I know we're only in early October, so there're still a few weeks till NaNo actually starts, but has anyone else got their plot (vaguely) sorted?
This is the synopsis for my novel this year, at the moment. The challenges thing might change since it feels a little too much like a Thai film called 13: Game Of Death. Only this is about life, not money. Oh, and I should point out that Amigo in Korean means 'a man suffers when he falls in love with a beautiful woman'. Hence, the plot.
Amigo:
Dae Sung Choi is a single, middle-aged office worker surviving in the unbearable heat of Seoul, South Korea. On the brink of losing his job and his sanity, he meets a mysterious woman at a party who literally takes his breath away. She tells Dae Sung that he has 72 hours to complete a series of challenges. If he fails, he dies.
The only question is, can he survive?
----------
42,764 / 50,000
Okt 5, 2009 - 06 09
That sounds like a pretty cool idea.
My plot is sort of a random mishmash of various ideas I've had over the year. Basically, the Earth is overrun by mutant insects that are resistant to most weapons. As a result, humanity has retreated onto boats, run by the Western Flotilla dictatorship. Journalist Aditi Finisterre discovers a political conspiracy apparently involving an abandoned village in Rhyd-Ddu, in the heart of insect-occupied Wales. With the help of an solider and a physic capable of communing with the insects, she investigates.
40,005 / 50,000
Okt 5, 2009 - 12 13
I'm writing a cheesy romance this year. : ) I figure I've spent 4 years writing fantasy of various levels of seriousness, so it's time to have a year off.
So there's not a lot of plot to summarise, really. Woman, inappropriate man, disaster, appropriate man, happily ever after.
----------Claire - ML for England :: York & Leeds + Moderator of Newbies
43,052 / 50,000
Okt 5, 2009 - 12 16
I am writing a Children of Earth fixit fic (back on the Torchwood) with a parallel, immortal Ianto and Jack being all dark and angsty and the Doctor being all cross and fatherly and... I have claimed an awful lot of very silly dares too
----------NaNo09 - The more you write, the less you die.
www.fanfiction.net/~Galadriel1010
42,519 / 50,000
Okt 6, 2009 - 09 10
Mine is going to be a fantasy, with vague elements of steampunk, centering around a young artisan who works with a metal that can bestow machines and artifacts with intelligence.
----------So far - in my plot notes - it also has a religion based upon the songs of David Bowie, a cameo appearance by two characters from the short stories I write, and a lot of rather sinister happenings...
"Instruction on the Conventions of Invention and Construction."
0 / 50,000
Okt 6, 2009 - 12 27
I've had mine since...forever.
It's the sequel to the one from Nanowrimo last year. Set in the alternate history European megalopolis New Constantinople, it revolves around war veteran turned private eye Miles Proctor and his apprentice Sam Gulliver.
After Sam's first major case, covered in the first book, they investigate a series of disappearances at a theatre. When the suspicion falls upon the Newcon mafia, Miles has to tread a fine line between the law and the lawless to save his apprentice.
----------i bet this really annoy's you if your a grammar freak
0 / 50,000
Okt 6, 2009 - 13 33
Bunch of lab rats escape into the city and, with only a mouse as their interpreter and guide, set out to carve themselves a niche in the dog-eat-dog world outside the safety of their cages.
...Possibly. Or there'll be elves. I always seem to go through the cycle of "Animals->Folklore->Thatcherpunk with robots." at this time of year.
----------Rats? Mice? A demon-posessed bat shaman being led out of his prison cell by the enslaved ghost of a songbird? It can only be NaNoWriMo!
2002 - Untitled
2003 - Idolons, 2004 - Morgan Black and the Case of the Time Travelling Sheep, 2005 - Pieces of the
27,098 / 50,000
Okt 6, 2009 - 14 24
No title yet, as far as I'm aware.
End of the world type scenario - the last survivors of an invasion huddle together in fortified cities, fighting back with the last of their strength.
A sortie into enemy territory, the last ditch effort to save their world goes horribly wrong, leaving the MC's scattered and broken, deep in hostile territory, trying to get back in time to be evacuated along with everyone else.
(This is, of course, subject to change without notice...)
----------"All my Blades are broken Oran, and all I've got left are the fading fragments of the dreams that he's stolen from me."
6,836 / 50,000
Okt 8, 2009 - 01 28
Been planning this one for a few months now - although I say planning, more like thinking of cool stuff to go in it. I guess you could call it steampunk, but not in the traditional sense, as it's set in the first century AD. The Romans invent the steam engine and use it to make steam-powered tank/chariots, which steamroll (ha ha) across the rest of Europe, complete with conspiracies in the Senate and a political struggle to become Emperor.
As with last year, it sounds much more impressive than it will (probably) turn out, but with a pre-built world this time I should be able to get more details and description and stuff down.
----------"I'm sorry, Jay is out of his mind right now, please leave a message after the tone..."
2006: sci-fi satire [utterly failed]
2007: Navis Fortuna - space cyberpunk [8k]
2008: fantasy magic pirates [25k]
2009: Imperium Vaporis - steampunk Romans!
60,018 / 50,000
Okt 8, 2009 - 03 50
Well, it SOUNDS awesome.
I normally don't plan much. I get an idea, a start and end point, and just run with it. So this time, I'm planning... and I have been all year! I'm going to have quite a ridgid outline by the time I'm done, I hope. I've heard a lot of debate as to which way is better, so I thought the best way to decide was to see for myself. If nothing else, I did something different.
Plot... same old big sprawling fantasy world as all the other times. One day I'll do something NOT set there, but that day is not today. But I am working at a different point in time and with a nice doomy hopeless war, so I'm looking forward to more chances to break stuff, while keeping my hand firmly on the death switch.
Hahahahahaaaa... hahahahaha...
----------The author formerly known as aeireono.
NaNo 2009: Capercaillie
2008: Haixtlan
2007: Moths
2006: Eye of Rakaros
2005: Senahri: Approximate Destruction
2004: JSBCBS
2003: From Here To There
66,351 / 50,000
Okt 8, 2009 - 04 00
I'm doing steampunk, time travel and whales.
Well, one whale. Quite a small one.
Basically there's these three friends - Nikolai, the Russian gun fiend who isn't Russian, Mnemosyne the fake psychic who isn't fake, and Newt, who works with analytical engines and is like 20% automaton - who end up stumbling over a bizarre conspiracy to take over the world via an adaption of the teleport network (. . .yeah) for travel through time. Featuring a full supporting cast of evil politicians, ninja assassins, femmes fatales, glass vampires, zombies, semi-sentient automata, and guns with minds of their own.
It makes so much more sense in my head >.<
----------0 / 50,000
Okt 8, 2009 - 04 52
I'm still coming up with a bit of a blank, plot-wise, but I've been thinking about dusting off an old idea that I kept setting aside to write "some day". Ultimately, I'm pretty sure it's unfeasible, but I still love it.
Oh, oh, OH! Yes, I have just figured out how to get around the main logistical stumbling block! YES!
Fantastic! My plot actually works now, I am totally writing this. Whoo, I've been trying to come up with a solution for about four years! Boy do I feel foolish now. And terribly excited - can it be November now?
Basically, it's about a community of people who are trapped in a sprawling, almost completely enclosed "metal" city full of very advanced technology that nobody understands any more and which no longer works. The city has been ravaged by a plague and is at the end of its collective rope, and sends out groups of people to try and find allies or answers by exploring the very unstable tunnels that used to lead to other cities and from which no one has previously returned.
Okay, lousy synopsis, but it's going to be awesome, just you wait! Oooh, I could have gangs of psychopathic mutants roaming about! Seriously awesome.
4,492 / 50,000
Okt 8, 2009 - 23 48
Mine will be about a teenage trainee Messiah who isn't even sure if God exists yet and her first four "converts": A demon-possessed Marxist, a self-hating intellectual, and two other characters who haven't really taken shape yet. The story is about their attempts to form a new organised religion in the suburbs on a shoe-string budget, and as time goes on they become increasingly aware that in order for their messiah to complete her mission, she will need a period of loneliness and doubt.
----------T. Bread Sandwich
And all that.
48,212 / 50,000
Okt 10, 2009 - 06 09
Well, all of those sound great... so here is my slightly crappier one!
The idea is that Humanity suffered a great world war which made the planet uninhabitable and so the United Nations, or the remnants of, sent of the Starship, Astral Queen, to take a select number of "Sleepers" to a new planet where they may set up their home and humanity can survive. However during the journey the Astral Queen is damaged so much so that it will not make the rest of the journey. Unable to make decisions for itself the ship creates a being - a perfect being - from the genetics of everyone on board to make decisions and pilot it towards survival.
What'd ya think?
----------0 / 50,000
Okt 10, 2009 - 08 51
What'd ya think?
Awesome. Sounds like a more serious version of Rob Grant's 'Colony'.
I still need a title, a plot, charachters and some names! I have a huge mish-mash of ideas based on historical events and people from the Napoleonic Wars and days of the East India Company. Mass cruelty and heart warming humanity, romance, class divide and real British stiff-upper lip daring-do! I just need to make it all work. In the medium of Lego and the written word.
Yes. Lego. That is correct. Blame having some in my pocket at last year's kick-off meeting, an inner-child and even less sense than money.
23,720 / 50,000
Okt 14, 2009 - 05 35
I've got the plot sorted out for my first entry this year (I'm going for double entry this year, twice the word count, because I am that daft).
My first story is about a 25 year old, alcoholic, schizophrenic, free running, rich kid private detective. Not the easiest of characters, but he is fully spec'd out, as I was originally going to use him for ScriptFrenzy (sadly I never got started on my ScriptFrenzy project - but it's good to recycle). My story revolves around a kidnapping case he accidentally gets caught up in, and the various relationships in his life, his relationship with the police, his father, his friends, the victims family, oh and the kidnappers themselves.
It's going to be a very psychological piece, with his job, and this situation with the kidnapping, as the vehicle. Sounds intelligent, but it's going to breakdown into humorous situations, and some really challenging aspects to write, such as the free running itself. There will definately be a moment where he races a car across a large built up area (like in the episode of Top Gear in Liverpool). Should be a lot of fun, and very challenging.
As to the second project, I'm still working through a number of options, I may go with something a bit more natural to write, potentially a sequel to last year's NaNoWriMo project - though with a different set of characters, and I lose the time travel (time travel is awesome though).
------------
"If you happen to be one of the fretful minority who can do creative work, never force an idea; you'll abort it if you do. Be patient and you'll give birth to it when the time is ripe. Learn to wait," Robert A. Heinlein
42,519 / 50,000
Okt 14, 2009 - 06 44
Sounds good Lex! I walk past the town hall on the way to and from work most days, and there are usually a bunch of guys there practicing their free-running skills. I've seen them (or another group) by Fab Cafe as well...
----------"Instruction on the Conventions of Invention and Construction."
28,140 / 50,000
Okt 19, 2009 - 15 25
I haven't got my plot sorted in any shape or form but I do know my Genre. I'm going for a Cosy Catastrophe novel along the lines of Day of The Triffids. It may end up being a sequel to that. If not I'm struggling to come up with my reason for the collapse of society and the outside force which puts extra force on the survivors. I'd like to avoid the genre cliches but just getting a whole story done by itself will be a good acheivement.
23,720 / 50,000
Okt 20, 2009 - 02 22
Destroying the world as we know it, ripping apart the very favric of society, always good in fiction (I'm less fond of it in real life, I'll admit). Day of the Triffid and its ilk do so with such a massive impact as to render the characters practically hopeless... however the undercurrent of hope is always there. Maybe just maybe this time, there is room to save the world.
The sequel to my NaNoWriMo 2008 novel will be like this, having paved the way for a catastrophic world changing event to happen, you get all the fun of it happening. However, I've not thought about what the world will be like after the event - though one of the things I miss the most in films, and books is the coping with the world after traumatic events. If you're writing a sequel to Day of the Triffids, I would love to see what the after affects of the DOTT were upon a set of characters, and society in general (what's left of it).
On the other end of the spectrum I quite like the idea of the good guy being the one to break the fabric of society down, to crush and coerce the survivors into a particular situation. Though this may be because I'm about to quit smoking, and anticipating some literary aggression for my second NaNoWriMo novel this year (I'm doing it twice because I'm daft).
------------
"If you happen to be one of the fretful minority who can do creative work, never force an idea; you'll abort it if you do. Be patient and you'll give birth to it when the time is ripe. Learn to wait," Robert A. Heinlein
44,454 / 50,000
Okt 20, 2009 - 04 33
I think I technically have a pl . . . and still searching for the . . . ot to complete it into a full plot.
Last years characters again, well the ones that survived Ninjas In Space anyway with a few new recruits/red shirts dumped onto a planet for another mission and end up in the middle of an unexpected war. I thought, ninjas, warzones - can't go wrong. Now I need to figure out the rest. I think I've got as far as making the obligatory Pablo into a flamboyant Generalissimo, other than that . . . . . . lost.
Well a few more days to think yet.
----------2009 - Ninjas In Space II
2008 - Ninjas In Space (won)
2007 - Winter Court (won)
40,314 / 50,000
Okt 20, 2009 - 14 03
Can someone tell me please - is it OK to write fanfic for this, or not? I've been writing fanfic for a while, and my head's just full of plots for that. I was hoping to do something different (i.e. original!) for this project, but I can't seem to come up with a plot that doesn't involve certain characters.
Jude
43,052 / 50,000
Okt 20, 2009 - 14 05
You can do fanfic, yeah. What fandom are you in?
----------NaNo09 - The more you write, the less you die.
www.fanfiction.net/~Galadriel1010
40,314 / 50,000
Okt 20, 2009 - 16 00
CSI - all three, but mainly Miami.
39,056 / 50,000
Okt 22, 2009 - 04 15
Not got much thus far, but what I have got is:
A story set initially in our own world but then moving into a world similar to ours but a little more Victorian in feel... (Though as it's fantasy not historical fiction I'm not planning to be particularly accurate with regards to anachronisms and things, mainly because I'm too lazy to do the research...) Main characters are a very flamboyant duke, known as The Duke, who owns an alpaca named Florence and a hot air baloon, a woman from our own world, Emilie, and The Duke's cousin - The Other Duke. Somewhere along the lines an evil (but suave and dashing) Marquis (potentially distantly related to the Dukes) is going to come into it...
I also intend not to overuse brackets and ...'s (can't for the life of me remember the proper term for those things) in this story, haha.
----------It was quite all right because the Duke came and took me away for tea.
40,314 / 50,000
Okt 22, 2009 - 14 07
OK, I think I've finally got somewhere near to achieving a vague approximation of an idea for a plot! (And it begins to occur to me, that if I manage to continue to construct my sentences in this long winded and frankly irritatingly rambling fashion, I'll get 50,000 words written in no time and hardly need a plot at all!)
Anyway, what's forming at the moment is a tale of sex, incest, abortion, revenge and murder, with a possible title (with thanks to Mitch Albom for the inspiration) of "The five people you hate on earth" - and, miracle of miracles, it's not a fanfic!
Of course, this could all change...
Jude
23,720 / 50,000
Okt 26, 2009 - 01 03
Well I'm definately sticking with the free running detective story - it's begging me to write it, so hopefully can get that done and out of the way quick (but enjoyably so).
I've been drafting ideas for my second novel, partly because of Ghop, and partly because its been the subject of several conversations over the past few months, and lastly because I'm reading On the Beach in the run up to NaNoWriMo, I'm going with a post apocalyptic story. Have a nice drawn out end to the world, during which I follow one community of temporary survivors as they go about their lives, lots of family, romance, sex, violence, suicides, hopelessness, daily struggle for food and warmth, and the search for protection from other survivors.
Basically I'm going to make On the Beach much darker, much more bleak, and give my survivors no hope what so ever (well not real hope, maybe some false hope, the proverbial carrot).
------------
"If you happen to be one of the fretful minority who can do creative work, never force an idea; you'll abort it if you do. Be patient and you'll give birth to it when the time is ripe. Learn to wait," Robert A. Heinlein
2,304 / 50,000
Okt 26, 2009 - 01 04
OK after getting fretful over having no ideas AT ALL I went on the Adopt a Plot thread and have now been inspired.
So my novel begins with a prologue concerning a drowning girl. The girl sees someone on the surface of the lake who doesn't help her. The scene blacks out.
Basically, this accident causes some bizarre split in this individual. Half of the girl walks away with barely a scratch and the other half is rescued later and spends some months in a coma. The story is about the two halves of this girl; one who has a fairly typical life - she goes to uni and turns into a bit of a career woman, marrying later on. The other (who went into the coma) has some severe memory issues (and obviously no-one reports her missing, as her other half went home perfectly normally) but she falls in love with a male nurse who cares for her and she is basically a big family person.
The idea is that these two experience little internal conflict during their lives as one goes with one half of the personality and the other with the rest.
Then... they meet. Details yet to be worked out (help would be great!!) but it's gonna involve a long chat in a public place when they at the very least realise how much they have in common. Then one of them will touch the other on the hand... this will merge the two halves of the woman and she will become one again.
After this comes the tricky bit of her essentially being a bigamist and how she tries to keep her lives apart to protect those she loves. No idea about the end yet...
What do we think? Which bits will be hardest and how will I get round them?
Names are fun. They both obviously need the same name. I basically want the girl who goes to uni to change her abbreviation at that time so we could go with Margaret (giving me Daisy and Maggie), Charlotte (with Charlie and Lottie), Annabel (with Annie and Bella) but I want it not to be incredibly obvious. Any ideas?
Cheers!
----------~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nano 05: Excess Baggage (chicklit) - finished at 50,100!
Nano 06: Moving on (literary fiction) - unfinished at 50,090!
Nano 07: an elven fantasy which got stuck around 20,000, although I did represent Na
35,061 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 08 30
I did a sort of golden age sci-fi last year and did my 50,000.
This year I've gone for a zombie holocaust / death of civilization novella, set in the Yorkshire Dales.
46,108 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 09 21
I recently watched The Third Man for the first time and felt inspired. So my MC gets offered a job by a friend but when she turns up she finds she has disappeared. The plot takes a few twists as she tries to find out whats going on. Its set in Spain not Vienna and around the new millenium not post WW2 and theres no zither music.
40,343 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 09 31
Ok. Here's the synopsis for my Nano. It's Called Once Begun is Half Done.
Who knows where the complete collection of Jeremiah Caine novels reside? Adam Chase doesn’t but he is jolly well going to find them all. A chance discovery in a bookshop on the edge of town introduces him to a world of femme-fatals, suspicious gangsters and trilbies. This world is dangerous, soon he has to have them all and obsession can be a dangerous thing.
A journey soon unfolds that will take Adam from an atypical journalist to pulp obsessed madman. In his desire to complete a collection Adam goes from second hand bookshops to eBay and further afield all in the name of finishing the tales. Will his wide reaching search pay off or will his desire be completed? Tune in to Once Begun is Half Done to find out!
Basically it follows the exploits of my character Adam as he sets off on a quest to find all the copies of a series of pulp novels I have made up. I'm also breaking up the chapters with "extracts" from them.
35,061 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 12 14
Sounds like the sort of sci-fi novel I'd buy.