugham

I am writing from the third person p.o.v. of a dog. I think you just have to BE the character and then start writing. :)

I've gone through two different story ideas so far, and now I've changed my mind AGAIN. The first one was sort of a supernatural mystery type thing, the second took out the supernatural part, but then I realized... I SUCK at mysteries! Why make things more complicated for myself? So now I'm thinking out more of a real life drama/comedy, based a bit on some of the adventures I've been through and seen in my time working in the music industry. I've never actually bothered to outline a story beforehand in the past, trusting my crazy scatterbrained mind to work things out on the spot, but I figured I'd give it a try this time... Though the more I think through the plot the more it sounds like a soap opera. haha Twin girls + rock band + real life = drama and conflict and hilarity. I hope.

I've been debating among a half-dozen possibilities, but I think I've narrowed it down to a supernatural mystery - I think of it as my 'agency supe-mystery project,' to separate it from the PI-based idea that was one of the other contenders.

If I can figure out what really drives the villain before November 1st, I'll be in good shape. Except for not having any time to write in, but I'll never get around to writing anything if I let that shut me down.

I'm debating over two ideas. One is about a girl who turns into a loup garou and her best friend who is a kuchisake onna, but is trying to stop her transformation. The other is about a group of friends in university/college and dealing with disappointment and deciding what they want to do with their lives.

Mine's kind of a zombie rockumentary.

I've sketched out about the first half and the rest of it I'm keeping vague on purpose because I'm really interested in discovering my characters as I'm writing and deciding where to go from there.

Oh, and I'm writing almost all male characters, and I'm a chick. I'm generally pretty comfortable writing men, though.

OMG! That's pretty much what I'm doing with vampires demon possession using the Bat Out Of Hell CDs for a starting point. Welcome to the biting side of rock. lol

An author spends months writing a book, and maybe puts his heart's blood into it, and then it lies about unread till the reader has nothing else in the world to do. -- W. Somerset Maugham

I think you have the right ideas there. All of my novels except last years have not finished where I thought they were going. That is truely part of the fun. Last year's book, which I had all mapped out, got pretty hard to write in the end because I was so determined to stick with my outline. So this year I'm back to my original strategy - I have some some good characters, which I'll stick in some unusual situations, and then let the plot bunnies be fruitful and multiply!!

I am not writing (...) to please critics. Writing is itself one of the experiments of truth. - Gandhi

2006 - Into the Fray (win)
2007 - The Ties That Bind (win)
2008 - Black Rose (win)

It is better to write for yourself and have no audience, then to write for an audience and have no self

2006 - Into the Fray (win)
2007 - The Ties That Bind (win)
2008 - Black Rose (win)
2009 - Devil Ins

Yep. My MC has been firmly entrenched for a while in my brain for oh, fifteen years. I've had real difficulties in writing first person female for the most part. I've got one story that is alternating between the MMC and the MFC as they go through the same situations and that's it.

Being an author is like being in charge of your own personal insane asylum.
~ Graycie Harmon

I definitely don't want to follow the latest literary trend, be it Dan Brown's conspiracy theories, J.K. Rowling's witches and warlocks, or Twilight's vampires and werewolves. But surprisingly, I find myself considering a plot that involves, of all things, an angel. (No demons except the internal kind.)

As things currently stand, an unpublished author (Robinson "Robbie" Sergeant) dies and you'd think, well, that's the end of his literary career. But he is given the chance to write the book he always wanted but never dared. In the limbo between heaven and hell, to the attentive ear of an angel named Malachi, he narrates the story only he alone can tell.

My plot idea may morph into something different by the time Sunday comes along, and my title ("An Angel Writing") is still tentative. But at some point, I'm going to have to commit and run with whatever I finally decide.

Paul aka NovelNo4