Hi everybody!
As we get settled in, it's always fun to throw around what we're going to tackle for the month.
If you don't actually have a plot yet, feel free to share that too. Ask for ideas - but don't be surprised if they're passing strange. :)
You'll notice there's a lot more room for customization under your author profile in the Novel Info section. Have some fun with it. This site here lets you make fake magazine covers - with a little tweaking you can come up with something that looks suspiciously like a book cover:
http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/magazine.php
I stuck to a banner for my 'cover shot' because I couldn't quite get the results I wanted from the magazine cover page:
http://www.mybannermaker.com
Some of us come in with a whole outline and planning and characters. Some of us come in with not much more than notes scribbled on the back of a serviette around the coffee rings (I approach the latter more than the former), and some of us are still waiting for the Great Muse in the Sky to give us something - ANYTHING....
Hop on in and share. Don't worry about whether the idea's any 'good' - even the corniest ideas have the seed of greatness in them if you give yourself permission to play.
=Bets=
----------
Participant / Winner: 03, 04, 05, 06, 07... 08
Winnipeg, MB Municipal Liaison: 04, 05, 06*, 07* ...08*
* with help
Forum Co-Mod: Nano Technology
-=-=-=-
Reach the Winnipeg co-MLs at
http://www.nanowrimo.org/mlcontact
50,340 / 50,000
oct. 3, 2008 - 12 16
no plot here... I need to have a story idea, or a character or SOMETHING to start with... I have a feeling I will be doing some writing by the seat of my pants and the tickle trunk this year... sentient broccoli here we come *lol*
----------Co-Municipal Liaison - Manitoba:Canada (Winnipeg)
Done nano 05,*06,07,08 *years won 06
Co-ML 05,06,07,08
"Don not taunt the happy fun ball!"
53,255 / 50,000
oct. 3, 2008 - 12 33
My novel is, hmmm...how to describe it...
The main character is employed as a "dream facilitator" -- she goes into peoples' apartments (unbeknownst to them) and assists them with their dreaming through what I guess is best described as a psychic link. She provides imagery, nudges them in this or that direction.
The storyline will focus on the main character discovering why the organization she works for does what it does and what its intentions are.
So I don't know what genre to call it. It's set in our world, around now, and has elements of fantasy, thriller and conspiracy theory stories (just a pinch of the latter).
It's an expansion of a short story I wrote earlier this year: http://pixelenvy.ca/cgi/fff.cgi/week13.html?fullstory=y
---------------------------------------------------------------
LJ: gruberman.livejournal.com
AIM: NoGuitarMercy
53,478 / 50,000
oct. 3, 2008 - 14 26
I'll just nab what I blathered about in my profile for now...
Erm...
Somehow.
But I'm not worried. I'll figure that out when November hits.
Either that, or I'll write something that has absolutely nothing to do with this whatsoever (the likelihood of this is extremely high, noting my track record)!
Le Novel
0 / 50,000
oct. 3, 2008 - 15 48
I'm doing a vampire themed comedy/adventure story. Basically...
Vampire King gets sick of humanity and tries to take over the world.
His son, Prince Orestes isn't down with that and decides to mess with his dad's plans.
Both of them are kind of crazy.
Shenanigans ensue.
I've got some later plot developments planned, but the concept is pretty basic and mostly a backdrop for me to fool around with vampire folklore and the like. Currently working on actually establishing a direction for this to go in so the idea doesn't burn out right after I start.
55,423 / 50,000
oct. 3, 2008 - 20 15
Over the past three or four years I've been posting to a question of the week to pagan list roughly every week. I've spent the past couple weeks collecting all of them in to a usable and easy to read format. Works out I've done a 124 of them so far. My NANO plan is to put them in to a format that could be read by any pagan as a journey to explore their own spirituality.
Unlike last years project it won't be so open ended.
----------Blog - http://betweentheticks.blogspot.com/
50,357 / 50,000
oct. 4, 2008 - 12 35
Plot? What is this plot you speak of?
----------So far, I'm setting it in the North, Yukon or NWT kinda area.
I have a coupla characters sketched out (philosophizing ex-miner, ridiculous rich snowmobile racer etc.), and waiting around in the bar offstage right now for something, anything to happen. I love Nov. 1, because there isn't so much as an inkling in my mind as to what these folks will get up to.
Between you and me and the lamp post
Between this living hell and the great unknown...
1,641 / 50,000
oct. 4, 2008 - 17 09
My synopsis:
As each story develops and Jan finds out the origins of this particular book of fairy tales, she’s faced with a difficult choice – stop reading the stories, or help clean up her neighbourhood? And what happens when she reaches the last story?
The plot seems pretty easy to flesh out - just add more fairy tales! It will give me a chance to dig up some of my favourite, but more obscure, tales as well. It should be fun to see how far I can take it along.
58,481 / 50,000
oct. 6, 2008 - 18 03
I have lots of stuff plot wise, in fact there are several plots I've got I could use...
We will discover which one I'm going to bastardize this November at the kick off... It will involve a hat and slips of paper with the basic title/style on them (because each of those has a plot that goes with in my brain...) and a play list.. All hail play lists
31,819 / 50,000
oct. 6, 2008 - 19 51
Norse mythology. Probably. Or else a futuristic Catholic world inhabited by genetic mutants.
Actually, those were my themes the last two years, but I gave up on both of them and went entirely different directions. Didn't make the wordcount deadline either time. Guess I'm just hoping I'll actually get around to completing some of my thoughts this year. heh heh heh
50,436 / 50,000
oct. 7, 2008 - 15 15
There's a pretty significant group of Nano types gathered on Facebook that are enthusiastically throwing out their plot ideas and looking for pointers. Just type in "Nanowrimo" in Groups and you'll find it.
53,395 / 50,000
oct. 7, 2008 - 16 23
Ah heck. Even though I'm now located in Calgary, Winterpeg is my hometown. My plot keeps changing, but for the most part it's fantasy based. The plot will involve some sort of quest and probably have it's fair share of gay couples. And elves. Dirty dirty elves. lol
----------50,600 / 50,000
oct. 7, 2008 - 18 31
Huushiita-- you're last line *totally* reminded me of a Foamy The Squirrel episode I saw. x) Do you watch it?
I have a plot, a stand-in title, and a god-awful-but-it'll-have-to-do-for-now cover!
Yes. Plot. Mine, even. There's four main characters who embody the elements Water, Fire, Air and Earth. The one who's the main *main* character is Fire, but I'm trying to spread the view points out a little,. The book starts out at the very, VERY begginning of the planet earth (this is where the science comes in), and follows the progression of both the geographical / word-for-animal-life-which-I-can't-remember changes in the actual planet, and the progression of the character's personality, intelligence, and feelings that go along with those changes. Watching the earth grow up, in a sense.
So that goes along for a really, reeeeeaaaallly long time (I'll probably employ some sort of cheesy "and the years went by" tactic), until humans show up. The elementals (for lack of a better word) are interested in humans, because they behave incredibly strangely as they grow as a species. And to the elementals, the human species grows really, REALLY fast, almost like a flower carrying poison. Because they're so strange, three of the elementals go & live with the humans, as best as they can, to try and find out more. (They did this before, with other creatures, but humans are the weirdest ever, so they stay for a while.)
And then Fire winds up in France, gets caught in a witch trial, burns the whole place down and it all kind of goes to hell.
I'm really, really excited because even though there *IS* plot, it'll be mostly character-centric, which is a style of writing I haven't really explored before.
I'm really freakin' excited, which is why I'm babbling. x-D
----------"If anyone can find the plot of this book, please tell it I love it very much and want it to come home."
50,143 / 50,000
oct. 9, 2008 - 20 03
Oh got me a whole bucket full of plot. For the first time I have done story boarding using MS OneNote.
Genre: Contemporary Fantasy.
I don't like to discuss my plot and characters in great detail, or name them because I think it's rather bad luck.
My first official year!
Thanks!
Pugbaby
50,156 / 50,000
oct. 11, 2008 - 21 57
Not much of a plot yet, but more than I usually have at this point in October.
The story revolves around an apartment building that has been taken over by The Gods, and follows the adventures of various tenants.
0 / 50,000
oct. 12, 2008 - 04 59
The last 2 years I've been doing pretty much the same idea with a different story. If they were finished I guess they would be considered 2 books in the same series... but they're not, so they aren't. This year I'm going off in a completely different direction. I decided to call my novel "42: An Autobiography" It will be about how life, the universe, and everything revolves around me! Thats all I got so far. Should be easy though, the book practically writes itself!
----------This years novel: "42: An Autobiography"
2,168 / 50,000
oct. 13, 2008 - 07 35
I'm taking a bunch of idealistic, optimistic but twisted 20-somethings into a town that was ravaged by horrors and left abandoned. They hope to bring it back to its former glory. The town is part of a themed anthology I worked on, and it's just ripe for a novel.
------------
Jodi Lee
24,000 / 50,000
oct. 13, 2008 - 08 51
Again, this year I'm flying by the seat of my pants. The only difference is that I have a vague idea of where my destination will end up being.
My story is loosely about a boy who is kidnapped during a mad-dash run away to see his boyfriend, and is taken to a medical testing facility run by non-human creatures. They're trying to make humans - and non-humans - into angels and they needed somebody to experiment on. Well, the kid gets loose after they finish altering his body to incorporate the stone wings they placed in his back, and starts running for his life as people start trying to kill him left, right and center. All while he's running, he's trying to figure out what the heck happened to him and who was the lousy varmint that did the deed.
----------Death brings to the front of our existance what we fear most: acceptance
**Proud 2008 NaNo rebel**
0 / 50,000
oct. 17, 2008 - 22 07
I've got two plots in mind:
1) A high fantasy novel with a food theme. Yes, food. Writing it would require me to make up a lot of things on the fly, but I'd have that whole "fantasy canvas" thing to paint on. Not even a title yet, just some central concepts.
2) Dystopian SF. Title: "Hateseed". A virus intended to cause mankind to stop eating meat has a nasty side effect: if people experience anger or any strong negative emotion, including aggression, they get sick and eventually die. A few decades after the release of the virus, a renegade group of people immune to its effects sets out to overcome the effects of the pathogen, an act which would destroy civilization as they know it.
I'm really not sure which way to go. Cast your vote! :-)
23,318 / 50,000
oct. 21, 2008 - 09 57
I DON'T KNOW. D:
(Really, Im stressing out so much over the fact that I don't have a plot that its in the dreaded CAPSLOX. Help me? D: )
----------NaNo '07: A Zombie Story (50k+, unfinished)
NaNo '08: Undecided
50,156 / 50,000
oct. 23, 2008 - 21 16
Absinthe_, if you don't currently have a plot, start thinking about one or two characters. Follow them around to their usual haunts and observe how they interact with what they encounter.
At some point they'll express strong emotions or do something either brilliant or stupid or both. That'll at least sow the seeds of conflict and suggest a direction for the story. Just think of plot as (major_problem + conflicted_characters).
0 / 50,000
oct. 24, 2008 - 22 56
Heh, kinda posted mine too early. I have a habit of totally dropping plot threads at least once when I do things like that, and that time has come!
I'm now developing a new outline for an idea I previously had for a totally different medium. It started off as a game project (done through RPG Maker since I don't nearly have the ability to make one on my own) and it's sort of a weird adventure story vaguely based around (and satirizing) older educational and adventure themed computer games. Then I just kind of started thinking about how it could be portrayed as a story instead, since both the game and my previous story idea were going nowhere, and it turned in to my NaNo project from there. The plot is as follows...
One decade ago, the great Doctor Learn vanished. He seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth, leaving nothing but his castle, and rumors of a great legacy held within. Whispers passed across the land of great riches, of wonderous technology and of forbidden magic. Treasure beyond even greatest dreamer's most vivid imagination. For years, adventurers, thrill seekers, treasure hunters and skeptics alike challenged the castle, trying to discover it's secrets. But once you got in deep, you never came out. Nobody was able to successfully escape from whatever lay within, and the mysteries of the castle remained untouched.
But as the years passed, strange things began to happen. The land around the castle was slowly dying, while the building itself became a hotbed for all manner of demons and supernatural creatures. The castle became impossible to penetrate, impossible to destroy. It threatened to bring the entire world to ruin and as every attempt to stop it failed, all hope for humanity seemed lost. Until one day, unbeknownst to the world at large, a mysterious, yet familiar figure paid the castle an unexpected visit.
At long last, the doctor had returned.
So yeah! That's it. Haha I feel kinda like a pretentious dick whenever I write like that.
32,344 / 50,000
oct. 27, 2008 - 21 23
Plot is had. Title is had. I even have a 32" monitor set up and a laptop! I'm pretty much on the ball for this one!
The Everyman Crisis
An Everyman (Fiction's Biggest Tool since the invention of Fictional Literature) finally gains self-sentience and self-awareness. In doing so, he escapes the minds of the authors and fights his way through story-plot after story-plot. In an attempt to stave off the inevitable death at the end of his tale (wherein he saves the world from global thermonuclear war, at the cost of his life) he sabotages other authors stories; hijacking, diverting ideas, and ultimately giving the authors the worst case of brain farts and mind numbing writer's block they've ever seen! Ultimately, he attempts to coerce his co-characters; personas who seem more than glad to not rock the boat and go with the literary-stereotype-flow. In the end, as he discovers he's running out of minds to escape from, where will he go? Will he finally ride off into the nuclear sunset where he belongs?
Will I finally come up with a convincing ending?
Time will tell!
----------Some dreams never die. Other dreams get Chinese water torture preformed upon them.
23,318 / 50,000
oct. 27, 2008 - 21 40
Thanks Astreja.
I'm trying to follow around my antagonist and really he's the only one who has gone beyond the name + possible plot point thus far. And thats frustrating cause I don't want the focus to be entirely him. *sigh* Ah well.
Hopefully I'll have more luck tomorrow. Thank you for the advice! :D
----------NaNo '07: A Zombie Story (50k+, unfinished)
NaNo '08: Undecided
50,156 / 50,000
oct. 28, 2008 - 06 23
This is my third year doing Nano and each plot has been remarkably disconnected and different from the last.
This year I have chosen to write about the reunion of an birth mother and her adopted child. I haven't decided on names or whether I'm going to focus around the reunion, or the events leading up to it. I like to start writing and just run with it. Last year I had a title before i started and this year i don't. I keep thinking there is going to be some miraculous epiphany and the title will come to me. haha. Oh well. Anybody have any ideas out there for me?
51,389 / 50,000
oct. 29, 2008 - 07 15
For those who are really well and truly stuck, try this random plotline generator:
http://words.bighugelabs.com/plot.php
Samples from today:
* A military officer releases a deadly plague.
----------* An ambulance driver buys a toy that is more than it appears.
* Close friends survive a plane crash in a small diner.
* A werewolf is robbed after he dies.
* A servant pays the price of honesty.
* An exotic dancer is born again after falling off a roof.
* A farmer adopts a baby in a homeless shelter.
* The president is kidnapped on the way to a family reunion.
* Three strangers acquire the ability to read minds in a small diner.
* Rival pilots meet an unlikely companion in Vancouver.
* A mystical shaman realizes he is God in New York.
* God must save the president from terrorists during training.
* A military officer receives a mysterious phone call.
* Ruthless mercenaries come to terms with their own deaths.
* A cross-dresser renews his faith while hiking in the mountains.
* An orphan finds himself in Egypt.
* A newspaper boy pays the price of honesty.
* A decorated police officer discovers a cure for cancer in a dream.
Participant / Winner: 03, 04, 05, 06, 07... 08
Winnipeg, MB Municipal Liaison: 04, 05, 06*, 07* ...08*
* with help
Forum Co-Mod: Nano Technology
-=-=-=-
Reach the Winnipeg co-MLs at
http://www.nanowrimo.org/mlcontact
0 / 50,000
oct. 30, 2008 - 14 52
I'm going for fantasy.
Aivendel is a place, a crossroad between different worlds. It's also the birthplace of magic. The most important witches and wizards live there. And suddenly, a human boy (main character) finds himself in this mysterious world. He doesn't understand the place, but I guess he'll meet new people and have an adventure. We'll let the spur of the moment develop this.
Kind of freaking out actually.
9,028 / 50,000
nov. 1, 2008 - 00 10
Mine is a horror/thriller. It opens up with a noise complaint call coming in to the police station about an out of control noisy drunk in the West end of Winnipeg. (Gee, drunks in Winnipeg? naaaaa)
50,342 / 50,000
nov. 1, 2008 - 23 31
For three hundred years, the House of the Grey Circle was one of the most powerful covens in the world. In 1929, an unknown evil murdered all but the seven youngest members. Years later, Malachi, eldest of the survivors, has failed to appear at a meeting he called. In his place is left a journal which periodically updates itself, in Malachi's handwriting. Using this book, the other six survivors must follow Malachi's path. Whatever secret he is chasing, it concerns the fate of the House, and the dark thing that killed them. As they follow Malachi into the ancient mysteries of the world, the young magicians learn that some secrets are best left untouched...
----------http://hypnerdic.wordpress.com/
23,318 / 50,000
nov. 1, 2008 - 23 48
Be careful what you wish for.
I now have two half-formed stories that I'll be writing. Maybe. I may just end up sticking with my new one, a werewolf story, and writing another one on the side that won't go towards my word count. In the end I'll just go with one story for my wordcount, though.
----------NaNo '07: A Zombie Story (50k+, unfinished)
NaNo '08: Undecided
51,389 / 50,000
nov. 3, 2008 - 11 57
I had a plot.
My characters have hijacked it and it's only December 2nd. *rolls eyes* I hit 10k and sat back wondering what happened to all my sarcasm and comedy. I mean, sure there's the odd funny bit, but there's mostly a whole lotta angst and family drama.
My trailer park trash family turned into something that feels a bit more like Family Ties ...only with vampire parents.
I'm trying to redeem the thing by having the older son get in with the 'wrong crowd', but this is definitely NOT going to be one of those publishable stories. I have a feeling White Wolf would sue me for character defamation or the brutal and cruel abuse of stereotypes about gamer kids (I are one, so please take with grain of salt).
Gotta love Nano. *shaking head and scowling at screen, shaking fist menacingly at disagreeably independent minded paper people* Dangnabbit, just who's in charge of this story?
Uh wait - forget I asked that. :)
-Bets-
EDIT: That should say November 2nd. Apparently my sleep deprivation weekend means I just kind of forgot what month I was on. Whoopsie. :)
----------Participant / Winner: 03, 04, 05, 06, 07... 08
Winnipeg, MB Municipal Liaison: 04, 05, 06*, 07* ...08*
* with help
Forum Co-Mod: Nano Technology
-=-=-=-
Reach the Winnipeg co-MLs at
http://www.nanowrimo.org/mlcontact