Its here! Its here! Its here! :D

Chittz — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 10:00:11 -0700

Well, figured I may as well break the ice :D

Howdy all!

Asia :: India

Plot help? :)

Rashmi_D — Mon, 6 Oct 2008 20:45:37 -0700

Hey guys! :)

I'm posting this here rather in the Plot Doctoring forum, because my plot is more India-specific so I thought I'd get the best advice here.

If you'll allow me, I'm going to explain my plot a bit... I'm thinking as I type, so don't mind if this sounds a bit ramble-y at the end. Basically, my main female character is an 18-year-old living in a small town in the US, who has pretty conservative Indian parents (think Amrish Puri in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, though I suppose slightly less strict xD). Her parents expect her to move back to India (because they want to return to their homeland) and have an arranged marriage at some point in the future. The girl is against both of this, as she a) wants to move to New York City and b) believes in love marriages.

That summer, her parents plan a trip to India. The girl goes along but is slightly apprehensive, because she's sure her entire trip is going to be just her relatives trying to 'groom' her into becoming a 'proper' Indian woman. On her third or so night there, she finds out that a friend of her dad who also lives outside of India (need to work out the location), is making a trip to India for the summer as well. He's bringing his son with him, and later that night the girl also finds out from a cousin that her parents have considered arranging her marriage with this boy in the future. As she is against an arranged marriage, the girl is mildly upset about it.

Basically, I want my female main character to find out that this boy is similar to her in that he also disagrees with arranged marriages, and he's also not too thrilled about being in India for the summer. (Though I'm going to give them both slightly different reasons, in an attempt to not make them TOO similar. 'Cause that would not be fun.) The story would then basically be about how these two grow closer together, and spend the two months discovering India - discovering how they were wrong about it on certain points, discovering how they were right about it on certain points, and just overall learning to appreciate their homeland for what it is - which they didn't before they arrived.

I want the bond between them to be non-romantic at first, but I most likely will include some romance as they grow closer together ('cause I'm a sap like that XD).

My problem is that, while I have a general idea of the direction I want this novel to take, I'm turning up a blank on how to actually get there. So I'd like to ask a few questions, and if anyone can help, it would be much appreciated.

a) Do you believe in arranged marriages or in love marriages? And what are your reasons?

b) What are some ways in which I can get them to appreciate their culture? Like what circumstances could they go through that would help them learn more about India, and see the beauty in it? Have you had any personal experiences with learning to love your country?

c) Like I mentioned above, they're both not too thrilled about visiting India, but I want to give them both different reasons for not being thrilled - for the girl, I have a few things (she detests the attempts to turn her into a 'proper' Indian, she feels she can never live up to the expectations that people have of Indian women, etc), but for the boy I'm turning up a bit of a blank. Can anyone suggest any reasons why a male NRI would not like India? And if there are any more suggestions for the girl, that would come in handy as well.

Also, any, any, any suggestions at ALL regarding the plot would be greatly appreciated - I'm new not only to NaNo, but to novel writing on a whole. I haven't written much apart from school essays and the one-shot fanfiction here and there, so I'm a definite n00b on forming a plot and writing a novel. So thoughts would be greatly appreciated - if it sounds like utter crap, feel free to tell me so! ;)

Thanks!
Rashmi.

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Asia :: India

Who's writin' what?

asheernut — Mon, 6 Oct 2008 20:22:27 -0700

What are you writing this year? A fun idea would be to put down in as much detail as you can what you think you are going to write, and then come back on Dec 1 and see how different that is from what you really wrote.

I have two candidates:

A dark-ish story about a woman obessed with dark magic and how it changes her life
A chick-lit story about the many faces a modern Indian woman has to wear and how she deals with the generation gaps with her parents and in-laws

-Asheernut
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Asia :: India

Nationwide call for Municipal Laiasons!

asheernut — Sun, 5 Oct 2008 15:43:01 -0700

Hello Everyone!

Yes, it's finally here! The new NaNo website, with all the new bells and whistles.

To reiterate my previous post, I am not going to be in the country this year for Nano, as I have moved to Melbourne. So I need someone to step up and take up the mantle for ML in Hyderabad. And for any other city that you are in!

Write to me at asheernut @ gmail. com

Asheernut
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Asia :: India

Asia :: India

Its here! Its here! Its here! :D

Plot help? :)

Who's writin' what?

Nationwide call for Municipal Laiasons!