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Post by Avery on Sept 20, 2008 18:52:21 GMT -5
Yay! Nano time! =D This is my fifth year and I'm excited. xD Last year, my novel ended up okay (first time I actually stuck to my plot for the whole 50k), and this year I wanna do even better. I change my mind a lot, but the idea I think I'm going to use at the moment is satire. Back-of-the-book type teaser I wrote earlier (remember it's SATIRE XD): Things start to go bad quickly after a poorly planned high school science experiment accidentally annihilates the human race. Heaven is filled to capacity, Hell—now a popular destination for New York snowbirds—is having a wicked time trying to overcome serious image problems, and God himself has become thoroughly depressed over the loss of his prized subjects.
Enter Sunday Malardy, the last baby born on Earth before the fateful AP Physics project. An awkward pseudo-celebrity, Sunday is quite happy with her afterlife, thankyouverymuch.
Until the day when she’s summoned to God’s office and finds him with a wild grin on his face, a far cry from the down-and-out figure so regularly portrayed in the tabloid media. Of course, there’s a good reason for the new mood: done mourning the human race after a mere seventeen years, God has decided to get back on the horse and start over with a thoroughly improved version!
And unfortunately for Sunday, being the final human born before the experiment, she’s the most updated thing God has to go on. Pseudo-celebrity no longer—now Sunday Malardy gets to be the prototype for the new human race!
Pardon if it doesn’t knock her socks off.
Whoo. <3 More Nano rambling to come later! =D And just because... my previous Nanos... '04: Carson (absolutely terrible, but then again I was in 6th grade then so that's my excuse xD At least I won): 50,000-ish words
'05: The Left on Aubrey Street (a little better, really liked it at the time but now I think it's terrible) + 23k of some grotesque, horrible thing that rightfully died 75k total
'06: 2000 Miles from St. Louis (rambly, switched plots midway through, but somehow I still kind of like it-- I guess of all my MCs, I feel the most connected to Joanna of '06). 55k
'07: Corporation (best one so far; I still like it quite a bit even though there's some excess that needs to be chopped out, AND the ending is incredibly sad) 50,100
And main character list:
'04: Anita Shillinly, 11, incredibly annoying protag who changed personalities each page
'05: Jory Morgan, 13, my only guy protag in all of Nano, depressed and pretty one-dimensional
'06: Joanna Bennett, 14, only Nano told in first person... she was kind of a mess, but I stlil like her
'07: Elli Kaczynski, 15, totally flipping crazy =D |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2008 16:55:29 GMT -5
Carrie, it's so funny to see how your different MCs changed over the many years. XD And the age differences are really funny, too.
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Post by Zylaa on Sept 22, 2008 0:01:19 GMT -5
XD Your satire sounds fantastic. Can't wait to read.
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Post by Avery on Sept 22, 2008 15:30:51 GMT -5
Yeah, it is kinda funny, Sammy. xD
Zylaa - thanks. =D
I've got my plot fleshed out a bit more. Sunday will still be the main focus, but I'll also have a sub-plot about the high school genius who asploded the world. His name, tentatively, is Trent Giamadi - not sure why, but this year, all my characters have come with names. No searching or random name generators or anything. xD The whole story will be in third person, and eventually I think Sunday will go after Trent (figuring that the whole reason God has gone off the rocker is because of him), and some hilarity will hopefully ensue.
I've also got this crystal-clear passage in my head about how God is thought to have post-traumatic stress disorder, having watched the whole thing where Trent killed everyone from above.
... I'm just crossing my fingers that this story doesn't cross the realm from 'satire' to 'why the fail'.
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Post by Kathleen on Sept 22, 2008 22:37:08 GMT -5
I love this idea. xDD If you can pull it off right (and I really, really think you will ^^), it should be hilarious.
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Post by Avery on Sept 24, 2008 21:40:24 GMT -5
Got a few more characters tentative plotted: Sunday's parents. Their names are Wednesday and Peter. They're a bit out there (in the name of family tradition, they named their only child Sunday solely because of the day she was born-- I have an idea about a passage where they talk about the nursery they had for her back at home, where they had the days of the week painted on the wall and planned to just put a border around her name when she got home xD). Eccentric, absent-minded, and taking studious advantage of the warm hell weather. Which is why they're going to be only a minor factor in the story-- they've snuck into hell, which has become so popular that there's a lottery to get in. And there's a big illegal immigration problem now, you see. D:
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Post by Ginz ❤ on Sept 24, 2008 21:45:28 GMT -5
Wow, Carrie, you're insanely creative. XD Sounds like an awesome idea. ^^
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Post by Zylaa on Sept 24, 2008 22:32:06 GMT -5
XDDD A lottery to get into hell... that is priceless.
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Post by Avery on Sept 25, 2008 1:22:25 GMT -5
Thanks guys. ^__^ One plot point I'm having trouble with is who, exactly, Trent has become. Meaning... what has happened to him in the last seventeen years? I have in my mind that he's some sort of awkward celebrity, but while Sunday is pseudo-celebrity in a good way (oh, look, the last baby!), Trent is a pseudo-celebrity in a bad way (HEY! There's the guy who killed us all!). He was never punished or something for his 'crime' beyond a slight slap on the wrist, but... beyond that, I don't know. There's several things I need to figure out. The first thing is whether or not he appears to be 18 (how old he was when he died), or 35. I kind of want him to still appear 18, but then I have to think of a way to legitimately explain why he still looks like a teenager when everyone else visibly ages (this is especially important for Sunday, who certainly looks 17, not 0 xD). So that's a major issue. Beyond that, I need to decide what Trent has been doing. I have a few ideas, but I really can't decide between them. ... you guys should help! =D And also, maybe give me ideas to figure out how Trent could still appear 18 while everyone else ages? XD; It's not the end of the world if he looks 35, but it would be quite interesting for Sunday (when she goes after him) to be looking at someone who is basically her peer. Now, Trent's 'path' ideas. Opinions vastly appreciated. <3 Trent, as part of his wrist-slap, was sentenced to Hell back when it was considered quite a horrible fate. He's rather lonely and bitter, the only person under 100-years-old (or about that, anyway) in his snowbird-infested neighborhood that becomes a relative ghost town come summertime. In this scenario, he has a deep-rooted dislike for Sunday, because while he was being cast as a villain in the media, Sunday was basically becoming the face of the tragedy (ie: the little girl who never had a chance, blahblahblah, heart-strings plucked and pulled). This scenario would work especially well if Trent still appeared 18, and I'll probably use it if I can figure out how to conceivably have him still that age. Actually, to be totally honest, this is the scenario I would much, much prefer to use. But if Trent looks 35, it won't work like I want it to. Which is why figuring out how Trent could still appear 18 is extremely important. Don't like this one nearly as much, but if I can't figure out how Trent would still look 18, there's a good chance I'll end up using it.
Anyway... Trent, after becoming a public scapegoat, retreated to some vacant corner of the Afterworld, where he had a mental breakdown and then had an epiphany that led to him being 'reborn' (no pun intended). And in this vacant corner he still lives, some kind of other-worldly, totally-lost-it guru. Sunday goes after him wanting vengeance but is moved to pity, instead. Eventually, the two join forces to try and knock some sense into God (whose ideas of the new humanity have become increasingly grandiose and flipping crazy). Trent remains really serene and guru-state as they go about this attempt, and eventually uncovers some really important stuff that he barely seems to care about (in his 'lalala nothing bad happening' state). Could work if I can't figure out the look-18 thing... but I don't like it too much, really. So... help? XD |
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Post by Jina on Sept 25, 2008 2:16:05 GMT -5
This story sounds so awesome xD As for Trent... maybe being stuck at 18 is part of his punishment? Because then it'll be far easier for everyone to recognise him for all eternity. Either that or you could link it to his experiment... Something with nuclear physics that mutated him and made him always look the same even though he ages much faster than normal? Both those sound a bit lame, but might as well tell you them anyway  |
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Post by Zylaa on Sept 25, 2008 10:18:20 GMT -5
Since it's the afterlife and all, it doesn't have to be subject to universal rules of aging. Maybe it reflects people's attitudes? So Trent is stuck at 18 because he still dwells on the AP Physics project of death, and since other people are treating the afterlife like normal life so they still age. Or something.
I like Jina's idea that it could be punishment, though. ^_^
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Post by Avery on Sept 25, 2008 16:29:16 GMT -5
Jina, your ideas are not lame. xD Thanks so much for them. <3 I'm going to use the 'punishment' idea. After all, how can people hate him wherever he goes if they don't recognize him? =D I've got my plot mostly worked out now. ^_^ I never plot extremely like, exact scenes set and the order and everything all determined, because then I get bored writing... but I have the skeleton of the plot figured out. Granted, it could change midway through November, but... even if it doesn't, I like what I have. =D Just because I'm bored and procrastinating on homework, here are my past Nano plots and how they mutated. =D (Yes, boring, but... it will give y'all some insight into my short attention span! xD) The first 7000 words of the story focused on some boring, emo girl named Aderyn who lived in some forest in Fantasy Land. She was exiled and angsty. Then I got bored with that plot and changed focus to Anita in the real world, the one with rapidly-changing-personality disorder. From there, it got no better. Anita had random flashes of this Aderyn girl and the ruler of Aderyn's Fantasy Land, and one point actually went into that world for 500 words or so. Then Anita's brother randomly disappeared, and he wandered around for a while, before getting hit by a car. Then Anita went to school and came home (rinse and repeat) before the family randomly decided to move to my mom's RL hometown in Michigan. Then I ran out of plot so ended randomly and went back to Aderyn's fantasy world, where I didn't have enough content to finish, so I had her repeat her name 1000x, justified by the fact that 'if she said her name, she couldn't dai!11oneleven'. Then Aderyn died. I actually planned to write a sequel to this monstrosity for a while. I'm glad I never did. I'd probably want to burn it. The year where my plot didn't mutate! =D Considering my age when I wrote it, it wasn't half bad, though like I said in my original post, I really don't like it AT ALL now. It was about a boy named Jory whose sister, Keilah, was killed in a hit and run when Jory was supposed to be watching her. Third person, shifted between Jory's depressed viewpoint and Keilah's viewpoint as a ghost. There was no real substance in it, I guess-- just kind of a 'window into the life' thing. Horribly sappy ending, at one point I spent several thousand words rambling about a teacher named Mr. Happy. Pretty darned bad, but infinitely better than '04. This is the year where I ran out of plot halfway through. It started with my MC's mother uprooting MC (Joanna) and MC's little brother (Devan) halfway across the country to start a new life. MC's mom is kind of in la-la land, in denial after losing her umpteenth job. The first half basically is a rambling monologue about how Joanna is angry and things are all weird, and how she and Devan are adapting to this new, random life. Then I ran out of plot so Joanna and Devan were kidnapped by their maternal grandmother, who strongly disapproves of her daughter as a parent, and they're paternal uncle, John, who blames Jo and Devan's mom for the death of his brother (oh yeah, Joanna and Devan's dead is dead FORGOT THAT PART). John is also slightly deranged/needs anger management/has ISSUES GALORE. =D ... well, anyway, John abandons Grandma Dearest at a gas station and then flees with the kids. He decides that he wants them to be his kids, now, and he tries to disguise them and goes all psycho. And his anger management shines through in several incidents. Then I ran out of plot again so I had John kill Devan and severely injure Joanna. He was subsequently shot and killed by the police. So basically... from coming-of-age story to kidnapping drama! More stuff happened, the experience leads Joanna's mom to stop being as crazy, and they move back home to bury Devan. SAP YAY! Ohboy. My plot that I had all figured out... but then didn't turn out remotely like I wanted. It was about this girl named Elli who dies in a car crash and shows up in this pit-stop-to-the-afterworld place called the Corporation. She's forced to take a job there showing other people to their afterlife, but she's kind of crazy and figures out how to escape back to Earth (along with her two roommates, Delilah and Imogene... whose nickname was, for some reason, Genie). Well the Corporation does not like this and they send this crazy dude after them and DRAMA ENSUES. Eventually everything starts falling apart, and the Corporation people kidnap Elli's (alive) sister (random note: whenever my plots start going weird, expect kidnapping as a fall-back xD). And Elli goes all crazy with guilt and turns herself in, and then so does Genie (for different reasons), and then the villain goes psycho and kills Elli's sister. SO EVERYONE DIES HAHAHA. Er... yeah. There's a LOT more to it, but I can't explain without going on for another 5,000 words soyahz. Thing is, the story was originally supposed to be about Elli exposing the Corporation and becoming a fugitive from the government. Did not happen. At all. WHOO! =D Long post. xD; |
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Post by Avery on Sept 27, 2008 20:44:58 GMT -5
I wish it was November already. I'm basically ready to write and I'm afraid that in the next month+, I'll get sick of my idea or overthink it or something. ;_;
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Post by Avery on Sept 28, 2008 21:39:18 GMT -5
I needta think of my title. So I can put it in my Nano site profile. >>
'Cept I can't think of one. xD; *ANGST*
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Post by Stal on Sept 29, 2008 0:23:37 GMT -5
Thought: instead of having that guy be the one stuck at age 18, perhaps Sunday could be the exception? Since she was the last one born, perhaps she'd be allowed to age and live a sort of half-life?
Orrrrr that 18 is the cut off age. Once you hit 18, you stop aging in the afterlife?
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