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What Novel Ideas!



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Thu May 10, 2018 10:54 pm
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Evander says...



Do you have a novel idea in mind? Or perhaps one in the hand?

Do you want a place to talk about it? Then this is the thread for you! The goal here is to basically talk about your own ideas, engage with other authors about their ideas, and perhaps get some new ideas of your own. (Wow, I'm saying idea a lot here.) But seriously, even if your novel hasn't yet begun or is on the 51st chapter, this is still the thread for you. And yes, novellas and novelettes are welcomed.

There's no real template for this. If you want, you can give a brief overview and then commence the screaming about whatever specific plot point, but that isn't required.

Also, if you're interested, then why not create a thread for your novel in the Writers Corner? Seriously, all you have to do is make a thread. I find it great for categorizing my thoughts and quickly leaving notes.

-

Let the discussion commence!
Want to talk about your project? Head on over to the Writers Corner! If you have a question about writing, then head on over to Research! Is your question not big enough to warrant its own thread? Ask away in Little Details!

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Thu May 10, 2018 11:38 pm
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Mageheart says...



I've been toying with the idea of a science fiction story for quite some time, and I've recently starting thinking of it again with the end of this current round of LMS approaching. (I signed up for the next one.) The tentative name is Extraterrestrial, which has a bit of a double meaning - it could either be a reference to the aliens, or how the protagonist has trouble seeing herself like her peers because she's aroace.

The cast currently is Lucy (who needs a last name), Oliver (who also needs a last name) and Charlotte "Charlie" Hart. Charlie has always struggled with being around her classmates and her obsession with aliens and outer space certainly hasn't helped. But then one day, a track star she's always admired because of how confident and popular he is - Oliver - invites her to do an English project with him. They end up becoming super close friends over the course of the project and decide to continue hanging out afterwards. Oliver's best friend Lucy isn't happy about the friendship; she's constantly trying to get him to end it, and it's a constant cause of tension in Oliver and Charlie's friendship. It's only when she discovers Oliver's secret that she finally understands why Lucy has been so insistent on him staying away from her.

Long story short, Oliver is an alien and Lucy is his robot.

I still haven't figured out why they're on Earth but I just love the idea of an alien befriending a lover of the extraterrestrial.
mage

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Fri May 11, 2018 12:48 am
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Jericho says...



I'm planning a rewrite of an old draft of mine - previously titled In the Absence of Stars, now, much more simply, Starless.

The premise:

Seven has ambitions that leave her clawing at the clouds. She's already crossed the continent to get to Lacruz, the last bastion of purity in the Americas. Now she has to put her fight to the test: Can she survive the cutthroat lower streets on the path to her ascension? Can she prove her father's dreams true and become an Angel?

Joy has dreams that bring her crashing down to Earth. She's never left the suspended city of Lacruz, much less been exposed to the harsh culture of the lower streets. Cast out of her family—and the only place she's called home—can she reclaim her place as an Angel? Can she become content with simple, flawed humanity?

Starless is a twist on "Prince and the Pauper"-style stories, where two parties switch places for some contrast of lifestyle. Where Seven has lived her entire life on the ground, Joy has spent her life in the clouds; I plan on it being an exercise in exploring reality vs. expectation.

For the main characters' names... they are, to be truthful, María de los Siete Dolores (Mary of the Seven Sorrows), and María de las Siete Alegrías (Mary of the Seven Joys). A work in progress for now, but a work.
  





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Fri May 11, 2018 11:00 am
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BluesClues says...



I mean should I even talk about my story
everyone knows what I'm writing
I never shut up about it
  





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Fri May 11, 2018 1:05 pm
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StellaThomas says...



@saentiel - I love that idea! I think Lucy would be my favourite. I love robots.

@Jericho - I really love your blurb! Have you posted any of it? I'm definitely interested in reading.

@BlueAfrica - of course we have. But I want to hear again. Pleeeeeeeease. (Besides I'm about to talk everyone's ear off about mine so join me!)

Okay guys. I have two novels that I work on interchangeably.

The first, which I've been working on longer than I've been with Boy (0.o my only longer relationship is with YWS!) is Unruly. It's gone through a few iterations though most of the key elements have stayed the same:

Crown Princess Alicia is missing. Her disappearance from Avery Academy for Gifted Girls in the middle of a ball could not have come at a worse time. The country of Samina is in political turmoil and a missing heir to the throne is only adding to the chaos.

No one is more desperate to find her than her best friend, seventeen year old Duchess Astrid Race. But unravelling the mystery means help beyond the walls of Avery's Academy. There's Nathaniel, knight in shining armour and practically betrothed to Alicia, and probably the only person in the kingdom who doesn't know Astrid is in love with him. There's Laurel, a ward of court, who hates Astrid but might be the only person who can help her navigate the troubled waters of the palace and parliament. And far across the sea is Fred, who has never met Alicia or Astrid but has an unhealthy obsession with magic which Astrid might just need to save the day.

As Astrid tries to find her best friend, and stop a civil war at the same time, in a land populated by magic and dragons, she may need to learn how to break some rules.

This is a fairytale coming of age story about the importance of female friendship, even when boys, dragons and crossbows get in the way.

And my second novel, which you may have heard more about, because it's so frankly bizarre, is Silk:

Pip Starsfall, the playboy darling of city society, and his sisters have lived a charmed life until the death of their mother. Now, the newspapers say that they are cursed. When a string of bad luck plagues their father, the family are left destitute. Their only option is to move to a cottage on the edge of the woods in a town called Gosdagger.

But Godsdagger has secrets of its own: no one goes outside after sunset for fear of a terrible beast that haunts its streets.

Pip doesn't believe in curses, and he certainly doesn't believe in monsters. He does believe in the blacksmith's pretty daughter, Laina, and so one night he sneaks out to meet her.

And that's when Pip discovers that monsters and curses are very, very real.

My tagline for this is "a steampunk bastsrdisation of Beauty and the Beast" but anyone who's ever heard me talk about it knows that Pip falls in love with a woman called Milady who, uh, just happens to be trapped in the body of a giant telepathic spider. So. I don't really know how to sell that. There's also a pregnant ghost, and the walls talk.
"Stella. You were in my dream the other night. And everyone called you Princess." -Lauren2010
  





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Fri May 11, 2018 1:17 pm
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Brigadier says...



@blueafrica

I had to go off and make an army of ghost cats with my #crazycatladyreaper, since I knew it wouldn't be happening anytime in your story.

Phantom:

- it will probably be a novella because he's a spinoff character
- Father Fantome = the ghost of the priest attached to some church memorabilia
- Lily = current reaper/ex-nun/crazy cat lady
- Felix = her most current ghost cat

They live in Sun City Center because it's prime hunting grounds for reapers and demons, and nice haunting grounds for the ghosts and ghouls.

This is for sure a comedy. There's not like any serious around. Just two supernatural creatures with no romantic interest in each other, who are trying to keep themselves tethered to the after life.

So basically like ya realistic religious fiction but with swearing and jokes about mature topics. There's a bit there that breaks some aspects of a ya religious piece.

the brigadier rides again!
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Fri May 11, 2018 1:45 pm
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StellaThomas says...



@LadyBird - I dig this so hard when can I read some
"Stella. You were in my dream the other night. And everyone called you Princess." -Lauren2010
  





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Fri May 11, 2018 5:02 pm
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Brigadier says...



@StellaThomas ask @blueafrica, she's the one responsible for motivating me to write anything in a timely manner.

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Fri May 11, 2018 5:56 pm
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Cadi says...



Ooh, I had been considering making a thread for one of my ongoing projects, but I think I'll just post here to start with!

All the ideas people have posted about so far sound pretty cool - I think so far, they all sound like things I'd pick up in a bookstore!

I currently have two things on the go, and I'm trying to alternate between them when I get bored rather than haring off after shiny new ideas (because while shinies are awesome, I'm never going to finish anything that way...).


Novel #1 is Magic Words (probably a working title). Basic premise: we're in present-day, and magic is real! But, it's kind of naff. You can get a degree in Magic, but people will do that thing they do with arts degrees, and say, "hey, how is that going to help you get a job?", because people suck. The MC, Elanor, loves magic! Always has! Loved it at school, studied it at uni, was a total natural. But now she's graduated, life is looking kind of dull, except when she's messing around with spells at home. And then something goes wrong with an experimental spell, and suddenly she can't do magic anymore...

This is in a second-draft kind of place, so I'm still nailing down the actual plotline, but it's fundamentally a story about dealing with finding the balance to your life after an unpheaval to what's normal, and dealing with self-image, self-care, and your relationship with the things you consider your talents. (It's currently stalled slightly, because I hit a wall where I realised that Elanor is the most passive/uninteresting character in the whole thing, and I haven't decided how to deal with that yet!)


Novel #2 is one I've been calling Sword in a Stone (definitely a working title) on here. Setting: "classic" fantasy world, but further along the timeline; think Middle Earth, but 1920s. The country in question is a UK-a-like island, governed by a coalition council of elves, dwarves and humans. Our hero is Estelle, human veteran of the continental war which ended some ten-fifteen years ago. And she just accidentally pulled a particularly famous sword out of the chunk of rock in which it has been stuck for the last few centuries...

This one is very much a first draft, so I don't know what happens next! At the moment, it's a great big mishmash of bits and pieces that seemed cool - elves who can't touch iron, WWI, quest fantasy, awkward crushes, archaeology, the Sword in the Stone, dwarves wearing sunglasses, etc. I'm sort of hoping that some character motivations and plot will fall out if I shake the idea enough (i.e. if I keep Actually Writing bits and pieces of it). Biggest challenge: telling myself it doesn't matter if the world is inconsistent right now, because I can fix that later once I know what needs to happen!
"The fact is, I don't know where my ideas come from. Nor does any writer. The only real answer is to drink way too much coffee and buy yourself a desk that doesn't collapse when you beat your head against it." --Douglas Adams
  





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Fri May 11, 2018 9:46 pm
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Jericho says...



@StellaThomas, I don't currently have any of the new draft posted, but I believe the old draft should still be visible on my portfolio here. It's nothing similar except - maybe - for the style. Even the viewpoints are different.

I'm working on it more, though, and hopefully should be able to post some in the near future.
  





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Sat May 12, 2018 11:43 am
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mellifera says...



Ahh, everyone has such cool ideas! I love reading through all these <3 really needs to start reading more works on here

also @BlueAfrica in what context should you not talk about your story? Let's be honest here.


So if anyone has seen me around the site, you probably know what I'm working on. Or maybe you've seen my novel popping up in the green room, Hell or High Water. If you haven't, well. That's what I'm working on *finger guns*

(I would love some help choosing a novel for LMS, but I figure I might as well talk about child #1 first)


Two years ago, Star lost her father when an old enemy from his days of pirating comes back for blood. Determined to find him and get him back, Star sets out. Even if it means chasing after one of the most brutal, savage pirates to have lived. Who also conveniently disappeared soon after capturing her father.

But her journey is pushed to the background when her and a newfound friend, Alejandra, are kidnapped by pirates, led by Captain Maeve. Despite her anger at the situation, Star soon realises that these pirates are not quite what the stories say they are. Mysteries arise, and Star makes it her personal mission to learn the truth, while still keeping her father in mind. But everything she finds leads back to Maeve, and Star starts to wonder what it is that Maeve is really hiding.


So I already have plans to change a lot in the second draft, since somebody didn't outline and made stuff up on the fly *coughcough* ahem. Also I'm just generally unhappy with a lot of things that happened. The most important change is I want to add magic, which was in my original plan, but that didn't work out (especially considering I decided not to include it only after getting to chapter six, which would have been the only place it really came into play because I wanted a sea monster, but I changed it to a storm last minute).

This has been a very slow process, and it's partially my fault because I wanted a longer novel and I'm very busy. Also maintaining my motivation has been...an experience. This is the first project I've really stuck with, and I am determined to finish it. I just wish it could go a little faster lol but I don't have that level of self-control to force myself to write more often than I already do (and again, I'm busy too which doens't help). And I probably didn't help it any with declaring my intent to join LMS, but oh well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ how bad can two novels at once be? (besides annoying everyone with so many green room works but I plan to try to review more SO)
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Sat May 12, 2018 12:13 pm
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Vervain says...



NOVELLLLLS. aka "the brainchildren I have too many of". Instead of going too in-depth on any in particular, have a whole handful ;D

The Autumn Door: current gonna-be-LMS project (saving to do as a warrior). Teenager's best friend is kidnapped into the world of faerie by her evil aunt, and she traverses the traps and pitfalls of a foreign world to bring him back. Almost-traditional kind of hero's journey YA adventure story. Fully plotted, followed by three semi-plotted sequel ideas because I got myself into it.

Balance: my oldest novel idea ever guys. Like, I've written prose stories and tried to write "books" before it, but Balance is the first one I was like, serious about. The plot? Uh... well I kind of scrapped the plot but the original plot was "A foreign nobleman enlists a local thief to help him find the heart of all magic" or something similar. Right now I'm reworking it (again) and trying to make it a little more.

Keeper of Earth: The Autumn Door in space -- seriously, but. A teenager finds out she's not exactly human and is whisked away pending the Earth's destruction. She fights tooth and nail to keep Earth safe and make it a viable member of the interstellar community. More fun YA whatnot.

Unchosen: The Chosen One dies on a routine monster hunt. Her twin sister poses as her to keep the populace fooled -- but while she struggles with her own identity, the magic border keeping her country safe from the world is failing. Kind of a New Adult fantasy, struggling with having come of age and still not knowing who you are, not knowing your own personality, and people who don't trust you enough to let you try to do something yourself.

Fire on the Kitzen Trail: A mysterious figure rides into town and whisks Maia away from everything she's known. The government are after her -- a child of one of the infamous dissidents of the Barricade Wars -- and will stop at nothing to find her and erase her father's name from history. With nothing but her best friend, her loyal droid, and the clothes on her back, can she escape the government's watchful eye? Does she really want to?

there was another one recently that I don't remember but uh... I think this is enough for now. excited to see y'all's!
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Wed May 16, 2018 7:34 am
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Mea says...



@Cadi - I absolutely love both of those ideas, particularly the first one. Those are themes I would absolutely love to read about. :D

Okay, so I basically have three novels that are all my babies.

Mixing Magic - The one of mine that most people probably actually know. I just started the third draft, and I'm so excited! This one is a middle grade fantasy that's sort of the traditional story of "girl taken to another world, stops evil person, goes home" but from the *sidekick's* point of view - Ayda is a fairy who loves traveling and sculpting, and when she finds a human girl named Madeline in the woods, she and her family are swept into the fight against the woman who brought Madeline here for a reason.

Eos - This is actually going to be a trilogy. Hopefully. It's post-apocalyptic adult fiction. Reality consists of 32 parallel layers, and unfortunately, objects - and people - can fall to lower layers. Passage back up is impossible. The story takes place in the bottom dimension, which used to look like our Earth but has basically been the other layers' dumping ground for the last fifty years or so. One of two main civilizations still left in that world is headed by a group of two brothers and their duplicates (basically versions of them who have fallen through from other layers). When Dameon, a duplicate of those brothers, falls through, he is offered a place in their inner circle, but refuses because he sees it as a dictatorship. Stuff ensues.

The Ghost Bus - This one was sort of a failure. I wrote a first draft in a rush last summer and never really got a handle on it, and never really liked the direction I took in the story. It's a YA Urban Fiction/Paranormal. Essentially, a Texas girl has recently moved to Boston after her brother's tragic death, and she notices that early every morning, an empty bus pulls up outside of her house. There's not even a driver inside, and nobody else seems to be able to see it. One morning, wanting to run away, she gets on the bus, and it takes her basically to where souls cross over to the next life. As it turns out, her brother's spirit has unfinished business and is lingering near his family, which is why the bus pulls up at her house, waiting for the day her brother decides to get on.

The plot really didn't work out. The paranormal stuff took too much of a backseat and I'm awful at writing family drama, so yeah. I figured I'd abandoned this novel forever, but recently the ideas have been kicking around in my brain more. I think I want to bring the paranormal stuff in a lot more heavily. We shall see. :)
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Wed May 16, 2018 10:03 am
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Cadi says...



@Mea - thank you! All of yours sound pretty cool, as well! Mixing Magic in particular sounds very fun. The Ghost Bus reminds me of this thing I tried years ago, based on the idea that "Not in service" was a real place (in a kind of pocket dimension) where buses went overnight. I didn't get particularly far with it, though.
"The fact is, I don't know where my ideas come from. Nor does any writer. The only real answer is to drink way too much coffee and buy yourself a desk that doesn't collapse when you beat your head against it." --Douglas Adams
  





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Wed May 16, 2018 2:32 pm
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PrincessInk says...



I'm reading along this thread and having so much fun learning about everyone's ideas. They're so cool! :D

I actually have about 3 novel drafts:

The Accidental Ghosts is a middle-grade urban fantasy set in Victorian England about a girl and boy who end up getting ghosted! Along with protecting a mysterious doll who can talk (and doesn't have much of a filter in her mouth), they must try to become corporeal again. I started this in June 2017 and finished a draft in December 2017.

Maybe I'll work on this story's 2nd draft after I finish my WIP :) Anyway, I'm pretty excited to ever return to this world--I even thought of a novel set in the same world called The Accidental Statue

Iris Unearths is another middle-grade fantasy, but this time I think it's a bit more epic, wide-scale and it's in a different world. One year, the snows have melted but spring does not come--as though something terrible has happened to Mother Earth. Iris, an earth fairy, and Dande, a flower fairy, set off on a journey to understand why.

This was inspired by a live-action adventure I ever set up (played with paper-dolls xD). I wrote my 1st draft in 2016 as a sort-of-novella on paper with pictures in the margins, closely sticking to the original storyline but changing some stuff (such as adding Dande in the story, though not at the beginning). During January to March 2018, I wrote the 2nd draft and this time I diverted greatly from the story and rushed the end and made a huge mess.

My third is my WIP, The Southern Tower (I need a better title oh no!). This is a Rapunzel-inspired story about a girl, namely Mila, who will do anything to rescue her sister Rapunzel, who was captured in a tower years ago. The childless king of the land announces that whoever rescues the girl is the next king, but allows only nobles to participate. Mila is a peasant but manages to wiggle her way into the competition anyway. I'm planning for her and the other rescuers to be trained in the palace and then sent off and also I'm planning a romance and lots of magic battling...

Obviously this is still in 1st draft land where everything I write is only a glimmer of what I have in my head.
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