So the National Novel Writing Month is coming right up. I am currently waiting for a Saudi visa. I have won the contest in the past.
Any ideas for characters or settings?
I am a sucker for time-travel and science fiction, if that helps
OK, fine, if that is the way you want it.
I have erotica welling up inside me. Erotica that might well contain time travel. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
This may be a game to you, but I’m going to move the thread to Cafe Society.
I did it (and won) every year from 2001-2008, but trying to do it this year would likely result in failing out of grad school and/or losing my mind entirely, so I’m sitting this one out (and probably won’t ever be able to do it again, unless I do one in a few years about someone writing a musicology dissertation and just copy and paste shit in). I’m unreasonably sad about this.
Okay, here’s an idea. Your characters can time-travel both ways from the years 1899 and 1956.
How about a guy who uses a time machine to cheat in a message board’s Celebrity Death Pool?
I wish I had it in me to complete NaNoWriMo. I tried a couple of years ago, and I don’t think I even hit 500 words. I even had a horrible, boring job at the time, so I had plenty of time for thinking about my novel (and probably could have stolen a fair amount of time for actually writing it). I might be able to do 50,000 words of non-fiction, although probably not in 30 days because of the research involved.
I’ll offer up for anyone who wants it the same premise a friend offered to me when I was trying NaNoWriMo:
As a child, an older relative of the protagonist told him/her “fairy tales” about a fantasy land. (For a science fiction story, you could use another planet, colorful periods in history, or the future instead of a fantasy land.) After this relative dies, the protagonist has to go through their belongings. The protagonist discovers evidence that those bedtime stories weren’t just made up, their relative really did travel to other worlds/times. The protagonist then figures out how to do this his/herself. Various adventures ensue.
Ooh good luck, Paul in Qatar!
I took part in this year’s WeSeWriMo, successfully, reaching my goal of 31,000 words (1k a day in August). Though I don’t wish to write a novel, I do want to take part in NaNo for the first time, and will fudge it by writing 50,000 words and posting one or two scenes of my webserial totalling 1,666 words each day.
Might be a little overambitious for me, but hey, nothing beats a failure but a try.
I started a thread on this last week, in here but no one bit. But I’m very stoked for this year’s Nano. I got laid off, so I’ll have no excuses for not winning (won on my first try last year). I’m torn this year on my story- I may borrow from last years and make it more subversive, or do something completely different. I have all week, with no silly distractions like work!, to figure it out.
Here’s an idea for you: The Amazing Race on an interplanetary scale.
I hit 50k words last year, and I was considering editing my results into something worthwhile, but after I re-read it for a while I decided to abandon my efforts. I used way too much dialogue and never really painted the picture of where and what was happening to the extent I should have.
So this time I’m going to try to hit 50k again and do a better job of description and setting that I did before. When I was brainstorming for ideas, I stumbled upon the idea of writing about a clash between two ridiculously strong mages. My story last year had a bit of magic in it, but it was really a low-magic setting.
I’ve been filling out the plot and characters some more, and I’ve kinda got two protagonists, and I’m not sure whose perspective I’m going to use more. One is a new student at a college-age academy of magic, the other is an Ice Magess who runs the Academy and is very skilled in Ice/Cold magics. She is obsessed with the cold, and is well-known for exploring and mapping much of the frozen north-lands.
My antagonist is a arsonist-mage sort of character. He sets fires just to watch them burn and he is just as obsessed with fire as Amanda is with the cold. I plan to have a different kind of ending than the normal fantasy epic battle. The twist will be when Amanda realizes that she too is causing great harm the longer and more fiercely she fights against this Fire Mage. So she has to back off rather than constantly one-upping the Fire Magic with more devastating Ice magic.
I’ve won and lost about equally, but as with other years I’ve won, I have high hopes this year (last year I was a pessimist and that was lavishly rewarded). I think I’ll finally tackle the idea I’ve had for at least a decade that death is a where not a what.
sigh
I haven’t posted because I am a three-time loser at NaNoWriMo. But maybe, just maybe, this is my year. Maybe.
Here we go!
I’ve had a story that’s been bouncing around in my head for years but I never got it going as I was missing that sense of place. A friend on facebook yesterday mentioned her travels to a cave tour she and her family had taken in South Dakota. She homeschools her children and one of them had mentioned this to the park ranger who gave them a tour of the cave. The park ranger made statements like “geologists believe that this cave may have been made over millions and millions of years”. Instead of stating facts, the ranger was worried that my friend would be offended and insist that the cave was less than 6000 years old. Amusing anecdote, but it’s been my needed jumping off point for my idea.
So I’m in for my first NaNoWriMo. I’ve got the notecards started and am trying to fill in plot points (which is totally kosher per the rules). Without them, I’m sure I’d start aimlessly typing.
“You’re done already? That was, um, fast.”
“Not for me, baby, I slowed down time.”
I’ve contemplated it in years past and have a couple of plot ideas floating around in my head. I’ve never written a novel before, so we’ll see how well I do at fleshing out the story. I’m afraid I’ll end up with a novella or short story instead of a full book.
As for plot ideas: Write your story. Only you travel to planets not countries and work for people who aren’t always worried about legalities. Toss in pretty alien ladies and a mystery of some sort and you could be time traveling yourself right back to a 1976 sci fi author.
I’ve got an idea that I was planning on writing. I might as well have a go at doing it for NaNoWriMo.
Two-time loser here. But I’m ready for round three!
I received an idea from the ether today: a parody (though not awfully funny. If it’s funny, it’s a very black comedy) of a supernatural romance between an adolescent girl and a ghost.
“I love you! Let’s be together forever!”
“Oh, let’s! And I have the perfect solution for that…”
Are the forums at all active yet? I need to leave a dare: the scientists of an alien race described via memo how to tell and adult earthling from a child, but neglected to mention the size differences. Assuming that there are none, the hapless alien crew brings back “children” subjects who are actually adults with shave gentials. Make hilarity ensue.
Clearly, someone needs to have sex with themself. Hell, make it an orgy.