Your Nanovel 2008, What is your plot?

[Athildur]

Well, welcome to a new year of NaNo. A new year full of opportunities to write and worries that the writing is not of high enough quality, or worse, not enough quantity. (for some it may be the other way around)

What is going to be *your* NaNovel of 2008? Share your plots with us!


For me, I haven't fleshed it out much, but the following idea came to me:
(Bear with me, it's a long story, this plot )

At time X in world Y (I did say I hadn't fleshed it much, didn't I?), my MC is a celebrated wizard. He's an oldie, but still as interested and energetic about his research as he ever was. Since some years ago, the study of time and it's manipulation (Chronomancy) have become very popular and several breakthroughs have been made.
Through the special connection between the academies that has been set up (think early internet), they will be joining together for a massive experiment. Every precaution has been taken to protect the academies and the cities around them.

However, something goes awry! The experiment goes wrong and the failsafes are simply not enough to keep the chaos in. A great portion of the world is sucked up into the streams of time, lost forever. Oddly enough, the MC still lives...in the wake of this accident, a lesser known wizard seizes the opportunity to grab and hold power over several countries. He subjugates more and more people, and the MC is vigorously trying to find a way to stop this all from happening.

Eventually, he figures it out. The very thing that caused this can undo it: Time! He spends years preparing and studying the magics required to bring him back to the past, but when he is finally ready to do it BBEG (big bad evil guy) has already discovered the plans, and infuses the spell with a powerful spike of magical power.

The MC is hurtled back through time no less than about eight hundred years. Oddly enough, he looks and feels as though he was twenty-five again! What's more, over the course of time he discovers that he barely ages anymore, though it would seem that his magical power has been diminished...

Determined to keep the future from happening, the MC starts off a search for those who wield the powers of magic, back then an art that was punishable by law. He hopes to convince them to relinquish their magical ways and live normal, mundane lives with the rest of society.
After too many declinations, he decides it is time for more drastic measures. He becomes a witch hunter, a man who hunts those who use magic in the hopes of killing them. He believes that the world can do without magic, but if it persists then it will surely be doomed in the long run.

Somewhere in his adventures, he is joined by a former court official with questionable motives and methods, and a priest of a long-forgotten god who preaches Protection and Love. Personal bonds evolve along the story, some become more powerful than others, and some might even break them off voluntarily.

Anything can happen, but this is what I've got so far. I just need to add some specifics and then I'll be done!

[Persephone]

Sounds awesome

My NaNovel this year is called Slow Motion Sickness, and will follow my MC, Taylor, as she fights against a serious illness, and will explore the impact it has on not only her, but her family, her friends and her career. Taylor is a musician, the youngest member of a band she started with her brother and stepsiblings (the band in question being called No Reason). They've released one album (Dawning Of The Day), have built up something of a following, and when the story opens the band is in the final stages of recording album #2, Without An Ounce Of Madness. So they are understandably insanely busy - too busy, it turns out, for Taylor to be able to see her doctor (even though she knows she should). She ends up collapsing at home during the end-of-recording celebrations, and after a barrage of tests is diagnosed with lymphoblastic lymphoma - meaning that the album release and promotional tour have to be put on hold while she receives treatment, in the hope of achieving remission. Her ordeal will end up teaching her a very valuable lesson - in the end, you can really only rely on your family to get you through your darkest days.

[Adrian]

Athi, that's a pretty involved and complex story! It's almost like two or three stories rolled up into one! But it is very interesting, and epic in scope. Here's something to think about -- how do you see your MC growing or changing over time? I know you mentioned that already in your description, but I mean that would be an important part of the story to think about as you plan. What does he have to learn, how will he reach his major decision at the end, and how will he be ready to make that decision, where he wouldn't have been earlier? What's the real climax here, the real final "confrontation"? Just some focus questions, to help you focus, if you need any help focusing, but it sounds like you don't, you've got a lot of story ideas already.

Persephone, that's a big statement about the importance of the family as the primary source of support during a crisis. Will the band members let the MC down? Will there be a conflict that is resolved only when the MC turns to family instead of others? Just curious how you'll heighten the tension surrounding this important focal point. If this is the lesson learned, I assume the MC will be turning to everyone else at the beginning and not showing proper respect or appreciation to family? A lesson needing to be learned?

Well, I'm tired for lack of sleep, so I'll go take a nap right now. I hope my comments weren't too off the wall. Both stories sound interesting and it would be great to see samples of them, if anyone will share excerpts in the coming month.

I'll work on a description of my current WIP and share it soon.

Ciao!

[treanir]

My MC has just been backpacking for a little over sixteen months. He comes home, but he feels awfully out of place. He looks at Dutch traditions, customs and suchlike and just doesn't feel connected to it any more. The end of the novel is likely to change, but as it stands now, it will finish with him boarding another plane, either to start travelling indefinitely or to move to a new place permanently.

My MC completely surprised me yesterday. I knew nobody was waiting for him at Arrivals, but I did not know why. As he stood there watching the happy people being picked up, it dawned on me: his parents weren't there any more. And suddenly he took over the story and had a flash back to the time his mum died. What? Well, I'm rolling with it - it's his life, so to speak.