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Fun fact: I first found out about NaNoWriMo from these forums, and that led me to write my very first book, way back in my middle school days. So as long as I'm bouncing down Nostalgia Road, as I've been lately, I figured I might as well make a quick stop here.
So, yeah, for those who don't know, National Novel Writing Month is a nonprofit event organized to promote literacy and the creative arts across the world, although I honestly mainly know it as "the event that puts my Thanksgiving plans in jeopardy every year".
The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write up to 50,000 words, or a full novel, within the month of November. Sometimes people set higher or lower goals, as they so please. I like to keep it traditional. It's a really helpful exercise for those who work better under deadlines, and those tight deadlines can really help inspire you. Plus, being forced to write 1,667 words a day for a month can be a real confidence booster.
Disclaimer: Obviously, we're having a 600-day year right now. I blew off last year's event, the first time I've done so since I started over a decade ago. I think I've reevaluated a lot of my feelings about NaNoWriMo as the problems with my own workaholism have become increasingly apparent, especially over the last few years, and I do think there are very good reasons not to like NaNoWriMo at all. I think NaNoWriMo's culture sort of encouraged a damaging norm of not taking care of yourself, of obsessing over productivity at all costs, and worst of all, of liking Harry Potter. But they've taken great strides in recent years, and I'm down for a nice, wholesome, good-faith stab at getting back into the rhythm. NaNoWriMo can be a lot of fun, and it would be nice to write for myself instead of for commissioners for a change.
So, yeah! I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year. I may use this thread to talk about my ideas for what I want to write this time around--I've already got a couple. Is anyone else in?
I'm currently squabbling with a few concepts in my head, like I was saying. They're basically all action-fantasy-romance YA.
In this story, the main character is either from the real world, from a small isolated village, or has no memories--or she showed up in the world with no memories but has been "adopted" by a quaint isolated village and has gotten semi-assimilated into things. She's meant to be very simple so a reader can easily put themselves in her shoes. Regardless, the military shows up one day and tells her she's destined for great things, and she gets spirited away. Meanwhile, a plucky rebellion is trying to corrupt the process, but they're extremely ragtag and poorly-organized, so their agents' tactics range from attempts at swaying the "Chosen One" to their side to just flat-out attempted murder.
The setting is more-or-less undefined right now, but I like the idea of an exceptionally dislocated kingdom, with great big magical forest running between everything and constantly destroying roads and bridges and generally making life difficult for people. I'd like to do a fantasy story where I don't feel the need to explain the magic system, since I actually enjoy "soft fantasy" a lot better than the D&D-type "all magic has clear-cut rules and mechanics" approach that's so common these days.
This story is sort of a horror/drama/fantasy/mystery/adventure, with the main character (the niece) meeting a young witch who is herself deeply tangled up in the monster mystery. Unfortunately, the main character and her uncle don't have clean hands, since they've been hired by a cruel knight who may be planning to crack down on the fiefdom as soon as the monster is dealt with. I don't know if the witch and adventurer get a happy ending or if things fall apart--obviously I'm a sucker for romance, but I'm also a sucker for tragic drama.
I've already gotten about a quarter of the way through it, so my goal would be to finish it.
I got this whole idea for a forest full of human-killing fey and spirits where, basically, humans mingle freely--but only in disguise. It would take a while to explain, but the short-and-tall of it is this: Spirits take things extremely at face value, and so if you wear a cat ear headband and tell them you're a cat spirit, they don't question it. Because the forest has bounteous resources, and is safe from the grasping hands of the royal family, a lot of people flock there to either exploit its wonders or simply live safe and free from tyranny. It's basically Hallow's Eve year-round.
However, the forest has strange long-term effects on those who spend a lot of time there, and it may be that the costumes gradually stop being costumes as the years stretch on. Additionally, a lot of spirits and fey are pretty easy to mistake for humans in crummy costumes! Sometimes a cat spirit really is just a humanoid with cat ears!
There's a lot of strange business in the forest, and while I don't have a ton of story yet (some vague ideas about a couple of girls, one spirit, one human, who fall in love before knowing the other's true nature), I do have a lot of excitement for the worldbuilding.
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Thirty-one days and four hours til November. I'm leaning towards Option #1. Some details have gotten more specific.
So, the main character is a girl named Fret, who was found near a remote woodland village a few years ago with no memory of how she got there. They asked if she was a boy or a girl. She said "girl". The village didn't ask further questions - it wasn't even really a big deal for them. Sometimes people pester Fret to join them hunting or chopping, but she usually brushes this off. They aren't trying to make her act like a boy, exactly. It's just ribbing, or self-interested angling for a clever apprentice. It might be easier if she were a boy, but she's not.
When Fret reveals her magical aptitude during a disastrous harvest festival, suspicion rises among agents of the kingdom that she is in fact some long-lost daughter of the dead royal family. She is taken to a great castle, where she meets all kinds of strange, frightening and eccentric characters. She's supposed to fulfill some sort of prophecy, to restore the monarchy, and to bring peace to the kingdom. There are three chief problems.
First, she has a crush on a gentle shapeshifting boy who may be involved in a plot to put someone very much like her under a guillotine.
Second, she also has a crush on a sarcastic thief girl who may be planning to rob the castle blind.
And third, she's trans. And she's beginning to suspect that this reveal would be a much bigger deal to these people than her upbringing ever prepared her for.
The thief girl is the first to find out that Fret is trans. She covers for Fret because Fret previously covered for her. Later, the thief girl does steal some sacred relics, and gets her spirit polluted by corrupted magic in the process and begins a terrible transformation.
Fret is "raised" (for the last few years) by a couple of strange magic-users - a lazy and passive wizard slowly turning into a tree and a demanding witch who mostly focuses on keeping Fret busy. They're both fundamentally well-meaning people, but also deeply unqualified to be parents in any capacity, and they shouldn't have volunteered to take care of her when the village found her in the first place. It's been a pretty neglectful couple of years for Fret, especially since she sort of assumes everyone in town thinks she's annoying or weird.
The setting has extremely relaxed rules for magic, but one major element is that goblins, who are basically destructive biker gang creatures, have magic based on "friendship". They form understandings with objects, materials, things. So a given goblin might have an excellent rapport with wood, and she can persuade wood - but not living trees - to do favors for her, such as not impale her. One of the only materials goblins can never "befriend" is lead, which is why they use copper or brass bullets.
Oh, she's going to tear the monarchy down in the end. Her recruiters are mostly terrible, cynical people, and the ultimate villains of the story, more dedicated to maintaining the status quo than to doing what's right.
Most positions of power attract that kind of person. Have you seen the gargoyle who runs Amazon?