Weekly Plot Help Post

[alison-sky.livejournal.com]

Please use this post to talk about the plots you are forming, snags you've come across, and ask for just brainstorming help from your fellow community members.

And please, also take time to read through and see what everyone else is doing. Who knows, maybe you might hold the key to someone else's NaNo victory!

Comments

[jynxgirl.livejournal.com]

I do not know how to kill my last two victims....
I have planned three murders so far, and one attempted murder... but the last two, i have NO idea.
I am thinking poison and garroting, but I don't think a 5'2" woman could garrote a 6'3" man with any semblance of ease and grace...

*sigh* Killing people is hard when you need them to leave clues.

[eviltracey.livejournal.com]

Could your character drug her victim before garroting him?

[twistdfateangel.livejournal.com]

Hangs from something/stands on something? Forces him to kneel?

[nanogirl08.livejournal.com]

is the guy tied up? i assume the problem with the guy is him fighting back...unless he's a wimp and she's a gym junkie

[technicolornina.livejournal.com]

RE garroting: do you happen to have a tallish abandoned building with a balcony handy? It'd be less implicating to simply push the guy over, but she could just throw a rope with a slipknot in over his head (a foot's difference is not that much) and then find a way to either trip or push him over the edge. One dead body, coming up.

[ripter.livejournal.com]

They go on an indoor roller coaster. The girl sits in front and brings some fishing line that she keeps hidden. Using weights she strings the fishing line up during a loop which then decapitates the man.

[crazybuttimid.livejournal.com]

zombies.

should they talk or not?

[lilacfield.livejournal.com]

In gurgles and slurred voices?

[ahumblegenius.livejournal.com]

Depends--Social commentary, lighthearted homage to the genre, or clever deconstruction of reader expectations?

[claudia6913.livejournal.com]

How much fantasy is too much fantasy?

Basically, how many words and names for things should I change/make-up?

Currently I have teria - which is, in this world, a naturally occuring glowing crystal that is used as a light source instead of fire.

Should I only create names for things that are not naturally occuring in the real world (ie: the crystals above), or should there be a slight difference between what we know and what my characters in their world would know (ie: The Dragonriders of Pern Series by Anne MacCafferty who changed the names for a lot of things - and for good reason).

[technicolornina.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I would say go the route of Stephen King in the Dark Tower series - it's very interesting to see how Roland thinks of things in our world when he wanders into it (for example, an airline stewardess tells him she will "rustle up" some food, and he's quite confused because "to russel" is the In-World verb for "to rape").

In other words, change *some* things, but not so many that your reader will have trouble following.

If I were you, I would apply what I call the "Smurf rule." Remember how the Smurfs put the word "smurf" in almost every sentence, and sometimes it made no sense at all?

When in doubt, insert the word "smurf" into your sentence in place of the word you want to change and ask yourself "if this was said on the Smurfs, would I get it?" For example:

ENGLISH: She pulled the mirror from her bag.
MADE-UP: She pulled the Seer from her bag.
SMURFISH: She pulled the smurf from her bag.

It's a pretty reliable resource, believe it or not!


One thing I'd recommend is do NOT follow the Tolkien example - gratuitous umlauts, dipthongs, and accents may look impressive, but they piss me right off when I'm reading (I do not care if it's eye-sin-guard or ah-sen-guard, thank you, just let me get on with the story dammit). If you wish to invent a language for your fantasy people, try to stick to some basic concrete rules of language/grammar that you will make up - for example, the construction "rr" may be pronounced "d" under all circumstances. You should be on the reader's side, and sometimes "pretty" is not always the best choice.

[jediknightmuse.livejournal.com]

I could use some help for mine. It's a fantasy story in a typical medieval/fantasy setting.

1. My main character has a twin brother whom she was separated from when they were babies. They both have magic abilities (essentially they grow up to become wizards- Raewyn, the main character, a Sky Wizard and the brother yet to be named (although I'm leaning towards Keiran) would probably be an earth wizard), so I was kind of thinking that maybe they would have a shared ability that, when combined, could destroy the bad guy. So, for protection, they were separated from each other. My question here is whether or not I should go with that, and if I shouldn't, what's another reason for their separation? It would probably have something to do with their magic abilities, in any case, because the bad guy ends up making a deal with the king to capture Raewyn.

2. The way I have the magic system set up is that their magic abilities come from the sky or earth (for their cases), and they have objects that help connect them to their abilities. I need a suggestion for something simple, realistic, and not overused for Raewyn's (i.e. a sword). Raewyn has been training to be a royal guard for several years, so in that case I suppose it would make sense for her object to be a sword or something, but if you have any other suggestions I would love to hear them.

3. Which is better for an ex-thief's name- Griff(in) or Strummer? I'm leaning more towards Griffin.

I think that's all for right now.

[mightykeyboard.livejournal.com]

1. Cliches are fine as long as there are only a few and aren't over played, so being separated because they are known to hold the key to a villian's downfall does make sense but has also been done. Still no harm in using it. But what about something completely innocuous that turns out to help their cause? Like their mother couldn't afford to take care of both children and so gave up one and it just happens that it works out for the better that they weren't kept together? Or perhaps mother had an affair while father was out for at least 9 months and gave the twins away before he could return and figure it out. Might give you subplot material for later if they kids ever found out. Or if their father ever found out. I'd be pissed. Just some things that came to mind, no worries if they don't jive with your story.

2. For air I thought of a musical instrument but that's probably overused.A carving of some type of animal associated with flight, perhaps. Magic elements were never my forte.

3. I like Griff.

Hope some of that has been helpful.

I need tropes and cliches!

[lacrimaeveneris.livejournal.com]

My story is sort of a satire on the idea of the Boy's Rite of Passage In Fantasy, but I'm coming up short. I can think of combat examples (first blood) and a Quest, but does anyone here have any ideas that would be reasonable/fun to see in a fantasy novel?

Re: I need tropes and cliches!

[mightykeyboard.livejournal.com]

A completely failed villian. He tries. He really does. But his minions don't respect him, his machines/magic/instruments of doom what have you have glitches and fail him at the most awkward of times. He thinks of himself as The Grand Master or Dark Lord but has a fondness for kittens and small woodland creatures and will often take any measures necessary to keep them out of harm's way. Somehow he has some luck because despite his massive failures he's still alive to try again and despite the amount of evidence saying he should go into a different profession he still believes one day he'll be successful one day.

No idea if that helps but I'd love to see this guy in action.

This Is How It Ends {working title}

[pbmaxca.livejournal.com]

Synopsis: This Is How It Ends

One year ago Therese Shaw was a nobody sports writer for a local paper. Now she's the hot new racing columnist for Speed TV's coverage of the AMA Motorcross and Supercross Seasons. There's just one problem. She's a girl. Even worse, she knows nothing about supercross and is actually afraid of motorcycles.

With everyone from her producer to her camera man against her, she's out to prove that not only can she can cover the fastest sport on two wheels, but that she can win the championship ratings for her company?

Enter Bryant Lindsay Barber, top rated rider and impromptu SuperCross Teacher. There's no denying the combustible yet forbidden attraction between the two. Bryant is more than tempted, but the last thing the bad boy of the Indigo family racing team needs is another scandal jeopardizing his career.

Are they foolish enough to risk it all?

*********************

I'm still trying to figure out where to start the story... :(

Re: This Is How It Ends {working title}

[foxtrot-sierra.livejournal.com]

How did she get to be a "hot new racing columnist" if she knows nothing about Supercross? Or, I guess, in what way is she a fraud when it comes to her job? Did she lie, or did she get inexplicably hired despite feeling that she's underqualified? Or is she replacing someone else who's suddenly departed?

[alessandriana.livejournal.com]

Alright y'all, I need help figuring out why my character doesn't just go to the police to get help.

Basic premise: About fifteen years ago, superheroes started popping up all over the world. My MC, Claire, is one of them (she can fly). By the present day superheroes have been pretty much integrated into the population, so the police of course know they exist, and actually employ a fair number of them.

So the villain comes along, and for various reasons wants to get rid of superpowers. She's a scientist, and since there's a specific source of the powers, she figures out how to reverse it, etc etc. Claire gets involved, finds out that there's not much time left before superpowers are gone for good, and decides to do something about it. Only way to stop this from happening is to shut down the machines in the villain's lab that are causing the reversal.

...And it's at this point I run into the problem. I can't figure out why Claire doesn't just, y'know, call the police. They'd be way better equipped to deal with this problem than she would. I'd like her to have to deal with this problem on her own, have the climactic face-off with the villain, etc etc, but Claire isn't stupid enough to try and face this on her own if there's any other way.

Any ideas?

[foxtrot-sierra.livejournal.com]

Villain could frame Claire early on for a crime, once she's discovered part of his diabolical plan.

Or, more interesting, Claire could actually BE a criminal when the story begins, and wants to initially stop the Villain out of pure self-interest, or because she believes that there's BAD and then there's WORSE. Sort of like a story about a rapist or a thief trying to solve a murder.

Either way, she has no one she can trust to take her information about the Villain to the police on her behalf. The people she did trust are either dead or don't trust her anyone once she's been framed or they've learned she's a crook.

[alpha-orionis-v.livejournal.com]

Long story short, a building has blown up and fallen on my character, and he's suffered a pretty serious bonk to the head. Basically, he had other things to worry about at the time, ie being shot in the arm, his partner being shot in the stomach, and oh yeah, a building just blew up around them, so the bonk on the head went pretty much ignored by all. It's roughly a year after these events that my story is shaping up to take place, and at this point he's being bothered with some residual nastiness from the events to cause said building to blow up, being the chief inspector of a small country village, and being bothered with monthly trips to London.

Basically, I'm trying to figure out what sorts of nastiness he might still experience this far down the road, resulting from nearly getting his skull flattened by some bricks and a filing cabinet. I'd assume he'd probably be fairly prone to migraines, but does anybody have any kind of info on the subject, particularly how long such effects might last?

[scorpio-desire.livejournal.com]

Memory loss. Not full-blown amnesia, but just difficulty keeping certain things in his head. It can be as severe or mild as you want. I'm thinking mild, since he's gone a long time doing just fine. Something like having a hard time just adding numbers together.

"The outlook for someone with a minor head injury generally is good, although recovery may be delayed and symptoms such as headache, dizziness, and cognitive problems can persist for up to a year or longer after an accident. This can limit a person's ability to work and cause strain in personal relationships.

"Serious head injuries can be devastating, producing permanent mental and physical disability. Epileptic seizures may occur after a severe head injury, especially a penetrating brain injury, a severe skull fracture, or a serious brain hemorrhage. Recovery from a severe head injury can be very slow, and it may take five years or longer to heal completely."
http://www.healthatoz.com/healthatoz/Atoz/common/standard/transform.jsp?requestURI=/healthatoz/Atoz/ency/head_injury.jsp

Head injuries can vary. Look up some medical website for general effects of head trauma, but really I've found over time that anything you think might be plausible usually is, so long as it does not seriously stretch the bounds of reality.

[agdhani.livejournal.com]

I have a 'situation' with a character...and several possible explanations for what he is. I'll throw it out there, then get to the question

Korahm lived several centuries before my story takes place. He was influential in the early rise of the established religion, but his own personal beliefs differed enough from what became established dogma that he was eventually burned at the stake for heresy. Or at least, it was an attempted burning, as he was rumore to have pulled free of the nails and robes that bound him and walked out of the fire.

He was not seen again for decades and it was believed he was dead. When sightings of him were reported, the church canonized him. There is still a strong group that views him as a heretic, however, and so he became known as the heretic saint.

Cut to 'present' day...several centuries later. Korahm appeared to the MC's mother on the night he was born, and my MC has seen him many times over the years since then. He can appear in ghostly form, as well as in definite physical form. The MC finds this puzzling, since their belief system allows for spiritual appearances, but not physical manifestation.

I don't know if it will ever become important to explain this, but I have been pondering reasons, and would like to have possibilites lined up in case it does become important.

1) he could be truly dead, and their belief system is faulty
2) he never died and has developed powers that allow him to appear etheral (this isn't farfetched, given the capabilities of his race)
3) he has achieved some other level of being, somewhere between mortal and divine.

If anyone can think of any other explanations that I've missed, I'd appreciate them. Just seeking a little brainstorming help :D Thanks.

[twistdfateangel.livejournal.com]

4) he's alive, but the MC hallucinates in times of stress, believing his patron is there. If the patron does anything that would require a physical body, he may be hallucinating that Korahm is doing it, when he's actually doing it. Korahm does come and visit him, but the ghostly form is all in the MC's head.

[withlovealone.livejournal.com]

Okay, usually I start planning my novel a lot earlier than this but I just decided to do NaNo this year after not completing it last year (though I won in '05 and '06) I find I work better if I don't have everything fully planned except for a general idea and a few characters fleshed out, but this time I need a little help.

The gist of the story is that a really famous musician realizes that the path he's taken isn't the one that he wants to be on. He pretty much has one of those moments where you step back and look at your life and you realize that the method you went about it is completely different that what it should have been. Although music is his life, and he loves it, he feels he's stepped on a lot of toes and he's burned a lot of bridges that he shouldn't have. So, this happens in the middle of tour and he's so upset by this revelation that he cancels the tour to go back home and really evaluate his life.

Okay, that sounds decent enough right? Except my problem is that if I was a famous musician under contract to finish a tour I doubt that just because I'm having an existential crisis I can just cancel a tour and go home for no apparent reason. So if you guys may be so helpful, I need a reason (a good reason) why a musician would cancel a tour although the underlying reason is that he really just doesn't like his life right now.

I also have no clue about how tours are even handled. The record company does that, yes, but legally who would be responsible for the fall out? Like refunding tickets and canceling dates. How much money would an artist lose from not finishing a tour? And is canceling a tour even a big deal?

Ugh, I sound so scatter brained but literally, I got this idea maybe a day ago =(

[agdhani.livejournal.com]

Not sure about the whole how tours work thing, but there could be some sort of medical reason to cancel the tour. Mental/nervous breakdown. If he's the sort of musician who's been dependant on booze and drugs, he could find himself in extended rehab, thus causing the tour to be cancelled.

70yr-old semi-werewolf

[tarlwen.livejournal.com]

I have a big problem with my NaNo plot this year. It all started out with the vague idea that it'd be fun to write something set in a retirement home for werewolves. That sort of evolved into the idea that there aren't really any werewolves, but that people who decide on an active law-enforcement career (notadministration but investigation) can decide to be genetically altered to gain some werewolf-like qualities that help them solve crimes (better sense of smell/sight that kinda stuff). There is, however, a strong dislike against these people in the general populace and the semi-werewolves have to agree to stay away from the rest of humanity after they leave their profession, thus the specialized retirement home and stuff.

Anyway, my main character (Peter) just decided that the nurses in the retirement home are plotting something, probably even aiming at killing each and every one of the semi-werewolves. The only question is: why the heck would they want to do that? I can't really think of any reason right now and the fact that the idea of putting the whole thing into some post-apocalyptic setting is still floating around my brain only makes things more complicated.

Help? Suggestions? Anything?

Re: 70yr-old semi-werewolf

[feigned-living.livejournal.com]

My suggestion is to flesh out your werewolves a bit more. What are the side-affects of the genetic alteration, both good and bad. If you find some really bad ones, BINGO, there's the reason they're wanted dead. Also, perhaps one of the nurses has a grudge against them for something they did to herself or her family when they were young and in law-enforcement. Or possibly the nurse's family helped create these genetically altered werewolves and asked that she help destroy his/her creation. Or maybe she just doesn't like wolfies.

Sugarland

[pbmaxca.livejournal.com]

I've scrapped the story This Is How It Ends and have decided to write something called "Sugarland" instead.

Summary: The adventures of a wide-eyed recent high school graduate as she spends her "gap year" before college on the road with her father, who happens to be the tour manager for an internationally known top pop group.

The story starts on her spring break her senior year then will go through the next year of her life.

[twistdfateangel.livejournal.com]

I was kind of afraid to ask again, seeing as my plot doesn't seem very interesting to anybody else. But it's occurred to me that I have NO idea how to end my novel.

The specifics: The MC has finally made it to the big foreign court, after being chased, shot at, hexed, and otherwise waylaid out the yin-yang. She knows it's someone at her destination who's calling the shots, but it takes her some detective work. At last, she's completed her task with great difficulty (being sidetracked for etiquette's sake, everybody needs to sleep sometime, her workroom getting boobytrapped, etc.). The fateful night arrives and...

That's where I'm stuck. I'm not sure if she ought to be on vigil with her employer (a Tsarina about to be crowned) as a member of the Imperial entourage and thus, defend her employer from the front, or stumble upon the final attack on her way to something else. It changes matters dramatically in the end.

Also, if this all seems too cliched, feel free to suggest an alternative to the above solutions.

[captain-emily.livejournal.com]

That really depends on your MC. Which situation would better allow her to shine? Is she really the type that would place herself directly in harm's way? Would she be more comfortable with subterfuge or indirect attack? Does she prefer to be prepared when faced with a challenge, or does she do best when she's making things up on the fly?

[snazzy-spazzy.livejournal.com]

Okay, a while ago before I decided to do this I came up with the idea of a time traveling bounty hunter (cliche' I don't know I've not read any books like that before) If it is I'm screwed because it has been floating around in my head since I said it out loud the first time.

From the beginning I've hit a snag because as I was figuring out the basic plot I came up with that 1.) she's paid to hunt artifacts down to protect them from an Illuminati-esque type group or 2.) paid to hunt the people down that are from said group before they get it. Now my question would be if something was taken it would basically affect history in one way or another. So when she would come back to her time period would it be different in some way each time? Is there some way that I could fix it to where if she went home after one job they still would speak english and not say Hungarian and all wear uniforms...or something of that nature.

[emerald-dawn.livejournal.com]

I think how important the artifact is--or how much impact it had on history--would be the main variable. Also, keep in mind that artifacts do get lost, stolen, looted, and sold. If one went missing, most of the world would assume it was misplaced or stolen. If it had a big impact in history, then you would have to work out what happened now that it's gone.

IMO, I don't think the disappearance of most art/artifacts would have an impact on the spoken language, but again, it could depend on the artifact.

[asphyxiette.livejournal.com]

Oh hi. I'm Phyx, new here, first year doing NaNo, blah blah, intro ends here.

I'm looking for some feedback on my NaNo plot. Ideas/suggestion on things you think might be cool to include are more than welcome. Even if I dn't use it, it might spark another idea, which might spark another... You know how this stuff goes.

Here's the short version:
The story is about Sam and Michael, vampires, who are part of an secret organization run by The Council (who are secretly trying to take over the world and wipe out humanity, like any self-respecting secret organization). Sam lives at home with his mom and went to college with Michael before they were turned, but after she dies under "mysterious" circumstances the two move from their small town to a big city. Sam meets Amelia, human, who is just about as sweet and innocent as they come. They fall madly in love, plan to get married. On the day of their wedding Michael busts in and kills Amelia. It is revealed that The Council gave Michael the order to kill Sam, but Michael went to Amelia and she pleaded him to kill her instead. Sam gets pissed, goes into depression for decades, and then he meets Lyvia, human, a fifteen-year-old punk with a foul mouth who knows more than she lets on. She proceeds to tag along with Sam everywhere, which annoys the hell out of him. Eventually they endeavor to take down The Council, and somewhere along the line Sam finds out that Lyvia is a reincarnation of Amelia.

[wizard-angst.livejournal.com]

So I literally just decided tonight to do NaNoWriMo this year, and I'm trying to hash out a decent plot. So far I know I want the story to be humorous at times with serious overtones and discuss what it means to create without being heavy handed.

My story is going to be about an average girl (no name yet) who just graduated college with an English degree and is looking for some sort of job. She's trying to figure out what to do with her life, really figure out who she is and all that jazz, but mostly she just wants to find a decent gig that isn't working at the local Subway. This is when she stumbles across an ad looking for creative editors. She applies, interviews with the company's owners Mssrs. Spooner and Scrivener, and gets the job.

The job goes well, and she quickly settles into a routine-- she is sent anonymous drafts which she edits for creative errors- plot loopholes, rushed climaxes, inconsistent characters, etc. A strange job, as she figures if she was an author she wouldn't want other people changing her stories, but it pays the rent and lets her use her degree. There are two other creative editors on the staff that she befriends. The bosses even mention maybe publishing one of her stories.

After awhile, however, she starts noticing things. Stories and reality begin to seem horribly similar. Mssrs Spooner and Scrivener send more manuscripts and begin talking of expansion. The two other editors refuse to talk about the job. She has the urge to edit everything she reads; shape it and make it better. Strange people begin popping into her life-- an annoying neighbor who swears his first name is Darcy, a prattling teenage girl named Juliet who works at the MC's favorite coffeeshop and always tells the MC too much about her love life, a new Dr. Faust who replaces her old doctor, and so on and so forth. Eventually the MC realizes something supernatural is happening and she has to stop it.

Here's my problems as of now: 1) I have no idea how I'm going to resolve the conflict and have the MC save the day and 2) I'm not quite sure if the plot I have so far has enough action to sustain it for 75,000+ words, as that's what I'm thinking it'll be right now.

And...to anyone who reads all of this, congrats. I'm a babbler ;)

[reticent-lass.livejournal.com]

The Mssrs are trying to bring enough stories into the world so that they can predict how it works and sort of mold it to their own endsjust by thinking/writing about it hard enough--after all, even with the really good stories you know a bit about what will happen to who.

She realizes eventually that what she has to do is break the stories as they occur in real life in order to undo this effect. Make Juliet realize a love of motorcycle repair and riding. Introduce Darcy to the wonderful world of the casual dating club scene. Have Dr. Faust finally uncover that natural showmanship that lands him a job as a cruise entertainer/teacher. Turn events from orderly, storybook happenings to jumbled, chaotic life.

Or maybe Spooner and Scrivener are characters brought to life from a very old manuscript, and they are tired of remaining the only ones who obey the rules of stories. Solution? Shop around the basic idea of their original story, which was quie powerful on its own, to every writer she knows and have them each ghostwrite more adventures for the Mssrs., until they are stretched so thin by all these stories that they go back to their proper dimension.

[horologiste.livejournal.com]

Would it be viable to have some sort of scientific base in a mobile zeppelin? I don't think there would be any flammable materials in it, but the weight of the equipment and the power required to run it make me think twice.

& if you found out your trusted professor, whom you've been assisting in the field for the past year, has been smuggling artefacts into the country and now has the blame foisted on you because, hey, he's dead now, how would you go finding more about his whole operation? Especially the more crazy artefacts, like canopic jars containing plagues and such? In a steampunk-ish setting around 1930s.

Length of chapters

[taystwin-14.livejournal.com]

I'm up to a little over 2000 words for my prologue and I was just wondering if that's too short of a prologue. That roughly translates into three and a quarter pages. I was going to look through books with prologues or whatever and see how many words they have in a chapter or something, but I'm just not sure if that's too long or too short for a chapter. help is appreciated. Thanks!