= NaNo Brainstorming = generating ideas for NaNoWriMo = National Novel-Writing Month, which takes place in November and will have to be described on the thread.
Patience, Please
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I want to NaNoWriMo this year. maybe something about… like, I don’t know.. I never come up with good ideas for long stories… only short short short stories.
Someone goes back in time for some reason or other and somehow tweaks the probability of humans evolving to exactly 50/50, which somehow causes the world to split into two, one of which is devoid of humans except for members of some select society who somehow cross over to it for some reason.
Now I gotta replace all the somes.
Hooray! I have no idea what I’m doing. Perhaps some sort of re-written fairy tale. Yes, I know it’s horribly cliche.
I need a really good idea…
2- I thought you were doing Dreamtime/Fourhenge/whatever it was called. That sounds good, though.
1- Do related short stores? 50000 words’ worth?
I want to do something… I don’t know what. Because last year’s didn’t turn out at all like I had first imagined.
I already have my idea, I just need to take the time to lay it out and inspect it.
I have… an idea, of sorts. It involves vampires, battles, algebra teachers, time travel, dragons, nightmares, sorcerers, aliens, and witches. I have no setting, no names, no semblance of sanity, and only the barest scraps of plot. *sigh* What I do know is that the MC of the story starts out in the middle of a battle, wins the battle, etc, etc. Then it switches to the OTHER MC who is in highschool. Some how both people are essential to the story, although unfortunately I have no idea how. Algebra is going to be vitally important as well. Again, I have no clue as to how, exactly. Anyway, MC#2 is going to end up in MC#1’s world and after that… I have absolutly no idea, except for above-mentioned story elements. *sigh*
2 ~ I love alternate universe based stories. Have you read Diana Wynne Jones’ Chronicles of Chrestomanci?
I hope to do NaNoWriMo this year but I don’t know if it’ll work out with school and writer’s block and whatnot.
I’m probably going to use my Muse fanfiction for my NaNoWriMo… if I even do it… which I probably wont… although I want to…
4- YEAH! I forgot all about Fourhenge! Thanks!
I’ll copy and paste it here, with a few changes to make it seem less like a certain RRR.
The Dreamtime is a world bordering our own, where the dreams of mankind float around, appearing as multicolored bubbles. Many different creatures and spirits dwell there. There are humans who can pass between this world and the Dreamtime, called Inspirators. They are responsible for heading off the careers of tyrants and inspiring great philosophers and inventors. Genghis Khan fell off his horse and died because he wasn’t paying attention to the terrain. He was thinking about the horrible nightmare he had had the previous night. Thomas Edison once had a dream about a lightning bolt striking a wire, squeezing into it tighter and tighter until it glowed brilliantly. Soon after that, he began working on the light bulb. These are only a few examples of the work of the Inspirators. Of course, their job is made harder because of the many dangers of Dreamtime.
In my story, a renegade Inspirator has seized control of much of the Dreamtime, and is slowly and subtly working to bend the minds of mankind to his will. He didn’t manage to destroy the Inspirators, but he did something much worse: he took away their ability to Inspire, leaving them powerless.
The renegade Inspirator had been planning this for centuries (he was one of the Immortal Four, the most powerful Inspirators that never died.) So he knew that he would have to leave some connection between Dreamtime and Waketime (our world.) Acting on that, he affected people’s dreams and inspired them to construct the four Henges, starting with Stonehenge, thousands of years ago, and finishing with Firehenge. The Henges act as gates between Dreaming and Waking.
Soon after their power had been stolen, the Inspiators died out, with nobody to replace them. Even the remaining three of the Immortal Four faded quickly with the loss of their abilities. The last, oldest and most powerful, Merlin himself, sealed his soul in a book, the Somniad Merlinus, which lay under a concealing veil in a certain library.
The Somniad was discovered fifty years later by a young teenager. He was shocked to discover that it was not only sentient, but it had the personality of an eccentric, irritable and infinitely wise old man. By degrees, the Somniad convinced him to help it in its goal- namely, destroying each one of the Henges so that power would return to the Inspirators. However, what with Purple Men, Macerians, Puuks, and other minions of the renegade Dreamer all trying to stop him, it wouldn’t be as easy as it sounds. And admittedly, it sounds pretty hard.
Man, I miss last year’s story. I mean, in the 11 months I havn’t written more than a page, but… there’s a plot now. In my head. And I even thought up a lot of little details… I’m not sure how to just switch over to another story now, as I was really just in the begining of mine even though I had 10,000 words.
7- Sounds highly amusing and very fun.
8- I love Chrestomanci!
The thing is, I’m not going to win. There isn’t the slightest hope of me winning. But I don’t care. I’m going to set a highly unreasonable goal that I know I’ll never make, and I’ll try to accomplish it. Even though I know there’s no hope, I’ll try. And therefore, when November is over, I’ll have a large portion of the story in front of me, not the whole thing, but enough to go on.
I’m doing West of West (WoW), and I have the plot somewhat mapped out already.
I
We meet Daisy
II
Daisy wanders into Fairyland – oops
III
Daisy explores Fairyland and has a grand time
IV
Daisy is ready to go home
V
Goblin market
VI
Daisy meets the princess with the heart of ice
VII
The king tells Daisy what she has to do
IIX
Daisy does it [needs expansion]
IX
The king holds a Feast in her honor
X
She foolishly drinks something
XI
She stuck in Fairyland forever, but the princess gets to go home
Mm. It will be nice when put down in a more ordered and poetical fashion.
I’ve got to come up with the Dreamtime’s geography. I mean, there seems to be no real purpose for it being anything other than empty space filled with multicolored bubbles. I have a few ideas, though.
I’m probably not even going to enter. I’ll just try and see if I can make 50,000 words in the month of November. So I will have an unofficial NaNo.
If I write 3030 words on each free day and 877 words on each school day, plus 7 extras, I will succeed.
A question. What if you reach the goal by the deadline but haven’t finished your story? Are you still considered to have “won?”
15 (PraCan) – Yeah, as long as you have 50,000 words you’ve “won.”
I have absolutely no ideas for a story. But that’s probably because I haven’t started thinking yet… ::heh::
(15) As far as NaNo is concerned, you’ve won as long as you pass word count.
The Dreamtime’s surface was uniform red stone, but mankind’s dreams bubbling through pushed it up into mountains. The mountains are thickest where people live the most. Dreams burst into a liquid called “somnolent” when the dreamers wake up. Somnolent flows down the contours of the landscape, collecting into seas. Since people mostly live on land, the continents are roughly equivalent to Waketime, except that there is no Antarctica. Vegetation is created from dream-spores that drop from drifting dreams. Animals evolved from collations of dream-spores that emerged at the bottom of the Somnolent Seas.
Wow. Brainstorming this is!
Basically, Gorlois (renegade inspirator)(who will not be one of the Four, I’ve just decided) controlled the dreams of mankind to build first Stonehenge, then Wavehenge (Mayas built it) then Windhenge (Inuit) then Flamehenge (Aborigines.) He then retreated into obscurity, his body in Waketime going into a coma and apparently dying, while his Dreamtime body immersed itself in nightmares and prolonged its life with twisted and unnatural dreams. Then Gorlois conquered the Immortal Four and shaped Dreamtime according to his whims. He placed one of their souls in each of the Henges, locking the Dreamtime to every Inspirator except him.
However, since Merlin’s soul escaped into the Somniad, Stonehenge was left without a reinforcing soul. Therefore, if all of the other Henges are destroyed, it would burst open and return ability to the Inspirators.
Trilogy potential.
dreamtime: alot of that is like dreamland, the rrr you where talking about. the fact you have a renegade makes it just that much more like it.
I think I might do a UnNaNo this year
ideas:
a time travel tale, from the moon, to a land with fairytales, with magic around every conner
or not.
19- and the three other henges shound be rebluit, at the end.
20- I don’t see what that has to do with time travel, but it sounds good.
14- Why aren’t you going to enter?
When she was three years old, a little girl named Olive was stolen away by fairies. They left nothing but a changeling, so skillfully crafted out of air and magic and a pinch of salt* that no one noticed it was not Olive. This changeling fell into the lake only a week after the switch, and everyone assumed that Olive was drowned. The body was never found, but the water in that part of the lake was always salt after that.
Olive, meanwhile, was taken to Fairyland, where she cried endlessly for her home and family, until the fairies, out of exasperation, turned her heart to ice and made her drink the waters of oblivion, so that she remembered and felt nothing.
She was raised among the fairy court, as beautiful and charming a lady as you ever met, for all that she could feel nothing deeper than a puddle of rainwater in the road.
On the eve of the fairy prince’s wedding, the fickle prince changed his mind and took Olive as his wife, putting a spell on his former bride-to-be and leaving her asleep on a glass hill 3000 miles away. Then he married Olive and became king.
When Daisy came along, begging to be given a way out of Fairyland, the king gave her an impossible task: Free the princess who slept on the glass hill from her slumber. He knew how she could be freed, and he thought that it could not be done without his consent. But he did not know that only one person had witnessed the sleeping spell, a foolish jester, a shapeshifter, and he knew the final piece of the spell that would undo it at the end. And he was helping Daisy.
*I know, fairies can’t touch salt. I’ll find a way around that. It seems to fit.
2- That sounds kinda like “a crack in the line”
For anyone who’s having trouble with names theres a random name generator website you can use. I’m pretty sure i got it from MuseBlog, but, it’ll probably get zapped. It’s worth a shot. wwwDOTkleimoDOTcom/random/name.cfm
10- Me likes!
ooh, gotta start brainstorming mine. I’ve got the main idea, but I need a problem/solution and some supporting characters.
25- I use that a lot.
22- I was joking.
Ooh. Jugglebug likes.
5. That sounds like something… maybe it’s short stories of 4 different characters lives, and how they meet eachother and become allies-ish, and errr… something like that…
28- Well, it still sounds good.
Ok, I have more of a plot now. The first main character is a vampire by the name of Kaeria (Kay) Silvertounge, and the other one is called Alison I-don’t-have-a (name subject to change without notice). Anyway, Kay lives in Excelsior, which is a lot like Earth was until people started being all close-minded and magic died out. Anyway, Alison is just starting high school at this awful school. And her algebra teacher is kind of insane, and he has scars all over his arms. Alison has this dream where she nearly gets strangled by a small hooded person with green eyes and wakes up with, you know, bruises on her neck.
Meanwhile, in Excelsior, the vampires are preparing for war with the werewolves/some guild of sorcerers or something when Kay is actually visited by Alison’s, I dunno, spirit or something, because she somehow broke through the world barrier in her sleep, and this alerts her to the fact that the barriers are actually decaying. (About time travel and world travel: there are barriers keeping the inhabitants of worlds and times from flying off into the endless void between worlds and times and such, and in order to travel to another time or world one must rip a hole in the barrier, go through it, and keep everything else from flying through the hole to the world/time/void. So it’s immensely difficult to do properly.) Anyway, that will cause people to start randomly popping in and out of times, worlds, and the void. And if the barriers die completely there will be no way to get out of the void, which would obviously be bad. So Kay (who is the heir to the vampiric throne, by the way) has three younger vampires enroll in Alison’s school to keep an eye on her. Then she has to travel to all these different worlds to try to heal the barriers. And eventually it gets so bad that she’s the only one who can world or time travel, since no one else is magically powerful enough.
Then something cataclysmic happens in some world somewhere and Kay, Alison, and a couple other humans and vampires get hurled into another, more futuristic world, which I am currently calling Ven’ziag.
Ven’ziag is kind of a decaying utopia of sorts. The humans all had highly intelligent droids who eventually rebelled and took over. And everything is dying, which obviously isn’t good for the vampires or the humans. And the droids want to exterminate the living beings- or in the vampire’s cases, the undead beings. And by this time, even Kay can’t safely get back to Excelsior or Earth.
So, this is probably where the algebra stuff is going to come in. Also, I think they’re gonna meet a human who will tell them about Ven’ziag and maybe give them an idea as to how to heal the barriers.
After that I have no idea.
Thanks for the name generator- I’m gonna need it.
:idea:TNÖ:idea:
I had this idea way before Dreamland RRR got started. Witness:
http://www.musefanpage.com/blog/?p=815#comment-132 = my idea.
http://www.musefanpage.com/blog/?p=910 = first Dreamland RRR.
But even so, I’ll change it a bit to make it seem less like that.
31- Astounding!
I want to read it.
I’m probably not going to be able to send in my story like Ebeth did because it’ll most likely be set (in the beginning, at least), in a little town in southwest Washington with a long, hard-to-pronounce name.
You know what I mean.
I really want to write a story focused around Muse Academy, but I still have to find a plot. I’ll also create different characters, but I might use some MBers (is that okay?) as teachers or as portraits on the walls
34- Yes! You can put me in if you like!
I never got to read your script, you know.
LOL, I actually talked some friends of mine into doing this with me as well. And my sister, which is all the more amazing.
34- you can use me, if you want.
36- I’m going to work on B today. My sister, on the other hand… Well, she did SF.
I might do NaNo, but not properly. Just see if I can do it. Do you normally have to sign up?
Alright: My choces are to either try to contine what I started last year, and get close to actually finishing a story I’ve started, or to start a new one. The new one would probably be the dropped SF script I had an idea for, because it would make a cool book too. Any thoughts?
34- I’d lbe honored to be a part if you’d like to include me.
34- Go for it.
I want to expand one of my characters from last year. Mayhaps. He was very minor but had a cool background. Hmm…..
Then again, Fourhenge is a little too much like Dreamland RRR. Even though I can prove I came up with mine first, people would still be suspicious. I’ll develop my idea in 2.
Or maybe I’ll do Fourhenge. We’ll see.
I’ll go with Fourhenge. I’ve got some good ideas for it.
Grrr. I can’t wait to start writing!
44- Ditto.
34- you can use me!
44+45- Ditto
Okelydokely. Here be plot-storming.
TITLE OF BOOK:
Halfwaters, USA
MAIN CHARACTERS:
Nina Codell
Anemone Deeps
Here is plot setup.
Nina Codell was the most popular girl in school last year, but when seventh grade started, it all went downhill.
On the other side of the country, Anemone Deeps is living a perfectly normal life (to her standards, at least) in a town smack dab in the middle of the Everglades. Hidden away from society, Halfwaters, USA is a town of strange people. It’s like they’re part fish! *coughcoughforeshadowingcoughcough*
Anemone is astounded when her parents tell her they’re moving out of Halfwaters, to Nina’s town. PERSONALITY COLLISION!! duh-nuh-nuh.
Then Halfwaters is in trouble, Nina and Anemone half to bond, etc. etc.
The first part of the book will be mostly having the main character get to Windhenge and into the Dreamtime (where, despite not being able to Inspire, he will still have the ability to pluck ideas from dreams and use them to his own advantage. For instance, if somebody dreams about a bolt of lightning, he can reach into that dream and create a bolt of lightning. This is harder than it sounds, so he’ll need practice. Whoof, that was a long parenthesis). Next part will be to reach Flamehenge and destroy it.
The trouble is… how does one destroy a Henge? It shouldn’t be too easy. I want this to be extralogical (logical, even though it isn’t the sort of logic we’re used to) fantasy, like the Bartimaeus Trilogy, as opposed to analogical fantasy, with little or no logic, like some of the second-rate Harry Potter wannabes that one sees on shelves these days. An Inspirator with only a couple weeks of training shouldn’t be able to destroy one of the most powerful dreamlocks ever constructed with pure dream-power. Then again, it shouldn’t be too hard, or it would be impossible, which would make the story impossible to conclude. Suggestions?
I have a tendency to make up words. Extralogical and dreamlock in one post. Funny.
48- Sounds good.
49- I’m afraid I have no suggestions at the moment.
Alogical should replace analogical.
25-Thank you so much! Even though to me it seems like the “common” names are more obscure than the “obscure” names. =P
I’ll try…even though I shall fail horribly, most likely, and forget about it after a week.
Now, off to bed. Good night, MB!
49- I have a nasty habit of doing that too.
I think I’ll do a zombie story on the side, just for fun.
20,000 years in the future, most technology, has been destroyed by a religious war (Ok, ok, I’m ripping off Dune a little, but that’s all) The Human Empire is undergoing a fierce political struggle and war could break out any day. Stranded on the wasteland planet Earth, a creature called Genesis knows a secret that will change warfare forever. Whoever reaches Genesis first will control the galaxy.
It’s a bit corny, but i kinda want to do a sci-fi story without working on the plotline to much. Any sugesstions?
I might do one. I’m more of a short-story big-pictuur kinda girl
55- Oooh, sounds like The Wrath of Khan!
I can’t wait for the site to open!
i think i will do NaNo this year. i’ve always dreamed…sigh. how do you enter? or is it just a personal thing? me needs directions! i really don’t know what i will do mine on. nothing corny though…like silly teenage adventure(no offense to those who are doing that). i just read too many of them to be able to write one myself. my favorite was artemis fowl…those were pretty cool. i will probably do something rouge. like rouge nation/world/genius/something original.maybe something weird…i really liked that type.
Let’s see… name… it’s going to be like a Muse Fanfiction. Is it alright if I post the first few bits of it on the Fanfic thread? Bah, I can’t think of a title. Well, here’s a plot anyway.
Main Characters:
Joshua Maxitrimus
Lexi Stone
Jaqualine Yang
Chris Mendioza
Plot: The year is 2128, and the world is ruled by a Voldermort like character. Some kid named Josh finds a keychain with a pie on one side and a HPB on another. He saves the world. The end.
w00t. I did my brainstorming and tried not to set my plot in concrete. When my fingers don’t hurt b/c of guitar, I’ll type up my NaNoBraSto page.
58- Google NaNoWriMo and click on the first link. Sign up begins Ocober 1st. Anyway, click on My NaNo or something like that and it will bring up a page w/ a link that says “Sign Up”. Click that and sign up. Or you can just do it on your own.
aha! thanx….now i have to wait til october 1st…oh well. brainstorming time! lets see…*goes off into trance*
Oog I have so many stories going on it’s not even funny.
And…er…I think I’ve won. How do you count words on Microsoft Word?
10–Ok, I just got caught up, but may I say THAT IS TOTALLY AWESOME.
False alarm, I’m only at about 17,000. Bleah.
And I forgot the little detail that you have to write it all in November, which definitely is not going to happen. Double Bleah.
Whee!!! Triple post! Moderators, you can put them into a single post if you like, theyre all talking about the same thing.
34–Ooh! Can I teach something? Like English or songwriting?
That would be sweeeeet.
49–Maybe you have to dream about it? Or use it to go into your own dream (although I think that’s impossible)? Man, I’m getting excited just hearing your ideas. Please write a book soon, I want to read it!
8–I love Diana Wynne Jones!!!
10–The dreams as multi-colored bubbles is reminding me uncontrollably of a Roald Dahl book I haven’t read in forever which has something to do with a giant, who I believe had to catch/release dreams which looked like bubbles.
63–Tools>Word Count on Microsoft Word.
As for me, I think I’m going to do an HP fanfic to round out my HP banner year. Right now methinks it will be the story of Sirius from the night James and Lily died or shortly before to the Department of Mysteries in OotP. Perhaps it may go beyond that, but then I’d have to deal with something I that might be hard to work with.
And hopefully that was appropriately circumspect so as to avoid spoilers, but how someone could manage to not have read them all by now I will not understand….
I’m going to try to NaNo this year, but I’m not too sure it will work with school and stuff. Maybe I could get my English teacher to let everyone just write for November. He’s crazy enough so it could work. Hmmm. I’m going to do sci-fi/fantasy. Maybe something with ghosts or faeries. I have no clue what to do.
66 (bunny) – I think that was the BFG
Last year, I just kind of wrote, with a tiny idea of what was going to happen…and the story just kind of exploded and was really terrible…so this year, after taking a fiction class, I’m going to actually plan out the plot, the character’s backgrounds, and make it a really solid story-line…so then, it will be terrible, but it will at least be somewhat organized!
“Nearly November the Fifth, my goodness. Swann pushed me up the row and we got one in six but it was all improper.”
More science fiction for me, I think.
I’ve figured it out. There will be a key which Gorlois fashioned out of pure nightmare that can unlock any of the Henges. They have to steal the key, but there’s a catch. Only an Inspirator can hold it in his or her mind. And when our hero, the only available Inspirator, goes to sleep, it’ll torment him with nightmares. Make the journey a little harder, hmm?
BFG. Yeah. That’s a troubling thought.
I’ll change the dreams from bubbles to tangles of light and darkness.
70- Ooh, cool. I like it. Can they still dream in the dream-place, then?
I’ve decided, I’m continuing last years story. I can’t not is more the problem. It’s also one sort of dealing with dreams, I thought of it last year and it’s evolved a lot since then. Let’s see if I can do a plot thing…
Main character- Kiona, the story is told from her point of view. High school sophmore, smart but not brilliant, has 3 very close friends and a few not-so-close ones, but likes to be alone rather than hang out with people.
In the begining of the story, we open up with her in a dream and sort of learn that she doesn’t ever seem to have dreams of her own, but other peoples. They never relate to her life, she can describe in detail what they were like even though we normally forget the details in our own dreams, she sees places she’s never been to with startling acuracy. She doens’t tell anyone about this, mainly because she like s having a secret. She goes through a day of school, comes home, talks to her neighbor (and pets the neighbors cat, who will be important in the story later), ect, eventually goes to bed and enters another dream.
In this one she starts out in a ballroom, with everyone in fancy dresses and things but that gets old fast, so as she’s wandering around she notices a slight seem or fuzzy bit to the dream. She goes over to it, and manages to tear it open a bit more and look through. There’s a sort of thick dark substance there, but a foot behind that she can feel another thing and see light. So she goes through and finds herself in a huge library. Flitting around are sort of light-things (librarians) and here and there are pedistles with interesting things on them that arn’t crucial to the story (that I know of). There’s a ton of books, but they don’t want her to touch them or open them and the library is sending out ‘you shouldn’t be here’ vibes. So Kiona gets kind of annoyed and was already in a not so great mood, plus she’s not thinking striaght from the dream, so she pulls one off the shelf anyway and the book opens and the pages start tearing out, and are whipped around into the shape of a man. The light-people rush over and envelop her, and she wakes up back in her bed.
This is what I’ve written so far, at 10,283 words. Which means this is going to be a rathr long story as I pretty much just got into the rising action…
Anyway, after Kiona gets up in the morning the book she pulled off the shelf is there, but she’s to (understandably) freaked out to do anything but shove it in her closet with a weight on the cover. Things havn’t come out of the dreams she’s wandered into before.
The person in the book ends up being a strange being called Omniscient (Om), who is where all the stories people don’t share end up. Every one you’ve thought of and havn’t written down or told or just shoved to the back of your mind and forgotten about ends up ettched into him, untill his paper skin is full of so much ink and words and stories that he can’t really remember much about himself; he’s lost his own story amongst them. He can go between book and person when he needs to, but being a person for long tires him as at this point he’s really weighted down with everything. Text scrolls along his skin in stories, and if yu stare at it to long you get sucked in and can’t stop reading, so Kiona can’t really look at him a lot.
After that, she goes back into the dream-place and meets [name], who is in a group of humans that dream like her. But the difference is, they send themselves into a trance and after training can minipulate people’s dreams when they need to, they gather nightmares and store them so they can’t escape and torture humans. This order has been going on for a while, and [dream-catcher’s name] is sort of helping Kiona out and filling her in on what’s been happening o the dream world, which is that’s it’s sort of falling apart. People’s dreams are melting together and arn’t as potent as they once were, and everythings sort of frayed at the edges. Kiona shouldn’t have been able to force her way into the library, it’s supposed to be locked at all times to anyone other than the special light-beings, but someone broke in and then she found the opening. The black goo stuff is leaking into dreams too, tainting them, and feeding the nightmares.
Eventually she learns that evil-person-who-I-have-not-named-yet is going to let the nightmares out into the world, not in corperal form but more as bad luck, hate, cruelty, that kind of thing. Taint the world like the dream-land is being tainted. Reasons for him doing this are currently unknown by the author.
So, she feels like she has to go stop him with [dream-catcher’s name], and along the way they meet up with different people in the dreamlands (place surrounded by dreams that stays a bit more constant, almost like people’s waking dreams (as in goals) rather than the sleepin dreams that surround it). Among thse people will be another character, Foreshadow, who sort of goes along with them sometimes and other times wanders off.
Somehow they stop the bad guy, but Kiona gets stuck in the dreamworld and goes into a coma in real life (throughout the story will be parts where she wakes up and goes through real life, though they become less and less frequent). One of her best friends gets her out (it’s a bit odd the way she does this, she’s not really normal and somehow finds a way to aply math to the dremlands. She sort of goes in and pulls Kiona back out, after Kiona’s neighbors cat guides her to where Kiona’s stuck). That’s all I have planned out, though I’m sure there”ll be all manner or sub-plots.
Whee that was long. I can type way faster than I used to be able too…
72- Yes. They transported their physical bodies to the Dreamtime through Windhenge, and so they are still able to dream there. The only difference is, instead of emerging through the craters of dream volcanoes like the dreams of people in Waketime, their dreams flow out of their eyes.
Lovely, Jade! I want to read it.
Basically, the Nightmare Key is going to torture my main character so much that he isn’t sure what’s reality and what’s dream. It’ll make it appear as though his friends and family have betrayed him, he’ll seem to kill one of his friends by accident… I love torturing my characters in books.
76-meany…good story though. everyone seems to be obsessed with dreams these days…isn’t reality good enough for you people?! sheesh…
i’m thinking about my story. its gonna be placed around nowadays or in history(i can’t tell yet). the main theme will not be dreams(*grumbles some sarcastic comment*) but brilliance. something along the lines of a loner(you guessed it, rouge personage) who is moderately brilliant and just sorta wanders the nation looking for adventure. he/she will stumble upon a seemingly innocent town, but in reality is evil. here i seem to find something to argue with myself about. should by evil be physical, metaphysical or mental? spiritual or magical? DILLEMA!!! i was thinking about making it a supersmart community that wants to overtake the world(not by force of course, but by brilliance). this seems too corny, so that means it needs lotsa subplots and twists. maybe i’ll make it asimov style(complexity times 1000). anyway, i’ve got a month to plan. should be enough. help will not be turned away! *hint hint*
77- Reality stinks.
Actually, it’s a complete coincidence. I didn’t know anything about Jadestone’s idea when I made up mine, and Shadowkat didn’t know anything about either when she suggested Dreamland RRR.
I will write something that may or may not have a plot.
whew, that was some tough, decisive brainstorming. better go take a break now.
Yeah, I wouldn’t want to be anyone I write about. They always have horrible experiences. I make it up to them with happy endings, though. Most of the time.
79- Go with plot.
76- Me too. But I don’t want to seem too mean, so I don’t do it too much…I do go a bit overboard on the RRRs, though.
77- Reality’s BORING! Why do you think I read so much? To escape reality.
But I know. There are an awful lot of books to do with dreams, not to mention about three (or four?) dream ideas that MBers have cme up with in the recent past. I think that it’s because dreams are as close as we can get to “real” magic. Everyone dreams. Not everyone has to save the world from evil sorcerers.
80- You’ve FINISHED something?????????
81- No, but I always plan a happy ending.
One more month!
34-Could I please be a portrait or a teacher?
81-I do have to agree, that’s the main reason I read. That, and I’m addicted…
I think I’ve finally come up with a suitable-ish conflict for my Muse Academy NaNo!!
I think I’m going to have another Magazine-school (I’m leaning towards Highlights Academy, but I’ll take suggestions), and MA and HA will have some sort of rivlary. Does that sound okay?
78- And I didn’t either, as I came up with it last year but never posted a full description like tha one. We’re just awesome.
Mines not going to have a ‘happy’ ending, but the evil is resolved. I may make it that after Tess is about to bring her out, she has to choose between going back to the normal world and never returing to the dreamlands or staying in them forever. She’s going to become very attached to them, and I think there’s going to be some sort of romance between her and Forshadow so it’s having to choose between him and everyone else too.
Daisy’s not going to have a happy ending. She’ll finish all her tasks, free Olive (who’s named something different by then), and then the king will decide to have a feast in her honor (that should put her on her guard, but of course it doesn’t) and she touches fairy food for the first time, forgets everything, and never gets to go home. Olive, on the other hand, does get home.
86- Well, it’s a traditional fairy-tale ending.
Who’s Forshadow? Is he one of the dreamcatchers?
87- Exactly. And it always depresses me when I really stop to think about it.
AAAAGGGGHHHHH. I need to sign up! Erghleppssffhhhgnmbbbbghhhhhh.
84-If MA is pwnsome in all things rivalrous, then yes that’s good. actually if it were a diff mag i could see them occasionally winning, just to further the plot. but highlights is *hisss*
89-yep. MA is pwnsome. highlights is for whacks…oh wait, then i should be in highlights. aw man! me needs to change my genre. no more whackishness for me…
okay, i just got this idea walking to my locker in school today. what if there were no schools, and the gov’t forced all adults to take on at least one child to train to become another craftsman in whatever job the adult has. so one guy to each kid. sorta an apprentice relationship worldwide. so, going off my earlier plotline, one guy(with the trade of a rouge, which is an exclusive craft for brilliants and can only be an option if you passed the governments testing)gets this one kid for his apprentice. the naration will probably switch from one to the other. anyway, the guy and kiddo find evil when wandering, adventure follows adventure, lotsa conflict/excitement, and then i resolve it. maybe happy, maybe bittersweet, maybe the most depressing thing you ever read. whatever. this stinx. i need more time. sheesh…
At the moment, I’m debating whether or not to chuck the Algebra stuff and replace it with something else. Leaning toward no, but anyways, suggestions? They would be greatly appreciated.
So, continuing from post 31, the Ven’ziag guy will tell the travelers about an old teleporter that may be gentle enough on the barriers to allow them to get back to Excelsior. In order to get to it they have to trek back across the barren surface to the city they originally landed in. Eventually they will find it (I think I’m gonna make it an old phone booth that was rewired at some point hundreds of years ago) and use it to escape to Kay’s home in Excelsior.
As soon as they get back, Kay’s called to fight in an enourmous battle raging nearby. So they win the battle after several hours and Kay and her… friends, for lack of a better word, are joined by two twin sorcerers, who I think will be called Jasper and Quinton Something-or-Other. Which makes, I believe, nine people.
So, Kay and the sorcerers hold a brief conference and decide that the best course of action is to travel to Iz, a world populated almost exclusively by Dragons and Dragonoids, who are basically humanoid dragons.
The teleporter’s gonna short circut over an Izian jungle. I know that much. And somehow they’re going to be separated. Probably Kay, two other vampires, Alison, and Percy and Josh (humans) will get out, and Jasper, Quinton, and a vampire will get picked up by a Dragon called S’loven. Anyhoo, I’ve got this vague plan that Jasper and Quinton are going to partner up with S’loven to kill the vampire and go after Kay and everyone else.
So, just to be perfectly clear, all the worlds rest in a timeless void that is impossible to cross. Each world, or universe, whatever you want to call it, is enclosed by a living barrier that protects the universe’s inhabitants from being sucked into the void. Anyway, their is a (very faint) connection between all the barriers; this is what makes world travel possible. Some worlds, known as “parellel universes” grew in conjunction with each other and have stronger ties. Excelsior and Earth are an example of this; similar (if not identical) languages, similar species, etc.
Although it’s extremely rare, barriers can contract “illnesses” that cause them to rot or decay. Holes appear; events in other universes can fling unsuspecting bystanders into another world. There are several cures, though they’ve all been forgotten and the last known recorded cure was in a Grimoire, a dictionary of spells and magic, that vanished from living knowledge about a millennia ago.
:idea:TNÖ:idea:
91- Looks good.
Erm…
I have no ideas.
I was thinking about doing a story about a person who lives in a world not unlike our own but similar, who finds themselves faced with a choice: to live quietly and peacefully, or to live exciting and boldly. This will lead to various episodes.
87- I mentioned him once in there somewhere (grr, that sentence made me feel like I had to go back and look: last sentince in second to last paragraph) but not a lot.
Foreshadow(also known as just Shadow or The Shade)’s sort of another embodiment of something, like Om is the Omniscient narrator for all the unwritten stories, except he sort of knows a bit of whats going to happen to people before it does. But he has trouble telling what bits go to which people, and his sense of time is slightly off-kilter from ours. At the begining of the story (before she enters the dreamlands), he tried to give Kiona a warning to keep her away from danger, but he gave it to early so it didn’t help. He wisheshe could help people more, but it doesn’t ever seem to go as planned and they fall into it anyway. This has made him rather reserved and unwilling to stay in oe place to long lest something happen to the people he grows attached too. Slow to form bonds, doesn’t talk a lot, wishes he could leave the dreamlands but can’t ever.
He is tall, with long dark hair and pale skin, and is rather mysterious and sort of flits in and out of the story.
The darn thing STILL won’t let me sign up!!!!!!!!!!! It’s MONDAY EVENING, okay? It’s so very much Monday evening that I need to get ready for bed, and the stupid thing still won’t let me sign up!
Argh.
I signed up! Or re-signed-in, anyway.
I was up at like 11 pm and the stupid thing still was closed for registration… It’s ok now though.
At last! I did it!
Heehee, it’s been a while since I’ve blogged from school…
But I’m finally signed back in! I like the new layout. And I can’t wait! So many new genres on the forums! Yay!
Apologies for the double post, but I’d just like to say I’m starting a MB thread on the Writing Groups forum.
I’m doing an unofficial NaNo- that is, I’m not signing in (MB’s the only online group I feel comfortable doing) but I’m following all the rules and trying to get 50,000 words in November.
100- Oh goodie.
100- But so did I!
Please explain to me what this thread is. i think it would help all of those who thought it was a new branch of Victorias Secret at first (hey, i’m sure there’s a lot of us out there!!!)
104 (Swann) – I actually think very few people thought it had anything to do with Victoria’s Secret. It’s the planning thread for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), where you attempt to write a 50,000-word novel in one month.
Oh, and I don’t think I’ve seen you before. *welcome pie*
So, I have vague ideas.
I realized that the only thing I’ve written that I’ve kept doing for any length of time or detail was my diary, therefore I write best about what I know and not making things up.
Unfortunately, this means one of the realistic-like stories.
I’m thinking it’s about a relationship. I was planning to have it just from the girl’s point of view, but I may need more words. And -have you ever thought about all the different ways you could approach someone, like when you’re nervous?- she does that a lot. So there are chapters exaggerating facets of her nature, as if instead of that being part of the balance of life it was the most important thing (examples: if she was always an extrovert, a hardcore music geek…) and then after all this worrying, which is just a few minutes but is really many many pages and points of view, she goes and talks to him, and them (maybe) the same from his point of view, and so on until I either reach 50K or a stable ending.
I’m afraid it sounds too much like something else, though. I want this to be completely my own work. I don’t want to find out I’ve inadvertently plagiarized an idea from some book I read forever ago.
Re: the many points of view, I’ve been reading Vonnegut lately…
106- Alice read Bluebeard once, but that is the only Vonnegut she has ever read. She was rather disappointed with it.
107- I liked Cat’s Cradle. I think the playing with points of view is from Slaughterhouse-Five, though.
Cinnamoon is furious because the site says you have to be thirteen to sign up, and she doesn’t want to do the young writers thing, because she is thirteen by the end of November. She sent them an email, and if they say that she can’t do it, she is either going to say that she is thirteen, or just do it independatly
109- Do it independently. On MuseBlog, UnNaNos get just as much respect as official ones.
P. Panda,
I’ve been here for awhile, xept my blogging time is limited; long story short, my english teacher is expirimenting on how long it will take to kill twenty ordinary kids with homework. NEway, it would b soooo cool to attempt that. I think I’ll try [for xtra credit, and possibly less homework].
111 (MissSwann) – Now that you mention it, I think I do remember you. *looks up on who’s here.* You’ve been here since April. That sounds about right.
Well, you can keep the pie anyway
*sends another*
Yay, pie. Yummy. So, R U gonna try the total write a novel in a month thingy? I already have one started… if my bestseller-career works out, this is gonna b my first one out ‘much excitement’
113- you already started?
sigh. November will never come quick enough…
114- I know! I have so many good ideas! AAA!!!
On Halloween, school gets out at noon (Minimum Day). I’ll do my homework and go to bed super early so that I can wake up early and start work. Luckily, Nov. 1 is a day off from school, so hopefully I can build up some good momentum.
110- As the people at NaNo have not yet replied to Cinnamoon, she thinks she may have to, unless they reply soon.
(116) Lady CMoO, when I emailed NaNo in the past, they did get back to me after a few days.
Their responses may be even slower this year, as they’ve just completely overhauled their system, resulting in a variety of glitches, which in turn has probably greatly increased their email load — especially as they’ve been encouraging feedback.
Christ Baty, the founder of NaNo put it this way in an email sent out last month:
There really is no urgency. As long as you get signed in before the end of November, you can still submit your word count.
I really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really [645 reallys snipped. -PC, pretending to be Admin.] want to start writing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
[905 exclamation points snipped. -Sir Ozlips, also pretending to be GAPA]
118- what about oob? he needs to go on piceful pie. I have no socopelli team wuth out him/you.
I’m not quite doing it unofficially, but since I can’t seem to get the site to load I might as well be. It’s as long as What’s Here…or longer…
119- What has happened there lately?
121- check the theard!
I just had a better idea for a story!
The website takes so long to load, though. It annoys my pampered self.
I think I’m not actually gonna do my origional idea… I’ll do something else….
i’m gonna stick with my master/apprentice format. but i trash the rest.
118-i’m with you. without the reallys and !!!!!!
I don’t have many ideas. I’m thinking maybe have it a sci-fi fantasy thing.
I have a plan!!! Mwaahahahahaha.
I am outlining my awesome idea for you people;
there is this girl, right? and so she is like 13 and her mom is a slutty bum who works at a tanning salon. she lives in a tiny smelly apartment in NYC and she has 2 friends named Jessie and Coral. Her name is Ariel. The book starts when she is 10 years old and there are men following her, and she knows that they are the same, cuz they look the same. And one day they take her. She turns out to be a supersmart genius girl and she and 11 other kids of varying size culture and location are supposed to save another world. It’sactually way cooler than that, but that’s the carcass stripped to a skeleton for you.(nice metaphor by me)
No one has posted!!! (boohoo) *sending pie to the first person that posts in 5 minutes*
120, and others:
Yes, the site is taking eons to load. Apparantly they’re working on it…I haven’t been there for a few days, though, because it has been depressingly slow.
…but I’m probably just spoiled with relatively-fast internet.
130- I’m spoiled with DSL.
P. Panda, you do not get my pie.But now i feel sorry, so I’m sending u one. It’s strawberry rhubarb (fyi)
79 – Oh, yes, definitely. You’ll need a rest after that.
84 – You *may* not want them both to be “Academy.” Maybe Highlights School?
130 and 131 – ::is also spoiled with DSL/fast Internetness::
Still writing a fanfic right now….
I almost think I might maybe possibly be able to convince Mrs. Kennedy that the whole class should do it…but then I completely and totally doubt it.
Though I *will* be doing NaNo for my long term project for next year. Hopefully. I’m not sure Mrs. Monroe would go for it. She seems very strict, etc. Admittedly, I’ve never had class with here and it’s hard to tell with few meetings, but….
why do i feel that everyone here goes to the same school but me? does anyone have an evil science teacher?
134- Aye.
134- My science teacher is amazingly cool.
My science teacher is amizingly not cool. She would be better off teaching science to third graders [Ok, children,…take…out…your…pencil…Good…Job…here’s…a…happy…smiley…sticker…]
Hooray! I got my e-mail:
This email is being sent to you because you or someone who loves you put your email address in the “NaNoRemindMe” box of NaNoWriMo.org. This is the only email you will receive from us. Unless, of course, you sign up for National Novel Writing Month. Then you’ll get dozens of great emails, including pep talks from Neil Gaiman, Julianna Baggott, Sue Grafton, Naomi Novik, Garth Nix, Deanna Raybourn, Tom Robbins, and Sara Gruen. All for free. We’re a creative writing nonprofit. And we want you to write that book.
Garth Nix?! Yay! *is incredibly happy* Neil Gaiman! Now I’m really excited. And now I wish it was November.
138-*gasps* i’m getting the pep talks now
COUNTDOWN TO NANO
16days till START
I hate this! I had an idea all worked out for NaNo, and I was fine and dandy with a plot, characters and setting. But then I get this half-formed but GREAT GREAT GREAT idea that I’ll never finish planning by the time Nov. 1st rolls around. And I’m dissatisfied with my first idea now, even though it’s perfectly good! *scream of rage*
Like my new name?
I still can’t think of a plot. I suppose if I really put my mind to it I could think of a good one, but I’m always distracted and such.
::is still at the Muse Academy vs. Highlights School stage::
(140) Many people find they do worse with NaNo if they do too much advance planning. This was born out in my first NaNo group. Our hostess never decided on her subject until the last couple of days of October. She completed her 50,000 words year after year — they were well written, too.
In contrast, the guy who had done the most extensive planning abandoned his entire scenario as soon as November began. According to Chris Baty, NaNo’s founder, this is a common occurrence. His theory is that too much planning makes the story seem too Important and stifles the freedom that a 30-day novel is supposed to inspire.
As always, I encourage people to read Baty’s No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days. It’s funny as well as full of excellent advice.
Actually, I realized that if I want the countdown to reach zero on Nov.1, 16 days till Nov. 1 will be tomorrow. I’ll just leave this number up till the day after tomorrow.
A few code names for Nov. 1:
N-day
11/1
111
Triple Aces
Triple Ones
Triple Unum
Three Aces
Three Ones
Three Unum
The Big Tres Uno
I think I’m leaning toward N-day, but the Big Tres Uno has a certain charm, as does Triple Aces.
In that case, I will abandon Fourhenge till a later date and go with my QUAFIASCOEP idea.
I don’t want to do *too* much planning, but I do want to have at least an idea for my plot. Because then I’ll spend half of November thinking of a plot, and that wouldn’t help me write 50,000 words.
…I requested No Plot, No Problem! from the library last year mid-October, but it had so many holds that I never got it. I suppose I could buy it, but I’m not sure it’s worth it. Or is it?
(146) At the moment there are used copies on Amazon starting at $2.98 (plus $3.99 shipping).
All right, I’ve been able to whip out a plot that is slightly related to the idea in 2. It’s actually pretty good, but with only the very very very bare bones in place, I have lots of time for innovation.
I REALLY cannot WAIT for N-day.
What do you think of the ideas in 144?
We’ve also got to come up with the name for the end of NaNo.
0-day
11/30
Dark Thirty
I can’t think of any more.
Sorry about the multiple posts in a row. I’m just filled with ideas that explode out every few minutes. And really excited about Three Aces being so soon, as my name attests.
My plot is derived from a message on a tshirt…a really awesome tshirt.
Going with what Robert said and just cruising until November. ‘sall cool.
To the tune of “Blue Jay Way.”
A hwun, too, tharee, fowur…
All the GAPAs are in bed,
And the blog is somewhat dead,
No more moderation now,
Might as well go milk a cow.
Pleaaase… Doooon’t… Beeee… Looonnng..
Please don’t you be very long,
Or I may be a-sleeeep…
OK, this should really be on the Poems and Songs thread, but this is where it came to me. Sorry.
Nice song, PC. Luckily it’s not bedtime here in Germany so I can moderate your note. Or have you gone to milk a cow?
No definate plot yet…
My story is set on the world in the future. Global warming (or something- not sure yet) has caused water to rise so high that the whole land is really deep in water. A huge platform has been built across the whole earth. It’s like the earth was before- a almost perfect copy. However, it is mainly one city, with one wilderness, where no one wants to settle.
LC Moon o Orange, r u homeschooled? Have you possibly by any chance read any of Scott Westerfeld’s books?
154- A super-dense star with an irregular orbit has passed close to the solar system, flinging massive amounts of comets out of the Oort Cloud and hurtling them towards Earth. (This happened once in antiquity, inspiring beliefs about devastating floods in a multitude of cultures.) None of them were of dinosaur-killing proportions, but their combined payload of ice raised the sea level drastically, and one of the larger impacts tipped the Earth’s orbit so that the ice caps melted.
Amazing how fast I came up with a setting, characters, and beginning.
Dang. Now I want to use 156 myself. But CMoO can use it if she likes.
(158) I wouldn’t worry about it. Somehow I think you’d come up with very different novels.
159- Probably. Anyway, mine is a really weird fusion of fantasy and science fiction, which isn’t really conducive to that setting.
Are you entering, Rebecca? I know GAPAs sometimes do…
A few ideas.
On Triple Aces (Nov. 1st) this thread will be renamed NaNoWriMo. Then, on Dark Thirty (Nov. 30,) it will be renamed NaNoAfMa (NaNo AfterMath.)
Or the GAPAs could just create two other threads on those dates… but that seems like a waste of data.
Come to think of it, are any of the GAPAs entering?
Dang, I’ve been slipping into a habit of double posts recently. Especially on this thread. I’ll try to pack as much as I can into a single post.
Darn, I really want to get started. My idea is growing like a weed, and I’m afraid it’ll choke out all my other thoughts unless I can get it down on paper.
I think that the blog should close on the 1st and open back on the secound so we get a good start.
(160) I’ve entered the past two years. Won the first time, barely got off the ground last year as my schedule became way too complicated.
This year is even more insane. So naturally I signed up. Under two different names.* I am obviously certifiable. I don’t believe the other GAPAs have ever lost their reason in that particular manner. My plan is simply to freewrite and see what happens.
*No, I am not going to try to write two novels. Even I have more sense than that. (Only one of the names will get an actual word count.)
My schedule is unusually accomodating this year. I know an opportunity when I see one.
I have SO many ideas… I’ll wake up and have, like, whole passages running around my head and editing themselves. My plot may be a barren wasteland, but I know how I will explain the disappearance of magic on Earth, and the first paragraph of the prolouge, and how I will describe my characters, and who’s point of view will describe what, and on and on. It’s a totally subconcious sort of thing, too. I seem to have lost control. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if it carries on into November.
Wow I haven’t been on here in a while. Mostly because I only get on after school and all my ideas end up leaking out to whoever happens to be in my direct range of sight (once I started explaining the Ven’ziag wastelands to a senior I’d never even seen before… sigh…) and don’t need to be vented onto here. However, since everyone has started threatening to smack me if I don’t shut up about NaNo, I will make my best effort to hold it in ’til I get here.
I need a visual display of my mental activity on my forhead, so everyone will see that I am undergoing a system overload and shouldn’t be distrubed unless they want a lecture on the history of Earthian magic. LOL
144- Triple Ace all the way.
149- I rather like Dark Thirty.
152- LoL…. Hate it when it’s like that, and you’re, like, the only person on here.
So. Dark Thirty AKA X-day, and Triple Aces AKA N-day.
166- I really want to hear your ideas. If you ever feel like you’re going to explode unless you tell somebody, come here and post it.
There’s a NaNoEdMo (National Novel Editing Month) or something along those lines a few months after NaNoWriMo. But basically, after spending a solid month with my novel, I’m thoroughly sick of it and don’t even want to think about it again for at least three months.
Since there is no more moderation until morning, I shall change my name now.
The names of my characters.
Selena Rothschild
Benjamin Rothschild
Maxwell Caraway
These are the major ones so far.
Here are my character ideas;
Ariel Downeing
Coral Knifeblood
Jessie McKorkpack
Jew Drawn
Dan Orchid
The name “Coral Knifeblood” seems a little Mary Sueish, otherwise I like them.
167- I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.
My characters (so far):
Kay Silvertongue
Alison Hawkbit
Josh Hawkbit
Percy Forman
Jasper Nightwhisper
Quinton Nightwhisper
Note that names are subject to change without notice- particularly last names.
Ok, so, on the Earth/Excelsior thing… They grew up “together,” like all parallel universes. So they have stronger connections and such. Anyway, with PUs, the world barriers had various unstable connections so various elements of language, life forms, magic, and so forth were mixed between the two worlds- hence, the huge amount of Human Lore on Excelsior, and Vampire/Werewolf Lore on Earth. So, after the WBs settled down and became more stable, the worlds continued to grow off in different directions, though they maintained their connections.
Please note that Excelsiorian Humans are quite different from Earthian humans. Although they look rather the same, there are various subtle differences between the two species. On Earth, an Excelsiorian Human would be classified as an “elf,” although this is considered a somewhat degrading classification as true elves are small, annoying sprites that like nothing more than to wreak havoc. Fortunately there aren’t any on either Earth or Excelsior, but most every trans-world sorcerer has met a troupe of them at least once. Anyway, the Excelsiorian Human is generally referred to as a Sorcerer or Magician, since they nearly all have at least some magical ability, to avoid confusion.
Earth, however, was originally a non-magical world. So any magic genes in the Humans was inherited from non-human parents. So, after a while, the M gene started dying out. Because, obviously, there was minimal contact with non-humans. Therefor, magic began to die out, and, like legends of Vampires and Werewolves, was written off as a wistful myth.
Which is how Earth got to where it is today, what with electricity and fossil fuels taking the place of magic. A few Humans, however, still posses an active M gene, and these few are either recognized as geniuses and receive money and fame, or written off as loonies and chucked in mad houses. A good deal more merely carry the gene, and, theoretically, this gene would switch on if exposed to high levels of magic from an exterior source, whether it was gradual exposure or a huge amount all at one time. In which case, it would be possible to return magic to Earth through a strategic placement of Sorcerers and Vampires (Werewolves, too, if they would agree to cooperate with the Vampires, who are their sworn enemies).
This is, in fact, a long-term goal of the Vampier-Sorcerer Society of North Excelsior (VSSE), a coalition founded .. well, a long time ago, which has lasted until the present day.
[pauses to catch breath]
On Excelsior, there are three dominant species of intelligent creatures: Sorcerers, Vampires, and Werewolves, which make up about 90% of the population (Vamps and Weres alone make up 80%). Other intelligent species are: Nightmares, Unicorns, and Half-Humans (9%), as well as the occasional Fairy (1%). Total, there are about 2 billion intelligent creatures in Excelsior (which is a little larger than Earth), divided up somewhat unevenly between the North Continent and the South Continent (South is the more heavily populated, though North is home to the largest Vampiric Colony (known unofficially as the Royal House)).
Earth has only one dominant intelligent species, Humans, and no subdominant intelligent species. It has a total population of about 6 billion. As you all know, I hope.
Can’t tell from this box, but I think this is getting kinda long.
:idea:TNÖ:idea:
Very nice.
The Vampires and Werewolves/bitter enemies thing, however, seems to immediately brand your story with the stamp of a bad horror movie. I’m not saying it would be- in fact, if you do it well, it could be a quite excellent piece of writing. But that’s the prejudice most people have in mind. You might want to think about that.
Sorry, that sounded kind of mean. Again, it’s not my opinion, it’s just the opinion that I think a lot of people would have.
Terribly sorry for the (possible) double post, but I’m exploding at the moment.
Vampires:
Vampires live in colonies, which are controlled by what would be called “Lords” here on Earth. The leaders are generally voted upon, and usually end up being the cleverest Vamp in the colony. There’s not really a name for them on Excelsior. Anyway, the Royal House in the North is somewhat different. One, it’s the biggest colony, and two, it’s leaders are formally addressed as the “King” and “Queen”, since this colony holds sway over all the other colonies.
Vampires can come into existence two ways… one being the universal way for that sort of thing (cough) and the other being the so-called infection of a Human (whether Earthian or Excelsiorian). The Vampires have a pact with the Sorcerers (VSSNE, see previous post) and with the Nightmares (the Vampiric calvary rides Nightmares to battle). They’re also the sworn enemies of the Werewolves; reasons discussed later.
Vampires look like tall humans with pointed teeth and green eyes. They all have large talents for magic; whether they use it is entirely up to the individual.
Werewolves:
Werewolves live in tribes of about twenty-five or thirty; there are 46 tribes in all. Primarily they dwell in the Southern areas, though some have been known to inhabit the far North. The tribes are controlled by an Alpha wolf, who is typically the strongest of the lot. The Alpha wolves keep in contact with each other through telepathy. When an issue comes up, they bicker about it until they come to an agreement and then they act upon that agreement.
The Werewolves have allied themselves with the Unicorns (the Werewolvian-Unicornian Coalition for the Destruction of the Vampiric Race (WUCDVR)). They are also the sworn enemies of the Vampires; reasons discussed later.
Werewolves have two forms; one being a (very hairy) human-like shape, the other being that of a giant wolf.
Nightmare/Unicorns:
These two closely related species stand on opposite sides of the war between light and dark (the denotative meanings, not the connotative ones, mind you). Unicorns are harbingers of sunlight, while Nightmares leave trails of shadow behind them. Naturally, they have never managed to get along very well; war was officially declared shortly before Excelsior and Earth’s barriers were stabilized. They’ve allied themselves with the other warring races on Excelsior, the Vamps and the Weres.
Vampire/Werewolf relations:
Both races despise each other for various reasons. While Vampires are patient, calm, and thoughtful, Werewolves are impatient, hotheaded, and generally don’t stop to consider anything. Also, Vampires live a lot longer (indefinitely, even, if they aren’t killed accidentally, or by werewolves) than Werewolves do, so it’s possible that the Werewolves (who have an average life-span of about 100 years) resent the Vampires for this reason. Then there’s the fact that they have different lifestyles, a cause of frequent clashings even before war was declared. Their quarrel goes back longer than anyone can remember; war was declared about 3,000 years before the Unicorn/Nightmare war.
And on a slightly unrelated note…
Types of Magic (ranked from weakest to strongest)
1. Spot-on-Wall Magic: useless magic. Usually it only presents with one talent. Ranks a 1 on the Magic scale (see below)
2. Labor Magic: magic that is applicable only to everyday tasks. Usually presents with one or two talents. Ranks a 2 on the Magic scale.
3. Battle Magic: magic that is applicable only to battle. Usually presents with one or two talents. Ranks a 2 on the Magic scale.
4. Sorcerer’s Magic: magic that is applicable to various life situations, from everyday to battle to recreational. Usually presents with various talents. Ranks a 3 on the Magic scale.
5. Royal Magic: stronger version of Sorcerer’s Magic. Ranks a 4 on the Magic scale.
6. Molder’s Magic: the rarest of all magical types. Presents with Royal Magic and the ability to join, manipulate, and carry around various elements (such as fire, water, electricity, etc.); must be in contact with the element to join, manipulate, or “pick up”. Ranks a 5 on the Magic scale.
The Magic Scale:
1… Magic that is useless and has no application.
2… Magic that has limited applications.
3… Magic that has various applications and can safely travel trans-time or location.
4… Magic that has various applications and can safely travel trans-world, time, or location.
5… Molder-caliber magic.
Molding:
Currently there is only one Molder in existence (Kay Silvertongue). Molding is defined as: “The ability to, when in contact with a substance, slide into it and become the substance in question, or to manipulate it, or to translate it’s essence onto the skin to be used in the future.” The term “substances” includes insubstantial things, such as electricity and fire. “Translating an essence” is a trick that actually causes the essence of the substance to be imprinted onto another object, usually the skin, so that it can be used at any time. Most essence translations were done onto the forearm of the non-dominant arm. Molding often presents with Royal Magic as well.
Kay Silvertongue:
Is the general of the Vampiric Army and heir to the throne through marriage. Also the only known Molder currently in existence. She has the typical essence translations on her left forearm, and also shadow essence translation all the way down her right arm. A rare Vampire blood/bone disorder caused the bones of her right hand to grow seven small ruby-colored crystals.
Wow that took a long time to type. I’m really done now. For how long I’m not sure.
:idea:TNÖ:idea:
174- Quite all right, and very true, of course. The whole thing isn’t going to play a very big part at all. It’ll just be mentioned in passing while one of the Vampires explains the history of Excelsior to my Humans.
Actually, a lot of this stuff will probably only be mentioned in passing. It’s just… nice to know about the world(s) my story takes place in, y’know?
176- It takes a lot of effort for me not to make up everything about the world my story will take place in. I figure NaNo will be more fun for me and give me more latitude that way.
175- Now that you’ve described it, it seems far less clichéd. Very imaginative.
One thing: Kay seems a bit Mary Sueish (heir to the throne, general of an army, only known Molder). I think it would greatly improve her character if the disorder that caused those crystals also gives her some sort of disability (magic-related?) that she struggles to cope with and tries to conceal from all but a trusted few. That would give her a lot more depth.
177- I’m working on that. Give me a couple hours, I’ll have it.
Idea! A novel set in an underground city somewhat like the catacombs under Paris. Adventures ensue. It’s a rough notion, but it would be fun to write about.
179- Of course, you’d have to work out whether it happens in our world, in another, what time period, etc. But it still sounds good.
178- Excellent.
One question for TNÖ. Do the Vampires drink blood?
See my name, and add 100 exclamation points.
Yeah, I’m excited. Why do you ask?
And my major villain(ess):
Naphtha Rothschild
181- Good question. I’m leaning toward yes, they do drink blood, and they have to in order to stay alive. Doesn’t necessarily have to be human blood though. Still a little iffy on that point though.
More about Kay, and the problem of her apparent lack of problems:
So, let’s say the blood/bone disorder thingy, aside from the more permanent crystals that grew when she was still growing, causes less-than-permanent crystals to grow out of various bones and such. They last about a week (maybe longer) and can cause mild discomfort, intense pain, or decrease maneuverability, mostly depending on where they are. Like, you know, crystals on the joints would cause pain and restrict movement, and crystals in places with very sensitive nerves would be extremely painful, particularly if they were large. (Good idea w/ the disorder, PC, I’d never thought of that).
Also, there’s the fact that Moldering uses an incredible amount of energy so Molders would have to eat a good deal more than everyone else just to keep from withering away and dying. So obviously, what with Molding and her Vampiric duties, she’s using a huge amount of energy and has to eat a lot. Which puts her at a disadvantage because, well, eating takes time. You know?
Not to mention the incredible amount of STRESS that would result from, well, everything.
:idea:TNÖ:idea:
Ack. Quadruple posts. I really need to stop this habit.
Almost quadruple posts.
183- That’s the sweetest evil name I have ever heard.
Vampire diets, updated:
Vampires require the same basic nutrients/vitamins/etc. as Humans do. Additionally, they need blood about once a week (two would be ok; three is pushing it). The blood doesn’t necessarily have to be Human blood, though Human is more, uh, sustaining.
I’m excited, too! It’s so soon!!!
My novel’s going to be set in the future, and it’s going to be about a group of pirate-people rebelling against an opressing group of rich-people. I think…
I, however, have come up with a (Not-so-amusing) pun. The main character is going to be called Zea Mays (Or Zee May, I guess, if it’s too obvious), and she will have belonged to a family who owned much of the corn feilds in the world (Corn being the new fuel b/c of global warming–now only incredibly rich people use gas for luxury). For those who don’t know, Zea Mays is the scientific name for corn… (Yes, I thought this up in science class–yes, I was bored)
lol.
155- No, and no.
156- Good idea. Must think about that.
I’m not going to plan to deeply. I’m going to get my characters completely planned, and my world, and a basic plot, but then just see what the characters want to do.
We have a week and three days off, starting on Saturday, so I’ll probably do most of my planning then.
Boredom plants the seeds of greatness and inspiration. *rolls eyes*
189- Why on earth do you have that much time off?
Ven’ziag:
Ven’ziag Humans are generally a weak lot, since they’re enslaved by the Droids and forced to work about 18 hours a day. Like Excelsiorian Humans, they are a lot like Earthian Humans with slight differences. On Earth, they’d be called “dwarves.”
More later; class is over.
Home now.
Ven’ziag (continued):
However, true dwarves are actually more mole-like than human-like. The actual term for a Ven’ziagian Human is “Flore”.
Ven’ziag was also rather close to Earth in it’s early stages; Homo Florensis is supposed by Magiologists to be a primitive descendant of the Flores. They have very little or no magical talent, though they are by far the most technologically advanced race. Sadly, the droids they created revolted long ago and now control Ven’ziag.
More on Fairies:
Fairies are the rarest creature on Excelsior. They live primarily in the thick, lush forests of the Upper South Continent (there will eventually be other names for the continents; bear with me). Fairies range in size from two feet tall to about four. They are furry, with mottled green/brown hair. Their eyes are generally electric blue or purple. Contrary to popular legend, they are wingless and don’t spend their time playing tricks and otherwise amusing themselves. Instead, they spend a decent percentage of their time creating the so-called “dragon metal,” which is arguably the strongest type of steel around. They do a roaring trade with both the Werewolves and the Vampires, who use the steel to forge swords and such.
Dragon Metal:
So-called because it is the only known substance harder than a dragon’s scales. Also known as Diamond Steel. It’s highly valued by the inhabitants of Excelsior, since it remains sharp long after another blade would have dulled and is very conductive for magic (so it can be charmed/cursed very easily and retain that charm/curse for a long time).
Dragons:
Dragons are only found in a few worlds; Iz is the largest of them and is the only world populated solely by dragons. Dragons are divided up into the following subspecies:
Wyrm: Lithe, wingless dragon that dwells in marshy areas.
Wyvern: Two-legged, winged dragon that lives in deserts or steppes.
Pfenx: The only type of feathered dragon. Mythological Phoenix is probably derived from this creature. Lives in forested areas.
Drake: Four-legged, winged dragon that lives in the mountains. Only fire breathing type of dragon.
Drakin: Humanoid dragon. Lives in all habitats; prefers coastal areas.
All Dragons possess magic. Drakins are widely recognized as being some of the best Magiologists in the worlds; however, they have been known to look down upon those who still use what they call “archaic magistics;” that is, magic that disobeys the laws of science (conjuring, magical healing, vanishing, etc).
I’m in a very semi-colonish mood today.
:idea:TNÖ:idea:
l’m starting NaNo for the first tiime ever. My No is going to be about… it’ll sound corny, and lt’s not what you’d expect.
172- Coral is a street fighter that was abandoned at instant of birth, leaving her to choose her own name.
TNO, have you read Twilight by Stephenie Meyer? Cuz, no offense dude, but i kiiiiinda hints that you might have.
193- Aw, come on, tell us!
Excelsior’s Geography:
There are
twofour continents, Wrast in the North, Zeph in the South, Qwål in the Far North, and Tryst in the East.Wrast:
Wrast is arid and cold. There are three mountain ranges; the Windwaters, the Sentinels, and the Bitterroots. The Windwater Mountains are the highest and take up much of the western edge of Wrast. The Sentinel Mountains run along the edge of the Excaberan Desert in the center of the continent. The Bitterroot Mountain range is the smallest, and runs along the eastern half of the southern coast.
The Excaberan Desert is almost completely devoid of life of any kind. The wind almost never stops blowing. It’s rumored that a colony of rouge Vampires live in an underground lair beneath the desert, but most believe that this is quite untrue.
On the upper reaches of the Windwater Mountains there is snow year-round. (an Excelsiorian year, by the way, lasts 14 months, not 12 like ours). Below the snow is a heavily forested area which is home to an enormous variety of animals. The Windwaters seen from above look something like a thick band of white with a large green and blue oblong in the center. In the oblong, there is an enormous lake, called the Ligacus.The Royal House resides in the area surrounding the lake. There is a single pass out of the oblong that remains relatively open throughout the entire year. The location of this pass is a heavily guarded secret.
The Carn River flows across the entire continent, in a South-easterly sort of direction.
Zeph:
This is a warm, humid land. The northern half of the continent is almost wholly taken up by the Ayuian Rainforest, which is home to almost all of Excelsior’s Fairies. The Wabash River flows through the west part of rainforest, and is used by the Werewolves as a way to access Wrast.
Below the rainforest stretches a great plain, sparsely forested. A small range of mountains, the Uyoni Mountains, loops through the plain. The Werewolf tribes live on this plain and in the mountains.
Water is scarce in the southern region, but there is a large lake close to the southern coast. It’s known as Lake T’ana.
Qwål:
A small continent covered in ice and snow year-round. It’s a harsh environment, but several Vampire colonies and Werewolf tribes scrape out a living near the coast.
Tryst:
A large continent, Tryst is inhabited almost exclusively by Sorcerers. It’s the most similar landscape to Earth, although much of it is still uninhabited. There are no mountains, but the whole continent is covered with gently rolling hills.
Ocean:
Unlike Earthians, the inhabitants of Excelsior cleverly didn’t name one body of water several different things in several different locations. The one ocean is called Øpoutv.
:idea:TNÖ:idea:
184- Call the disorder Garnet Syndrome.
Uh, double post, sorry.
Excelsiorian year: 14 months/112 weeks/532 days
Excelsiorian month: 38 days
Excelsiorian week: 4.75 days (see below)
Excelsiorian day: 31 hours
Hours are the same.
So an Excelsiorian year = about 16,492 hours, or about 687 Earth days, or 98 Earth weeks, if I did my math correctly.
Weeks:
Are 4.75 days long. This may seem confusing to us 7 day week people, but it does make a good deal of sense. One must keep in mind the huge amount of magic in the Excelsiorian troposphere. This magic causes the light to change in an almost indescribable way (you’d know it if you were there to witness it) about every 1/4 of a day. It’s unclear why, though Magiologists are attempting to find out.
:idea:TNÖ:idea:
URg. Fine.
lt’s a tale of the life of virtual agagabagabag.
Blahahahaha! I just remembered to tell everybody that I posted the first part of my NaNo on the Muse Fanfic thread. Yes, I’m a horrible person.
198- Not so corny. It sounds like it’d be an interesting read.
196- Garnet Syndrome… Huh. I like it.
Yes! He is sent to pie isle from boshire as a baby in a pie tin, because of evilus attacking Factoidia. l’m making a map of his travels.
194- Yeah… like last year sometime… Why? Because of the blood thing?
More ideas! this is crazy…
Garnet Syndrome:
Is a rare disorder that only affects Vampires. It causes small crystals ranging from deep red to bright green in color to sprout from various bones. Symptoms generally begin at early ages and continue until death. During early development there are very few crystals, but they can perforate the skin and become harder and more substantial. In later years, the crystals cease to punch through and usually dissolve after a few days. While they’re there, however, they cause pain and can restrict maneuverability.
Additional symptoms can include poor circulation, stunted growth, weak bone structure, and mild internal bleeding. These symptoms, however, are very rarely found all at once; generally Garnet Syndrome presents with only one or two in each individual.
Garnet Syndrome afflicts about one out of every million or so Vampires.
:idea:TNÖ:idea:
201- Sounds good.
190- Well, we have to make up for only having five and 1/2 weeks in the summer sometime, don’t we? We get a week in October, a week in February, and a week in June. Of course, you’re all already out in June, but it’s nice.
202- No, more like the whole vampire/werewolf thingy…
131-Isn’t DSL supposed to be slow? (I mean, the Slowsky’s use it!!!
I’ve gotten a lot more ideas for my book. This is absolutely excellent.
205- Ah, I see.
I think I’m going to die. I don’t have a computer, so I can’t do NaNo (unless I get a computer before Triple Aces), but think how amazing it would be if I did get a computer in time. What a story I could tell! Only 15 days after the fire, I sat down at my little laptop and wrote 50,000 words in a month…
I should really rewrite TMW or TBL or even just stick with WoW, but I have an idea that’s pushing itself up through the layers of dust in my mind… I probably won’t write it though because I wouldn’t wankt anyone to read it just yet. I’d have to hold it for about two years before I could bear to let anyone see it. I’ll just stick with West of West or maybe even ignore all my plans and write it from a little idea I had a while ago (I posted about it too).
208- *sympathy*
173/related posts- I like the way your story sounds. I’m looking forward to reading it after november
And AHH Jasper=sexy name. XD
208- If there’s anything I can do… There probably isn’t, but still…
208-Yeah, I couldn’t do any of my NaNo without a computor.
My hand would probably fall off if I wrote my whole NaNo. I’m very thankful for computers…
Do your local libraries have computers? It wouldn’t be the greatest, but it might be better than nothing…
QUAFIASCOEP stands for Quilters United For Investigation And Secure Containment Of Extramundane Phenomena. Other names include the Quetzal Society, Fiasco, and “#&(%@ narrow-headed scum.” (The latter most commonly used among the Unravelers’ Association.)
More detail later.
I wrote all of what I had of Nano done last year. I wrote it, then typed it up. Ahh it was hard. You could see the spikes in my word count from the days between having time to type up what I’d written. I may do more actually composing on the computer this year.
210- Why thank you. *hem* “sexy name”?
I’m changing my name now on the assumption that there’s no more moderation.
My ideas are still half-baked, so I won’t post them here yet. In fact, I probably won’t post them here at all.
210-I agree w. the jasper thing (he’s a guy in my class siiiggghhh…)
Oh, nevermind.
I’ve got to work out the history for my book, which is going to be very very tricky.
My mental auditors have scrapped QUAFIASCOEP on grounds of being too action-filmy and thrown my Fourhenge outline back on my desk with instructions to “write it or else.” Change of plan.
I’ve figured out my first sentence and most of my first chapter, but I can’t write it down because that would be cheating. This is very frustrating. I want to write!
216-
It’s probably my favorite guy name. I don’t actually know anyone with that name though 
Though I suppose that’s good, because there’s a fixed image in my mind of what one would look like and I don’t need any actual people spoiling it.
I have someone in my story named that, actually he’s an alias of Shadow.
AND YES IT IS SEXY TO THE UTMOST. thankyou.
223- You recall “Jasper E.”?
IM IN UR BLOG
DOIN UR NANO
Silly catchphrases aside, I am so PUMPED for this year. It’s actually kind of amusing how amazingly PUMPED I am. I am so PUMPED that I have to make SILLY POSTS about IT and CAPITALIZE random WORDS.
TL;DR AHOY, BTW
The Golden People: Necromancy and fairies and steampunk, oh my!
Once upon a time in a glorious land that doesn’t actually exist, there was a desert called the ChÅ. Their main source of power is steam, and steam, as you all should know, is made of water. Thus, whoever controls the desert’s water controls the desert itself, so the region is constantly waging bitter civil wars. Alliances flow like water, and dry up just as fast in the hot desert sun.
In the middle of all this turmoil rise the cities and the railroads, their expansion delaying for battle but never stopping. The cities are built of sand and stone and steel, with high walls that keep out both sandstorms and bullets, and the railroad tracks cut through war zones and spread the wealth of the sedentary city-dwellers to the nomads that still fight each other for oases. It is a grand vision, and one that can only be achieved with a good deal of money and as much magic as it is possible to find.
Enter Kovro, a refugee fleeing with her family from the massacre of her tribe. Kovro is not at all like the thousands of other nomads pouring into the cities, away from the war; she is gifted with psychic necroloquy–in other words, she can read the future by talking to the dead. Psychic powers alone would be enough to earn Kovro an honored place by the ruler of any city, but if they learn she is a necromancer she will never be allowed to leave. The desert’s dead have many secrets, and the city that controlled someone who could speak to them would wield unimaginable power. Kovro must tread carefully to avoid her own death.
But this is not Kovro’s story, at least not primarily. It is told through the eyes of her older sister Iyura, a young woman both fascinated and repulsed by her sister’s power. But it’s her own abilities she should worry about–it seems almost certain that they will drive her insane. Determined to bring her family safely behind city walls, Iyura may be sacrificing something even more important.
Also featured is Ttare (double consonant intentional), an exiled fighter from the far north, beyond the seemingly endless desert. Without magical ability, the only way for him to rise in the fiercely competitive culture of the desert is to fight, which he does exceedingly well and for the highest bidder.
There are Ezel and Ghoril, two friends who have been tracking Ezel’s missing twin brother Shaith for a year. They are beginning to lose hope that he is alive, but there are important things they must ask him. Their only hope now is necroloquy, if only they could find a necromancer willing to find Shaith…and if they are willing to pay the price.
These lives and many more will converge in Mezhat, the Golden City. And it is Mezhat that will ultimately save them or destroy them completely.
Ahaha I sound like a really long overdramatic flap copy. Lawlz. Fairies not yet mentioned for fear of SPOILAZ. And because I kind of don’t know what I’m doing with them yet.
Just typing out this summary has made me even more excited for November. Ooh, I know! I can get high on Halloween candy and then commence the mad typing at exactly midnight on November 1st.
I vote (not that we were voting) we get a new thread once the Dread Month rolls around, so 1) Nano gets more front page space, 2) this thread doesn’t get too unwieldy for those of us with dialup, and 3) we can angst about how pitifully short we are of our word counts on a happy shiny special lovely new thread!
Oh, and this post is 700 words long, counting this bit. I wish it were as easy to write novels as it was to write Museblog posts.
223- What about Trevor? sorry.
How duz one enter NaNo?
Hmph. I’m mad. Honestly, I don’t see what difference twenty seven days makes to how well I can write. It’s not like when I turn thirteen, 27 days after the start of nano, I’ll suddenly be able to write much better than before. But no, I’m still twelve, so I CAN’T SIGN UP! And I’m NOT doing the young writers program. I’m just going to write anyway, and then sign up on the 27th of November.
227- Just put your age down as 13! The computer won’t know the difference!
I agree with CH3CH(CH3)CH(CH3)CH2CH3, the molecule in which the longest chain consists of five carbon atoms, and there is a methyl group attached to the second carbon and a second methyl group attached to the third carbon. Let’s have a new thread on Triple Aces.
224- Yes you nasty liar
Getting my hopes up that there was an actual person named Jasper here *sticks out tounge*
225- Sounds good. It’s insanely easier for me to write in the museblog comment box than in a word document. I can get a ton of writting done in the inch and a half of space… see the Writing chalenge thread for proof. I did about 1,800 words in one go on there O.O
230- I don’t even have Word. Just WordPad, which is
But I will still be doing NaNo! And I may name one of my characters Jasper.
Currently I am working out the geography of the Dreamtime.
Good lord. You have my sympathy.
Urg. lt’s most likely that my Novel will be for 2008.
Ah, I’m chucking the Algebra thing. It’s NOT working.
228- I would, but I have an over reacting consience. I wouldn’t be able to sleep until I’d unsigned from it.
(234) No shame in that. Anyway, you’ll still be able to sign up with time to spare.
234- Yay for overly sensitive consiences! There’s a shortage of those in the world, unfortunately.
236- My conscience, while overly sensitive in other areas, has no qualms about fooling inanimate objects.
9 days until Triple Aces! I’m very excited!
I have, however, a slight problem. Whenever I attempt to develop the Dreamtime, it starts looking uncomfortably like Leven Thumps.
Perhaps I’ll scrap both ideas and work on a humorous science-fiction story or something.
230- OOH! You could write in the comments box and transfer it into Word!
OHMYGODDEARLORDHELPME! How am I going to write WoW with TMW and at least one other story banging on the inside of my head? Maybe I’ll work on those now.
Truth be told, WoW hasn’t been trying to get out of my head at ALL lately! Everything else has started up again (with a great deal of screeching and rust), but the novel that I want to fly out of the tips of my fingers is contentedly napping in the corner of my brain. DRAT!
Should I write the plotless idea that’s been wiggling around for a week or so? Or should I just cling to Fairyland and hope for the best? Or should I rewrite Makepeace? Or should I do ALL THREE? Advice?
231- Did ‘E’ stand for anything, by the way?
239- Haha, I should. Another Nano first, First To Type It All In A Inch by Three-and-a-Half-Inch Box.
239- Maybe you should edit the plots a little bit, and fit them together so they’re one story. Does this mean you have a computer to write it on?
OHOHOH pwnage i finally have a PLOT ok there is this world that needs to be saved and there is magic and stuff and the people are short and with out them the world as we know it will DESINTIGRATE
242- I wouldn’t call that a PLOT.
I’ve decided to do Fourhenge and make it as original as possible.
It is SO a plot [pies all who disagree]
Or perhaps… I have an idea but not even the barest bones of a plot. It’s sort of a cross between alternative history and fantasy… like JS&MN. Only different, hopefully.
I’ll probably do Fourhenge, anyway.
244- Who’s the protagonist? Who’s the antagonist? Which world needs to be saved- ours or another? What is the “stuff” you refer to? Why are the people short and what does that have to do with their being necessary to the non-disintegrated state of the world? (etc., etc.)
A week! Only a week!
I do all my writing in TextEdit. Dunno why, I just like TE better than Word or Appleworks. Sigh…
244- The idea of having a world with magic and *stuff* that needs to be *saved* by a race of *little people* SO does not constitute a plot. Just because you chucked a bit of pastry at me ‘n’ PC and anyone who disagrees with you and did not post also SO does not make it a plot. What you have there is a story idea. Which is SO not the same thing.
245- Please do Fourhenge, I’m dying to read it!
:idea:TNÖ:idea:
246- Your endorsement clinched it, Madam Name-Copier. I shall do Fourhenge.
241- It means nothing of the sort. It means that I’m hoping to get a computer in time and if I don’t then I’ll use all my lunch breaks and my tutorials and my hour-long sessions at the library to write it on MB or NaNo.
And I don’t really think I can edit them to make one book. One’s a sort of epic fantasy, one’s about Fairyland, and the other’s completely and utterly politics and adventure with no fantasy whatsoever. I’ll probably do WoW.
One week! I am PSYCHED!
The Dreamtime’s time is perpendicular to ours. That is to say, it continues, but not with any relation to that of Waketime. The dream of a Mesopotamian farmer and the dream of an astronaut headed for Mars might emerge from a dream volcano at the same moment. Thus, when Gorlois came to power and the other Inspirators were shut out of Dreamtime, it did not suddenly preclude all dreams after a certain point from being manipulated by any Inspirator except Gorlois. That would have flung civilization into chaos within weeks. However, the longer Gorlois rules, the darker the collective dreams of mankind throughout history get.
Trained Inspirators could enter Dreamtime at any point in its history. When the last Henge was put into place, all Inspirators inside Dreamtime lost their power to travel between worlds with any degree of precision. They woke up the next morning, never to dream lucidly again. And eventually they forgot what they had been. Those outside Dreamtime were spared that at least, but they too lost the ability to enter it.
The Immortal Four were too powerful to be kept out by the Henges, however, so Gorlois decided to finish them off. He used forbidden arts of Nightmare to consume their dreams and use them to strengthen the Henges.
Merlin, however, saw what was coming, having had a close acquaintance with Gorlois in Waketime. Because of that very friendship, however, he knew he wasn’t safe either dreaming or waking. So he created a conglomeration of counterfeit dreams and placed them in his Dreamtime persona, hoping it would fool Gorlois. He then placed his true dreams (what we would call a soul) in a book in Waketime, hoping to eventually come across someone with a sizable amount of Inspirator potential and help them to bring down Gorlois.
245- If you look at my previous posts,you shall know the protagonist. Yet, I shall give you a more complex plot anyhow (that sentence was so ungramaticall it wasn’t even funny).
Characters:
(protagonist) Ariel Downeing
(protagonistics) Coral Knifeblood
Jessie McKorkpack
Jew Drawn
Dan Orchid
Enny Leru
Kora Limille
Emile Lirk
Jed Ohra
Lippy Ourna
Sira Ourna
Gerald Hor
Chen Kei
Preez Xavier Forks
Delilah
Murosey
Keliadra
Murk
Nuk
the Squad
(antagonist) ??? (for NOW)
(antagonistics)
the Men (no names)
Angela Hales
Annie Farley
Ihk van Keo
ARIEL DOWNEING: Ariel is a 14 year old girl who lives in the ‘dumpy’ part of New York. She lives with her mom, Jane Downeing, who is the most irresponsible mother alive. She is a slutty bum who works at a tannin salon and is always switching boyfriends. Drunk, all the time. Ariel was raised to be irresponsible and bratty; the only reason she lives with Jane is because she and her boyfriend picked names out of a hat, and Ari had to go with jane. Ariel does not do that well in her studies, but has a rapier wit vocabulary and does surprisingly well at math, when she wants to. Sarcasm is her stronger point, and always takes chances to excercise it.
ARIEL’S FRIENDS
CORAL KNIFEBLOOD(somewhere around 14): Coral has no idea who her parents are, because they abandoned her when she was 3. On the streets. Some guys found and raised her, but when she was 6, they began to abuse her, and she killed them. She chose her last name Knifeblood, because she liked the way the guy’s bloodlooked on the knife. The guys named her Coral. She lives on the street, eating what she can,and lives in a makeshift hut (out of cardboard and such) down a dark alleyway. Doesn’t go to school, steals a lot, the gov. doesn’t know she exists, etc. The only reason she is friends w. Ariel is because she saved her from some muggers one time. Don’t worry, she hasn’t killed since the guys that raised her. Basically, she is Ariel’s BFF.
JESSIE MCKORKPACK(14): Jessie is a scaterbrained punk girl that is Ariel’s other BFF. She dresses like a goth and paints her nails acid green and dyes her hair purple, etc. She isn’t that smart, and works with Ari a lot in math to help her. She is bubbl and upbeat when it’s only Ari and Coral, but supposedly mopey when others are around. She and Coral have a love-hate relationship. Her mom, Jackie, tries to be a good mom, etc., but is a crack addict and alchohol addict. So, not so good mom.And she sucks at cooking.
THE GENIOUS KIDS
JEW DRAWN(14): Jew is a good-girl type, and was raised to be so. Her mom is a college proffessor, and her dad is a scientist. She was sent to aschool for gifted children, until the Headmaster recognised her talents for genious.Ari thinks her fashion sense is ‘so 1930s’.
DAN ORCHID(15): Dan is a nice kid, the perfect boyfriend guy. He has a good sense of humor. His mum had him in a private school until she couldn’t afford it. Then they recognised him as Genious.
PREEZ XAVIER FORKS (13): Preez is a proper young man. he insists everyone call him Xavier II. His father was very rich, and is the type of guy who marries and divorces amillion times.
ENNY LERU(8): Enny is hyper and energetic. She rocked her public school science class until she was Genioused. she luuurves to blow stuff up.
LIPPY OURNA (9): Lippy is best friends with Enny. Not as hyper, but still a little, she is stealthy and furtive, likes to put tacks on stools, etc.
SIRA OURNA(11): Sira is the elder sister of Lippy, and take care of her. Bumped from foster home to foster home, she nor her sister had much schooling. Yet she is still Genious. Very mature for her age, she lectures Lippy a lot.
CHEN KEI(12): Chen is very intelligent, and rather arrogant. Of Chinese background, he emits in spurts of backwards Mandarin a lot.
GERALD HOR(15): Gerald likes electronics, and invents a lot. He is a ‘typical boy’, though he is a Genious. He shows a few minor signs of ‘wantintg’ Ariel.
JED OHRA(12): He is best friends wit Chen. He is exactly like Chen, only Spanish.
EMILE LIRK(10): He likes hiking and cooking. A typical, sweet little boy. Is young for his age, and has a speaking disorder(lisp)
KORA LIMILLE: She likes and is very good at sports. She is very braggartish about it.
JIHILIANS
DELILAH: She considers herself as a sort of mother for Ariel. Always looking out for her, she tells Ariel the story of Why.
MUROSEY: Heis the Jihilian king, and fanciesDelilah. Wise and young, he rules with kindness.
MURK: A yong and very handsome guard to Murosey.
NUK: Younger brother of Murk. Training to be a guard, the less attractive apprentice is often overlooked.
KELIADRA: Murosey’s betrothed; though she fancies Murk. Is nice to Ari, though is jealous when she notices Murk giving Ari goo-goo eyes.
THE SQUAD
JON YURKI: A nice man is his early forties; personally tells Ariel the whole shebang.
THE REST OF THE SQUAD: The Squad’s job is to snatch Geni from their homes and cover it up so parents think their kids died or something. When they don’t work, they live at the academy for geni, living likeany other dude or gal.
ANTAGONIST: ??? (to be announced)
ANTAGONISTICS: IHK VAN KEO: Has a French accent; is second in command to ???.
ANNIE FARLEY: Is married to Ihk; head of scientific research dept. of Jihilian Research Co.
ANGELA HALES: Head of Genious Studies; trains some of the Men.
THE MEN: The men look like men, but are actually brainwashed shells that obey unconditionally. They have thoughts, but they always relate to their current mission. Their job is to snatch Geni to bring to the Research Labs, and when they can, Jihilians.
THE PLOT:
Ariel is 13 when she is snatched from he apartment by the Men, and isn’t that happy about it. When they arebringing her to the research labs, the squad come in and break her out.Jon tells her the story, and she doesn’t believe him. When she is brought to the geni academy, however, she believes. There are only 11 geni, and she is the 12th and most vital. The point of geni is to save Jihilian, a magical land only reached by the orphe (machine of humungous power). The logic behindour universe and theirs is us; heavy, and them;light. We supply, they decrease. Sort of, we sin, and they save. They contain the secrets of balance in our world, and they protect it using their powers (sort of. I need to figure out the process). The geni protect them while they protect us. The only ones that can operate orphe are geni, and twelve geni areneeded to open the gateway. Only a certain amount of genious chemical can open orphe. Sorta like intelligence can be used a spower that orphe runs on. ari is the 12th. They can enter jihilian to save it. The thing is, ??? has this big idea to steal orphe and the geni, enter jihilian,and use their power of world savingness for total control.
Sorry, I have to go now, (homework) but this shall be continued (is it specific enough so far?)
250- Brainbogglingly specific. I retract my previous statements.
Various incomprehensible sounds conveying frustration. I want to write!
AHH ONE WEEK GAH DIES.
I wish I liked coffee. Or somethig else to keep me awake. As it is, the opening weekend I have 5 hockey games. SO that’s halloween, a hockey game on friday, 2 games onsaturday plus my friends possible party (I’d so bring it with anyway), and 2 more games on sunday. Then school and such.
Good bye bed… I shall miss you.
I think I’ll skip doing a plot outline in light of recent advice.
247- Eh, what can I say. Mirror neurons, anyone?
249- Ooh, me likes.
250- Ah. That definetly… uh… *cannot think of appropriate sequence of words* chaotically yet imbricately… interesting.
Gorlois wanted to rule Waketime, but was unable to, so when he took over Dreamtime, he used his dreams and those of others to shape it in the form of Earth circa 500 CE. It isn’t a very close replica, considering that the continents are shaped differently. And since he didn’t know about the Americas before coming to Dreamtime, he left those virtually unchanged. Thousands of Dreamtime creatures, fearing extermination, fled to what we would call the Americas, resulting in a wildly burgeoning ecosystem.
I need a name for my villain. Actually, I need a villain. I have his evil plot roughly planned out, but not him. It is going to be one of those not-really-evil-but-has-to-be-stopped people though, I know that much. Now to just figure it out…
If he were a villainous villain, I’d recommend that you call him “Robert.” But I wouldn’t want you to waste a double-barreled name like that on a character who wasn’t truly evil.
My villain is way too cliché. I think I’ll make him insane and hint at a horrible past, just to keep him from becoming a stereotypical “Dark Lord.” Any other suggestions?
How about Hot Pink Bunny? Or someone with those initials, like Harold Peter Black? That doesn’t sound very villain-y, though. Maybe something like Herod Paris Busiris, or Horace Pablo Blade.
250- Whoa.
I am not getting anywhere.
I am really excited. It’s coming up IN LESS THAN A WEEK!
Jadestone, you can use Benjamin Rothschild. I’m not going to be using that name in any of my stories now that I’ve switched back to Fourhenge.
258-Maybe I’ll steal it, if I do end up creating a truly villainous villain… Robert Coontz… (it’s an excellent name, even though, as I’ve mentioned, I’ve named a light-fixture/firealarm thing after you already. Hmmmmmmm. A posessed light fixture?)
I’ve decided to abandom my earlier idea, as it is hopelessly cheesy (er, corny… haha).
Hmm… I’m going to post my ideas here. They’re not very good though, so don’t laugh!
(Oh, by the way, I make up all my names, so don’t be confused)
The year is around 2387, and the water level on the earth has risen by hundreds of meters, so many of the tallest buildings are covered. (No firm reason why yet) To prevent the people (at least the important ones) dieing, a huge platform is built over the whole of the earth. The surface of the origanal earth is recreated on top of the metal platform, with a few differences. The continents we have now are almost the same shape, size, ect, but there are other continents. These include Alantis, a huge mass shaped kind of like Britain, covering most of the Alantic ocean, and Britiana, a huge strip takes up the Pacific. Antartica has expanded hugely, but now it is used for waste. They cannot dig landfills in metal. It is a wasteland (forgive the pun), and a few nomadic tribes roam it. When the platform was complete, only those who could work to benefit the new world or those who could pay their way were brought up. The nomads were not taken up officially, and must have somehow come up before all the gaps were sealed.
Sialena is the daughter of a rich nobleman who lives on the edge of Antartica, away from the waste. She is naive, and has a weak personality. The only thing that means anything to her is her flute, and playing it is the only thing that brings her happiness. She recognises that the world she lives in is not real, and that everyone is playing a game, but no one knows the rules.
??? (name undecided) was a member of one of the tribes living in the Wasteland. He was thrown out of the tribe being a coward when it came time to prove himself as a member of the tribe. He wanders towards the edge of the continent, and finds the house that Sialena is living in. He hears her playing her flute, and begins to sing with it. All the Nomads have amazing singing voices. They meet like this, and ??? convinces Sialena to come with him to the crater, formed when a meteor hit the Earth. It melted a hole through to the world below, and they are planning to climb down and see what life below is like. However, before they can reach it, they are captured by people who make a living capturing Nomads and forcing them to come to America and work in factories.
I need to go now. I will post more later.
265- brilliant!
wow. i should start brainstorming my plot now. sheesh. two more days. or is it 3?
258- Ahaha! Well, if I ever need a truely evil character, I’ll know what to call him.
263- Oh, thank you! I’m horrible at naming my characters.
265- That’s quite excellent.
I have a logistical problem with my book, viz.:
Somnolent- the Dreamtime equivalent of water- is formed when dreams decay after their dreamers wake up. It then runs down slopes and forms oceans. My problem is as follows: Wouldn’t it eventually flood the entire place? Does anyone have any ideas as how to remove the excess somnolent from the Dreamtime?
There is no precipitation in the Dreamtime, but “nightling” (bilious green streaks of light across the sky) is a common sight. It’s created by similar causes to lightning in Waketime, except that instead of negative charges leaping towards positive, it’s nightmares leaping toward good dreams.
And as long as we’re talking about Dreamtime physics, it is in a state of perpetual twilight. No moon or sun.
269-How bout when more people start to dream, it adds energy to the dreamworld. the energy sort of steams the somnolent and the somnolent forms “clouds” of somnolent vapor. so the more people who start to dream, the more somnolent vaporized into clouds which then float back up the dreamland to become the stuff of another persons dream. i don’t know if that would work, but it could maintain the amnt of dream stuff and energy in the dream land.
271- Actually, that wouldn’t work, because dreams come in from Waketime and burst. No matter what sort of cycles I add, the somnolent level will keep increasing. But thanks for the idea.
I know! When an ocean of somnolent gets deep enough, the pressure breaks through the surface of the Dreamtime, creating what is known as a “Sink.” The Sinks allow somnolent to pour into Waketime, where it becomes invisible and undetectable. It is then inhaled by human beings and becomes the raw material for their dreams, which float back into the Dreamtime.
I cannot WAIT for NaNoWriMo, as evidenced by my name. Two more days. That’s hardly anything!
I think I’ll go to bed early on Hallowe’en, then wake up early on Nov. 1 and start writing. But that won’t work… I have to give out candy to the TOTers.
Fortunately, we don’t have to go to school on Triple Aces. I guess because everyone’s metabolism will be messed up by Hallowe’en candy. The administration figures, why even have school in session if half the kids are hyper and the other half can barely move? About as much will get accomplished either way.
That last paragraph was barely intelligible. I hope everyone gets the gist of it.
In anticipation of NaNo, signing off before the potatoes burn.
272- You don’t have to go to school on Triple Aces? Wah! *bursts into tears of jealous rage*
273-
Ha ha.
“Before the potatoes burn” is going to be my new expression. Whenever I have to do something in a hurry, I’ll say I have to do it before the potatoes burn.