NaNoWriMo Preparations; Synopses
Oct 9, 2009 21:51:56 GMT
Post by silverlining on Oct 9, 2009 21:51:56 GMT
Well, as I promised (or should that be threatened), here comes some synopses for the ideas I'm trying to decide between for NaNoWriMo. I've been spending some time this week writing outlines for the candidates so I could get a firmer grasp of the stories, to make picking easier. Still, I'd love to get people's 50 cents on them too. So here comes the main candidates with some pros and cons.
Temporary name/Working name: School story, The Smythe-McRae Institute for Intermediate Learning (SMIIL) or a bunch of others.
Synopsis: The story takes place in a alternative version of this world which shares the same geography and many of the broad storkes of history and culture but differs in some essential ways. The year is somewhere around 600 p.f. (post-flood), the approximate equivalent of 2400 by our system of time. In the story we get to follow a group of people who are trying to make a stand for individualism in a world controled by a partially religious, partially political and partially socio-economic organization bent on homogenity being the norm for a good society. The main characters are Kella McRae and Althea Smythe, spouses who have turned the Smythe family estate a school for teenagers who've been unable to get into regular, state-controlled schools for various reasons and Orryn Smythe, Althea's estranged older sister who returns to her childhood home for the first time in 25 years or so when the story begins...
Contains: Homo/bi-sexuality, family drama, mild violence, an (evil) world-state, religion, profanity, some sex, humour (some, I hope), trust issues, social inequality and people who oppose it, a fair bit of political stuff...well, it contains a lot. Oh, and magic. But only a tad.
Cons: This is one of my biggest projects, and one of my oldest. This makes it scary and complicated, lol. On a more concrete note there are some places where I'm unsure of the chronology of events and how to best align things to keep it realistic but also decently even (I keep risking putting all the drama in the beginning but all the action in the end). As this is the first of an intended series I'm also having some issues deciding when to end it and with what event to end it as the plots are supposed to overlap into the next book.
Pros: Well...it's one of my oldest and it is one of the ones I've best track of. I know all the main characters like the back of my hand so knowing what they'll do won't be a problem, I know the world equally well and the storyline doesn't have any big holes. I also just plain like this idea, it's one of my favourites.
Temporary name/Working name: Lizard-kin story
Synopsis: Shortly after marrying a man she doesn't know well, a young woman goes with her husband when he is sent with a large troup of explorers into the wilderness south of the kingdom they live in. There, the army is meant to explore and claim the riches of the land while fighting off the feared lizard-kin, a race said to be half-human and half-demon and rumoured (amongst other things) to eat their opponents alive. After the woman's husband perishes in a battle with the lizard-kin a missunderstanding causes her to be taken prisoner by them and brought to their underground village where a whole new world opens up to her...
Contains: Heavy fantasy elements like for example a large population of hermaphroditic lizard-people, a fair bit of sex and violence, culture clashes, language barriers, human/lizard-human relationships, crazy conquest-hunting armies, a sort of polygamy, loyalty-issues....and my attempts at making a language.
Cons: The fact that I need to invent a new language for this story...However, since I hope to have picked story soon I would have time to invent the most needed things like a defenite article and a system for conjugating verbs and that would really be all I needed. Also, I'm wondering whether it might be easier to do non-fantasy as that would leave less details for me to "invent" in general.
Pros: I have lots of entheusiasm about this story. It's probably the one where my sequence of events is clearest in my mind/in my notebook, and the storyline isn't overly complicated. Plus, since fantasy was what got me into wanting to write fiction it'd be fun to actually get up a proper page-count on a fantasy story.
Temporary name/Working name: Cat and Zoey story or the Dream story
Synopsis: Two young women who are childhood friends and who share a flat because, through a series of coincidences and dreams, involved in the hunt for a serial-killer...I've actually written the first chapter of this but it needs rewriting. Availible here (slight gore warning for link); the-silverlining.deviantart.com/art/Chapter-One-Unfinished-32125405
Contains: Humour and bantering, mild cases of magic/unexplained paranormal events, pagamism, a crazy serial-killer and, as a result, instances of quite gorey/bloody imagery.
Cons: I realized when I was writing this that the sequence of events is very fussy. I know how I want it to end but not how to bring that end about..rather problematic...Also, as I was writing the outline I became unsure about whether this should really be the first of the series. If it's not, I need to rethink it quite a bit.
Pros: It's simpler than my other ideas in that it's in this world and not fantasy or futuristic or whatever. I know the two main characters very well and find them easy to write. Also, I've already written the first chapter (though it needs rewriting) which I guess helps.
Hmm....I was originally planning to include two or so more synopses but I think these three are my strongest candidates. I keep changing my mind about which one I think I should work on but it usually changes between the first two... I'd love to hear your reactions. Have I given any of the pros or cons too much or too little weight? Any hidden traps you can see that I don't seem to have seen? What do you think of these ideas in general and which one strikes you as the best NaNoWriMo-candidate?
Temporary name/Working name: School story, The Smythe-McRae Institute for Intermediate Learning (SMIIL) or a bunch of others.
Synopsis: The story takes place in a alternative version of this world which shares the same geography and many of the broad storkes of history and culture but differs in some essential ways. The year is somewhere around 600 p.f. (post-flood), the approximate equivalent of 2400 by our system of time. In the story we get to follow a group of people who are trying to make a stand for individualism in a world controled by a partially religious, partially political and partially socio-economic organization bent on homogenity being the norm for a good society. The main characters are Kella McRae and Althea Smythe, spouses who have turned the Smythe family estate a school for teenagers who've been unable to get into regular, state-controlled schools for various reasons and Orryn Smythe, Althea's estranged older sister who returns to her childhood home for the first time in 25 years or so when the story begins...
Contains: Homo/bi-sexuality, family drama, mild violence, an (evil) world-state, religion, profanity, some sex, humour (some, I hope), trust issues, social inequality and people who oppose it, a fair bit of political stuff...well, it contains a lot. Oh, and magic. But only a tad.
Cons: This is one of my biggest projects, and one of my oldest. This makes it scary and complicated, lol. On a more concrete note there are some places where I'm unsure of the chronology of events and how to best align things to keep it realistic but also decently even (I keep risking putting all the drama in the beginning but all the action in the end). As this is the first of an intended series I'm also having some issues deciding when to end it and with what event to end it as the plots are supposed to overlap into the next book.
Pros: Well...it's one of my oldest and it is one of the ones I've best track of. I know all the main characters like the back of my hand so knowing what they'll do won't be a problem, I know the world equally well and the storyline doesn't have any big holes. I also just plain like this idea, it's one of my favourites.
Temporary name/Working name: Lizard-kin story
Synopsis: Shortly after marrying a man she doesn't know well, a young woman goes with her husband when he is sent with a large troup of explorers into the wilderness south of the kingdom they live in. There, the army is meant to explore and claim the riches of the land while fighting off the feared lizard-kin, a race said to be half-human and half-demon and rumoured (amongst other things) to eat their opponents alive. After the woman's husband perishes in a battle with the lizard-kin a missunderstanding causes her to be taken prisoner by them and brought to their underground village where a whole new world opens up to her...
Contains: Heavy fantasy elements like for example a large population of hermaphroditic lizard-people, a fair bit of sex and violence, culture clashes, language barriers, human/lizard-human relationships, crazy conquest-hunting armies, a sort of polygamy, loyalty-issues....and my attempts at making a language.
Cons: The fact that I need to invent a new language for this story...However, since I hope to have picked story soon I would have time to invent the most needed things like a defenite article and a system for conjugating verbs and that would really be all I needed. Also, I'm wondering whether it might be easier to do non-fantasy as that would leave less details for me to "invent" in general.
Pros: I have lots of entheusiasm about this story. It's probably the one where my sequence of events is clearest in my mind/in my notebook, and the storyline isn't overly complicated. Plus, since fantasy was what got me into wanting to write fiction it'd be fun to actually get up a proper page-count on a fantasy story.
Temporary name/Working name: Cat and Zoey story or the Dream story
Synopsis: Two young women who are childhood friends and who share a flat because, through a series of coincidences and dreams, involved in the hunt for a serial-killer...I've actually written the first chapter of this but it needs rewriting. Availible here (slight gore warning for link); the-silverlining.deviantart.com/art/Chapter-One-Unfinished-32125405
Contains: Humour and bantering, mild cases of magic/unexplained paranormal events, pagamism, a crazy serial-killer and, as a result, instances of quite gorey/bloody imagery.
Cons: I realized when I was writing this that the sequence of events is very fussy. I know how I want it to end but not how to bring that end about..rather problematic...Also, as I was writing the outline I became unsure about whether this should really be the first of the series. If it's not, I need to rethink it quite a bit.
Pros: It's simpler than my other ideas in that it's in this world and not fantasy or futuristic or whatever. I know the two main characters very well and find them easy to write. Also, I've already written the first chapter (though it needs rewriting) which I guess helps.
Hmm....I was originally planning to include two or so more synopses but I think these three are my strongest candidates. I keep changing my mind about which one I think I should work on but it usually changes between the first two... I'd love to hear your reactions. Have I given any of the pros or cons too much or too little weight? Any hidden traps you can see that I don't seem to have seen? What do you think of these ideas in general and which one strikes you as the best NaNoWriMo-candidate?
