NANOWRIMO!

It's almost time for National Novel Writing Month!!!

Tony got me into it last year, and Tom participated as well. Neither Tony nor I made the 50k goal, but, as I said back then, "I wrote 12,000 more words than I would have otherwise." (And if nothing else, the dares can be fun!)

Since your imagination is overactive anyway ('cause, really, if it wasn't, would any of us even be here on this board?) crack those knuckles, dust off the keyboard (or dig out pen and paper if you want to rock it old school!) and LET'S GET READY TO NOVELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!

(For the record, I want to say that 1) I have some vague ideas floating in my head, but nothing definite, and 2) none of them are quite novel-level. Yet.)

My goal for this year is to reach 50k words, and my plan right now is to do a set of short stories based on characters and such from D&D - some characters I currently have (Odji!) and some I have created but not brought to life yet (Sibl!).

There are no "rules" other than you write! If your "novel" is in the form of a 50,000 word epic poem, GREAT! You win! If you started with a story you wrote previously (last year, back in middle school), I say GREAT (and I won't tell. Promise!) Maybe you'll write a story for your unborn daughter (other family members sold separately).

Regardless, join me and Tony this year in our month-long writing marathon. We're all "winners" just for trying!
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I have a few ideas myself. Like yours, I'm not sure how novelly (novelish?) they are, but we'll see.

For me, I was intimidated last year by the thought of "This Must Be A Novel." Granted, 50k words does not a huge novel make, but the two stories I tried out just didn't seem to have enough depth to go the distance. By allowing myself to write short stories if I want to, I feel much less intimidated, and am more likely to write more because I'm having fun.

Looking forward to being writing buddies again!

(PS - for the Macon peeps, here are a few links just for you, in case you are interested!)
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Macon Mooselings Yahoo Group
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Macon Mooselings Facebook Group

Just getting started is becoming problematical for me. Grrr...

I'm sorry about that. I haven't actually written anything yet, but I have a title and a cool banner! That's what I spent all morning on - the cool banner and how to get it to show up in my signatures (here and the Nano forums).

I think Odji wants to come out and play....we'll see what develops after lunch.

Just for fun: the NaNoLanta regional dare is to include a peach tree in your novel. (Tom - does the Macon group have a regional dare?) Last year it was just a peach.

I exceeded my daily goal of 1,667 words. I feel really good. We'll see how long it lasts.

Hehe.....it didn't last long...only 600ish new words in the past two days. HOWEVER, I have been doing research, and I have a cast of new characters thanks to a couple of dares. Dare #1: Name your characters after prescription drugs. (For the record, if you're ever stumped for fantasy names, check out the prescription drug list. Seriously.) My new characters include: XYNTHA, a shadar-kai invoker; SAPHRIS, a revenant (former half-elf) bard; MAVIK, a human (beast master) ranger (his companion is a mastiff named Spike); and GLEEVEC, a half-orc (brawler) fighter. Their story will actually be from a printed adventure.
The other quirk involves the bard. Dare #2: Insert a character who insists on having a life soundtrack, and always has a musician following him/her around. Bonus points if s/he is always correcting the musician. "NO! This is a bad guy I'm talking to! Minor key!" Double bonus points if the musician never speaks. Triple bonus points if the person is always acquiring new musicians, and has an entire orchestra following him/her around by the end of the book. Oh yeah! Xyntha is pretty arrogant, and is very condescending to Saphris (when she actually deigns to recognize her presence.)
Today I should be able to pound out a ton of words, now that I have the characters and a goal for them. But first, an extended rest.

The few ideas I've had aren't panning out. I haven't completely given up yet, but I'm not going to lose any sleep if it ends up not happening.

I came up with a name for my female character, like, in a couple of minutes: Jordana Quinlan. I'm stumped on my male character, though, and can't continue the scene I'm writing because he's introducing himself. In addition to trying to find the right name (with the right meaning), I'm also debating whether or not the name that he uses is his real name, and thanks to some suggestions from Jodi (not all facetious, but definitely appreciated), I'm researching naming conventions from 300 years ago (he's effectively immortal).

I'm toying with Biblical names like Caleb and Gideon, Saintly namesakes like Sebastian and Raphael, and a few purely Celtic names (especially the ones with weird Welsh spellings). My top three choices, so far, are:

• Duncan MacBeth

• Gideon Ambrose (alt. Caleb Ambrose)

• Sebastian Shepherd (alt. Shepherd Wolf)

I'm also thinking that those names might be aliases, that his true name might be a bit more... "ethnic".

Looks like "Gideon" might be the way to go. I'm liking it and the Single Brain That Is Jodi & Rachel also seems to like it. Now, I gotta figure out the right surname for him and whether or not it's his birthname or an alias...

FWIW, Tony liked Gideon too. He also flat-out vetoed the use of Duncan MacBeth. Period. End of discussion.

"The Single Brain That Is Jodi & Rachel"... So much awesomeness in that statement!

Tom, sorry your muse is giving you the cold shoulder. You should write just for fun, as in every day pick a new dare as a writing prompt and just do little daily "ditties".

I have decided on Gideon Shaw.

I've also given Gideon a middle name: Dyrnwch. Your challenge: respell the name phoenetically for the correct pronunciation (which I've got written down on a post it on my monitor to remind me).

I've posted my first scene in the Southern Magic fiction forum. Give it a read and tell me what ya think.

Will do! Here's a snippet from my newest adventure:

A victorious anthem swelled down the staircase as the hooded girl reached the floor. Everyone felt their spirits rise,
minor injuries and mistakes forgotten. The zombies were outnumbered – it was only a matter of time. Still humming
the inspiring refrain, the girl held her bow and violin in one hand while the other drew a dagger and slashed at the
trapped zombie. She severed the skin and muscle that had been supporting its skull, and its head thumped forward
into its chest.

They could use your help over on AMC's The Walking Dead. They have both low morale and many, MANY zombies.

I've had a weird inspiration, possibly for a short story, based on the classic fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood. My twist: the Big Bad Wolf isn't trying to eat Red Riding Hood; he's trying to protect her from the evil huntsman.

Thoughts?

Has potential to be awesome - especially if Red is still afraid of the wolf and keeps fleeing TOWARDS the huntsman.

For those of you <TOM> not on Facebook <TOM> Jodi posted a reminder <TOM> that NaNoWriMo is upon us <TOM>. So, if you have any, you know, "crazy" ideas <TOM> and want some feedback <TOM>, other than "write more" <TOM>, please feel free to share with us in this forum <TOM>.

This message <TOM> has been brought to you <TOM> without any subliminal advertising <TOM>.

Thank you.

<TOM>

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I am considering revisiting the old, olde idea I once had that I facetiously named "The Fantasy World That Does Not Suck." TFWTDNS has gone through many, many iterations and variations. To save myself a little work, I've been taking bits and pieces from other story ideas that I've had, borrowing place names and the like. I've been kind of working on some character names/concepts as well as some place names and background ideas.

Right now, I've got an idea for a female protagonist named Aderyn. So far I have her living in a medieval-like manor setting, a village called Afonnathar Crossing. Currently, I'm thinking of her as a young(ish) child living with her father, Esras, the village's hedge wizard (kind of a combination apothecary/veterinarian). I should probably give the child a mother at some point... Anyway, the Bad Event that I'm thinking of inflicting upon poor Aderyn is a raid by some kind of enemy ("barbarians" comes to mind, but they're really from a rival kingdom or even a rival province within the same kingdom) and the child is one of the few survivors and she gets sold off into slavery. At some point she is saved from slavery by actual "barbarians" (who're actually far more civilized than the folks who insist on calling them "barbarians").

So far, I haven't had much of an idea about who the good barbarians are yet, but one idea I had was that they use domesticated mastodons for beasts of burden. Also, if they have mastodons in their homeland, I kinda also figure they might have saber toothed cats and dire wolves, too, also somewhat domesticated and kept for pets. I'm beginning to get a visual on why the "civilized" kingdoms would think these guys were barbarians.

I've also decided to recycle Archonia into this setting. The Archonians are like a mash up of mythical Atlantis and historical Rome, and they once ruled the known world. Well, not all of it, but they certainly had a strong influence over the cultures on three different continents. Low Archonian is the common tongue spoken in those places.

I think I'm also gonna use the Axii from my Wild West High Fantasy mashup setting. They're basically the Romanized Germanic tribes of their world. The "Celts" are the Dachaidians. Those are pretty much the three "races" of humans in this part of the world. I'm debating whether or not to have any classical "fantasy races" or to try to create something new from sorta whole cloth (like Big Foot-like creatures or a race of cat/dog people or something).

Peanut Gallery, feel free to comment.

That has possibilities. As would - and I'm just brainstorming here - some sort of continuation of the Southern Magic story. For example, what if Magog had other children than just the ones we met in the first book? That could get interesting, I bet.

And I do have a good bit of story from a previous NaNoWriMo that perhaps should be dusted off and finished.

I wrote that already, but you couldn't be bothered to pay attention. Now, they're all just sitting there, practicing their eee-vil laughter and dry-washing their hands while I try to figure out what they'll do next. Only I CAN'T figure it out... yet. First, I gotta do something else to knock the story loose.

Tom, write more!

For those unaware, H.P. Lovecraft has, in a process that is yet unexplained, returned from the dead. He even has his own Youtube channel, where he answers questions posed to him. In his most recent upload, he discusses a certain popular writing contest:



(The guy playing Lovecraft is quite entertaining. Check out his other videos as well.