NaNoWriMo Novel Ideas

[Philip Overby]

At this point in the year, seems like most NaNoWriMo veterans have already planted seeds of what they plan to write for November. NaNoWriMo neophytes are usually weighing the option to take this descent into madness/ruin/excitement/fun/caffeine fueled furor.

Even if your idea is small, share what you think you may write. Character ideas? Setting ideas? Anything that's floating around in your head for your NaNoWriMo.

I'm going to write a pro wrestling themed fantasy story this time. I previously did lots of fantasy and originally I was going to write a straight-forward story about pro wrestling. But the more I thought about it, the more fun it would be to throw in some sort of further weirdness. So I did so.

Now my main character must confront not only other pro wrestlers inside and outside the ring, but also bears, aliens, wrestling jellyfish, zombies, werewolves, and even the legendary Wendigo. So the story definitely took a turn for the strange. But that's sort of my style I suppose.

 

[jackitsu]

Hehehe sounds like an awesome idea, Phil.

The only time I finished NaNo was when I planned to do something heavy and literary fiction, started on day one with an outline, got freaked out by that outline, and started out of no where from scratch on a fantasy story... so I'm going for fantasy again.

I don't know if I should plan or not, though! I write better when I don't overthink (well... I keep writing and don't get as freaked out, I'm not sure that its good but it happens at all is the good part) because overthinking makes me self-critical.

Anyway... my idea is about the queen of the realm is kidnapped from another land and runs away to go back home with a trusty guard friend, only to uncover a secret slavery plot from her home land. Been sitting on the ideas for this one for a while... so I'm not sure if its NaNo material or "write at some point" material.

 

[Ophiucha]

Well, I've got the seeds planted, but I need to figure out how to work in the plot and what kind of characters I need for that. But I do have a vision I'm working on. Based around the Ottoman Empire - specifically in Greece - and everyone is a harpy. Like, half-bird, half-human. I'm bringing in other half-bird, half-harpy myths, so it's not strictly harpy, but that's the term I'll likely stick to, since it's the most well known. Lots of Russian influence, though. I've planned the harpies a fair bit. Their designs will vary wildly, based a bit on blood (is one of their parents a full bird, or full human? and what birds are their parents related to) and a bit on early development. I have it so that they can be born either from an egg, or in a womb from an egg - sharks do that, they keep the egg inside them. I think the word is ovoviviparous, but don't cite me on the spelling. That decides on elements of the face, mostly. If they are in the womb, they'll not develop a beak, and they get lips. If they have to crack out of the egg, they may have a beak, or it may break off and they just have teeth (without lips). Also doing some research into folkloric (and real) birds for designs. A phoenix is going to play a big part in this, so some sort of phoenix harpy will likely be the main protagonist or antagonist of the story. The land itself is sort of an archipelago, but floating islands instead of oceanic ones. I might draw a map, but I'm a sucker for "this is a map drawn by the people", and honestly, would half-birds need maps?

 

[Hëradïn]

I'll be writing about the children of Fiitën or Miego and his friends.
After King Fiitën of the small kingdom of Orïtïs dies his eldest daughter begins plotting to take the throne from her twin brother... long story short his second son and fourth child becomes king, both his eldest children (the twins) die and his second eldest daughter is invited back from exile.
Miego and his friends go on an adventure to unlock the potential of their magic, but many a hard ship is had along the way including the death of one of their friends, after most have found their 'mates' (I haven't come up with a name for them yet...) the Përtosyadi attack and all people with magic are called upon to help defend Athvïl-An.

 

[mythique890]

If I do NaNoWriMo, I'll probably use an idea I've had forever, but it never germinated until recently. It started out like this:

What if there was a class of people who could tell guilt or innocence just by looking at (or touching, haven't decided) the accused? What if they were incorruptible? What if that changed, and one of them lied?

Seriously, that has been in my head for two years and refused to go beyond that point until the past week, when it's grown a little. I now have a preliminary set of characters and a beginning, but no idea where I'm going with it.

Something else I'm considering is a fairy tale retelling, which would sort of hand me a plot to work with. If I go that route, I want to do a really obscure fairy tale, like Catskin or the Goose Girl or something. All of our stuff finally arrived (we moved across the country) so now I need to dig out my good ol' book of Grimm's and pick something.

I figure I'll write both eventually, in any case. And before I can do NaNoWriMo, I must finish the WIP and get started on the submission process.

 

[Shadoe]

I will most likely write the next installment in the Imperial Guards saga. It's the story of Shando, an Imperial Guard, and his attempts to break the Shukera Sect once and for all. With him on this assignment are his second, Maijian, who is altogether too forward, another Master Guard, Sarten, who shares part of his shady past, and Sarten's second, Kiff, who takes few things seriously. On the Sect's side is Okinsul, the one man Shando called friend, back in his murky past, a man he saw die - twice.

I thought I had the whole story completely outlined and I was ready to start writing. Then I realized... not so much.

These are supposed to be "short stories," but the last one was 55,000 words, and this one's outline is over 8,000 words - so far - so I don't think I'll have a hard time reaching the goal.

 

[pskelding]

Good thread Phil.

Here's my short synopsis which is more or less intact through outlining and plotting...

Kade, a conscripted outlaw archer survives his unit's defeat at the Battle of Medayon. He escapes the battlefield still in chains and infiltrates behind enemy lines killing a wizard and his contingent. Kade is then given a chance at freedom; train and lead a unit of scout-archers to use the same deadly longbow and infiltration skills he has. After selecting his men from the scum of the penal units and training them he takes his new command to locate deserters who have kidnapped an officer's wife. During the mission Kade and his men are betrayed and they attack the kidnappers. Trapped in a fort with the enemy, Kade must lead his archers to survive at any cost when a new enemy attacks...

I have a 2 page synopsis completed and outline also. Still working at fine tuning somethings and my scene list.

 

[Chilari]

Oooh, good thread and it looks like some very interesting and exciting stories will be taking shape in November.

For me, it's this story I've had the seed for since last October, when I went on a field trip in thick fog to a nearby hillfort, but which only really grew since July, when I returned to the hillfort, this time in mixed sunshine and rain, to do archaeology (we found some cool stuff, too, but I probably shouldn't say what until the results have been published). Over the last month or two I've been working on a story, set in an iron age society, but with magic based upon leylines and hotspots. The core struggle is a very human and relevant one - a young woman of warrior class has become pregnant, and the royal father wants nothing to do with it (okay, the class thing may not be relevant, but the unplanned pregnancy bit certainly is). When she threatens to tell his uncle the king, he's none too happy and sends men to kill her, lest she disrupt his ambition to be named the king's successor. The prince hires a group of mercenaries to find her, men who have magically bound themselves to the ghosts of a haunted hillfort. So I get to play with these Ghostbound and their abilities, and also lots of different people with lots of different motivations and goals, some of which allign with what my main character wants, and some of which do not.

It's gonna be fun.

I'm working on worldbuilding at the moment. Sorting out the political landscape, the rules governing (=limiting) magic, the history of the six tribes which make up a fairly recently united nation, belief systems and how they vary depending on tribe, social standing, education, and so on. I doubt I'll get a tenth of the worldbuilding into the story, but that's not what is important. I'll need to finalise some of the minor characters, and also figure out at which point to start the story, and then I can start.

Edit: Hold on a sec. Shadoe: you have a character called Kiff? I don't know if I'll be able to take that seriously. I hear the name Kiff in the voice of Zap Brannigan from Futurama. Eh, well, it's your character.

 

[Shadoe]

Edit: Hold on a sec. Shadoe: you have a character called Kiff? I don't know if I'll be able to take that seriously. I hear the name Kiff in the voice of Zap Brannigan from Futurama. Eh, well, it's your character.

Well crap. Kiff may have to change his name. I hate even the thought of Futurama.

 

[Johnny Cosmo]

You could just make it short for a longer name. Like... erm... Kiffurama...

 

[Hëradïn]

I drew a map for the Miego story (already have Fiitën's lands pretty well drawn but I can't find that one right now ) anyway, besides that no one can read whats written, I'd like to see what you all think.
the cities as they are numbered
1. Tiktën
2. Avyara
3. Zult
4. Kamërëiga
5. Ãvïnarya
6. Hërskës
7. Tochrëra
8. Hulahanjrie (capital)
9. Pëfënta
10. Altarin
the bit at the top says "Zëwërath amn Shëgma" sub 'of' for 'amn' under it says Athvïl-An, which is the name of that bit with all the trees and roads and such. the other stuff written on there doesn't really matter except Përtos which is west of the mountains (everything is oriented north-south).
The map is here because I felt it was a little big for the forums...

 

[Shadoe]

You could just make it short for a longer name. Like... erm... Kiffurama...

Oh that just makes it worse...

 

[pskelding]

Kifran

Kirfan

Keff

Kefran

Kerfan

Kett

?

Since I can't write my story now according to Nanowrimo rules, I am continuing with plotting and what not. I've also been putting my limited photoshop skills to use to create a new banner for my blog so I can keep my motivation up. Check my blog for it, if you dare! Bwa ha ha ha ha

 

[Lord Darkstorm]

I've always wanted to do a post apocalyptic story, but I think the earth has been nuked, plagued, invaded, and natural desastered enough. So, why not a colony world? (I know it isn't fantasy, but I've been on a scifi writing kick...) I decided on the natural disaster route, since a nice super volcano could wipe out a large percentage of the population quickly without having to kill everyone. (Alien plague seemed to cliche for me) So, since the colony's technology is primarily solar based, when the volcano clouds out the colony's sun, they no longer have most of their tools to work with. Major cities are wiped out by poisonous gasses (those too close to the event, and others simply starve to death. The bulk of the survivors are the ones furthest from the event and are already farm based when it happens. Between the animals they raise and the crops they could still produce, they manage to survive.

Jump a couple centuries into the future, and the world is no longer cloud covered, but humans have spent a long time surviving, and have lost vast amounts of learning that had little value when every day was focused on survival.

And that's it...I have no characters, no reason for a character or characters to leave happy farm life to travel to one of the big cities...or find out what might now be living in those cities...or any large danger that might move things along....

But I still have some time to figure all those nifty things out.

 

[Jenna St. Hilaire]

My complete novel began life as a NaNoWriMo piece. Took me one month to write, and a year and a half to revise.

Last year, I tried writing the sequel in November. It was awful. I cared too much about the characters and how they sounded. I've now thrown out probably 55,000 words and started entirely over.

I'd love to do something completely different for NaNo this year. My options are: 1) starting from scratch on a middle-grade fairy story that I'd begun as a YA piece, 2) outlining a nomadic fantasy that I've had in the back of my mind for years, or 3) doing as Mythique spoke of and hunting through Grimm for an obscure fairy tale to re-tell. I've wanted to do the latter since reading The Goose Girl, because while I consider myself quite decent at character and scene, I have a horrible time plotting. I always wind up working from something Biblical or mythical or relying on some strict form of story structure.

We'll see how far I get with my current project! I dream of November... hope to see you all there.

 

[myrddin173]

This year I plan to finally write the first book in my series that has been stewing in my mind for almost seven years. The jist of the series is that the main group has to reassemble the seal keeping them and the "bad guys" separate by collecting and fusing each of the magics of the different tribes. The first will focus on the Dwarves and their Stone magic.

 

[Philip Overby]

I was originally going to do the pro wrestling idea, but now I'm thinking of doing something different. A concept I came up with before and it's fantasy so I'll keep the trend of doing fantasy for NaNoWriMo (I rather do a straight-up wrestling story if possible.)

The concept is about a "Razer" who goes with other bandits to raid villages, murder, and cause wanton destruction. That is until he gets a letter revealing he has been Marked by the nihilistic death-knights, the Pawns. The Pawns are a group of cold, calculating warriors who no one knows their origin or master. However, the victim is always given a letter to inform them a Pawn is coming. No one has ever survived battle with or escaped a Pawn. The Marked target has a one year window called the Lonely Year in which the Pawn will come kill him. Maybe it's the 1st day, maybe it's the 365th day. The anticipation of looming death sometimes drives the Marked to go insane, act irrationally, and in some cases commit suicide. Many people, fearing death themselves, distance themselves from the Marked, seeing them as lepers or cursed souls.

The Marked main character must decide if he wants to spend the last year of his life causing as much chaos as he can or spending it with the family he has isolated himself from. Will he try to seek redemption for all the heart-ache he's caused in his miserable life? Or will he continue down his dark path, fueled by a life that has no meaning and no consequences? He travels across a broken world seeking other victims' families and friends, trying to find out if he can unlock the mystery of stopping the Pawn from its single-minded path of murder.

Some people view the Pawns as agent of the gods, sent for karmic retribution. Others see them as random as tornadoes. As untamed as a provoked animal. Some people think it's just bad luck.

I'm seeing this as a very character driven story with minimal world-building. I want the mystery of what the Pawns are to unravel as the story goes on and the main character is struggling with his past sins and trying to make up for them in the only way he can. The concept is loosely based on "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson combined with sword and sorcery. Could be a very depressing November!

Anyway, I think I'm going to go with that concept for NaNoWriMo. Looking forward to it!

 

[Ophiucha]

Changed what I am doing for NaNoWriMo this year.

The story is about a woman (about 30 yrs old) named Olwen, who is a palaeontologist in what is basically a fantasy!Wales. Aside from man, everything in the world is made of earth, all other creatures of flesh having died years before. People live off of plant life, and their magic is connected to the earth. Skills like telekinesis, pyrokinesis, and hydrokinesis have long been lost, but the variety of earth magic has spanned far to make up for it. There are those who control magma, glass, sand, mud, crystal, metal, rock, dirt, plants, and, in rare cases, life. Of the last category, the most common power of these users is to create golems. But Olwen and Arianrhod have particularly special powers. Arianrhod can turn anything into stone, and Olwen can bring life from what was once living in the stone - namely, fossils. However, she doesn't have enough magic to bring back anything more than a bug or a small bird or fish. Magical power is gained through murder, and she doesn't have the heart to be a serial killer, no matter how much she seeks that power. Arianrhod, however, does, and Olwen isn't quite so morally opposed to killing her. She doesn't have the power to do it alone, though, so she finds Gareth and Roderick, Aran's friends from the war, who she cursed so that they could never see one another. Gareth turns to stone while the sun is up, and Roderick while the sun is down. Olwen agrees to return them both to flesh, in full, if they agree to help her fight Arianrhod (and King Cadwgan, who is her ally) and help her split the Isle of Draig, within which is the largest fossil she's ever felt, the fossil of a great dragon.

 

[Hëradïn]

phil, that is an interesting idea! as I was reading it I thought "wouldn't it be funny if you sent someone a fake note from the Pawns and it drove them to suicide?" (of course you would only do that to someone you wanted dead) but anyway, I like the idea.

 

[Philip Overby]

@Rheadin: That's a good point about faking the letters. I have to figure out a way to make sure people couldn't do that because then everyone would just forge letters to people that pissed them off. I'm sure I'll involve some kind of magic that way the letters cannot be forged to prevent others from doing that. Thanks for the feedback!