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Talk about your 2013 NaNo

Jabrosky

Banned
I'll start this thread with some information on my own planned project, The Holy Chalice of Amun.

In bygone days there lived a King of Nubia who pleased the gods through his righteousness and piety, so the Creator Amun rewarded him with this sacred chalice which would grant all his people prosperity and good health so long as it stayed in their hands. Since then the Holy Grail of Amun’s fame has spread across the world, reaching as far north as the isles of Britain. When the covetous Celtic King Arthur and his warriors travel down to Nubia and steal the Chalice, its guardian Neith must pry it back from their clutches for the good of her kingdom. At least she believes so until she learns that Arthur and his people need the chalice's powers as much as anyone else. Not only does Neith find herself torn between her country and that of a man she comes to love, she must also contend with Arthur's jealous sorceress Morgana, who will stop at nothing to prevent her destiny from coming to fruition.

Cast of Characters

Neith - A Nubian warrior woman tasked with guarding the Holy Chalice of Amun. Fated to become Queen Guinevere of Arthurian legend.
Kemsit - Neith's best friend and fellow Guardian of the Chalice. I think she may die at some point in the story, either in the first scene or at the end of the first act.
Meri - An old male Nubian mage who accompanies Neith on her quest to recover the Chalice from Arthur's people. Fated to become Merlin.
Arthur - A Celtic chieftain of Camelot who has the Chalice stolen so he can protect his people from the effects of an encroaching ice age. Ultimately falls in love with Neith.
Lancelot - Arthur's champion warrior who steals the Chalice for him.
Morgana - A sorceress of mixed African and Celtic ancestry who works for Arthur and has a secret crush on him. When a relationship builds between Arthur and Neith, Morgana grows jealous and becomes the novel's main antagonist.
 

GeekDavid

Auror
At the moment I am planning on working on my new idea, The Heretic's Disciple. For some reason this idea has really taken hold of me, I can't wait to get started on it.
 

RedAndy

Dreamer
NaNo was how I got started with writing. For a long time I had a premise for a novel but no motivation to write it. So I gave NaNo a go, and haven't looked back.

My project for this year is entitled Gruestalker. It's set in the same world as my NaNo novels of 2011 and 2012, though with mostly unrelated characters and events. This is the synopsis I've put on the site:

There's a new extreme sport gripping Alba's cabal of wealthy, young and bored. Sleek, athletic horses; ravenous, slavering hounds; the incredible thrill of mortal danger - and it all takes place in pitch darkness.

But for Alex, self-styled environmental activist, the new sport is nothing more than legalised brutality against creatures that are little understood and - most probably - critically endangered. She's prepared to sacrifice everything, to stop the bloodshed and restore balance to nature.

What she's not quite so prepared for is to discover just how much "everything" really is.


For those who are interested, my handle over on the NaNo site is RedAndy54.
 

Chilari

Staff
Moderator
The story I'm planning is as yet unnamed - along with the characters. I've not even sorted the plot out past the first act yet - it's still vague. But the plan is that, on a quarantined island penal colony the survivors of a plague, left to their own devices since the governor and his staff left, form a brutal and unequal society. My protagonist and her friends have become enslaved - she escapes and seeks to free those of her friends who are still enslaved, before realising that the quarantine won't be soon lifted and that waiting for the people from "back home" to rescue them from the self-styled new Governor is pointless, so it's up to her and those who are still free to bring the brutal regime down and set up a fairer society.
 

Ophiucha

Auror
My story is currently untitled, I refer to it as '#pettitoes' for the sake of discussing it on my social media sites.

I don't have a nice summary written yet, but here's the gist: Mithos is a blind halfling woman who works as head chef in the kitchens of the Ministry and as an important member of an underground group of revolutionaries seeking to stage a coup against the very same Lord Minister who hires her services. They are under-funded, under-armed, and need men in high places on their side, so they seek out allies from all corners of society, highlighting the number of people who are upset with the way things are and introducing various subplots and worldbuilding whimsy. Meanwhile, Mithos prepares for the largest feast of the year - a dinner on the winter solstice - with the aid of the Lord Minister's cupbearer who also happens to be her girlfriend. The two plots converge at the end, needless to say, in a rather dramatic fashion.
 
The first book I'll be working on is a two-parter called "Cross at the End of Days" and is an urban fantasy novel featuring an investigator/guardian of the unknown looking into plans on using the Mayan End of Days to jumpstart magick on the Earth, but ends up being a misdirect and involves the Wild Hunt. (Yes, I'm aware the End of Days was last year, but well, in-book they explain that everyone got the date wrong :p )

Magick was sealed away mostly in the year 10000 BCE with the fall of Atlantis, but the apprentices and heirs to the Seven Archmagi (who created the seal) formed an organization of Guardians of the Seal in order to regulate what magicks remained and make sure both that the Seal stays in place and regulate traffic to and from the many subRealms (pocket universes with varying amounts of magick). Depending on the magickal requirements of their race, some creatures are able to continue living on Earth even after the Seal (although others are driven mad, become horrors, or just die).

Vera Cross is one of the latest in a long line of Guardians and has potentially reality-warping magicks in areas of high magick, but relies on her guns and investigative skills in the Realm Proper of Earth. Other Guardians believe that she is too powerful and should be put down before she gives into temptation, but for the time being she is utilized as is.

I'm still playing with different styles in this one. I originally had the idea of a reporter character writing the story as his notes to a story about Vera, then killing him off and having his ghost continue the tale, but the transition from living narrator to dead narrator has been throwing me a bit so I'm considering switching back to a more normal tale. The idea of the reporter turning into a creepy ghost stalker continuing to pursue Vera after death has been throwing me as well.

This will be the first full-length novel I've written in my universe in modern times (all the other books take place after 33000 ACE when the Seal has been fully sundered or before the seal was created in 10000 BCE), although I've done a few shorts in other times.
 

A. E. Lowan

Forum Mom
Leadership
I'm a Rebel since I'm on a self-imposed deadline for our WIP. Here is our brief synopsis, which needs to be changed because it's a bit spoilery.

Winter Mulcahy is the last wizard in the city of Seahaven, WA and all that stands between the fractious preternatural population and total chaos. Barely holding the city together by the skin of her teeth and the blood of her friends, the young wizard is approached by a pair of Sidhe lords who claim that her city is harboring a fugitive who has kidnapped a Sidhe prince, and that they are on a mission to rescue him. Winter must investigate this fugitive and get to the truth of the kidnapping, and in doing so uncovers a plot years in the laying to rip Seahaven from the fabric of the mortal realm and forge it into a Faerie Realm here on Earth.
 
C

Chessie

Guest
Wow, these are all so awesome! I love the diversity of ideas here. :)

I did some brainstorming today on the original idea I had, and I love where the session went so I've decided to roll with this (just a slim view of it here):

Zyna Pajarinov is one of five apprentices to esteemed healer, Paskal Lievic, in the Moravian city of Davina. Paskal has created a tonic that cures the Consumption in a matter of days. The opportunity to study with this man is prized, and only a handful of students are selected to apprentice with him for two years. The apprentices are in competition with one another to earn a 'tuition waiver' for the current scholastic year.

Zyna earns the chance to prove herself worthy of this waiver when an outbreak of Consumption happens in Tselitel, a rural town to the south of Davina. Paskal cannot take the tonics himself as he is tied up with very important business when they receive the news. She volunteers to take the first set of tonics by dog sled to alleviate some of Paskal's work load. At first he disagrees, but she convinces him of it when she (reluctantly) agrees to take Miksha (another apprentice) with her.

But on their way south, Zyna and Miksha's dog team is robbed by bandits who steal the coveted tonics for their boss, Luka. His mother is dying from the Consumption and since he lives on the fringes of society, he would not have access to the medicine (how he finds out the apprentices are on their way south with medicine is another matter). Zyna and Miksha are stranded in the middle of nowhere when most of their dogs are killed and everything they had was taken from them. In the midst of all this, they must track down the bandits and find the stolen tonics, because an entire town's survival is depending on them.
 
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GeekDavid

Auror
I just realized I haven't shared much about the storyline of my NaNo project. Well, let's remedy that.

In a world once wracked by wars between competing wizards (or warzards, a combination of war + wizard), the Collegium Arcanum rises to power. To avoid the rise of more warzards, they impose a set of strict rules on the kingdoms, forming the Hegemony. People with magical talent are forced to suppress all emotion (think Vulcans or Jedi) or have their talent blocked and be expelled from the Collegium.

In the distant past (I'm thinking about 2,000 years), one Collegium member had a different idea, but he was forced out and labeled "Heretic" for going against the majority. He's still alive (thanks to a spell based on emotion, specifically, love) but is hunted by the Collegium.

Our hero is a young student who chafes under all the rules and the hypocrisy of the Collegium Elite, and eventually he's cast out. He encounters a young female thief who tells him she can take him to someone who can teach him magic (the Heretic, who knows how to remove the block), but first, he has some tasks to do to prove he's worthy...

I am really excited to start this project.
 

Motley

Minstrel
This will be my 8th NaNoWriMo.

I'm still undecided about which novel I'll be working on. They are both underway already, so I'm a bit of a rebel (I usually am.). I need to get things done though and not start something new.

It's either my vampire novel or one called "Troll" about a young man who sinks a bit too deep into an online game and basically goes nuts.
 
This is going to be my 2nd NaNo. Last year, I gave it a shot, but being a junior in highschool while also doing Mock Trial, my novel fell flat at 31,000. After rereading, I trashed the plot, but I'm back this year with the main idea of my book intact. It has yet to be named, but here's a blurb of the plot:

Captain Alexander sets out on an adventure across the newly discovered land in order to find gold. He is fueled by the desire to return home and marry his love. Commander Punduk, the leader of the 'Guardians', a special force of the native people encounters Alexander on his expedition. This meeting sparks an adventure of loyalty and betrayal, and tests the mettle of the two men.

Even though I'm a senior this year, and I'm much busier than last year, I am determined to make pound out a first draft this NaNo.
 
First one for me. I wrote this synopsis for the "setting" of my novel, but I haven't decided which character I want to focus on just yet:

God is dead. Satan is dead.
Heaven and Hell have fought an apocalyptic war...and neither side has won. The Celestial Planes have been obliterated, stranding Angels and Devils across the Plane of Man.
Now, Infernal and Angelic entities are roaming Earth of their own free will, and their ancient struggle has mankind squarely in the middle. But mankind is no longer helpless, as the Apocalypse has changed the Earth itself.
No, mankind will not go easily, for magic is alive in the world...
 

Jabrosky

Banned
Decided to rework my NaNoWriMo concept, which rewrites the Arthurian myth of the Holy Grail:

Link

But for the benefit of lurkers who can't access the brainstorming section, I will reproduce the plot summary below:

In bygone days a wrathful demon sent a rogue Triceratops with brass horns to terrorize the people of Yam. Only by sacrificing half of their kingdom's yearly produce to the montrous herbivore could the Yamites stave off its rampages. Their liberation from famine and fear came at last when the demi-goddess Ebana slew the Triceratops, hacking off its horns. As a gesture of gratitude, the Yamites crowned Ebana their queen, and she kept one of the brow horns as a symbol of her rulership. From that point on every prospective king and queen of Yam anoints themselves with animal blood poured from the horn as part of the coronation process.

Ngunbere (Guinevere), the story's female protagonist, has been chosen as Yam's next queen, but before she can receive her coronation, warriors from the distant northern land of Albion steal the horn. Their leader Ardur (Arthur) believes that the horn possesses special powers that he can use to reclaim his own chieftainship from his usurping and tyrannical brother Mordri (Mordred). Ngunbere and her younger brother Lankele (Lancelot) set out to retrieve the stolen horn at first, but once they learn of Ardur's motivation, they come to sympathize with him. The Yamites and Albionians decide that to resolve their conflict, they must find the Triceratops's second brow horn so Ardur can use it.

The problem is that this second horn lies in the possession of the hermit mage Molani (Merlin), who needs its power for his own purposes and is reluctant to give it up. As if this did not provide enough complications, Mordri eventually learns of Ardur's plans and sends his sorceress Orkana (Morgan Le Fey) after our heroes...
 
This will be my 8th NaNo. I have a sporadic track record. I've finished November with 50k, 20k, 1k, and everything in between, so who knows how this year will go.

I'll be writing a steampunk novel (my first attempt at that genre) titled The Last Flight of Sweet Molly. I don't have a summary for it 'cause I'm bad at those, but it's about an airship captain who's attempting to restore her reputation as an honest trader after getting involved in a smuggling job and being imprisoned for it. She's failing badly at it, so when a guy comes along offering her a ton of money to take him far away, she doesn't question it. Unfortunately, he turns out to be a missing prince in disguise and accuses her of kidnapping him when he's found by his people. And chaos and whatnot ensues.
 

Amanita

Maester
Mine will not be fantasy this year.
It's more along the lines of mystery or maybe some horror as well.
A young woman studying history and chemistry to become a teacher doesn't find a place to live in her university town (This might sound strange to Americans if the arrangements are different there but it is a rather common problem in Germany.) and needs to move into a large house with another student she doesn't know before. Odd things start to happen in this house and things don't go well at university either. At first, she's blaming herself because she's always lived with her parents before and everything's new to her and she's overly nervous but the two young women soon realise that there's really something dangerous going on. Strange accidents happen and they experience things that make them doubt their sanity. Someone wants to drive them out of the house.
The idea for this story is over a year old but I haven't really started writing it yet, only done the planning. It's playing with some of the fears and nightmares I used to have myself, especially a very strong fear of being poisoned. I used to fear that someone would poison my food if I left the trolley alone in the supermarket for example or that someone would break in to poison my food. That's actually going to happen to my characters, they have drugs mixed into their food to make them think they're losing their minds.
 
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