I know a lot of us talk about this at Kick Off and Write-Ins, but many of us don't meet at those events and have no clue what we're all writing! So let it all hang out - or as much as you're willing to let hang out here. I know some protect their plots with a dagger and revolver, so at least tell us the basic genre you're writing in!
I'll start, just to get the ball rolling. Just remember, anyone who was here before the rollover, I had no clue what I was writing not that long ago and this is still an idea in progress.
I'm not exactly sure what genre it will be. It might be ChickLit, might be women's fiction, or it could really turn into romance.
Cinda inherited her uncle's building and coffee shop in Ipswich, MA (I stopped in and checked out the town recently, just to get the feel for it). As soon as she leaves her abusive husband for Ipswich, he's killed on the military base - basically his own fault. His parents come after her for the insurance money. She doesnt' want it, but surely doesn't want them to have it as she knows how abusive they are too.
In all this she finds a trunk with all sort of interesting things including a journal. About 3 chapters in I start bouncing back and forth between Cinda and Mickel. Mickel is a young female who works in men's fields in medieval times, when it wasn't accepted.
The NaNovel follows both of their lives -
- Cinda has to deal with a sexy baker, a timetraveling old coot (she doesn't know about his time traveling and he's the ony paranormal in the book), a dying 20-something man who doesn't want to tell his family he's very sick, a crazy old lady who has coffee every day with her stuffed animals (Thanks Auntie!) and her former inlaws who are trying to take her down from every angle, especially when they dicover she has many very expensive antiques in her possesssion.
- Mickel is learning the crossbow (write what you know, and this is something I know - the medieval crossbow) from an older man who she is in love with, shooting in tournament as a man and having this man's daughter fall for her thinking she's a man, doing her work under a false name because she's a woman, and eventually having to make a big decision of how to live her life - for her mother and the town or for herself, to make herself happy.
More than willing to accept any ideas that will help me along!
Now, tell me what you're writing!
Ken
----------
ML - Maine: Portland to Augusta
"Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards." Heinlein
22,145 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2009 - 15 46
Okay, so mine is litfic. And last I checked, I was the only one doing litfic in the entire state. So that makes me feel kinda warm and fuzzy inside. But that means I probably have to explain it to some people--basically, it means I don't have a plot, I have character development. So this might take a while to explain.
So it starts out with this guy, who's watching a woman cross a road with a box, and the box has got power cords hanging out of it. She trips over one, and he jumps out to save her, but as soon as he gets her out the way, he's flattened by a truck. He wakes up just a few days later to find out that he's a machine from the neck down, and he's rather disoriented. (He still remembers his name and who he is and all that, he just forgets a few things like how to tie his shoes.) So he spends a little while moping about that, until he meets a prostitute who hates sex. (All my characters are kind of ironic--my MMC Spark is a machine, but he's the most human character in the book, my FMC, Layla, the prostitute, hates sex, and Cat, my other FMC, the hermit, is the only one with social skills. I find it amusing.) They spend the rest of the book hanging out, contemplating the universe, etc. You know, litfic stuff. Then they find Cat, Layla's sister, living in the flooded basement, and that's when the story really gets going, because it's really about her and Spark. The whole thing is symbolic and whatnot, and there's no definitive good guy or bad guy. It's up to the reader to decide who they think is the bad guy. And then Spark is supposed to represent machines, and Cat is supposed to represent mankind...and there's a bunch of other nonsense in there that I would need several hours to explain the details of. Litfic is like that. XD
----------33,372 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2009 - 17 13
I typed up a bunch about my novels this year and last in the NaNo Maine Group Blog, so forgive me while I copy and paste:
Channeling the Spirits of Spontaneity
So last year as a lot of you may know I finished NaNo for the first time, thanks to the crazy dares and challenges that I agreed to do if I didn't. Last year was loads of fun, but it lacked something that I always hear other Wrimos talking about: spontaneity.
Everyone is always excited, confused and sometimes downright furious at the things that their characters decide to do. They decide that they need different careers. They decide that the villain is actually a pretty nice guy and take him out to lunch. They decide to die. They say and do all of these wonderful off the cuff things, only barely under their writer's control. My characters did not.
I had an outline of scenes which I had jotted down on the day I came up with my silly little concept: of a girl haunted by the ghost of a black Labrador retriever until she fell in love with his former master. Oh Stirfry (the dog) was fantastic to write about! He did all sorts of fun things... but my actually living characters? They went from point A to point B and really didn't develop much at all. They just followed the outline. That's becuase the only real CHARACTER that I had was the dog. The rest were just sort of there so that I could write more about the dog. One very fun side character made a few brief appearances (Psychic Selma, of Psychic Selma’s Tarot Card Reading, Palmistry, Phrenology and Exotic Pet Emporium) but for the most part my novel just diligently (and boringly) followed it's little outline.
This year, I refuse to outline. Downright refuse. But, this year I have characters! Real people with wants and needs and problems and dreams who also just so happen to have really ridiculous watered down super powers. Some hide their powers in fear. Some use them constantly in the hope that somebody, anybody will notice - though no one does. Some powers are useful (if only slightly) while other are huge annoyances.
I have a man who can control flies, a girl who conjures tomatoes out of thin air when angry, a man who channels his weak telekinetic powers into the form of an imaginary, invisible squirrel, a man who can see through cardboard (but only if it's thin enough) and a man from a long defunct government agency who knows all of their genealogies back to the original six super heroes. I know when they discovered their powers. I know how they feel about them. I think I even know what makes a couple of them tick. I know that two will meet, learn of each others powers, set out to find more people like themselves, and perhaps fall in love. I also know that their powers aren't quite as useless as they think they are...
I don't know the rest. I don't want to. I'm hoping that in time, they will tell me.
----------http://www.squirrel-girl.com/
http://squirrellylist.blogspot.com/
44,020 / 50,000
Oct 20, 2009 - 18 17
all i really have is a skeleton of a plot and a few characters
sophmore year, football, and other mundane happenenings don't (i mean, do not hehehe) leave alot of room for pondering such trivial things as plot.
its better than last year though. i didnt have a plot or start writing until day 3.
Fire and Ice
(Cliche', but whatever i like it)
The plot centralizes on the volcanoes in antarctica. A madman wants to drop nukes or something in all of them, to make them all erupt, this would cause devastation on a global scale. Catastrophic flooding, tsunamis, ice floes, ect.
the madman want's something (dont got that yet, open to suggestions) or else he'll carry through this plot. When the government finds out, they assemble a crack team of the leading experts in all branches of antarctic professions (for lack of a better word. The MC is the antarctic biologist, there will be others, demolitions, combat, survival, scouting ect.
so this is the team's story of stopping the plot to light up those volcanoes. If i'm in need of a word cushion i can bring in an ancient civilization that lives under the ice.
theres the skeleton, i got more twists and stuff but im mostly gonna make it up as i go, like i did last year.
good luck all you guys, Maine FTW!!
----------ps sorry about capitalization, its getting late
5,559 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 03 12
You mean, I'm writing something this NaNo?
These last few years haven't gone well for me, but I remain hopeful.
I am a character writer. Without dynamic characters, I lose interest almost immediately. That's been part of my problem - the characters from the last few NaNos fell flat in Week One. So I'm letting a few grow in the back of my mind, and trying not to force professions and desires and characteristics upon them.
I rarely have a plot. Ever. I'm just going to let them go on their own journey (however boring or chaotic it might be) and then I'll worry about fixing it later. :P
My summary reads, "Whatever it is, it's all cool at the end. I promise." Because anti-climactic climaxes and sad endings suck.
----------Sponsor the State of Maine WriMos!
70,050 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 07 47
Three hair-dressers, who happen to be a Greek goddess, a werewolf, and a vampire, are in search of a few new girls as they expand their salon into a day spa. Someone starts killing off hair-dressers all over the state, Hades come to town, and the fae community is acting up. Add to that a freak show with a hirsuite young man who wants to be a real boy, and you get a recipie for boiled over disaster.
I've got characters outlined, a little research done, and a story outline. This story had been bugging me since January, and I can't wait to jump in with both feet.
----------Nano'08: Motercycles & Medieval Dresses Don't Mix- Won
Proud member of Moose Mayhem, and Team Moose
44,805 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 11 53
From what I've seen, there are going to be some interesting stories out there this year. :)
This year, I've decided to try to write a thriller called "Derailed". It's about a couple of college students who decide to go investigate a local "haunted' hot spot to find out if it's really haunted or not. All the while, the dark past of the town is revealed through the ghost stories that the students tell during the investigation. Along the way, they meet up with another group who have very similar interests in the investigation. After combining the two groups, they decide to divide and conquer - a bad plan in any situation involving the paranormal. The group then runs into a rather strange character who warns them not to mess with things they don't understand. Shortly after, one of them goes missing and turns up in a rather unexpected place. Then another. And another.
The biggest question facing those who are remaining is - are their friends being murdered, or each of them losing it to the point where it drives them over the edge?
And who will be next?
It's kind of stereotypical for a thriller, but I'm really excited about it. Most of the characters are based off real people I know, so the emotion behind a lot of it will be very real. I can't wait til we can start writing. Everyone keeps asking me about the title, because none of my summaries really have anything to do with trains. There will be train tracks in it, but it's kind of one of those play-on words - meaning that they're all convinced they're going insane - or going off the tracks. So their minds are "derailing" so to speak. I thought it was kind of perfect. :)
Good luck to everyone! Happy writing!
----------2,027 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 15 29
As a few know, I'm not writing this year.
I'm wrestling bears.
(Or at least stretching myself in a new and possibly scary direction.)
Just thought I'd put that out there, lest someone mistake me for a Moose or a Lobster this year. (Still like Moose better than lobsters!) I'll still be at Panera on as many Sundays as I can go with sketchpad/watercolors. If anyone's interested in getting character sketches and such, just talk at me, I'm willing to work something out if I have time.
33,372 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 15 39
Yes, Meister is participating in NaNo's little-known sister event, NaBeWreMo - National Bear Wrestling Month. The tricky part is the validation.
----------http://www.squirrel-girl.com/
http://squirrellylist.blogspot.com/
73,651 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 15 45
The ideas are all shiny! (Vanyahiril, I think you are possibly my hero.)
Let's see ... I am a terrible summarizer, but here's my stab at it: the genre is fantasy/romance, basically a novel of Court intrigue and magic and pretty dresses. >.>
Lady Miette has unexpectedly (long story) become the heir to a barony, so she goes from almost ten years of training to be a priestess to Court to make connections and find a husband. She's a magician, which in my 'verse is about as exciting as being a plumber, and almost no aristocrats have magic (and those that do are usually dismissed as illegitimate. Plus, y'know, there's the whole deal where the baron before her father was killed because he tried to kill people with magic. That puts a damper on things too). She makes it her mission to be popular, and she succeeds, but she also has to be someone she's not to keep the illusion up.
Sir Tristan hates her guts, because he hates Court (he's related to the Queen, and she's sweet-talked him into staying for a while), but they keep crossing paths because of various possible assasination and matchmaking plots, and ... I'm sure you all can tell where it's going from there.
*eyes the ramble* Hopefully that made sense.
----------________________
Just keep swimming!
783 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 15 50
All I know is that I'm writing about a haunted house. I *think* it's a former children's home that holds a few nasty surprises for the new owner, whose ancestor (not sure how far back) ran the place.
36,287 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 16 33
I'm writing a contemporary fantasy that was supposed to be a lot simpler, but seems to have been taking plot steroids behind my back, since it keeps getting more and more complicated. My FMC, Susie, is a young girl--she's around twelve or thirteen, I think--who is very sick. This illness of her's makes her sleep a lot, and while she sleeps she dreams. But her dreams--of course--aren't normal. What fun would that be? Instead she dreams of four different people--Ian, Texas, Katie, and Daren. Her dreams follow their stories, which begin as completely seperate plots but all become intertwined. Tex picks Ian up when he's hitchhiking, and they later find Katie on the side of the road, and at some point they'll need to save Daren from the antagonists. Throughout this Susie periodically wakes up to deal with her real life--her parents are constantly fighting and her old brother is causing mayhem and her condition is worsening--but she slips farther and father into the dreams. And then we deal with the possibility that maybe (just maybe) her dreams are real, and her illness is not so natural after all.
I'm planning to write it in four different parts so that each individual character gets their spot in the limelight, but throughout the parts the plots will start to intertwine.
I'm really excited to start working on it! (Even though I can already tell that the end of it is going to give me a royal headache, haha).
----------NaNo 2008--Ring of Fire, Win but never edited or finished
Screnzy 2009--Shattered Mercy, Win and being edited
NaNo 2009--Figments of Imagination, 15k completed
Dares completed: 2
Characters Killed: 0 during, 2 prior
Cursed Objects Encountered: 1
24,281 / 50,000
Oct 21, 2009 - 18 16
My book is "A Pocketful of Stars," second in a trilogy of science fiction stories about an intergalactic junk picker who finds an experimental battleship in a rubbish tip - and as soon as he fires its weapon, everyone in the Galaxy wants a piece of it. Oh, and he's a super-evolved, hyperintelligent polar bear.
The first of the trilogy is landing in January, and the rest is under contract, which puts me in the unusual - and tense - position of having a NaNo novel that's already been sold. (Run, Forrest! Run!) In this exciting episode, our main character, Iorgi Murrett, flees to a pocket Universe to hide when an old enemy surfaces and brings a new one along as friends. As if that's not bad enough, he's also gotten the undivided attention of the local superpower and its primary law enforcement organization. The Charter is sending an Agent.
So yeah.
Ben Goodridge
----------"Found: One Apocalypse," coming from Bad Dog Books in January.
Read the first chapter here.
Tell the author what you think
2,027 / 50,000
Oct 22, 2009 - 11 26
Yeah. My bear has taken on the form of fifty canvases currently leaning everywhere in my studio room.:)
Validation will be a biatch, but you'll be able to see if I finish.
80,099 / 50,000
Oct 22, 2009 - 15 12
Young-adult romance set at a fictional arts high school here in Maine. I've found that I set most of my stories here in Maine XD I just love this place, I guess. And yes, I have been to other parts of the country.
Uh anyway.
It's a gay romance. I decided to write it this year because I was reading the old YA genre forum before the wipe earlier this month, and a lot of people were talking about how they wished there was a young-adult gay romance novel with a positive message and such. So... really fluffy romance with no death, break-ups etc. THERE'S A PLOT I SWEAR. It's mentioned in my synopsis, actually. Yeah.
I've been deprived of cheese-based products lately so I'm not quite coherent.
----------Click the banner to read my novel blog.
25,127 / 50,000
Oct 23, 2009 - 12 24
This is my synopsis:
Mandy, the daughter of a strict General Decker, is sent to Africa to be taught life's harsher realities, to have her compassionate streak crushed, so that come the end of summer she will enlist in the army as expected.
As soon as Mandy arrives in Africa, she finds herself tangled in another woman's violent legacy. And no matter how hard she tries, Mandy can not out-run this woman's reputation.
One night, she witnesses an entire African village being brutally slaughtered. This invokes a whirl-wind of emotions, including revenge and hatred, which test the limits of her compassionate principles.
It is the secrets behind why she was sent to Africa, who this strange woman is, and what her father really is, that expose the truth to all matters, and change Mandy's principles forever.
-----So, I guess that falls under the category of young adult adventure, i would say
----------"I'm in my own little world, but don't worry, people know me there."-- A plague belonging to a friend of mine.
7,483 / 50,000
Oct 23, 2009 - 14 01
This is my first year, I am in a bad habit of writing and editing the same thing over and over again, so I hope this gives me the kick in the butt to finish it, then go back and do rewrites.
Here Comes Goodbye(working title)
Jace becomes a god with a lot of uncontrolled power, after he is killed in Iraq. He discovers he can visit his wife in her dreams.
Sam overwhelmed with grief finds comfort in her dreams and is at risk of losing all connection to reality if she keeps seeing Jace in her dreams. Dylan is an old high school friend who walks back into her life the day of her husband’s funeral. Sam has a chance at a good life for her and the kids if she lets Dylan in her heart.
Jace becomes more out of control with his jealousy as he watches Sam struggle with her choice and another God manipulates him
----------Sheila
"Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.”
~E.L. Doctorow~
40,894 / 50,000
Oct 24, 2009 - 09 11
I'm insane, so I'm writing two simultaneously this year. For more detailed synopsises (sp?), see my profile.
In Shackles/Skeletons (I haven't decided what the title will be yet), four girls sit in a room, none of them at sure sure why they're even there in the first place. Each of them has their own story of hurt (which they would quite prefer not to share, thank you very much!), and though each has never met the others, all of them are connected. Nothing is keeping them in the room, and yet something is holding them back.
And none of them will be able to be free in any sense until they open their shackles and unlease the skeletons in the closet.
In Tainted, Huntley Aadams a normal little kid, until the day she wasn't. Now, twelve years later, she still hasn't recovered. Isolating herself from anyone who might try to discover the truth, she lives in fear, shame, and pain. But then her past strikes back in the most painful way possible. Huntley wants to protect herself, but when does protecting yourself over healing others become a crime inself? And if she steps forward, will she survive it?
----------Need information about northern Maine. duct tape, puppeteering, Christianity, tiny rural towns, babysitting, twins, OCD, vegetarianism, medicine, or hospitals? Just send me a NaNoMail and I'll tell you more than you ever wanted to know.
70,695 / 50,000
Oct 24, 2009 - 15 43
As late as this afternoon, I had NO CLUE what I was writing. I had a couple of dumb ideas that I wasn't particularly excited about while I was hanging out with the girls at starbucks, but then my mother called. My mother is a conspiracy theorist and a fatalist obsessed with the end of society. she was convinced that y2k was happening, and now she's convinced that the end of society is upon us VIA Swine Flu, lack of faith in the government and overpowered corp. executives.
----------well, I thought, what if my mother is right? and of course my novelly-novelist wheels got turning. so I erased everything from my Nano packet, and I'm starting over. again. no plot, only an idea. so let's hope I do something even OK with this.
Rebecca Susanne
Most Words in a Single Day - 8,335, Nov 1
# of Days with No Nanoing - 0
Body Count- 12
2,451 / 50,000
Oct 24, 2009 - 16 22
Hmm so not completely sure what I am going to be writing but I think its going to involve space penguins...and a super shiny bunker and water pistols lol, should be fun!
18,104 / 50,000
Oct 24, 2009 - 20 40
I've been whining about this all night in my head and finally in my blog. I was torn between Fine Art (a crime/mystery/thriller) and The Philosopher's Cup (chick lit/romance). I finally decided on TPC, as FA was going to take me into some scary places inside my head. I'd rather write something fun and quirky for my first time out in NaNoWriMo.
----------Fine Art
A horror, psychological thriller, romantic, surreal boat, taking a trip from an indie coffee house to a plastic box in an art gallery.
8,338 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 20 21
It's my first NaNo so I'm not making any promises. Basically I don't know where my story is going or even if it'll end. But the FMC has amnesia and doesn't remember anything. A Jane Doe. It flashes between her "now" and when she awakens in the Clinic. She lives a "normal" life sorta. Guess I got to figure out where to go from where I'm at. The MMC is a co-worker of hers, until maybe she is found by her husband. ??? Don't know.
Wish me luck.
----------Tracie ~
24,035 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 20 48
Took me a false start and a little memory jog from my iPod to get going on this:
"Dear Piper"
A memoir in the form of a letter from the narrator to the daughter of his ex-lover. Two people already in relationships (he is married, she is engaged to a man posted to another country) agree to an affair with an end date. Essentially, they commit to "live a lifetime in six months." Along the way they fall deeply in love discovering that each may be the love of the other's life. But, they remain committed to their primary relationships and are forced to wrestle with the emotional fall out that results when they reach their end date. As the man said, "no affair ends happily." But the characters are determined to have their affair end with grace if not happiness.
70,695 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 08 14
Bobistan. I must read that. Must. it's become a genetic imparitive.
----------Rebecca Susanne
Most Words in a Single Day - 8,335, Nov 1
# of Days with No Nanoing - 0
Body Count- 12
50,286 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 13 24
I'm taking advantage of NaNoWriMo to power through the first part of a novel that was already in progress and break into the second part.
Shadowfall is a paranormal/fantasy set in a medival alternate world. It centers around the adventures of Nora, a self-proclaimed spinster, who learned very young that it was her responsibility to take care of her four younger sister. At the age of 30 she realizes that soon her two youngest sisters will be married while she will remain a burden to her aging father who longs to return to the intrigues of the court. When her father arranges a groom for one of her younger sister's Nora is horrified to find out that not only is he from the reclusive northern kingdom but that he has all the warmth and charm of a stone. In order to spare her younger sisters from the prospects of marrying such a man Nora convinces her father to give her away.
Nora journey's north with her now husband and prince of the northern people. She learns the ways of a people that had ceased all communications and contacts with the southern kingdom after the Great War in which the two kingdoms united to fight back the darkness and the creatures that it spawned. Needless to saw her reception at the Prince's castle less than welcoming. Before long she becomes embroiled in a plot to dethrone the reluctant prince. Nora also comes to see the prince in a new light when she discovers that behind his cold and dettached exterior lurks a passion that verges on violence.
They will have to find a way to work together to restore stability to the north. When the dangers Nora uncovers in the northern kingdom come back to her family Nora sets out to clear her father's name and save his life.
Okay that's the description so far. I've got to work on the description at any rate. But the story contains love triangles, assassins, politcal intrigue, werewolves, fairies, and vampires ^_^
24,035 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 15 28
@DFM27: perhaps someday you will!
8,338 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 06 54
I'm starting over. Couldn't formulate anything out of what I had.
----------Tracie ~