… And I’m still not sure what I should write.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not because of a lack of ideas. I have have a goodly number of stories I play around with while daydreaming, tweaking their plots and revisiting scenes before rotating to a different story a few days later.
Not all the stories from my daydreams are something I’d want to write, however. Some would work better in a visual medium, others need more help with their plot, and for others still I would like to “grow as a writer” before I commit them to word. Not to mention the ones that would never be interesting to anyone except for me, as the ‘story’ follows a single character’s life as multiple contrived plots deliver as much angst to them as possible. (I’m terribly sorry, main characters of my daydreams, that you never seem to catch a break).
Ta da!
But there are a few ideas that I have written before; my 2009 and 2010 NaNoWriMo victories were two daydream stories I managed to write out.
The handy thing about writing a story that you’ve daydreamed is that you have a pretty good idea of where you want it to go. You got some characters, you got some good scenes you’d like to write, and you (probably) know where the plot should go.
There are some problems though. Your characters may not be as fleshed out as you thought; you might even need more of them! You’re missing some key scenes in between those ones you already have. You’re plot wasn’t actually finished or you suddenly realize that the characters you written are different than the ones in your head and deserve something better than the angst you had planned (guilty as charged).
All of those problems happened in my 2009 and 2010 NaNoWriMo victories. It was definitely a learning experience, and I know that I had improved my novel drafting skills from 2009 to 2010 (even if my 2010 story never did figure out what evil plan the villain was doing).
But enough about past years and the mistakes within. Let’s talk about the options for this year.
Ideas For NaNoWriMo 2011
I’m considering two different story ideas for this year’s NaNoWriMo. Neither are based off my daydreams, so compared to the last two years it should be a clean slate. The downside, of course, is that I have even fewer plot ideas.
Here are the two ‘concepts’ I’m considering:
The Prettiest Little Witch
(Yes, that’s a title! I’m surprised I came up with one too.)
Synopsis: A fantasy Young Adult novel in a world of witches, warlocks, elves, boring humans, and so much more! Our young, as-yet-unnamed protagonist is a Witch, still in training, and looks adorable, with nice, smooth, barely-green skin, a tiny button nose, shiny brown hair, cute little brown eyes, and excellent posture. Her main problem, besides not being the best at casting spells, is the fact that the witches in this world are usually a deep green, with tons of warts, large noses, ratty black hair and stooped backs! Worse, her mother is the most venerable witch of them all! Will she be able to cut it when she has to go out on some sort of important adventure I haven’t bothered to figure out yet? (She’ll probably be meeting up with a young warlock on this adventure, which should also be humorous because warlocks are usually born old! (That way they can be wizened wizards as soon as possible!))
Why write this story?: It seems like a fun, cute idea! I’ve always like Young Adult fiction with female protagonists, so why not try writing some?
Why not?: I still need to figure out the plot, and there definitely needs to be a lot of world-building, and then conveying the world they live in via the text. Sounds hard!
World of Warcraft-based Story
(No title yet. Maybe later… maybe).
Synopsis: Do you remember when I made those new Alliance character, Crèmè and Brûlée? This will be a story about their past, how they met, and how they became close friends during their adventures across Azeroth. The setting will most likely be during the Burning Crusade, and may follow the Missing Diplomat questline. Otherwise I’ll make up a less NPC filled globe-trotting adventure.
Why write this story?: I’d really like to explore their backstory some more. I have a fairly good idea of their past: Brûlée, a bookworm Draenei caught up studying the Light who is forced to go help their new Allies; Crèmè, a human fire-mage who has run in with the law too many times and now must pay her dues to the Alliance.
I’m also familiar with the WoW universe, so it could be easier to explain.
Also, there could quite possibly be cameos!
Why not?: Crèmè and Brûlée are rather silly names and they’re hard to type! I’d probably skip the special characters if I were writing this one. Also, while I have a better idea of where to start this story, I still need to come up with yet another plot.
And if I ever wanted to publish the story (ha!), I would have to change it substantially to not be in the World of Warcraft universe. Obviously this is a very, very minor concern.
Which One?
The question remains which one I will write. What’s your opinion? The original fantasy story or the WoW-based one? I’m sure you have some bias, as this is a WoW blog, but that’s alright. I’ll try to actually clean some of the story up and post it (unlike the previous years); possibly even during November!
Have you ever had to decide what writing project you’ll do next? Or had a hard time deciding what to write for NaNo? Let me know in the comments!
