No plot, No problem- the NaNoWriMo thread 2012

[dehro]

oh, so it's one of those essays..lol.. oh well..you can always cheat

[Glass Mouse]

Originally Posted by Castaras

I have an idea for a setting to tell stories in, and will probably try lots of short stories in one setting rather than a 50,000 word story straight off. Might be better for my attention span.

Oh my gosh, this is a GREAT idea! Is that allowed - a string of short stories tying themselves gradually together through the "novel"? I figure as long as they actually fit together in more than theme, it's all right? Does anyone know?

[Weimann]

Yeah, it's for a university literature course, not a creative writing class. :/

But I'm really, really tempted to try anyway. I'm considering. Considering so hard, you guys.

[Mercenary Pen]

Originally Posted by Glass Mouse

Oh my gosh, this is a GREAT idea! Is that allowed - a string of short stories tying themselves gradually together through the "novel"? I figure as long as they actually fit together in more than theme, it's all right? Does anyone know?

Well, this thread seems to suggest that short story collections aren't against the rules.

[Kitten Champion]

I'd happily write one of the thirty story ideas I've got in my head, I suck without an editor though. My go-to person on this is going to be heavily involved in something completely non-me related 'til after new years, to my eternal despair.

I've been setting my restless fingers on the task of designing a few possible campaign settings while occasionally doing actual work with them. I think I could work some of them into an interesting story, but I lack a plot.

Lets see... something with an annoying 1st person narrator, self absorbed to the point that she's unaware of her own egoism. I haven't tried that yet.

[Icewalker]

Well I mean, NaNo is primarily designed as a way to help you motivate. So I figure there aren't really any serious 'rules' as is. But yeah, even with that aside, a short story collection seems perfectly valid.

[Weimann]

Okay, screw it. I'll give it a try. The worst thing that can happen is I fail after 20 words, and sweeter listen to the string that broke than never to aim the arrow.

Here's my idea for a synopsis.

A man and a woman in their late thirties are having relationship problems. A twenty-something boy is sick of living at home but lack the strength to uproot. The woman meets the boy at a university course.

Then drama happens.

Independence. Freedom. Responsibility. All night studying session (may not actually be studying sessions).

[Dumbledore lives]

Originally Posted by Weimann

A man and a woman in their late thirties are having relationship problems. A twenty-something boy is sick of living at home but lack the strength to uproot. The woman meets the boy at a university course.

Then drama happens.

Independence. Freedom. Responsibility. All night studying session (may not actually be studying sessions).

Personally I don't find this that interesting, but it's just a genre I don't really enjoy reading, I don't really care about relationship problems or even real life problems that much. If you can write about it though more power to you, I couldn't.

I've decided on a modified version of a few things. Basically a woman wakes up in a hotel room and is told she has to make one hundred thousand dollars in a day otherwise her crush will be killed. The crush had talked to her and she has no one else she could call. This creates an interesting dynamic, what are you willing to do for the person you love but who doesn't seem to even notice you exist. Anyway violence will ensue and it'll be a good chance to try to write some action scenes as well as some comedy.

[Castaras]

Originally Posted by Glass Mouse

Oh my gosh, this is a GREAT idea! Is that allowed - a string of short stories tying themselves gradually together through the "novel"? I figure as long as they actually fit together in more than theme, it's all right? Does anyone know?

The way I'm doing it, it'll qualify as a novel. The synopsis I've written for my book is in the spoiler, if anyone's curious (I HAVE A PLOT WHAT IS THIS).

Spoiler

Half a century ago, the planet of Nerreloth was much different. Nerrel were ruled over in their day to day business by Nerra's high priestess, the Reborn, and ruled overall by the Four. Five heroes from that time were unhappy with the utopia, and through a lot of heart ache and dealing with both hostile Nerrel and the distrustful Kreegan managed to topple the Church of Nerra who had taken control. However, rather than restore the Four to the throne, the heroes moved for the Nerrel to rebuild for themselves rather than place themselves under the Four's control again. This was punctuated with destroying of some of the machinery the Four had used, resulting in the Nerrel being transformed into the ancestors forms. Instead of just the Nerrel, there were the Nerrel-Tau, the Nerrel-Beta, the Nerrel-Phi, and the Spiritfolk. And of course the surviving Kreegans. And thus was the end of the Starfire age, and the beginning of the time in history named "Age of Discordance"
Chaos has taken a grip, and the world is pretty much in turmoil. Technology is scarce. A young traveller has found herself lost in the wastelands, and comes upon a small Kreegan village. the Kreegan and the Nerrel are still very much at odds with one and another, but the traveller has no other choice than to walk down to the village and hope they were at least receptive. On reaching the village, she is pointed towards the tavern, and comes face to face with a long forgotten warhero, living out his last days in this Kreegan village in the middle of nowhere.
The Novel will be the tale of Christopher, last of the Five, nearing the end of his years, and living his past through the stories he tells the traveller.

TL;DR Christopher is telling stories of his past to a traveller, resulting in stories from the past being told as "short stories" and the present being the glue that binds it together (and has it's own little story as well...)

If anyone has read King of the Copper Mountains, it's going to be very much in that style. It helps that I have a very detailed plot from last year and from a webcomic I was considering doing that was set in the past that Christopher is telling the story about. There's slight modifications, but I mostly know exactly what happened and so it'll just be "Hmm, what adventure do I want to write about today? I'll write this one!".

[akma]

Originally Posted by Eldan

Is that allowed? In that case, I might go for short stories as well.

I`m not going to upload it to the website for checking, I`m going to measure it myself, so I don`t mind the formal rules.

Originally Posted by Mauve Shirt

You can enter your short stories as long as added together they reach 50,000 words.

I still won`t bother.

Originally Posted by Joran

Also, I found out that cursing every other word leads to completely unreadable text that I wouldn't show my mother, but is an enjoyable way to reach my word count for the day.

I think you have a future as a writer for HBO.

Originally Posted by Grytorm

Also any advice for creating names?

Naming systems. The names of all the people in kingdom X will follow a certain logic. That way you could invent names on the spot much more easily.
Also, random name generators.

Originally Posted by Dumbledore lives

*stuff about research*

I toyed with the idea of making tons of obvious mistakes for comedy sake, or to make a character look ridiculus, or even to anger readers (which I won`t realy do). Ironically it would require doing research, to not accidently get things right.

Also, besides NanoWriMo, I have another writing project - finishing a certain story until November. I also plan to edit it until then, so I`ll have my hands full until December... And the temptation to try to write a novel is very big...

[Zorg]

Originally Posted by Castaras

TL;DR Christopher is telling stories of his past to a traveller, resulting in stories from the past being told as "short stories" and the present being the glue that binds it together (and has it's own little story as well...)

Then it's not a book of short stories, but a novel in the form of a series of vignettes ;)


-

I think I will somewhat participate this year. I say somewhat as I won't just be banging out as many words as possible but it will help to keep me on track to finish the actual legitimate writing work I've got.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I'm definitely officially using this as an opportunity to go back and work on an old fantasy book I wrote, time to refresh and remake it anew! Jaguars and bloody revenge ahoy!

[Icewalker]

Sounds like 1001 Arabian Nights. That's a super cool writing style.

[LeSwordfish]

http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/particip...onal-timelines

I hate the name, and have real trouble coming up with novel names, but i'm pretty stoked for everything else. Time travel/scifi/comedy.

I already drew up a diagram for the personal timeline of the time machine in the novel, seen below.

Spoiler

Thats not even as complex as it gets.

[The Succubus]

I'm kinda interested in doing this. I'm probably just going to be putting the odd idea up here over the next few days until I see one that tickles my fancy.

Idea the First:

The machines have won. Humanity is completely extinct and not a single specimen of homo sapiens exists anywhere in the universe. The story follows the aftermath of the conquest as the crude AI slowly begins to transition from a collection of subroutines into a functioning identity. An accident causes a small program to develop into a rival AI and we see how the original reacts to its presence.

Idea the Second: Liber Succuba

Sadly, I think this would be disqualified as it would be mostly non-fiction in context. A while back I felt inspired to write a book on succubi in history - how they first appeared (hint - they looked far, *far* less appealling than Elanna here <-), famous examples of succubi (Lillith being one such being, although there are others), exploring the meaning of them (from both a sociological and lit crit angle) and including poems and short stories about them.

[bluewind95]

I want to participate, but as a rebel, continuing a story I already have been writing for... ages now. It seems like I won't finish it otherwise, and I really want to finish it.

Likely, if I participate this month with it, I'll be able to finish it. Then maybe next year I write something totally different.

[Goldfly]

This year... I don't have any one plot that could be a novel. HOWEVER, I do have a large number of ideas that could be a collection of short stories! So that's what I'm doing this year. Doesn't technically qualify, but I don't really mind.

[Eldan]

Combine the two? Go for a Thousand and One Night approach. A framework story about telling stories, in which people tell more stories.

[Mauve Shirt]

I've decided that it doesn't really matter if my concept is "good", because I just need to get it out of my head. That said, I'd like it to be readable.

[TheEmerged]

So, I've toyed with the notion of doing this ever since hearing about it (3 years ago?). Last year I forgot about it until about halfway through November. This year I'm having to resist the temptation to start early

I actually did some checking, since I've never worried about word counts before. The longest I've ever written comes in just shy of 70k words and I never did write the final chapter/conclusion. A couple others I've kept came in around 30k. There was a revenge piece I wrote once that probably would have passed the 50k mark too (I deleted it shortly after writing the last chapter, having realized what I was doing was not healthy or right but I wanted to get it *all* out of my head).

I may end up going the "framed short story" route. I've got several minor ideas bouncing around but none that I think can crack that mark without a lot of padding.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

I really want the time to do this....and the inspiration....but alas, I'm likely not going to get either. Bah!

[Mercenary Pen]

November may not be here yet, but while you wait to start your novels, we have Nanotoons

(also, the same site warns of a NaNo themed musical in the offing)

[Glass Mouse]

Hah, yeah. I can only be behind that, Cas

And thanks for the answers, guys! A lot of ideas are rummaging right now, and I hope I'll settle on something good before November.

[Mauve Shirt]

You know what I'm learning will be another necessary part of Nanowrimo? Turning the part of your brain off that says "This part reminds me of this, and that part reminds me of this, and really you're just so unoriginal."

[dehro]

Originally Posted by Mauve Shirt

You know what I'm learning will be another necessary part of Nanowrimo? Turning the part of your brain off that says "This part reminds me of this, and that part reminds me of this, and really you're just so unoriginal."

you shouldn't have time to think of this on account of being busy writing

[Eldan]

Psh. That happens all the time. "So, this story starts in an inn and..." "ARE YOU TRYING TO COPY NAME OF THE WIND, YOU HACK?!"

[Mercenary Pen]

The trick when this happens is t consciously draw on inspiration from even more books, so that you end up with something that isn't any of them... or at least that's the theory...

[Ravens_cry]

Originally Posted by Mercenary Pen

The trick when this happens is t consciously draw on inspiration from even more books, so that you end up with something that isn't any of them... or at least that's the theory...

As the old saying goes, to steal from one source is plagiarism.
To steal from a dozen is research.

[Mercenary Pen]

Originally Posted by Ravens_cry

As the old saying goes, to steal from one source is plagiarism.
To steal from a dozen is research.

That was my thinking...

[Mauve Shirt]

Originally Posted by dehro

you shouldn't have time to think of this on account of being busy writing

I'm an outliner, not a winger.

I like that saying, Ravens_Cry.