National Novel Writer's Month

I'll admit it: even though I'm very excited to start, I have NO PLOT. So I'm more likely to be going for a memoir-type thing.

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suibhne-geilt.livejournal.com

OK. I'm making my first foray into the horror genre. I've got my monster worked out and how it interacts with my characters. The problem I'm having is I don't have a firm grasp on why a nasty evil would pursue a single person for years across several states, killing many innocent bystanders in the process.

Can you all give me some reasons why a person could be fixated on by a supernatural beast???

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twbubbles.livejournal.com

The person got a lucky shot that actually stung during their first interaction?
They smell yummier than other people?
Misunderstood Twoo Wuv?

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I also have NO PLOT. I want to write some kind of fractured fairy tale, I think, but nothing's feeling long enough for 50,000 words. :(

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Tell more about the monster! Is it sentient?

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That's the problem I'm having as well. I've never written anything for more than 5,000 words, so everything I think of just feels too short.

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Does the person know the monster is after him? The reasons I can think of are the person either hurt the monster at some point, either physically or emotionally, or he has something to do with him becoming a monster.

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Okay, here's the basics:

*Female MC1 somehow (I need details about how she does this) acquires a house in need of renovation.
*Male MC2 is the renovator/live-in gardener/something like that, who Female MC1 at first (totally clichè [is that the right 'e'?]) is annoyed with
*During the renovation process, they are forced to live and work together and eventually develop feelings for the other as they learn more about each other.

Now, what I need from you guys is:

1. How does my female MC acquire the house? Inheritance? Saw it one day and fell in love with it?
2. What needs to be done to it?
3. My male MC needs some kind of secret. Doesn't necessarily have to be dark or dirty. Just a secret.

I demand that you sic your plot bunnies on me! >O

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thepheenixeyri.livejournal.com

OK here I am. I might not get fifty thousand words down, but C says he wants to be written in NY/NYC, or somewhere around there anyway. I've never been that way before. Is there anyway someon could help me out here? I need descriptions of the finer points of the city. I know Times Square is there and Grand Central Station. Could someone describe at least the buildings and what's in them? I'm not asking for the people stuff, I've gotten that's rather alive from someone else- I just need things to help me get more of a feel of the lay-out and stuffs.

If you could throw activity-related things at me, it would be appreciated, too.

Oh- And the above would be for Chicago, too, please. Especially Buckingham Fountain. I've been that way, but not being able to see it makes it a bit hard to describe it sometimes, especially when all you can really find on the web are picture descriptions-- I need words, here, people. :)

Thanks yall, seriously.

Phoenix

From:

suibhne-geilt.livejournal.com

Yes, the creature is sentient. It's a shape changer that can physically pass as human, but has limited ability to function in normal human society, so it often moves around the fringes.

I also know that it is afraid to confront person directly, which is why it's left so much collateral damage in its effects to get around the person's defenses.

From:

suibhne-geilt.livejournal.com

The person is full well aware that she's being hunted, and has been on the run. As I try to pull this all together, I realize that she'd win over the monster in a direct confrontation, requiring the monster to catch her with her guard down or in a vulnerable moment.

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Inheritance is probably the best idea - and maybe she hates it because it's so run down, but she has no choice because the person she inherits it from also left her a whole lot of debt and the house isn't worth anything if she sells it?

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Inheritance sounds more interesting. And if the house is a wreck and has to be completely renovated, that gives them enough days to hang out and start developing feelings. The secret... What if he had a mentally challenged kid he was ashamed of? Is that too lame?

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Also, having purchased a definite fixer-upper....
WIRING. If it's an old house and the wiring hasn't been updated in years (we still had wiring in our attic from when the house was first wired for electricity in the 1900s.... that was a fire waiting to happen) that's one of the first major things that needs to be fixed.

And the accent over your "e" is backwards. It's this e - cliché. :D

From:

rednuck.livejournal.com

1 - Inheritance works well, especially if it's from like a great-aunt or uncle or someone that she wasn't too close to
2 - It could just be in an overall sense of disrepair, the person who died was rich, and either lived there, or was in a high-class nursing home, but that person's spouse really loved the gardens, so the old person was dedicated to having them taken care of, even at the cost of letting the house fall apart )did that make sense?)
3 - He could be on his own living almost like a recluse because his wife and/or child could have been killed in a car accident, a big city disaster or something. He doesn't know how to deal with people well, and the last thing on his mind is a relationship OR he could have been running away from his family. Maybe his family had a family business, Mob or something, that he wanted no parts of so he's just trying to be a simple gardener.

Just some thoughts, don't know if they will help you at all.

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pauldigiovanni.livejournal.com

okay, so i have this:
"Six teens wake up in the middle of the forest (or desert). They’ve never met or seen each other before. They don’t know why they are there or remember how they got there. They are left with one tent, matches for a fire, food to last them a month, and no way out. Why are they there? What do they have in common? And most importantly, where are they and how do they get home?"

Basically, what would be a good way to tie this all together... and ways to add some added twists. Any suggestions would be great. :D

OHH and, it would probably be better to write in 3rd person for this, instead of first person switching off between each of the six characters, correct?

Thanks. :D

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Inheritance is what I was thinking of initially.

@cathu: I was also thinking that she'd not like to have the house, but she is a sort of secluded and bookish person, and the idea of having an old (possibly Victorian-style, and located in the country-ish) house appeals to her in the romantic sense.

Ooh! Wiring! That's a problem I probably never would have thought of. Thanks! *wanders off to research wiring*

And I thought that was the wrong 'e'. >_<

@toxicdoll: I was thinking the exact same thing. I also had the idea of her being reluctant to accept his help, since my female MC has always been independent, and my male MC is very self-assured and kind of cocky.

And no, the idea of a mentally challenged kid isn't lame, but I don't know how to write kids. Especially mentally challenged kids. No offense to any of them. -_-;; But I suppose that's the fun part of NaNoWriMo; getting to write about stuff you normally wouldn't.

You guys are such a big help. I welcome other suggestions!

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1. Yay, more inheritance. I think that's what I'll end up having happen.
2. My original idea was for her to inherit the house from an aunt who'd sort of fallen out with the family, but had no bad feelings towards my MC because she was young when the falling out happened.
3. I imagine my male MC as kind of a player, very independent and sort of cocky, so a family doesn't make sense... unless he is independent and cocky because of the accident. Hmm.

Another problem I'm having is establishing a connection between my male MC and the house itself. Why is he there in the first place? Was he friends with my female MC's aunt? Is he just living there because?

Questions, questions...

From:

illyria-godking.livejournal.com

Ok... having recently adopted a plot, I need help putting parameters around a magical book (it's a possessed magickal object) that can make what ever is written into it happen in twisted uncool ways. It can't be a god in a book because that's no fun but I need it to cause mayhem and destruction as well.

On a separate but related note, how does one exorcise an inanimate object?

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