kay dones

http://nano.fractured-dreams.net

little chat room and there is a counts page for everyone who I've seen with the widgets

and handily enough, the chatroom has a whip sound effect

Silferras, you should be a Moondancer -poke-

Also... four days left and I still haven't decided on the plot. So here are the strange ideas that have spawned from my brain so far. Suggestions, comments, any ideas that need to be impaled on pitchforks and roasted in a fire?

*A man is trying to write a novel, but he keeps being constantly distracted by strange incidents, such as his girlfriend, attacking pigeons, and helping to deliver a baby, among other things.

*A man is trying to write a novel, but somehow, whatever he writes happens in the future.

*A man is writing a novel, and somewhere else in the world, someone is writing a novel parallel to his. There are so many things you can do with "man writes a novel"

*A woman owns an old-fashioned perfume shop, but the glass perfume vials actually contain bottled memories. She's looking for one memory from her childhood and has to go through all the bottles to find it. Or, she has different customers to her shop who need to restore memories, suppress memories, or find lost memories. Meanwhile, she has some personal troubles of her own.

*A violinist makes a living playing in clubs and bars, but dreams of becoming a professional musician. One day, while she's playing outside in the woods, a pack of wolves come out to listen to her. They're so enchanted by her music that they whisk her away to play for them. (Did I mention that they're talking wolves?)

*A novel involving the 'Otherworld', which I have done some worldbuilding for but never actually written about. It's the border between the faerie world and the human world.

I too am having some issues thinking up what to write. I have one project I have been trying to write for years.. but it has sort of evolved into my nemesis, and I'm not sure I want to venture down that road. I think I'd rather come up with something a bit fresher, but I have no real solid ideas that I feel are workable.

I've got two possible horror-ish ideas, but I'm not sure how to make them into full worthwhile novels.

1. A group of people are trapped out in the snow somewhere during a zombie apocalypse. Its kind of horror, but more a psychological thing, because, essentially, deprived of food and contact with anyone but their small group, they essentially devolve into cannibals themselves, and the "real" zombies end up being nothing more than a backdrop for contrast. However, like I said, I'm not sure that is fit for more than short story or novella at the most.

2. A child is trapped in either a mall or a small town or something, where everyone who was there seems to be dead or "other". Not zombies, but more like shadowy demony creaturey things, and they're after him, including likenesses of his mother and father. And again, not so much full novel material there.

So, I've got a few days to try and come up with something, and I'm stumped.

Funny you should mention that, my first main was a Moondancer.

Thinking of
a. finishing up a few fanfics, as mentioned, or
b. following up on the fantasy witchhunt idea I had a while back (which I now realise, after dredging it up from my folders, borrows heavily in background from Janny Wurts' Wars of Light and Shadow universe)

I'm not good with plots.

I have added Maylea to the first post (is that your Nano name too?). Also the link to the super awesome chat room Saran set up for us! Now we can organize writing events! Yay Saran!

Serella, I really like the one where the guy is trying to write the novel, but odd things keep getting in the way. It's very appropriate! I bet it'd be pretty funny too, if done right!

S.A.W., I think the trapped in the snow, hiding from zombies and becoming cannibals one could easily be a whole novel! And a really good one! I love zombie apocalypses, even if they're only a 'shadows on the wall' to point the basic animal nature of humanity. In fact, I love stories where people are in any disaster that breaks them down and turns them into whatever it is they're fearing. In this case, folks fearing flesh-eating zombies become flesh-eating cannibals. Nifty! And I think, if you worked the dialogue and exposition right, it could easily be novel length.

Hm. Maybe. I was thinking of having the chapters rotate perspective, if I did do it, so that you don't get to see the breakdown completely intact in each person. One chapter you'll be looking over Frank's shoulder and hearing what's in his head, but next chapter its Carol, and you won't get back to Frank for a bit, so when you do, you might be quite a bit further into his fall, but you'll get to see the gradual process that all of the characters are going through from the inside, rather than having one protagonist that manages to "hold out" against what is happening to everybody else.

Only problem is trying to figure out how to make a group of people trapped in a cabin interesting for 50k+ words, ya know?

Oh, also, if you right click on the widgets in people's sigs and open them in a new tab (i'm assuming we all have tabbed browsing :-P) then the number it shows will be their ID number. You can then go to your profile and switch your number for their number and it will take you to their profile. Just a way to find out someone's account name and add them as a buddy even if they aren't around.

Oh, btw, if you guys go to the chatroom Saran set up, do it in a fresh window and not just a new tab. If you open it in a tab and then switch to another tab it'll kick you out.

I like that idea! And keeping it interesting can be done, especially if you're jumping perspectives. You can include flashbacks to happier times, delusional imaginings, every now and then maybe their radio finds a random station still broadcasting (for a few chapters anyway) and they react to outside world news, you could have several subplots going on - some folks know each other and have issues, some folks get jealous of something about some other folks and plot against them, etc. Then there's the zombies themselves and the struggle against the elements... I think you can pull it off. I'm actually really looking forward to reading it!

And thanks, I'll do that! I've linked everyone's Nano name to their Nano profile on the first page too. Sometimes the Nano site is a little slow.

Hm. An idea I just came up with feels like it might be fun to write.

A 20-something girl is pretty much messing up her whole life after her younger brother disappears. She's more or less living on the streets and starting to get into drugs.

As she gets deeper into them, she starts to have these vivid dreams, and in them she starts catching glimpses of her brother. She ups the drugs, keeping herself stoned as often as possible, drifting deeper and deeper into these fantasies. Except, after a while, she starts to believe that they aren't simply in her head.

At some point she recognizes another girl who she knew from the street, but who had vanished a month or so prior. The girl doesn't seem to recognize her or anything, and seems to be living a totally different life. She sees her again in another dream, and again, her life seems different. Eventually she makes contact and goes so far as to grab her and try to wake herself up, and when she does, she finds that she's still gripping the girls arm in the "real" world.

So she ends up messing around, trying to figure out how things work, falls deeper into drugs to try and locate and rescue her brother from this alternate version of the city where she lives.

How it all turns out, I'm not sure. But I was listening to "Coma White" by Marilyn Manson and it just sort of started forming in my head.

Hmm.

Ooooh! I like that!

Holy, you got a cool looking dragon.


I wont be participating in this, due to the fact I usually have about 20 different ideas bouncing around my head (some of which have been there since I was like.. ten?) and absolutely no will to finish them once I start.

Hmmm. Me too. Now I just need a title. >.>

I have one that I've had since ever.

Set in this world, but before history began the world was filled with magic. The main character and his cohorts are high school students who've known since they were kids that they would inherit the only trace of magical power left in the world.

hopefully it will work out well enough.

Shall we post whatever we end up with on the war site?

Well, there's no way it can end up worse than "The Covenant" which has a largely similar premise. Which is good for you, cause just by comparison you'll score major points.

God that movie was bad.

Okay, okay, I'm in.

I can be found here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/428414

And I have only vague ideas of what I'm going to write so desperately trying to coalesce them into proper thoughts...

Well, they don't know each other. And at one stage the drama geek finds out that one of the cool girls can shapeshift with a response along the lines of "Oh you're kidding"

And the back story here is more that these kids are the mortal descendants of the old gods who sealed away magic from the world, not the dark ooh look at me(though Michael is a little moody). Course, they have no idea about this.

It's a lot in there, I'm just hoping to get through the first section of the story (i.e to the debatable end point)

I'm thinking about trying out the "sprinting" technique at the start. Sprinting being setting a timer and writing for 10 minutes, then stopping, taking a break, then doing it again until you hit 1700ish words. Apparently it works really well, and I'm a really slow starter when it comes to my writing--It takes a few sessions of writing for me before I can just go all out.

What are some things you guys are going to try to hit the mark?

I really should do this, I really do need to write more.

Oooh. I think I might have a title. Withdrawal.