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Post by r.elena.t on Mar 25, 2014 10:37:48 GMT -5
This is a public thread to describe your NaNo book (novel or otherwise) - and a place to get in your 5 intro posts.
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Post by miaclinnea on Mar 25, 2014 12:38:15 GMT -5
My novel is a 90k middle-grade adventure set in a modern day Utah. Basically Alice In Wonderland meets Jurassic Park. When a girl falls down a rabbit-hole, she discovers there's an secret underground society of scientists. But everything goes wrong when she unwittingly gets tangled up with a band of dinosaur smugglers. The only problem is, when push comes to shove she's not sure which side to take, because down in the rabbit-hole, hardly anything really is what it seems to appear.
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Post by r.elena.t on Mar 25, 2014 13:06:14 GMT -5
Another middle-grade writer! Way, way, cool. I love this.
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Post by Bird on Mar 25, 2014 23:20:35 GMT -5
Wow, Alice in Wonderland meets Jurassic Park? That sounds like fun.  |
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Post by Hayley on Mar 26, 2014 6:29:31 GMT -5
This camp I'm writing a mid-grade novel about a cat. I have an extremely loose idea of the basic story themes but most of it I'm leaving until I write it, yup I'm a pantser all the way. My first drafts end up pretty rough but I come up with things I never would've thought of if I'd outlined it. It's so good to see other mid-grade writers Miaclinnea you novel sound really exciting! Best of luck with it. |
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Post by r.elena.t on Mar 26, 2014 10:10:53 GMT -5
Nice to have another pantser here.  |
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Post by Hayley on Mar 27, 2014 3:38:49 GMT -5
I've tried planning, I <i>really</i> tried but I usually end up micro-planning every little thing and it sucks my motive dry before I actually sit down to writ anything. I do love to draw maps though, that about the only planning I have written down.
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Post by continentalcat on Mar 27, 2014 4:57:33 GMT -5
I didn't plan anything for my first NaNo and loved the 'flow' I was getting into (and yeah, I made it to 50,000) but there were some huge plot holes that can't be fixed. So maybe I need a bit of planning.
I tried the snowflake method, but it's too rigid for me. Now I play around with random ideas and keywords (I use the 30 days trial of Scapple for a bit of mindmapping) and hope it will show me potential plot holes.
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Post by r.elena.t on Mar 27, 2014 9:52:50 GMT -5
I've tried planning, I <i>really</i> tried but I usually end up micro-planning every little thing and it sucks my motive dry before I actually sit down to writ anything. I do love to draw maps though, that about the only planning I have written down. This is exactly what happens to me - 'though I draw characters & scenes more than maps. About to get a wacom tablet for direct to digital drawing.  |
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Post by mllersil on Mar 28, 2014 0:40:26 GMT -5
Every time when Camp or November are getting near I'm thinking of trying 'pantsing', too. Like, this time for real. Because it sounds a fun way to write. Then I usually have a try at it (or two or ten) and realise I'm one of those people unable to get something, anything together this way. I'm really admiring you guys and your creative potential. |
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Post by r.elena.t on Mar 28, 2014 8:42:28 GMT -5
I'm really admiring you guys and your creative potential. Or our overwhelming hate of authority in any form.  |
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Post by jennifer on Mar 29, 2014 9:35:31 GMT -5
My novel is a 90k middle-grade adventure set in a modern day Utah. Basically Alice In Wonderland meets Jurassic Park. When a girl falls down a rabbit-hole, she discovers there's an secret underground society of scientists. But everything goes wrong when she unwittingly gets tangled up with a band of dinosaur smugglers. The only problem is, when push comes to shove she's not sure which side to take, because down in the rabbit-hole, hardly anything really is what it seems to appear. Wow, this sounds totally fascinating!! As I love both Alice and Jurassic Park - and anything weird - and YA novels (yeah I'm 42 what of it haha!) I'd find this on my shelf I bet. |
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Post by jennifer on Mar 29, 2014 9:38:37 GMT -5
So I'm new to NaNo and to novel writing, but I'm a ridiculous planner and world builder. I've got nearly 100K words of world building, character descriptions, scene outlines, etc. But that is not to say the novel is written - not even close. I use Scrivener to organize all these details so when I get to the actual writing I can be consistent. And I will not hesitate to change things to fit my needs as I go along. But if I didn't plan the thing in the first place, I'd start with a novel about a girl on a mission, and end up with a space comedy or something. WAAYY too prone to tangents.
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Post by jennifer on Mar 29, 2014 9:44:29 GMT -5
Oh, right, so my novel - it's fantasy, could be MG or YA though the characters continue into adulthood, but I think YA could handle that. It's set in a world very upside down from most fantasy novels. The characters are African in looks. They are in a rainforest climate (most of them - the land stretches north and south to agricultural lands). Women are the ruling gender - men are not treated badly or anything, and not treated as PROPERTY as women have been, but are just more useful for the strong man tasks (digging wells etc) and women are the brains behind everything. Needless to say, this is a more peaceful world than any we have experienced on earth that we know of. Which is not to say there isn't conflict.
My MC, when she is five years old, is chosen to be one of the elite Binti, a group of only females who do special work for their God Tawala (God=female, man-god=male but they don't have a man-god) to protect a boy who will be born when she is 15 until the time he fathers a daughter who will one day save their world from the greatest threat they have ever known. Which will be part of another novel. This novel is about her saving the boy, and about her fighting against the Binti law (or custom) of Binti not being allowed to marry and have children, even after their task is completed. She falls in love with a man-warrior, Keelji, and they are determined to find a way to be together, properly as husband and wife, without being banished. Only problem is, Amanya's mother is the most powerful non-Binti female in Sipu (their land) and she is totally against changing the status quo.
So that's what I'm working on this Nano. I plan to get about half of it done, and then spend two months editing it, and finish the first draft of the other half in July's Camp Nano.
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Post by r.elena.t on Mar 29, 2014 9:56:48 GMT -5
Oooo. So glad you are here Jennifer with your stellar novel plot. I admire your commitment to world building & character development. It's give your story that hidden depth that the great ones have. I can't wait to read it. Even if your MG starts younger, the plot sounds more YA than middle grade to me. Not that it matters at this point - unless you are writing early grades or younger where language/plot is more constrained. I tend to write the story first & then discover the age. I can't get that first draft down, otherwise. The same story can be written in so many voices or from so many POV. |
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Post by Lib on Mar 29, 2014 10:01:26 GMT -5
I'm not new here, but I will post about my novel anyway, just to get back into novel-writing mode. (I've been doing challenge stories from the WoW battle.net forums the past few weeks and I hope I'm not hopelessly stuck in short story mode!) My novel is about a tribal society led by shamans, fighting each other for the limited resources where they live. One of their most talented shaman returns after a journey of many years with stories of a new world to conquer, and the squabbling tribes band together to seek out this new world only to find it's not at all what they expected. Or something like that. Yeah, I'm beginning to remember it now. |
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Post by mllersil on Mar 29, 2014 11:41:57 GMT -5
Hey Jennifer, glad to see another planner here. Your plot is ... I don't know how to say it in English, maybe: sparkling with creative fantasy? Coming alive while I'm reading about it? Something like that. There's a lot of potential watching you between the lines. So cool you're here!
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Post by jennifer on Mar 30, 2014 12:16:23 GMT -5
Thanks for the nice comments. Lib, your novel sounds interesting too. All it'll take to get back into novel mode is to sit down and get writing...it'll come. Trick your mind that each chapter is a story, and they just happen to be all connected, and bam! Novel.
mllersil - I love how you chose it to say in English. I might have to put that on the back cover one day!
r.elena.t - Thanks for the invite and glad to have found this forum thanks to you. I agree about writing the story and then figuring out where it ends up. There will be sex in it, but since I've decided it may be a YA novel, it'll be lead up and then ... next day or whatever. Not that it was going to be graphic anyway, but just in case I do cater to younger audience, I'll make it even less graphic. Though no pillow tearing. So I guess there won't be sex IN it - that'll be in the parts that don't get written down.
I'm going to go check out more of what you guys are all chatting about around here.
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Post by lokanya on Apr 1, 2014 13:53:13 GMT -5
My novel is a 90k middle-grade adventure set in a modern day Utah. Basically Alice In Wonderland meets Jurassic Park. When a girl falls down a rabbit-hole, she discovers there's an secret underground society of scientists. But everything goes wrong when she unwittingly gets tangled up with a band of dinosaur smugglers. The only problem is, when push comes to shove she's not sure which side to take, because down in the rabbit-hole, hardly anything really is what it seems to appear. Can there ever really be too many novels with dinosaurs in them? ... I don't think so. Sounds like an awesome concept, can't wait to hear more about it as you get writing!! (Seriously, more books should have dinosaurs in them.  ) |
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Post by lokanya on Apr 1, 2014 13:57:57 GMT -5
My novel is Book 1.5 in my Chaotic Galaxies series. Its a Sci-Fi novel and fills in the time between the flashbacks and the present action in Book One.
Chaotic Galaxies: Escape follows the lone human survivor two years after the total destruction of Earth. Aura, who is now given the name Tenie, is a young woman with a fragmented mind who can't even remember her own name let alone protect herself. She has no idea how she escaped the clutches of the most evil and brutal race in the known galaxies and now finds herself thrown into even more dangers! Apparently being one of the rarest species in the known galaxies is not without danger!
Well, something along those lines anyways. I'm pretty much working with a basic idea and a goal of where she has to end up at the end of the novel (To coincide with the first book). I've always been a train of thought writer anyways. (Which apparently is now called pantsing? (which thankfully a friend explained to me.))
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Apr 5, 2014 15:34:13 GMT -5
Now, where did I leave off at?
May 5, 2014 0:43:57 GMT -5
May 5, 2014 0:43:57 GMT -5
My latest edition of Straight From Thecliff Chamber thecliffchamber.com/TIGERS_2014.htm
Aug 10, 2014 21:59:22 GMT -5
My latest edition of Straight From Thecliff Chamber thecliffchamber.com/TIGERS_2014.htm
Aug 10, 2014 21:59:22 GMT -5
Aug 31, 2014 12:11:50 GMT -5