NaNoWriMo Escape Pod - It's over and we rocked the house!

I found a new muse. Hooray!

 

Yay Ish! ...Did you tell me your new plot? I can't remember now.

I have way too many plot ideas I could use for NaNo. I have like 120+ unfinished fanfics and original story ideas, but I know many of those wouldn't nearly reach 50,000 words even if I tried. What's hard is figuring what might have the potential to hit 50,000, and then figuring out what I want to do. And my museys can't decide.

I still have my list from last year of ones I was considering... hmm...

Looks like everyone is stuck on what to do!

-Mia

 

My planning = zip. Goshdarned law school aps. Hmmm, there's inspiration for a novel...

I had an idea of short stories. One I started just because I couldn't hold back. One is for the SFFBC writing contest. That leaves me with a wealth of ideas, I suppose, if I can be inspired by random things I see and hear of in the world, and then throw in a few myths with my protagonist commentators.

I have another set of short stories, the first of which is on a floppy disk, and none of the computers in this house have floppy drives anymore. Thank goodness for computer labs.

The third set of stories I started on another laptop, so yay for flash drives.

Then I think there's a fourth one.


Yep! If I stick to the lessons of my man Hemingway, I should be good.

edit: Forgot to add, the story sets each have themes, and the last three especially are based on things and people I've seen and known. On the one hand, there's no shortage of ideas. On the other, writing it out when I don't know exact details and have to make some up, rather than overdramatizing truth - much harder!

 

I'm using an old idea of mine that wouldn't leave me the heck alone, no matter how much I begged my muse to Just. Drop. It.

So I'm getting revenge. I'm telling her, "You want me to write (x) plot? Fine. I'll write it, but there's a catch: you only have 30 days. I'll eat, drink, and sleep this story for the month of November, but in December, it's over. Tell me what to write until your tongue goes numb and falls out and tell me the rest with your tongue stump. When we get through, you are going to be so sick and tired of (x) that you won't even want to look at it for the rest of the year and most of 2007."

 

Well with one of my possibilities I'll likely end up jumping on the National Novel Finishing Month also in December, wheras I'm not sure the other has potential to be 50k words. It might, I'm just not sure. The first idea would be harder since it's political intrigue and I've never done one of those. I'm not sure I want to do something so complicated when I'm trying to write 50k in a month. One good thing about losing my job this week, at least I'll have plenty of time for NaNo.

 

Well, it's good you've got time, but sorry to hear about your job!

 

Finishing up the outline! I've also assembled a timeline and some basic biology and creatures on my little planet for my own use. My character profiles are wilting right now, however. I have to get back to work on those.

There's going to plenty of people getting killed off too. Five people in the first chapter alone if I stick to my plan. But the action is actually secondary to the story and characters. It's a space opera, and every part of the genre is featured prominently.

I just hope that I write better romances than GL, anyway.

 

Eleventh_Guard, that idea could potentially backfire on you. Your muse could always just disappear right in the middle. Or at the begining.

But that would be very bad. Hope that doesn't happen!

rebel_cheese, your story sounds awsome so far. Five people dying in the first chapter? I'd love to hear why.

Well, my villian just got solidified and his informant/semi-henchman/semi-acccomplice. And I've got a sideline romance going on. Think... Wes Janson like with someone a lot more mature.

Oh, and when I finally get around to posting, I'm UnfinishedNovel on the Nano boards.

 

I just got a wonderful insight into my Nano story - not really a plot point, but a new understanding of how a number of elements fit togehter.

That's the way my subconcious works - I'll have a problem with a story, and think about it for days or weeks with no results, then boom - the answer presents itself. I'm kind of worried about Nano, because there won't be time for that process to happen.

Oh, well, that's partly why I decided to go with the not-to-serious idea I just recently came up with, instead of the more ambitious idea that I've been working on for years that means a lot to me. Trouble is, now this one that was supposed to be sort of fun and throw-away is growing on me and I'm starting to really want it to be good...

 

Five in the first chapter? That's great. I like that you have the story and characters come first. For me, if the characters aren't well-developed, nothing else even makes sense since the characters drive every single conflict, even a space battle. It sounds like it'll be fun to read!

And trust me, you can write romances better than GL.

-Mia

 

I've got the beginnings of a plot, which is great. Also I have a nifty line involving a shovel

I've been doing my worldbuilding using ZuluPad - if the link doesn't work, Google it. It's basically a Wikified version of Notepad, which - and this is the cool bit - does its own cross-referencing. It's awesome.

 

Oh that's how mine works too...And right now I'm so stuck...and worried that I'll be halfway through November and not know where to go. I have my plot about half figured out, outlined on paper....which I really never do officially, but for this I wanted to have my story figured out more than just in my head. Usually, I figure out my story and key scenes in my head and just remember them. I've always been good at that. If something doesn't come to me I just let it go and wait until I get to that point while writing it and figure it out then. However for NaNo I don't want to take that chance. I wanted to have my story thought through if not written...But I'm so stuck that I am really beginning to hate my story...What's worse I wrote a vig the other day in answer to a writing challenge and now I have this really nagging plot bunny that has nearly grown into a full fledged story when I should be thinking of how to get over being stuck in my NaNo story..

So, I'm thinking that I may put it on the back burner, let it simmer until next year...I really wanted to flex my writing and creativity muscles and write something original but I think I'm going to give into my newest muse and write a Fanfic....


FL

 

My muse hasn't shut up since last December, which is why my postings here have been short and infrequent. I'm hoping to get back to posting things after NaNo is over and this particular muse is worked to the point of overexhaustion.

I doubt she'll bow out mid-month.

 

Tell me what to write until your tongue goes numb and falls out and tell me the rest with your tongue stump.

Ewww...

Layren, there's a Novel Finishing Month? Why didn't anyone tell me? That's perfect for procrastinators.

Nem, omg, ZuluPad is awesome. I have a Word doc full of notes for an original fic, and Zulu is perfect for finding things. Thanks for posting the link!

 

Two people will die in my book and both are dead before the book starts, but the discovery is during the book.

 

I just reworked my NaNo plot for the fourth time. (It sure is fun to come up with new ideas don?t you think? ) The general story line is still the same, just how I get from point A to point B that keeps changing. I liked my other ideas, but they just weren?t flowing together right. But, this newest one looks like it will work? hopefully?

Anyway, I did manage to pick out the title for my story! For those of you who are curious, it?s ?Dealing With The Consequences?, unless of course I come up with something better. Has anyone else come up with their title yet?

~KT

 

I only discovered it awhile ago, Jade, like two days ago to be exact the website is National Novel Finishing Month. It hasn't been around very long, according to the website.

 

The characters and story come first, always. I'll make the science make sense later. My fiction always puts the characters and story foremost, and in my style of writing they go hand-in-hand. They both must be extremely strong in order to make the story work.

And I do hope it'll be fun to read! That's also extremely important.

And I take you've read some of my work here. Glad you think (or hope) so.

and spork, how the five will be killed off is crazy. You've heard about neural laces, right? Well, essentially, these five people, these soldiers, spot alien escape pods landing upon my planet's surface. But they're also living computers because of the neural lace providing extra processing power. However, computers can be hacked . . . and that's essentially what happens to one of the soldiers. I'll let you put the pieces together about what happens next.

 

I finished my novel summary today. All told, it's a hair over 5000 words. So all I have to do now is wait until November 1, add water - I mean, details and dialogue - and make sure that the text is 10 times longer than the summary.



Plotcrafting is a piece of cake once a good idea takes over. Doing the character analyses is going to be the really hard part. And what makes it even more pathetic is that over half the characters are canon characters , including all three main characters, and one of the OCs already appears in the prequel.

 

woohoo! death and destruction and novel planning!

so glad to hear everyone's moving things along well, mostly.

i feel like i'm going to be flying a bit by the seat of my pants. i've got bits and pieces of a world/galaxy set up and a couple general plot points, but i've got almost no characterization ready. heh.

i'm going to do some more research and such over the next week, then on Nov.1 , i'm just gonnna let it rip and see where it goes.

i do admit to having a little backup plan. i've got a chick lit novel idea that came to me a couple months ago. if for some reason the sci-fi suddenly crumbles on me, i'm taking vacation time the week of Thanksgiving and i'll be able to shift gears if i have to. *crosses fingers that this doesn't happen*

and yes, i do have a title for the sci-fi.

 

Well, I've been thinking and doodling and such about this, and I confess I've had difficulty coming up with a plot idea that will last me 50,000 words. I mean, I guess there could be Blue Side: Book II, but I promised myself I wouldn't start on that until I finished Book I, even though I know exactly where that's going, and where Book II will pick up.

My current best idea is to write a collection of short stories, centering around three characters. These three characters are all originals of mine, and represent three generations of one family. And I have tons of ideas for short little sketches, dealing with both the large-scale wars that the GFFA seems to see, and the everyday sort of disasters that knock us down just as easily sometimes.

This can be translated as: DWH is having a rough semester, and wants to make her characters deal with DRL for a little while.

 

I'm shying away from galactic warfare. It's too much to plot in two weeks; too many threads and too many characters doing and wanting different things, and the political entities involved are practically like complex characters in and of themselves. I'm basically sticking with one political entity this time around (Hapes Consortium) and focusing the fic pretty narrowly (on Allana and stuff that surrounds her - the little details of plotlines not affecting her in any significant way don't factor in.)

I burned out on galactic war with my last WIP and half-arsed the ending of that subplot because I just didn't have it in me to continue with it, so I think I need a break from massive fleets and dozens of officers doing different things.

 

ZOMG, screw the short stories. My original plan, which I'd abandoned since no ideas were presenting themselves, has just come back.

Three system-wide wars, three generations, one reason. Lots and lots of Corellia.

*does the yaaaaay inspiration dance*

 

Zulu Notes are now the love of my life. They allow me to organize things and feel productive, even when I haven't progressed one inch on my plot outline.

Of course I had to call my nest of linked info pages "Ficci-pedia."

 

Hee...ok just dropping by to see if I was the only one who can't quite decide which plot bunny i should act on...pperently some are about as unsure as myself. Lol. Time's ticking ppl!
Well I think I'm probably gonna do an original fic the plot bunny for which right now resides under the working tittle of Loving Terren. I know how original of me Main character profiles for that one is done. Beggining and ending aproximate outlines are done, though not writen down 'cause I'm too lazy. And of course now to the hard part in the planning stage....THE MIDDLE. Lol.
I hope you guys are having an easier time with this. Just the prospect of writing 50,000 words on one topic in 30 days freeks me out...Looks like fanfics are gonnna be on a long hiatus.