What Genres/Topics/Themes/Etc?

Yay another thread to post in! Too bad I don't have an actual response for it hahaha.

This year, I think I'll be writing about some kind of mishmash including magic, cats, and the supernatural. It's this vague idea that's been floating around in my head for a few years--the only problem is, I don't seem to have any actual characters or a plot for it yet! I've been prowling the Adopt a Plot thread every so often hoping for any bits and pieces that make me go "ooh, if I just do x, y, and z, that'll be awesome!", but no luck yet so far. Though I did decide to add in a little bit of the "magic and technology are the same" from one of the posts there, cuz I've seen/read using something like that and it was awesome. :)

So yeah, what with my pretty-much-complete-lack-of-anything so far, I hope I'll be able to come up with something when the time comes. And I'm rather phobic about the whole "themes" thing anyway, since it reminds me way too much of those horrible literature classes with the teacher asking us about the THEEEEEMES and the horrid dead silence of the class (though somehow whatever I pulled out of my butt for the papers we had to write got me As--don't ask me how that works). I am gonna write a story and it will be awesome and fun to read. That's all there is to it.

I hate it when books get preachy on me anyway.

Soooo, now that I've babbled my way through a huge post that says pretty much nothing at all, anyone else around? My curiousity is eating me alive here! :)

This year, adventure. Steampunk adventure. It has pirates.

I'm still nailing down the plot, but in 50 words or less, protagonist (pirate) gets chased across the sky by, and tangles repeatedly with, the antagonist (who is in the Royal Air Navy).

I think it's going to be pretty swell.

I plan on writing some character-centric backstory for a sci-fi universe that I've been working on for the past... *thinks* four years. No major revelations, no earth-shattering plots--those are for the main story arc, 40+ years down the timeline--just a pair of friends who are out of the environment they were raised in for the first time in their lives and are now in with the teeming masses of humanity. And, of course, they promptly proceed to get in over their heads.

@See_Jack_Write:
Oh man, I've added you. It's always great to find more Steampunks in Rochester :)
~fawn / diello

As per the request of my best friend in the whole world, and personal preference, I'm writing the first-ever completely unpredictable, non-cliche, unromancing (is that a word?) vampire novel.

That's right, my vampires kill things. They don't fall in love with humans, werewolves, or psychics. They don't sit in a corner listening to emo music.

Most importantly, they don't SPARKLE.

There will be mystery, intrigue, college life, Faust, and of course, plenty of comic relief.

:D

I'm doing romance, it's what I do best. I might branch out though this year and do a paranormal romance. I haven't decided yet.

I have done horror/thriller for the past 3 years, so why change a good thing?

Having done contempory settings for those three, I am going to switch it up and try something different. This year I will be working in horror/thriller/supernatural genre but will have it set in a 30's-ish hard boiled crime drama.

I'm not sure how it will all work out, but hopefully it will be fun.

SF. Dystopian, nominally cyberpunk as it's near-future and involves AI, genetic engineering, politics, and such.

since i'm young, i thought i would write a youth novel (*gasp!*)
i'm not sure how it will go, but hey a girl can try?

@ Draculina: WOOT!

Mine's an idea I had bouncing around my head for awhile, based off my Strangetown sims (The Sims 2)
The broadest term to use for it is probably humor. There's hints of sci-fi, but I'm not sure if the alien stuff will actually be real, or just in the protagonist's imagination.

What!?!? D: No BL?!
I'm disappointed in you, Fish.

Not really. This idea sounds epic and wonderful too. :3

I'm sorry Mummy -_-
I really want that other story to be a manga.
What's BL without the pretty pictures? ;)

Not nearly as shiny. xD

I didn't mean to post at all! How do you delete posts?

Mine is kind of a mishmash at the moment. Adventure/Romance primarily, with a splash of fantasy. We've got Enigmatic (Anti-?) Hero, Headstrong Heroine, Colorful Cast of Characters.

And a climax involving dragons.

*perks up* Did someone mention BL? I'd swear I was the only one in Rochester who likes it...

I'll be doing a fantasy/historical fiction/sci fi. Baisicly my main character randomly time travels with no controll over the situation, so i'm going past and future. Should be intertaining. Also might be a bit of thriller/horror, she is not a lucky little girl and nothing ever goes well in her life.

Kinda off topic, but does anyone know what title they will be using yet?

"It's A Novel. Yay." And subtitled: "Vampires. Don't. Sparkle."

I'm doing yet another cozy mystery in hopes of actually finishing it this year. This one will have Crochet as a focus and is tentatively titled Chain One, Skip One, Kill One.

Oh not at all ;)
There's a huge BL fangirl base here XD

I'll be writing a fictional romance / comedy that has a funny cast of characters.
It centers around 2 girls who were best friends in HS, a falling out over a once shared ex-boyfriend.
They go off to college. One comes out as a lesbian and the other dates guys for a while but is "gay friendly"
They have an "unknown" mutual friend who is also gay.
A borrowed cell phone, a few sent text messages that end up in the wrong hands, put in some nosy humorous friends who gently "push" another to do some soul searching and you've got a romance / comedy that evolves :)

So I have a main plot line and an idea of how I want it to end. Now I just need to sit and write it out :)

My novel is called "badland".

I usually just write horror-ish short stories, and a big theme for me is the disconnect between kid and adult fears, as well as the disconnect between the worlds a kid and an adult can comprehend. So, I decided to turn this notion into a big story about a parallel hell made entirely of kids nightmares, a place where kids sometimes get trapped. It's like Narnia but it ain't heaven. Sometimes the dreamlike horrors from this place escape into our world. The story mainly follows one kid who ends up over there and one nightmare who comes over here to raise some hell.

I'm hoping to address this idea: The notion that kids live in a world created by human fears, and if adults were required to live in a world of kid fears they wouldn't last five minutes. Kids adapt and are able to survive emotions and experiences that would drive an adult mad.

I'm trying to aim this for a young adult audience, but without insulting the reader. It will be as scary and fierce as I can possibly write.

Anyway, thanks for reading. Good luck, homeslices!

I usually do a lot of mystery writing, puzzles, clews, that sort of thing. I haven't written anything horror in about 8 years and figured I'd give it a go this year, since I lost last year's attempt in a hard drive corruption. I briefly considered trying again with the same story, but decided that I'd maintain more interest in my novel this year if I tried something different.

This year I'm writing a novel in journal format (referencing DRACULA, my first horror novel), but it's told from the perspective of a young girl, who has survived the zombie apocalypse in a very....strange way. By becoming a zombie and then somehow she 'recovers', and is rescued by survivors and brought back to a military base where she is trying to rehabilitate, while the humans are studying her, trying to understand how this occurrence of seeming to become human again came to be, and if it can be replicated. Come to find out, things are more complicated than they seem. Also, since the story is told from the first person, we don't get quite all the information we'd like about how this all happened, and we only learn about what's going on in this 'new world' as Madison, the main character, finds out.

Historic Fiction

Beginning in the years just before the heyday of Vaudeville and extending through to the initial decline.

The main character has a meteoric, spectacular rise to fame in the Vaudeville theatres but learns through his own choices and mistakes that everything isn't what it's cracked up to be. Woven with humor and hyperbole at times the story is seen only through the eyes of the main character and his remembrance of the journey.

Based on relatives and actual events from my family's history. A great story in itself that is making for some great fiction.

I've decided to go with fantasy this year. I attempted mainstrain fiction the last two years, and didn't get very far. I think I took myself a litle too seriously.

I started writing about werewolves on Nov. 1st, but had the same problem as past years.

So I restarted on Monday and decided to write an rpg-inspired save the world fantasy. It's based on some ideas I started working on 8 or so years ago, and while these may not be the best ideas I've ever had, and it may not be the best story I've ever written, but I have so much fun with the characters that I now have a chance at actually finishing! ^^

The title is "The Mother Reborn".

Genre: Basically low-magic fantasy. The magic is there (and is important), but no one really knows about it except those who have it.

Characters: Many and varied. Ranging from the orphan teenage girl trying to avoid everything to the different types of seers. Toss in the villainous guards and gang bosses and you start to get the idea.

This has been bouncing around in my head for about 2 years, but never put to paper / disk...so here goes.

I think that sums it up...we'll see how it goes.

Mine is called "Milk"...in reference to several actions within the story and one of the "potions" created by one of those actions.

Title: I can't think of a title. I'm hoping at some point something will pop up and I could be like "Oh, perfect!" I thought it would be "Dragons don't cry" but apparently there is a "real" book by that name already. Pssshhh.

Genre: Wannabe epic fantasy

Characters: A party of good guys on an epic quest across the landscape to save their kingdom. Except that all the good guys are goblins, orcs, trolls, and especially dragons. The main hero is a dragon anyway. And a Warlock who is technically a human but is an outcast because he wants to be a witch, a traditionally female occupation. The bad guys are humans, religious fanatic paladin humans with a superiority complex and more then a dash of racism (specieism?) that is. Major antagonist is probably going to be named George and be the head of their anti-monterous-races-cult-thingie. He sort of takes over the government of human lands. I sort of have a rough idea what I want him to be like...very self righteous, and "holy" mostly.

The good guys I have societies that are a lot like the Celts, and have Celtic names. That just sort of happened by accident, and I'm fine with it. Celts are cool.

Trying to stuff a lot of light/dark imagery into there as well.

I'm working on a romantic suspense novel. We'll see what happens. I did really well today. I was pretty happy with my word count. Some days are so much better than others. I joined last year and I wrote over 80,000 words. I don't know if I will do that well this year, but I'm going to give it a shot.

As for genre...kind of a soup of modern day, slightly alternate history, urban folklore-ish, supernatural-ish, drama...If it were in a book store, it would be in the Fantasy/Sci Fi section x.x

Themes? It's very mature and dark for the most part, touching on people from different aspects and walks of life connecting, falling to pieces, and finding strength in eachother to go on. Characters endure and survive horrible things, yet in the end, ...well...we'll see what happens in the end when I get there.

Maybe Cthulhu rises with R'lyeh once again. Just for kicks.

There are a lot of modern references, like one of my supporting characters referring to one of his co-workers as being, "a 10-man raid in T4 purples..." It's pretty nerdtastic.

If you know what that means, you sympathize with my suffering as I ignore the expansion until December when NaNo is over.

/kittencry