Bedbug's Bite-- Robyn's NaNo

[Robyn]

ALL ARE WELCOME TO BASK IN AND BEHOLD WHAT IS POSSIBLY THE MOST RIDICULOUS NAME FOR A BOOK IN THE HISTORY OF ALL OF THE WORLD.

YOU ARE WELCOME, MY CHILDREN.

YOU ARE WELCOME.

That being said, I've never done NaNo before. Never even attempted. Soooo I'm not so sure how this is going to go; it's been a super long time since I've written anything serious that was in actual novel form. Hopefully this idea is open enough for me to pour 50K words into it. I'm not really sure where I want for it to go yet as far as the plot is concerned but I've still got a lot of time. Anyways. Here's the gist of it.

- - - - -

Ash is tired.

She's been tired for a long time now.

Her parents are worried, the doctors are baffled, and the school has wished her the best of luck in her recovery. Ash does not care. She is asleep. In fact, she spends most of her time asleep now, and once she slips away into her dreams, it is very nearly impossible to wake her. She is trapped...and yet she is free.

Ash is beginning to discover that the more she sleeps, the more she dreams, and the increasingly dull, small hours that she spends awake are beginning to pale in comparison to her astral adventures. The dim of her room starts to demand her attention less and less as rest offers her many treasures and mysteries. There's always a different door, a different story, a different world-- and then there are some things that are the same, like that boy she keeps seeing, and the shack by the black ocean she doesn't dare go into.

The more time she spends in the dream plane, the more questions she faces. Are there more to the dreams than she's realizing? Is everything she encounters all just part of her psyche, or is this bigger than she could have literally ever imagined? Most importantly, is it more important to feel alive or to live?

For now, she does not know.

Ash is asleep.

- - - - -

So yeah I just kinda threw together that synopsis because I honestly don't have a lot of this figured out, haha. I can't decide whether I want to take it in a more fantastic direction (in which Ash actually discovers a whole network of dreamers and of course a hidden underlying evil which threatens them all) or a more realistic direction (Ash's dreams begin to overtake and outshine her real life to the point where she becomes dangerously addicted to sleep).

I'm gonna put up a poll and see what you guys think, lol. Everything I put into the synopsis can function with either path; the significance of what I've mentioned will just turn out different for each one.

I'll add in character descriptions and such later, but for now I'm just kinda glad I've got this up. Looking forward to starting this all with you guys; good luck to all of us!

[Terra]

Ooh, interesting. :3 I think either idea could be great. Go with whatever you think would be the most fun! (Though I can see how you'd have a difficult time deciding. XD;)

[Brooke]

Your Nano sounds wonderful!!!

[friday]

OH MAN, with your gorgeous writing style, all of these dreamthings are going to be. So. Pretty. <3 I'm a sucker for fantastic, though realistic sounds interesting, too. Not as common, and it might work better for what you're trying to get across. BUT whatever you feel is good. Can't wait to read this! 8D

[Lizzie]

aaaa you'd better do all 50k of this

[Robyn]

hoh mah gahhr you guys breaking news

i know exactly what i'm doing with this novel now and i don't think i've been this excited to write something original for about three years. in fact it's nearly been that long since i've written something original so. gettin' kinda crazy over at my house.

i actually have MULTIPLE CHARACTERS NOW along with a VILLAIN and a DEFINED PLOTLINE that i'm super pumped about. like to the point where it's hurting to not be able to write this right away haha but i can just do character development questionnaires until the end of october i guess. if that will ease the paaaain.

thanks to all of you who gave me a little nudge in the cool direction as far as the whole fantasy thing goes because this is going to kick everyone in the sternum and then some with how fun it's going to be to write <3

SPOILER: Click to show

okay so the basic workings of what i had up there in the first post are still in play here, we're just going with option 1 instead of option 2.

ash is afflicted by this disease (and we'll call it a disease for the time being-- i haven't decided if the villain of this story is a manifestation of something physical yet supernatural or if it's an entity all its own) that, again, the main symptom of is fatigue. crippling, crippling fatigue. nearly all she does is sleep. and in the beginning this is nothing too out of the ordinary: we see her start to lose touch and drop out of school, as well as get a taste for what her dreams are like while we don't know much about her as a person for the time being. there are dreams, doctor trips, and somewhere in between that, life. but of course what little life she gets to experience in her periods of wakefulness begin to pale next to her dreams nearly immediately.

the first dreams we see aren't lucid in the least. what they lack in direction they make up for in wild, vivid chases and journeys and snapshots, and raw, raw emotions that ash never (gets to/lets herself) feel in reality. she becomes less and less dedicated to real life and more devoted to her dreams, going out of her way to make sure that she can spend enough time asleep as possible. it begins to be a problem for her as far as real-life obligations go but it starts to not matter once the ~fantastic~ part rolls around.

and the ~fantastic~ part is that she is not the only one who has been afflicted by this disease. in fact there are others. and somewhere along the line she begins meeting them in the dream plane.

of course she doesn't REALIZE these are actual people at first-- this leads to a pretty awkward/funny misunderstanding with the first guy she encounters, but as the dreams begin to get longer and clearer and more lucid-- though just as untamed and intense as they were before-- they start to see that this disease is connecting certain people together and that they are very much real, if not a little bit spread out all across the country.

there are four of them in all: ash, mila, deacon, and carey. ash meets the three of them separately at first, with the dreams they appear in starting off very spaced out and uncommon, and then more frequently occurring and invasive, as they start to inhabit each other's dreams. it gets to the point where all four of them can share a plane space at the same time. they have all been afflicted by this disease, and while it affects their waking lives in different ways, they are all thrust into the same world while dreaming, pitted against the same enemy.

that enemy is called The Malady.

now again i don't know whether or not The Malady is a physical/psychological manifestation of the actual (if not supernatural) disease that they have or if it's just a monster all its own, but The Malady has implanted itself deep inside the brains of all four of these people, and it wants them all for itself. they become more and more aware of its presence as the book progresses, and its motives start seeming rather clear after a while: at first it will try to entice you to be with it. The Malady will promise things and show you treasures and make you feel. but if you fight back... if it can't make you stay, it won't let you leave.

the dreams start to last longer, to the point where it has dangerous implications for their waking lives-- the periods of sleep start to last much longer than normal, nearly coma-long. they start to see that if they don't stop it, The Malady will soon consume them to the point where it will not let them wake back up. not quite kill them, perhaps, but never let them live again. the four of them are quite literally in for the battle of their lives against this disease, and they face many things as they face The Malady down. they have to learn how to fight it and how to fight it together.

and i am just so excited you guys. it's going to be a good one.

alright i'm about to write the little character bios in here but i've gotta post this up because i just spent like an hour or so writing all this and i feel really good about it

[Brooke]

Ahhh! Robin, your a genius! You're a freakin' genius! *squees while spinning on her chair*
You can't wait to write it, and I can't wait to read it! The whole plot is amazing, I can't wait to see what the characters are like. Though I have gotten snippets of them through Friday. :3

[Deleted]

Oooooh this just keeps on getting better and better. 8Q

I love your ideas and I am excited for the character bios!!!

*wants excerpts when November rolls around*

[selmette]

robyn this is so scary close to my nano you have no idea

[Robyn]

Oct 14, 2011 16:07:27 GMT -5 @selmette said:

robyn this is so scary close to my nano you have no idea

-takes leeches off of your brain-

oh sorry i dunno how long i've had those on there for D:

[Robyn]

TIME FOR MINI-BIOS

CHECK IT

SPOILER: Click to show

Our MC.

Sandy ginger hair (layered & shoulder length), brown eyes, average height, slender build. Freckles across bridge of nose, along jaw, shoulders.

In a few words, Ash's personality could be described as subdued, detached, and repressed. Once the illness grabbed hold of her, it of course drained her energy, which in turn affected one of the most notable parts of her whole being, her lust for life. Sociable, talkative, adventurous, charismatic-- while she was once all of those things, she has found that nowadays she is mostly just tired. Not quite sad or depressed, but certainly not happy or active enough to be what all that she used to be. That is her life in the waking world-- a sleepy girl who has all but forgotten the person she once was.

The dreams are the only place where Ash has the sustenance to truly feel and be as daring as she wants to be, but even then she's finding her emotions and actions seem foreign. Their intensity scares and excites her. She has trouble sorting out just what they mean for her (are they an escape? a substitute? unspoken desires? visions void of purpose?), and of course all of her confusion is compounded when she starts meeting other people within the plane. However, she finds that building relationships with the three others she encounters is a vastly different experience than she's ever faced with anyone in her conscious life given the nature of their situation; it's strange for her to have people see the tired her/raw, dreaming her as their first impression. She's pretty apprehensive about pretty much all of this when she's lucid, lol.

And as one of The Malady's targets I'd say she has every right to be. :X

ANYWAYS

Fun Facts

• She has a red factor canary named Java
  
• Preferred screenname is redfactorfeather (lol wonder where she got that from)
  
• Has an exceptional talent for both cooking and baking; hasn't done much of either since the disease set in
  
• Favorite color is dark blue
  
• Birthday is June 2nd (Gemini)
  
• Lives in Panama City, FL
  

SPOILER: Click to show

The other girl.

Dark brown hair (long and curly), hazel eyes, slightly tall, curvy build. Hispanic, olive skin. Soft features and strikingly pretty.

Sweet, gentle, and devout, Mila is a source of unwavering serenity in the ever-changing, chaotic dream plane. Mila's full name, translated from her native Spanish, means "miracle", and rightly so-- she was meant to have a twin sister, but due to complications at birth, only Mila survived. This knowledge has led to the development of her philosophy that life is a precious, precious gift, and every day should be treated with grace and veneration. It is also a fact that has haunted her ever since she learned about it. Regardless, she is very thankful for the otherwise large family she has, and she works extremely hard to help provide a steady income and support for her siblings.

Mila tends to regard her dreams with a deep sense of reverence-- she believes each one has meaning sent from a higher power. She honestly doesn't think that she could ever create the things she sees while she dreams and is usually along for the ride with whatever they throw at her, handling events with much more poise and control than Ash does. Everything is a wonder to her. However, her tendency to romanticize can be taken to the extreme-- her reluctance to perceive things as negative leads her closer to danger than she's aware of.

Fun Facts

• Has four other siblings (one older brother, two younger sisters, and a younger brother)
  
• Previous jobs included waiting tables at Oaker's, being a day-care assistant, as well as a sales clerk at a thrift store. Currently works at a locally owned pet supply store.
  
• Screenname is harmonygirl92
  
• Favorite colors are aqua and magenta
  
• Birthday is July 17th (Cancer)
  
• Lives in Folsom, CA
  

SPOILER: Click to show

The guy with the sick frames.

Blonde hair (curly, short), blue eyes, shorter than average, skinny build. Boyish face, oversized black glasses.

Deacon is a bright, creative young man, a big dreamer even before all of this. The son of a wildly successful comic book author, he's always been fascinated by superheroes and their ultra-human capabilities. Due to outlying circumstances, Deacon is alone more often than he'd like to be. He's eager to make friends, but the time by himself has given him ample opportunity to hone his own artistic skills, following in his father's footsteps. He's a nerd in the truest sense of the word. He's got the ironically huge glasses to prove it. He also has an extremely sweet spirit, and his genial nature serves as a light in even the darkest depths that The Malady plunges them into.

Deacon's dreams are whimsical, light-hearted affairs, youthful adventures that he is more than happy to live out in the astral plane. His favorites are the ones where he gets to fight crime as a hero of his own invention (and come on now who can blame him that's awesome). Ash often finds herself surprised by the level of detail and sincerity in his dreams, as well as how quickly they can swing from engaging and fun to awe-inspiring. Deacon finds it pretty amusing; he knows his mind and what to expect, and is often flattered by Ash's wonderment. Of course, she comes to find out not all of it is capes and sparkles. For every silver lining, there is a cloud, but the good thing with Deacon is that there is always much more lining than cloud. Mostly.

Fun Facts

• Is extremely well-off financially due to his father's prominence in his field
  
• Screenname is (sigh) get_your_deek_on. Like. You know. Get your freak on? He likes to write it off as ironic but you know he totally means it and is awful for it
  
• Keeps sketchbooks & notepads full of superhero character designs & comic arc ideas
  
• Favorite color is red
  
• Birthday is March 31st (Aries)
  
• Lives in Hoboken, NJ
  

SPOILER: Click to show

The other guy.

Brown hair (buzz cut), grey eyes, tall, athletic build. Cafe-au-lait birthmark on left bicep.

There are a lot of sides to Carey, but an average first impression usually yields a view of an intelligent, low-key, and somewhat guarded young man. A hometown football star, he's been "living the dream" as it were in his high school years, balancing his dedication to the team with his respectable academics and blossoming social life. At least, he was until the illness threw a monkey wrench into the works. The Malady has brought his life to a screeching halt, and he is nothing less of resentful. While he tries not to take his anger out on his fellow dreamers, there always seems to be something smouldering underneath it all towards the whole situation.

That being said, Carey is probably the one who feels the most out of place in the dream plane. His down-to-earth mindset and personality lends itself to visions that are often indistinguishable from what would be his normal waking life, though with a few key differences. While most of these are just mildly absurd, he also suffers from stress dreams much more often than the others. While Ash, Mila, and Deacon draw deeply from their astral experiences, Carey is the only one who seems to feel like they are a waste of his time.

Fun Facts

• Played for the Dothan Tigers varsity football team
  
• Won Cutest Couple with his long-time girlfriend in senior superlatives
  
• Screenname is cweekley
  
• Favorite colors are teal and dark green
  
• Birthday is November 9th (Scorpio)
  
• Lives in Dothan, AL
  

wow guys this took me like two consecutive days to complete that's crazy

can't wait to expand upon what i've got in some of those 100 question character development surveys

having to think about these guys so much is actually a pretty good mental work-out, lol <3

FEELIN' THE BURN

[Deleted]

Yay characters! They are all so real and great and interesting. I think Deacon is my favourite because eeee hipster glasses. other reasons too I guess but come on sick frames. I can't wait to see how they all interact with one another.

[selmette]

omg deacon

[♥ Bre]

Wow, Robyn, I hope you don't mind me commenting, but your NaNo sounds fantastic! =D And your enthusiasm is infectious; it makes me wanna get psyched for my story as well (although it pales in comparison to yours!).

Wish you the best of luck! ^^

BTW, your characters sound awesome--and you know them so well! =)

[Robyn]

*w* everyone is so nice, omg

excerpt time?

yes, excerpt time

SPOILER: Click to show

Ash was tired. For the past three months, she had been tired. It was the reason she was sitting here, legs dangling over a tile floor and palms pressing against wax paper and fingertips splaying onto the smooth surface of the patient's seat, as well as the reason she hadn't been anywhere in a very long time. The nurse was gone, the doctor due to arrive any second. She stared at the door handle, not really thinking about anything, just feeling the buzz of fatigue sink deep into her bones and body and brain. Her ribs hurt. Her lungs squatted heavy on the bottom rung, each breath an effort, and she could feel her organs stacked like bricks on top of her pelvis. The barred lights pushed on her eyelids, insistent and blaring. They reminded her that a lean back and a blink or two would be all it would take for her to ease out of this bodily hell, to fall into that familiar netting. Gently, their touch meshed her lashes, and the reprieve from sight was such a relief it spiked her with chills, just that much less to process. With the loss of sight began to creep the absence of sound, the black waters swirling around her head, senseless, inviting--

"Honey."

The nudge at her calf made her open her eyes. Ash lolled a gaze over to her mother, who sat cross-legged in the metal chair by the wall. A three week old copy of Us was draped over her lap, and her eyes kept snapping up and down from the pages to her daughter in rhythm, an ocular metronome. She heard clicking and almost worried before she noticed her mother's twitching foot. Her shoe slapped against the flat of her heel. It was eerie, the synchronization between the noise and the motion, and Ash nearly wondered if it was intentional before the wobble and panflash of pages grabbed her syrupy attention. Mrs. Linscott folded the issue shut and fanned it out towards her.

"Want to read?"

Ash held up a weak hand. Her mother's arm drew back and whipped the magazine back open, and she saw her tempo skip a couple of beats to linger worried on her before returning to the old news. Waxy glares twisted across the pictures and were all she could see from her angle. After a while, the auroras started to make her head pound, so Ash dragged her concrete stare back to the door. It snagged and stuttered along the way. Everything was a labor. A particularly hard breath escaped her a little too loudly, and the pages crested and flourished in her peripherals.

From the side, Mrs. Linscott tested the waters. "You okay?"

It was a stupid question.

Ash swung her eyes back at her mother like weighted limbs, having trouble keeping them on their mark. Brown and barely focused, they were dull under her smoky lids. Mrs. Linscott's bright concern clashed against her daughter's drunken attempts to right her vision, and when a nod didn't shoo her away, Ash gave up and turned her head to the door.

"M'fine," she croaked.

She surprised herself with how unused her voice felt. It sounded like something she could've pulled out of an attic corner and blown cobwebs away from. The image of dust clouding around her old phonograph larynx was enough to make her want to cough, and she did, her hand shaking as she held it palm-out to her lips. It was pale enough for her to see her cornflower veins snaking against her skeleton. The magazine dropped.

"Oh, honey," Mrs. Linscott murmured, flitting from her chair to steady Ash and run her fingers down the girl's ginger hair. She jerked away, glared, and saw her mother's shock duplicated and oscillating. Mrs. Linscott made sure Ash was righted and had stopped shaking before she sat back down, wordless, not bothering to pick Us up again. A strange sensation crept into Ash's stomach as she focused on her jeans. She hadn't meant to do that, whatever she'd just done. The urge to apologize floated up in her mind, but before she could even summon the energy to think about opening her mouth, there came a jostling from the other side of the door. The handle went vertical, and air vacuumed out of the room in an industrial rush as the doctor stepped in. His clipboard clattered to the counter, and Ash heard the tinny ringing of water on stainless steel. The flow shut off with a little chunk.

"Morning, Linscotts." The doctor's voice rang between her ears, the loudest thing she'd heard all day. It didn't sound so much friendly as it did open. He filled the last seat in the room, the patent leather squeaking under his weight as he swiveled around and rolled up in between mother and daughter.

"So," he began, grabbing her file again, "Heard you weren't feeling so great."

The manila folder was filled with black ink and lines of permanent marker.

"You go by Ashby?"

"She goes by Ash. I'm Laura," her mother cut in.

He went in for a handshake. "Dr. Pendleton, nice to meet you both. Though I wish it could've been under happier circumstances!"

He clapped his hands down on the file and then clasped them together, and Ash lifted her chin so she could see. He was an older man, though she was never very good at gauging age by appearances. A receding hairline like his surely meant something in relation to years, as well as the salt-and-pepper creeping around behind his ears, but she didn't want to guess and be wrong. His face was just a bit rough, and his white coat stretched broad across his shoulders. He looked assured, leaning forwards. It took her a second to realize he was studying her. She curled her fingers, and the wax paper crackled.

"Why don't you tell me why you're here, Ash?"

"I'm tired."

"That all?"

Ash narrowed her eyes.

ash glares at people who negate the severity of her situation