Already got a novel idea?

I do. Been kicking it around for years now, and only just started to refine it.

Basic premise: three sentient species used to live in harmony on Earth, until one started fouling things up (three guesses as to which one? LOL). Of the two remaining species, one quietly withdrew and the other, after repeated attacks, banded together, opened a portal to an alternate universe, and left. Poof. However, their new world isn't an ideal paradise, as they face a new and deadly enemy. And their self-imposed exile is put to the test when a youngster reopens the portal and returns to modern-day Earth.

Presumably in time to save the economy...but I haven't decided that yet. ;)

I wanted something to which I could add bits of homework on really bad days, so I'm writing a medical mystery. My main character is a PA student, so when I have to write up history and physicals, or study notes--tada! Extra words. Plus, there is a whole lot of interesting stuff I'm learning that I'd like to explore. Working through the information from a character's POV could be very helpful. I'm just worried about making my MC too much like me, so I'm giving her a rough pre-novel life.
I picked a rare disease, gave it to a character or two, and now my PA has to figure it out before it kills them. Oh, and locate one of them. Not sure how that is going to happen, since I'm not sure myself where she went.
In other words, not high in action, but full of interesting things. To me.

"Foxhunt" 2006
"From the Waters' Edge" 2007

Sounds interesting enough to me. If you were in need some extra intrigue, you could always have the missing one be on the run from the Mob, or drug dealers, or perhaps in the witness protection program. Or maybe have some rogue doctors from a foreign country trying to find your patients because they want to use this diesease as a biological weapon. Or something.

yes i have a novel idea. and this is my first time. ok it goes like this. there is this fourteen year old girl who lives is the middle ages with only her two little sisters because her mom is dead and her dad is in jail. the preacher at the church wants her to marry him but she cant bring herself to do it. then there is her best friend hwo is in love with her. the night he tells her that she gets kidnapped and sold as a sex slave. when her friend trys to save her he almost gets killed so he has to try again after three months and this time he is succesful and he takes her back to there village where she discovers that her two sisters have also been takken and sold as house slaves to do all the work for the wealthy people who buy them. after fighting to get them back and coming up without them she agrees to marry the preacher to get them back. after they are married she gets her sisters back and trys to run away from her husband who want nothing from her but sex. when she gets off the proporty she dosnt know where to go so she goes to her best friends house. but when the preachers people find where she is hiding they break in and kill her best friend and her sisters and beat her near to death. she is taken back to the church and cared for untill she is better. she goes to viset the grave of her best friend and finally confesed that she has loved him all along but was just lo late to tell him. she decides that she cannot live without him so she takes the knife she stole from her husband and kills herself. and in her last seconds alive she sees him smileing at her and then dies. the next day a villager passing bye sees her and tells the preacher who goes on a killing rampage untill he finally kills himself. he could not handle losing her. he was in love with her but she just did not see it because he did not show it in any other way than sex.but they were not meant to be so they all die. the day her father was to be executed was the day he found out that all three of his little girls were dead and hangs himself before they can come and do it in front of the whole town.
so that is my basics of my novel but it is not perfect so if anyone has any pointers than you can just e-maile me at bhg_132@yahoo.com.

Had an idea pop into my head a month or so ago and am developing it in time for November... :)

Visit AstonWest.com to check out my various short stories, and my novella Heroes Die Young

Here's my idea: a woman checks out a book from the library. She finds an old checkout receipt in it and eventually becomes obsessed with this "mystery person". As our main character begins to unravel the mystery, she finds evidence (people remember her vividly, there are records, etc.) but no one has any recent information. Similarities keep coming up between her life and the mystery person's: favorite restaurants, jobs, mutual friends & even lover(s). Is this a multiple personality, the sister that was reported dead, a parallel universe that has bled through, or one long delusional dream?

Or maybe she just stepped into...The Twilight Zone. ;)

Intriguing idea!

then again--I might go with "Boot Camp Diary" and use my real life one for inspiration.

I'm thinking about a murder in Walmart. One of the employees gets killed during the overnight shift, and they try to figure out who done it. You can use all the different employees and the customers who come in the store.

A Murder in Wal-Mart.

"I suspect...the Crazy Cat Lady...in the Automotive Department...with the Paula Deen Steak Knives."

LOL. That or the grumpy employee uses her safety knife to slice her boss' s throat instead of a cardboard box.

Ooo, yes. Perhaps she'd been forced to endure one too many of those "Wal-Mart Morning Pump-Me-Up Meetings". Have you ever heard one of those? A huge group of staff chanting "Wal-Mart! Wal-Mart! Wal-Mart!!"

It's kind of scary if it catches you off guard.

I'm kicking around a few ideas. I try not to plan too far ahead, because I like to surprise myself.

-There's a computer virus writer who initially programs little buggers out of sheer boredom (back when antivirus programs weren't around), then tries his first electronic scam/virus.
-A ring of hypnotists. We don't know what they're hiding, but they hide it well -- with hypnosis.
-Humans discover a race of creatures that can do math exceptionally well without getting bored or frustrated.

Yeah, something like that. I also liked the variety of story ideas. Anything and everything happens at night in retail.

I GOT MY PLOT!

It took forever but IT HIT ME TODAY!

I will explain later when I have time but OH MY GREG I got my plot

Realm of Dreams: Inherit the World - 2006
I'm With the Band - 2007
Catchers of the Sky - 2008

I've got this sci-fi idea about a universe similar to our own modern-day with an important exception involving gravity. On this planet, the sky is more like an opaque sort of netting that holds everything inside from escaping into space and emits a force called gravity that keeps everything on the ground. This means there are no birds in this universe, and no air travel, though movement/jumping works the same since muscles evolved to resist gravity enough to keep movements flexible. The only things that can fly are dragons, which are less like giant fire-breathing scaries and more like snake-like fliers that, in ancient ancient times, formed a pact with the people on the ground that neither would bother the other or stray into the other's territory. They've remained separate since, and dragons are numerous if rarely seen.

Now, lately a massive company called Navi-Tech, responsible for about 98% of the planet's technology (railroads, sciences, you name it) has been trying to replace electricty with gravitational power to conserve energy, but has unknowingly been sucking the power from the sky as a nonrenewable energy source. The sky, to compensate, has had to push harder and harder to keep the people down on the earth and is beginning to crack under the strain, resulting in the sky beginning to fall. My story would revolve around Zeal, a student of aviation and Marla, a meteorologist trying to fix the sky. I've got an idea it will involve Zeal trying to break the pull of gravity through flight and a road in the sky called the Skyway, which was used when the ancients hung the sky. I just know that the stars in this world are actually the lights on the Skyway.

Realm of Dreams: Inherit the World - 2006
I'm With the Band - 2007
Catchers of the Sky - 2008

I've recently become a full-time writer in addition to my full time mom and full time homeschooling slave positions. I've got one of those beautiful writer's offices, surrounded by windows, off the back of our house nearly right downtown. It couldn't be any more dreamy if it tried. So, I thought now would be as good a time as any to try out nanowrimo. I've got no clue what I'm going to write. Should I be afraid? Very afraid? I thought I might hit the keyboard on November 1st and see what happens!

My novel centers around the life of Edward Garmond, a young man from a small farming village called Roseshaft. Just to make a note of it, none of the countries in the book are real, but I will never use their names. It will just leave the reader to focus on Edward rather than the countries, and also make it a bit more familiar (so that the reader isn't building some kind of fantasy world of pixies and dragons in their head). This imaginary world is reminiscent of the late Renaissance/early Enlightenment, with little public education, a rigid aristocracy, and a world being jerked around by amazing advancements in science and philosophy.

Edward is an orphan, born in Roseshaft to a widow who died in child birth, and whose husband was killed while defending the village from a raiding band of outlaws one winter. He was raised by priests in a monastery in the nearby town of Colt, and therefore has more knowledge than other people around him (he can read, write, do some algebra, and has knowledge of astronomy and theology). Edward ran away from the monastery, wanting a life of adventure instead of one of peaceful faith. He returned to Roseshaft and lived there for many years before deciding to move to a big city to seek apprenticeship as a banker or mason. Upon arriving though he finds that life in the city is not as simple as that on a farm, and ends up having no apprenticeship and no money to return home. Left to either become a beggar or join the army, he does the latter and is thrust into a world of cruelty and ambition as he is cast into a war with a country he knows nothing about. Throughout his life in the army he will learn of love, loss, and the power of powder and steel.

hello bliterswrock!
I have been a homeschooling mom until this year. I'm south of the downtown in an older neighborhood and my "office" is just a desk in the pantry off my kitchen. I'll just pass along what others have told me about nanowrimo--write daily, even if it's only 100 words; and don't edit; don't be afraid--just stick with it. It does take a certain amount of discipline to keep your other activities to a schedule to allow time to write. But if you're a homeschooling mom, then you probably have that down pat! Try to prevent becoming obsessed with the writing when you have other priorities to see to. It might be helpful to have a small notebook to jot down thoughts when you're with the kids or doing other activities and have to be away from your desk. But if you're a full-time writer, then you probably already know this....I enjoyed my first time last year (only got to 15K words, but what a ride!). If you come to any of the write-ins I'm the short, chubby woman with greying hair. Good luck!

I have no idea. I just joined because it sounds like a fun challenge. It will probably have something to do with Napoleonic Wars, you know, around that fun time.

I will probably do something similar to "The Perks of Being A Wallflower" in the sense that I am writing a letter to a friend of mine who moved to England right before my life started to move downhill with the death of my grandfather, and the later death of my best friend. Hopefully it turns out as good as it sounds in my head. =P

Mine was derived from an idea I had for a short story. When I thought of the characters and the plot, I realized that it was just going to be too big and too complicated to be held within the confines of "short story". So why not go ahead and use November to take this idea and expand on it? Make it novel length?

The idea in question centers on organized crime (and as an offshoot of that, girl gangs) and the Japanese gyaru subculture. And...that's all I'm going to say about it for now. :)

Two rather unrelated subjects, but it makes for one rather interesting plot.