Dancing Mustard wrote:btownmeggy wrote:Holy moly, three years of NaNoWriMo victories!? Impressive!
Ain't that the truth sister. I only entered once, but I ran out of steam within a week; muy dissapointing.
I started in 2004 with a novel about a father and son during the crusades. Major flop. Learned a lesson, it's more than write what you know (because research takes too long; it's good for a real novel but not for NaNoWriMo) it's write what you can fake.
So I went for the quick sure kill in 2005, erotic fantasy. I start off with a neropolis, where the dead are burried but their shades linger on for a while so everyone makes day trips or overnight stays to visit their loved ones. Then I threw in a female hobbit druid who was literally a Dr. Ruth clone. Then I threw in a paladin, a female thief who was a member of a gang and a whole bunch of dead relatives who are trying to get their children married and the script actually wrote itself.
I would say the novel wrote itself but literally I had to keep a few notes because the characters were constantly suggesting plot twists as I was writing the novel.
Oh and it helps to have an emergency aside. Charcters who can give lectures or sermons to add a few thousand words are helpful. I had one prepared for the novel where the cleric gave a homily that life was like a novel.
In 2006 I took a different approach. I was heavily involved in a game called Nation States and had managed a few years of issue selections and role playing, so the novel also wrote itself with the colorful characters. Werepenguins in Antarctica who for the most part were from the military and who were divided into three families, Blonde, Brown and Red.
In 2007 I did some early research and worked on an old idea I had for D&D, a fantasy meets the American Revolution (although actually I had it set at 1750 which was the start of the French / Indian war). It was called "It's Revolutionary" and suffered only with the idea that one of the minor plots (kill the small dragon) became the major plot of the entire novel. Ironcially with D&D going into 4th edition I based the rules mostly on a similiar game called C&C (Castles and Crusades) which I got when I was at Gen Con last year, along with a module hand signed by Gary Gygax (who since passed away).
I tried doing script frezy this year but my schedule got booked so badly I only had a few days in the month to actually write. That was changed to 100 script pages but I only managed 18.
Necropolis - City of the Dead - 2005 Novel -
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Werepenguins Love Sushi - 2006 Novel -
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It's Revolutionary - 2007 Novel -
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