Localized semi-ridiculous plot extensions

okay, I'll dive in the pool.

so there are these werepuppies.
there's a patient zero - a new kid in kindergarten who started just after Thanksgiving
he is a real alpha kid - has broken up the power structure that existed (okay, it's who likes who and who is left out on the playground - but that feels ouchie to the ones left kicking the dirt who never get a turn on the swing)
soon he has all the weakest kids gathered into a pack

but then what?

well mike,

I'm sure that you could have a subplot where the werebeast at the top of the heap simply bites himself and thus neutralizes the curse. Then he'd have to fake the whole howling thing, just so the others don't tear him apart. Then he'd have to delegate the actual turning of additional pack-mates to his capos.

Oh, and their kindergarten teacher is found....in the recycling bin in the parking lot....and beneath the slide...and strangely upon the roof.

I'm just saying...

werepuppies:

-they form a team performing acts of charity (yeah, the wolf scouts)
-they form a band, but their base nature kicks in and they end up destroying the very group/relationships that protected them
-there's a power struggle within the group, but ___________
-they figure out a way to start their own school--subversively good? hiding in the woods? _________?
-they decide to return to their roots, living in survival mode in the mountains and then ____________
-they start scribbling graphic novels about their exploits and ___________
-they join the circus/carnival/rock-band circuit
-he/they change their minds when the social pressure to conform causes _______
-they try to attack older kids engaged in mass prejudice
-a genetic defect arises in some members of the group and they start _______

Out of nowhere, a gang of were-chickens sporting switchblades invades their territory. Each were-chick is wearing a t-shirt dipicting a Southern gentleman trying to escape a vat of grease; it reads "The colonel is an a**hole."

How'd they get across the road? With dire purpose ... and a bit of west side attitude.

So ... who's been breeding all these were-things? And where?

were-chicks, hmmm

I'm not as familiar with West side politics - but my kindergarten w-pups are a little young to be stealing girlfriends and dancing in unison - though maybe a progressive gym teacher could have them pretend to be jets and sharks....
though maybe pining over the Hispanic aide who is teaching them to count and sing in spanish

but acts of charity done by the gang.....
now if charitable acts are in the eye of the bestower, then an act of cruel mercy killing could be charity
but maybe some would feel that youthful remorse for the disappearance of the neighborhood animals, both domestic and imported

power struggle - yes, definitely

anyone know any were-reference material I can go find?

anyone else need a bunch of suggestions?

My brain is totally not functioning on this level.

Yeah this topic gives me a nose bleed everytime I try and read through it...

Is the title of the thread confusing? It's not about thinking hard--it's about thinking fun.

This thread is about getting others to help you brainstorm.

For example,

I have a breathlessly nebulous idea about
SISTERS
A lot of them. Maybe eight, or more. (Adults, I think.)

Help me, please! Either

A) Give me a theme or topic to combine with that idea. Sisters and _______.
Random is good! Here are a few I scribbled this morning:
-regrets
-indentities
-a spaceship
-matricide
-muses
-rivers

or

B) Answer this question: What might a group of 8 or more grown sisters do? examples:
-travel together in a spaceship
-have to find their way back together after living apart for years in different countries or planets or alternate timelines
-need to travel separately to find eight pieces to some puzzle
-run a mental hospital

Thanks!
-----
"The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamouring to become visible" --Nabokov

btw, we're going to do an activity like this at the kick-off, if we have time:

Take someone's 1-sentence description of his/her novel. Provide one question about it, or one possible plot turn. Pass it on.

Warning: random thoughts incoming.

What kind of knife wounds would allow for a drawn out soliloquy? Let's say the wounds are inflicted by kitchen knives in the hands of someone who is passionate, if not hysterical. 7" chef's knife can do quite a bit of damage, so it can be deadly even in the hands of a crazed amateur. So far I can think of vertical stabs in the back, because then the ribcage would absorb a portion of the blow but not completely preventing organ damage.

What are some ways to distract a cocaine addict long enough to cut a secondary substance into a few grams of cocaine? How about ways to make him go beyond his usual dosage?

What are some initial reactions to becoming a ghost? You know, floating, seeing your lifeless body underneath you. How long would it take to sink in?

If a ghost cannot manifest/materialize, how would it read a book?

Do ghosts sleep?

If you had to choose one kind of animal to be able to see ghosts, which would it be? Why?

What's the craziest "let's throw whatever we have left in the fridge/pantry together" meal you've made? How was it? Mine was probably fried rice with eggs, banana peppers, baby carrots, tuna, soy sauce, and spicy mustard and it was edible (just don't ask me to make it again).

SISTERS: I grew up with two and can't imagine growing up in a family of eight.
I suggest you think of nuns (sisters) and plow that field again. It works on the stage and screen.

My dad's family: 8 girls, 3 boys. A good friend currently has 7 girls and 1 boy. I'm thinking biological on some plane.
But I will add "Religion/nunnery" to my list!

Eight is the perfect count for the concept of bagua, or eight directions.

Wikipedia to the rescue!

There is a personality associated with each direction, as well as season, element, and meaning, and position in a family.

Ideas:

Guardians of artifacts

Eight as One preserves The Great Balance in the world

Rituals requiring eight participants

Globe-spanning syndicate/cartel ruled by women

Fight each other for inheritance or love

A boy band? The Sick Werepuppies - a slightly hairier version of The Backstreet Boys.

Adjectives on the typewriter
He moves his words like a prize fighter
The frenzied pace of the mind inside the cell
-Cake

knife wounds:
Umm. Don't know. Just don't puncture the lung too deep? Seriously, go check the Character & Plot Realism forum
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/forum/157
if you haven't already and if you dare.

distracting a cocaine addict:
You mean, besides a scene like the Sicilian making the man in black look behind him? Make him think someone is in danger. Drop a breakable something on the floor or plug the toilet and ask him to suspend his need to help clean it up (yeah, right) Lose something very valuable down a heating vent. Some dire announcement. Ugh, I'm no good here. (Break out the iocane powder...)

Ghost:
-reading a book: Then how does it see anyway? The placement of eyes would be irrelevant? The ghost can insinuate its mind between the pages.
-Sleep: maybe some sort of subatomic resetting or spiritual recharging. It has to return to some other-plane refuge to do that periodically?
-animal: Well, we just had an anole die, so I have lizards on the brain. Of course, it may not react in a way that any human would recognize. Cats more than dogs? A whole herd of rodents can smell it and come infest the house.

Craziest meal: My DH--the lovernotawriter--used to mix all kinds of things into prepared box-mix macaroni & cheese during college: canned tuna or canned chili or canned beef stew or chunks of Spam. Maybe the chili and stew at the same time. Add canned corn to any of those.
I can't think of anything I've put together that sounds crazy. But after years of ethnic cooking & a dip or two into vegetarian, lots of things sound normal to me... Some people will stir miso or yogurt into just about anything. Um, noodles with white miso, almond butter--I actually got that combo from a cookbook--red beans, sauted onions, pineapple, and no, stop, don't add coconut milk on the theory that it's the global fix...)

Here’s the deal. I have 8 grownup sisters, who have each time traveled to a different place and have made an acquaintance there, a woman who is willing to help them. (Actually, there are only 4 historical women–two sisters get the same woman helper, but have not traveled together, are at a different time). The each have a little token/talisman that causes the time travel and can't be controlled.

Why did they travel there? I've been fairly serious. I'm trying to talk myself into fun/silly/absurd.

They need a quest, or one each. At the risk of running on long, but in the hopes that somebody can help me out of this hole, here's the lineup (If you want to see my attempt to get at a solution through game-on terminology and humor, see the first part of my novel excerpt under my profile.)

sisters: location (European), acquaintance

-depressed Marine and strict Etta: on the fringes of a war (mid1800s) with a pregnant woman strongly intellectual but swayed by passion

-the two oldest, Freeda (subtle zealot) and Kath (take-charge entrepreneur) in a cloister (medieval) having talked to a fervent nun

-promiscuous Mirth and fun-loving Gracelyn: in a poorhouse/poor rooming house (mid 1600s, continental Europe) in with a woman who was in exile for her rank/nobility, but even in these circumstances experimenting with science and writing always writing;

-Patt, an artist, with a female painter, early/mid 1600s (maybe same time & place as previous two, so they may meet up)

-Darla, married, should have met the painter, but didn’t travel anywhere, was left behind, maybe because of her own ties in marriage, her devotion to her real life.

Even one or two ideas? Anybody?

These women contain within them the shattered pieces of the heart of the first Womyn, Lilith. Legend has foretold that the first Womyn shall awaken to help her daughters combat the male oppressors of the patriarchy. However, the entity who sent the eight sisters realized that should the first Womyn awaken without a heart, the total annihilation of the patriarchy, and consequently the extinction of the human race, awaited them.

If the entity is a council, then perhaps some members wish to save the human race from extinction while some believe annihilation to be necessary and embrace it. So, upon obtaining all the shattered pieces of Lilith's heart, there would be a civil war within the council to decide the fate of humanity.

Their time traveling artifacts could be governed by a set of contingency conditions, one of which could be "when two sisters find a piece of Lilith's heart and are bringing the vessel back to present time for extraction."

The extraction process would then offer another moral decision for the sisters, as the extraction of the shattered heart of Lilith is anything but pleasant.

As, if you want a last sidetrack, have the sisters try to find the slumbering body of Lilith after the council has fallen apart from the in-fighting, but have one of the Extinctionists either ahead of the sisters or hot on their trail. If she is to be ahead of the sisters, then perhaps she somehow gained control of the completed Heart of Lilith.

That's one idea. Feel free to replace the names "Womyn" and "Lilith" with names of your choosing.

No more ideas from me till I get showered and dressed. If you want more ideas talk to me tonight. :P

Where will NaNoWriMo take us?

Help! My heroine is anorexic and on the edge of starving herself. Everything she puts in her stomach makes her throw up.
Is it a virus or love or both?
And more importantly, can she recover?
I want her to live.

PS Dave isn't the creepy one. It's his cousin Irv.

Lilith...I like it.
Syne Mitchell used Lilith in The Changeling Plague - in an email from her, she said she had a complete back story about Lilith that she didn't get to use - though maybe it would show in a sequel (as yet to arrive).

Eri, I'm sure Esther would tell you that anorexics don't put it in, being an avowed expert on mental maladies.
So I'm pulling for love. Love should be a physical reaction. It should move her.

No help on knives.

Cocaine: distraction is rather simple. A lot would work. Sexual stimulation. A rousing game of anything--provided he/she like games and it is very engaging. Start them down an aggravationg path of a topic. Push their buttons. As for pushing beyond their dosage, I have no idea if it would work, but I would think cutting the drug with a bit of the right sleeping pills would counteract effects enough that an addict might be convinced it was weak and therefore consume more. Again, I have no real idea on that one. Also, if they were hopelessly macho, calling them a big ol'...um, whimp might be more simple and effective. Exploiting character flaws is one of my favorite answers for any roadblock.

Ghosts: I have no idea on sinking in. I suppose it would depend on the ghost and how it happens. Sudden death? Maybe longer. Long illness, maybe not so long. Also, I wonder if previous IQ is at all relevant?

Ghosts and books: I think a ghost would discover the new Amazon Kindle on a nightstand (a gadget I desperately want) and be able to read books more easily by interfacing with the electronics more easily than turning pages. Why do I think this? I have no earthly idea.

Do ghosts sleep? I think they go in and out of the dimension, but I don't know what they do when they go out. Maybe they sleep or plug themselves into the nearest ghost battery recharger or have a big ghost meal that makes them take a nice ghost sleep. I've never thought about it, but maybe I'll get to dream about something besides my convoluted plot tonight. Thanks!

Just one animal? OK, then, a fox. But, I think domestic animals probably have more opportunity. But, that's only because I think of ghosts as attached to strutures. That's probably not true. It's probably just where humans find them easiest to sense.

Crazy good freak accident meal: I happened to have a few ahi tuna burgers in the freezer that were looking a bit sad and grey, so I made a soy, seasame oil, fresh mint and orange reduction (because reduction is the culinary turn for leaving it on the burner longer than I meant to) and cooked them in it. I threw them on some sauteed spinach on top of bun rice noodles (because they take like two minutes to cook). I added poor man's pesto aioli (Hellman's, basil, and some almonds in the processor) on top. Then, I took the left over reduction and added sweet chili sauce and peanut butter and orange juice for a sauce to give the noodles some flavor. It rocked. I am planning my debut on Iron Chef.

I concur on the do not add coconut milk to everything, no matter how tempting.

Thank you for the brain break and reset.

I'm back. Needy, again...

Okay, I liked the pieces of ___ thing, and took an idea that Mike had given me pre-November:

Oxygen.

Each adult sister is traveling into the past to get an O2 molecule (collected in individual Asian-unearthed artifacts called telesmata). Water is necessary for the collection, and for some reason a meeting with a woman of that time. When they get back together in this dark in-between place, they will each provide a part of an O atom, to create a new one. They might, at that time, find themselves transported somewhere/when else (back to the Asian streambed where their father found the telesmata? I don't know)

So, that is the quest.

BUT WHY?
What effect on the past, or present, or possibly future?
Any ideas, please? Because I don't really want to go with the "otherwise Mick Jagger will never have existed" thing.
---
I am a brainstorm multiple-possibility whore. I hate picking one, in case it's the wrong one. I was glad to have got that Janet Fitch pep talk bit:
"I know it feels like you have all these options and when you make a decision, you lose a world of possibilities. But the reality is, until you make a decision, you have nothing at all."

Maybe my nothing will write its way into something during the Marathon tomorrow.

Of course, the reason I come out here and post is to turn on my own juice and see what shakes loose.

But lots of pieces from you have found their way in. Thank you, all!