My first scene is at a solid 1,750 words right now, and with plenty to go to last me the rest of today's word count requirements. Having a protagonist who's first person and who's voice I readily get and already am familiar with really helps.

I am re-doing the first scene of Bette's story here from the version I'm basing this whole thing on, but I have to say I like the previous version better. Still, for NaNo purposes, no reusing stuff! So a new version it was. Perhaps some day in the future, I'll get around to the editing and combine the best of both versions. Yeehaw!

And now for a nap because I'm in serious need.

People do seem to be interested in a prep session...I would tentatively suggest Saturday, but I know I've got errands I need to run before my company's anniversary party that night. But for the rest of you, hey, go for it!

Meanwhile, here's a site that has helpful info on the classic set-up and plotting of a mystery novel: http://members.tripod.com/~ticket2write/mysplot.html

Quite helpful! My story has taken a big turn to Something Completely Different (shocking, I know). A while ago I'd started a story using a roleplaying character, Bette, albeit with very different details in her life. I think I'm going to use this story this year. I had written some stuff, but I'm going to start from scratch. I'm going to try planning more of my story from the get-go, and doing some character fleshing outs to make sure they've all got some interesting info in their pasts.

I'm also using Veronica Mars as a large inspiration here, so oh darn, I may just HAVE to go rewatch some episodes. Shucks! ;P

So, zombies. That's a little science fiction, yes, but also a hefty dose of Horror! And I've never really written horror before.

So, what are some books you'd all recommend I read for a dose of horror writing? Stuff that will be useful (as well as good!) is preferable here. :)

Gearing up for another go at NaNo! My journal's theme has been duly adjusted, and here's me posting, talking about Idea No. 1.

After watching a pretty awful zombie horror movie the other day with some friends, bluesauce declared that zombie children just plain couldn't cut it. I forget his exact words, but it prompted me to proclaim that my NaNo would involve zombie kids in some way, and not suck. So that's what I've got so far! Zombies, including some kid zombies.

Good thing I've already read World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide</a>, and own the latter. Hooray using someone else's very detailed weapons research! :D

So now I need some suggestions of good costumes. Non-slutty ones at that! ;) And ones that would require some work to pull off.

Also looking for other generic costume suggestions. And some male ones as well as female.

I need a name for a bar. I've got in mind something like Phoenix Landing (for those who live in Boston and know what that is), but I'd like to have an original name for it. Any ideas?

Comment here to be added for NaNo 2007! I friends-lock most entries, so this way you can enjoy the upcoming stuff and read some of the older entries, too.

And now it's time to gear up for Nano 2006. This time I've got a nearby buddy who I know is competitive and stubborn in the form of my former college roomie Christine doing NaNo as well. We used to push one another into going to the gym, so now we can push one another into doing more NaNo!

Plotting for this year has begun as well. An idea I had is slowly molding and forming in my head and turning into a new beast of its own accord. So far?

Three people featured in a prophecy of some kind for a world parallel to/overlapping our own, but of course a fantasy-type setting because I do love those so much. While it started off with the idea of it being three sisters, the idea has sinced morphed into two sisters and their stepbrother. The three all attend a boarding private school in New England somewhere, and someplace on or just off the grounds is where they find themselves able to crossover somehow into the overlapping world. The mechanics of that I haven't figured out yet.

Their parents have only recently married, and I think the older sister and stepbrother will be about the same age/grade, and he's secretly had a thing for her since before they knew their parents were even dating, so the new situation is rather awkward for him. The personalities of the two sisters and other plothooks for them I've yet to determine as well.

But it's a start! And I like it so far. Here goes nothing, yet again!

Comment here to be added and read my adventures in NaNo 2005!

First story for he May Blitz, off of a prompt given by nanoweylyn: "Everything was destroyed in the fire."

It's very short, but I'm still getting into short story swing, and I like that it'sshort and doesn't explain everything.

"As Promised"

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EDIT: This entry has been un-locked for the sake of those from NaNo communities interested in 'friending', so that they can get an update on what my plot/story is ACTUALLY going to be.

No stealing! ;p


While waiting around to get my train home this evening, I picked up a book of original short stories about the character Abraham Van Helsing, the original vampire hunter of Bram Stoker's Dracula.

In college, I took a course called "History of Horror," which was really quite fascinating and I enjoyed it quite a bit. My professor (Raymond McNally, I remembered!) was the foremost authority on Dracula legend in the world. He died a year later, sadly. I used to joke that he must actually be Van Helsing, since he knew so much about the topic. In a similar manner, I used to joke that my professor for an Arthurian Literature class must actually be Merlin.

Then I had an idea for a story. What if this guy WAS Van Helsing? Actually was? Well, this gave birth to a string of ideas, and the most coherent plot they've formed in my head thus far is this:

Van Helsing took an oath to destroy Dracula, and the two have become arch nemesis' over the years. Van Helsing did not know this would also 'curse' him in a sense as well, for as long as Dracula survived, he would as well. He was oath-bound to eternal life, but not nearly in the same sense. When one body died, his spirit would essentially join with another, and they would have all of his memories and knowledge. Over the years, he has leaped from body to body. The story opens and he is currently in the body of an aging man, a professor in fact, who teaches a class on the History of Horror... where is Dracula? He doesn't know. But the existence of Van Helsing goes on, and that means Dracula is still out there. The professor finds out, but onyl too late for himself. He's old, he's not young and spry and he can't take down Dracula. He dies. The Van Helsing spirit passes yet again, to a younger and more able body, that of a student of the professor's, or perhaps his TA. Now this young man has the task of defeating Dracula, or facing death at his fangs, but of course there are roadblocks. Coping with the sudden knowledge and the memories, his own life, and lacking access to the professor's old materials to help him, including perhaps some essential artifacts. And heck, a love interest would be fun for complication, too. But in the end, Dracula is near, and the new Van Helsing must face him, live or die.

It's likely a product of too much Buffy-obsession, but I like it, and I very much want to keep it away from seeming to be an exact copy of the show. It's not a subculture of demons, just Dracula, and just Van Helsing, continuing his battle in a new way. And heck, I just may use the Professor by name and Boston College, too. Why not use the locales I'm familiar with? I have an idea as to how he can win over Dracula as well, but we'll see if that sticks. I can always change things later if I like, this is just potential NaNo plotting really.

So now I just gotta find as many of the books from that class as I might still have...

I should post the pieces of this I've been writing in between times. The ex-boyfriend of Jenna, Gage, shows up - he's the person they called after the first scene I wrote.

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Wrote this in a NaNo forum thread I started about apocalypse stories and what's overrated or not about them. :) What do you think of this for potential plot start?

"Hmm.. so, any opinions on how screwed we'd be if it all happened at once? Oil & gas & other natural energy resources run dangerously, resulting in outright wars over control of such. At the same time, technology reaches the level of true artificial intelligence and perhaps even the ability to combine human minds & machine, the first true cyborgs. Who would of course make incredible soldiers, with human minds enhanced by technology and metal bodies that don't bleed so easily. Biological warfare could become the latest style, to kill off what human parts remain of these cyborg soldiers, but that will affect the civilian populations as well, so thousands or millions could die or be permanently damaged.

And for kicks, let's throw in a breakthrough on the human mind as well, a discovery of how to breach the barrier of how much of our brains we use, a sort of next step in evolution that brings in a generation with esper talents. Telekinesis, telepathy, and so forth. "Magic" to some. Between the oil wars and fear of these new talents, religious differences will inevitably come into play in some areas, and religious war is tossed into the mix along with the rest of the sh*t flying around the world.

In the end? Espers, cyborgs, regular humans, humans damaged by disease and radiation exposure, technology available only to those who won the oil crisis, athesists and religious fanatics abounding and a world that is ripped and torn, hateful and distrustful, blurred country lines that may or may not matter depending on who you are, and maybe the beginning of different factions trying to gain the upper hand of leadership to bring the world back to its feet.

Hey, what if that was when alien invaders decided to come and attack? Oh boy!!"

So the ultimate position of humanity being SCREWED, new races & leaders & religions emerging, and maybe even some alien invaders tossed in for extra oomph.

I know, no writing til Novemeber, but I had to in order to get this idea out and see if it looked okay. I've been all into the Buffyverse Vampire stuff lately anyhow, so the vampire/gothic world idea is appealing and seems do-able. But I wanted my own variation of what a "vampire" would be, and came around to this.

Yeah, it sounds just like a zombie movie waiting to be made, but... well, heck, maybe that's what I'll do! Also, 407 words (okay, yeah, including the definition but whatever)



vam•pire ( P ) Pronunciation Key (vmpr) n.
1. A reanimated corpse that is believed to rise from the grave at night to suck the blood of sleeping people.
2. A person … who preys upon others.

Apocalypse came, just as many thought it would. Then it passed. Most people died. Some people lived. Some people became victims of radiation, and some became victims of theirs.

In the States—we still call it that, even though countries and borders mean nothing now—biological weapons were dropped on New York, DC, Boston, Chicago, LA, Houston and a few were dropped sporadically in the middle of the country for good measure. It didn’t seem to make a difference at first. But slowly, we realized what had happened, in the years after.

Those affected found their blood had changed entirely. Their ability to create white cells and develop anti-bodies was so severely affected that many died from the common cold. Some of us were not affected, so you’d think that means the sick ones died, and the strong lived on. They found out their blood was changed in more ways than one. They could now also accept donations from any blood type, and it would mix, be accepted, become their own. But white blood cells are only viable for 18 to 36 hours outside the host body. Within three days of taking one donation, the sick needed more.

The strong were not so willing, though. They needed blood, of course, to survive. They wanted to help, they had tried to help, but it was far too great a demand to fill. The strong abandoned the weak, washed their hands of the tragedy that was their lot, and left them to die.

Some did die. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and others were not ready to accept this solution, and so they turned to the only other answer they could think of. Violence. They hunted the strong, killed them, captured them, and took their blood when they needed it. It made sense that eventually they became known as Vampires, since they drank the blood of the living, even if they were not dead. We were the prey they hunted. The blood they needed.

The lines of who was weak and who was strong were blurred, no longer divisible by those with the disease, and those without. Now the strong are those who survive, whatever side they may be on.

More of Jenna & Rana. Part of this from the 400words challenge of using a WB Yeats poem, where I found a line about a red-rosed hem.

( The book! )

Which are adding more to this Jenna & Rana story I've apparentally started... came from the challenge of "deceit."

973 today.
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And here we go!

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I've officially signed up for NaNo 2004, and I got this adorable icon from the site, too!! :D

I joined up at 400words to get some practice in before NaNo and in general. Startig today, October the First! Here is today's 400 (actually 411):

 

            “Wait, wait. You mean you knew I was okay?” Rana was incredulous.

            “Of course I knew that! You were still breathing, weren’t you?” Jenna’s sarcastic reply, typical of her, had Rana rolling her eyes and furious at the same time. Jenny tried to turn away, but Rana stepped to the side, forcing her younger sister to keep looking at her. She tried not to wince as she moved her side, still injured, but banadaged now.

            “Well, that’s just wonderful. I was breathing. What a clear and evident signal that nothing was wrong. Did it not occur to you that maybe I needed help? Like maybe a doctor, or at the very least to get this cleaned up and banadaged sometime before six hours had passed?” How could she be so…non-chalant about this? It was Jenna’s style, sure, but this was a little more serious! Didn’t she see that?

            “You’re fine, okay? And I had to at least try to get the book from them, without it we’re stuck!” Jenna returned angrily.

            “Oh, of course. The book. The book we still don’t have, you mean? I’m so glad you have your priorities straight, Jenna. Book, then wounded sister. Great decision-making you’ve got going on there.”

            “It was up to me to decide! You weren’t exactly in any condition to advise,” Jenna said, glaring at Rana. “Now they have it, and we’ve got bigger problems than a sore side, Rana.”

            “My ribs are broken, Jen. That’s kind of a problem in my book.” Rana’s tone was even as she got fed up with trying to make Jenna see sense. She sat down on the couch, wincing again as she did. She had to remember to take it easy for a while or this was never going to get better; not to mention the cuts might re-open and bleed all over the place.

            “Broken ribs or no, if we don’t get the book, then we don’t how to end this. They’ve got it, we’re the ones in the tight spot with no bargaining room and very little hope to go on. It’s a pretty big problem,” Jenna recounted, pacing about the floor. “We need to figure out what to do.”

            “Giving up and going out with a good effort begins to sound better and better,” Rana remarked dryly.

            “That’s just what they want! We can’t give up. This is too important.” Jenna looked at Rana squarely. “But we might need help.”

            “Oh, you think?”

I'm beginning to try and get a plot idea going for the 2004 NaNoWriMo. Again, my goal will be to finish a novel, and as I have failed at that for the last three years of attempting to do so (though I have, on the other hand, gotten some good work out of it and gone farther into a story than ever before), I again truly and really hope that this year I can manage it.

So note to self, cut-off social life during November this time!!

The idea I've just now gotten into my head is a vigilante, and perhaps two ex-best friends at odds with each other. Also in a fantasy setting, because I enjoy those and I think it would add some newness to the vigilante theme.

Beyond this, I know nothing of what I shall attempt to do! Encouragements and suggestions are always welcome. :) If you'd like to be added as a friend, since all of my work is friends-locked, then please comment on this entry.