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May. 31st, 2012 12:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silver_sunI'm considering taking part in http://campnanowrimo.org/ in August this year.
The main nano is in November, but with that being right in the middle of the time when I'll be running and writing for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
tw_classic_bb I know I'm not going to have the time.
I'm really not sure I'll be able to manage the 50k in a month though, especially as I'm going to lose a couple of days in the middle of the month due to a family wedding. But I suppose the best I can do is try to reach it.
The question is what to write? Do I go for fanfic? probably a Torchwood one (maybe the one I mistakenly asked for on twstoryfinders before I realised a few weeks later it was something from my own old fic idea folder) or do I dust of the two original ideas I've had lying around for ages and get writing one of them?
Original fic idea one: Contemporary fantasy, set in Yorkshire. The world knows about supernatural creatures, and they are tolerated for the most part, although suspicion and discrimation are still pretty common.
Modern day supernatural adventure with a secondary m/m romance subplot.
Nathan is a psychic who's gift is to be able to see into the past of an object. He works for a small company of psychic who generally deal with finding lost/stolen property or locating people who've had money left to them in a will.
It's not a particularly well paid job, and he knows that he could make more money if he would take on missing persons cases, but a previous bad experience - the person he'd been looking for had died.
However, when John, a werewolf, approaches the company Nathan works for about a missing relative, Nathan agrees to work the case.
Mostly it's because he needs the money - his house needs repairs and his car has just failed its MOT. But partly it's because John is a nice guy, and nobody else wants to take the case because the missing person, a student at the university is also a werewolf.
Things are not as they seem though, and Nathan soon finds that there have been a number of other disappearances, all of them werewolves.
As he and John investigate futher they discover a plot by an extremist group who are trying to turn people against seeing werewolves etc as being real people.
With time running out for both the kidnapped werewolves and themselves in danger, Nathan and John have to convince the police there is a case to look at.
Original fic idea number two: Okay the setting is very low magic fantasy (I'm thinking there's perhaps a very few people with a scrying type ability and that's it) world with a tech level roughly comparable to Regency UK, except the fact that they are on the even of not just the industrial revolution but a steampunk type one as well.
In terms of relationships it's very different from 19th century UK. Basically same sex relationships are allowed, and in the military it's assumed that it will happen. There tends to be the underlying assumption that it's just about sex, and that they will get married to somebody of the opposite sex at a later date and have a family though. Not doing so is thought of as being a bit eccentric, but certainly not prohibited. This is for Avron and to some extent Sitherand, there are a number of other counties that have either more or less tolerant attitudes, but with the exception of a few characters those other countries don't really come in to play in the story.
The plot is a bit sketchy, but basically there are a couple of countries, Arvon and Sitherand, the Queen's of the two countries are sisters. Sitherand is going through a bit of political upheaval, and some military units from Arvon have been despatched to help keep the peace.
Lieutenent Jago Sarpedon is in one of those detachments, and is in charge of a supply convoy, taking guns from the manufacturers to one of the garrisons. He's most of the way back to a garrison with a convoy when it's attacked and the guns stolen. He and the remaining soldiers in the convoy head back to the garrison. The garrison fort has been attacked, the people killed or fled.
Jago finds evidence that the attack on the fort was carried out by a mercenary unit, although who is employing them to furter destabilise Sitherand he can't tell.
He needs to get the information back to his commander or at least the next nearest fort.
Not 100% sure on exactly where the plot is going, although I've had a scene of a botched attempt at blowing up a bridge in the middle of the night in my mind for this for a long time.
The attack on the fort etc is actually part of a coup in the government who are trying to gain power from the royalty but want to be able to deny envolvement, and be able to blame it on rouge elements in the country or outside of it should it not have the desired effect. The result however to drag the country to the brink of civil war.
I've got a lot more waffle about background world building, and backstory for Jago, as this over all idea had been kicking around since something like 1995 or 6 in one form or another - sometimes with no magic, sometimes with a more medieval type fantasy setting, sometimes without the proto-steampunk elements.
Is 'low magic pseudo-historical military adventure fantasy with proto-steampunk elements' even a genre? Would it fit into a text box if it was? I've looked at the ones on campnanowrimo and suppose it would probably be best to put it in the fantasy genre as it's closest.
So what do people think? Should I have a go? and if so what do you think I should write? What do you think of the original fic idea? Worth writing or not?
The main nano is in November, but with that being right in the middle of the time when I'll be running and writing for
tw_classic_bb I know I'm not going to have the time. I'm really not sure I'll be able to manage the 50k in a month though, especially as I'm going to lose a couple of days in the middle of the month due to a family wedding. But I suppose the best I can do is try to reach it.
The question is what to write? Do I go for fanfic? probably a Torchwood one (maybe the one I mistakenly asked for on twstoryfinders before I realised a few weeks later it was something from my own old fic idea folder) or do I dust of the two original ideas I've had lying around for ages and get writing one of them?
Original fic idea one: Contemporary fantasy, set in Yorkshire. The world knows about supernatural creatures, and they are tolerated for the most part, although suspicion and discrimation are still pretty common.
Modern day supernatural adventure with a secondary m/m romance subplot.
Nathan is a psychic who's gift is to be able to see into the past of an object. He works for a small company of psychic who generally deal with finding lost/stolen property or locating people who've had money left to them in a will.
It's not a particularly well paid job, and he knows that he could make more money if he would take on missing persons cases, but a previous bad experience - the person he'd been looking for had died.
However, when John, a werewolf, approaches the company Nathan works for about a missing relative, Nathan agrees to work the case.
Mostly it's because he needs the money - his house needs repairs and his car has just failed its MOT. But partly it's because John is a nice guy, and nobody else wants to take the case because the missing person, a student at the university is also a werewolf.
Things are not as they seem though, and Nathan soon finds that there have been a number of other disappearances, all of them werewolves.
As he and John investigate futher they discover a plot by an extremist group who are trying to turn people against seeing werewolves etc as being real people.
With time running out for both the kidnapped werewolves and themselves in danger, Nathan and John have to convince the police there is a case to look at.
Original fic idea number two: Okay the setting is very low magic fantasy (I'm thinking there's perhaps a very few people with a scrying type ability and that's it) world with a tech level roughly comparable to Regency UK, except the fact that they are on the even of not just the industrial revolution but a steampunk type one as well.
In terms of relationships it's very different from 19th century UK. Basically same sex relationships are allowed, and in the military it's assumed that it will happen. There tends to be the underlying assumption that it's just about sex, and that they will get married to somebody of the opposite sex at a later date and have a family though. Not doing so is thought of as being a bit eccentric, but certainly not prohibited. This is for Avron and to some extent Sitherand, there are a number of other counties that have either more or less tolerant attitudes, but with the exception of a few characters those other countries don't really come in to play in the story.
The plot is a bit sketchy, but basically there are a couple of countries, Arvon and Sitherand, the Queen's of the two countries are sisters. Sitherand is going through a bit of political upheaval, and some military units from Arvon have been despatched to help keep the peace.
Lieutenent Jago Sarpedon is in one of those detachments, and is in charge of a supply convoy, taking guns from the manufacturers to one of the garrisons. He's most of the way back to a garrison with a convoy when it's attacked and the guns stolen. He and the remaining soldiers in the convoy head back to the garrison. The garrison fort has been attacked, the people killed or fled.
Jago finds evidence that the attack on the fort was carried out by a mercenary unit, although who is employing them to furter destabilise Sitherand he can't tell.
He needs to get the information back to his commander or at least the next nearest fort.
Not 100% sure on exactly where the plot is going, although I've had a scene of a botched attempt at blowing up a bridge in the middle of the night in my mind for this for a long time.
The attack on the fort etc is actually part of a coup in the government who are trying to gain power from the royalty but want to be able to deny envolvement, and be able to blame it on rouge elements in the country or outside of it should it not have the desired effect. The result however to drag the country to the brink of civil war.
I've got a lot more waffle about background world building, and backstory for Jago, as this over all idea had been kicking around since something like 1995 or 6 in one form or another - sometimes with no magic, sometimes with a more medieval type fantasy setting, sometimes without the proto-steampunk elements.
Is 'low magic pseudo-historical military adventure fantasy with proto-steampunk elements' even a genre? Would it fit into a text box if it was? I've looked at the ones on campnanowrimo and suppose it would probably be best to put it in the fantasy genre as it's closest.
So what do people think? Should I have a go? and if so what do you think I should write? What do you think of the original fic idea? Worth writing or not?
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no subject
Date: 2012-06-01 01:45 pm (UTC)If you're going to put in the intense effort of a NaNo type writing marathon (have you done it before? I have, it is really really exhausting) then you need to pick the story that is just bursting to come out of your head. That is the one you'll be able to keep up the momentum with for the whole month. If you're just picking a story because you think it is more saleable/easier to write/likely to please your mother/whatever? it's not going to work.
If you're interested, my WIP (I just finished my first complete draft last Sat night!!!!!) started as a NaNo novel 4 years ago. And that's the other thing to bear in mind. NaNo doesn't actually give you a complete and ready to go manuscript at the end of it. You may have 50,000 words, but on the whole, they'll be a mess.
Don't let me put you off. It's a glorious undertaking, really satisfying, and if you've got the right story it will give you a huge head start in producing it.
Good luck and have fun with it.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-02 07:55 am (UTC)I'm mainly thinking of doing this just to see if I can, I'm not thinking of publishing - although if when it's finished and I get to the stage where I can post it to my journal and enough people think it might be worth it I might try. And there's no way my mum would want to read either of these ideas (she prefers reading slide of life type things set in the 40's and 50's, and 19th century family sagas of the Catherine Cookson variety)
Of the two stories I'm not sure there's is enough plot to stretch out over 50k in the werewolf one. There might be, but I don't want to find I'm finished at 30k and have to somehow go back and nearly double the length of the story.
Where was with the other one there definitely is. With that one though there's a lot more plot to be worked out. Also when I first imagined the idea, something over 15 years ago now, I'd got ideas of it being a series of stories following Jago's adventures during the war.
So I'm tending more towards the fantasy one as I've had the world building for it in place for a long time (including little hand drawn maps, lists of names and organisation of units, what the uniforms look like, and bits of back story for some of the main characters.
I'm probably going to have to a scene by scene plan for them both before I actually decide on which one though.