Young Writers Society

I have a dilemma! I figured I'd give NaNoWriMo a try this year, but I have a problem. I don't know which idea to use! Originally, I wanted to use NaNo to write the second half of my current story, which is a fanfiction, so I could have a real motivation to finish it. But a new idea came up and now I'm torn!

I could finish my current idea, or...

Use my new idea: Angela, a typical awkward teenager, is abducted out of her bed scant seconds before her 17th birthday and thrown headfirst into a Fantasia-like realm of strange fairy-tale beings. This world is in danger, and they need Angela's help to awaken Prince Morland, their hero who is locked in his family's ancient castle in an enchanted sleep. The basic premise of the plot is that the Castle's gatekeeper, a mischievous being called Jack o'the Keys, has lost her keys....well, really they were taken away from her after she did something irresponsible and charmed so she could never touch them again. She needs Angela to accompany her on her quest to reclaim her keys, because Angela, as a human, can touch them. These keys are more powerful than Jack's regular keys, since they open doors in the Castle. They were given to members of the Elder Court (extremely powerful, extremely old, and may or may not be gods. Except, the seventh key, the one that opens the Castle itself, was lost somewhere.

Some of my characters are:
Jack and her messenger hummingbirds (I've always wanted to use hummingbirds for something!)
Morgil, Prince Morland's talking war horse
Black Lilly Baker: the Elder Courtier who owns and operates The Boarding House (a Victorian mansion where a visitor can have literally anything they wish for...for a price.)
Jemma Byrd: a crow woman who keeps the Key to Night in a grimy, Dickinsonian city, and has the mental outlook of a six-year old sociopath.


So which one should I do? I have a lot of other things to do in November as well (like rehearsal and writing a huge paper for a contest), so I'm trying to pick the one that will come to me the easiest. I have an outline for the fanfiction already, but this new idea is really knocking! What do you guys think?

what kind of fanfiction?
And the hard-and-fast nanowrimo rules are that you can't finish a half-something but really, it's whatever works for you.
I would say if you have a lot of other projects circling around, plus thanksgiving and winter flues and whatever else you equate into November, do your fanfiction story. Your other idea looks amazing; but maybe you should let that one simmer; do some character sketches and world building and pound it out at some later date.
But that's just my opinion.
and what's you nano user-name? So I can mcfriend you.

It's a Pirates of the Caribbean fanfiction in two parts. I'm nearly done with part one, but part two is still just an vague outline, and things are still changing about it. I actually have the first chapter of part one posted on here.

I just signed up on NaNo...my name is S. J. Osprey.

Mkay, I'll go look at it. I love the idea of P.O.C. fanfiction.
Your nanowrimo user name sounds clever; does it have a special meaning?
ps I befriended you.
aps (additional post script?) what is your avatar? You can degrade me for being ignorant.

Haha! It's Jonas Quinn, one of my favorite Stargate characters.

I like PotC fanfic, because the canon is pretty easy to expand on. Though I tend to be among a minority in the community because I don't write slash and I don't write about Jack Sparrow.

Is the second idea fan-fiction of Shrek? From where I'm sitting it seems very similar to the plot of the first one. Excluding being abducted from a normal world of course.

Quest to get fairies out of his swamp/save the fairies to quest to save the people of the fairy realm.
Talking donkey to talking warhorse.
Princess in castle to prince in castle.

There are allot of differences from what you described also, but it still reminded me of Shrek.

No, it's an original. I don't see much of Shrek in it, since it's not satirical, and this world has more in common with Lewis Carrol's Wonderland...things are just weird there. Weird and creepy. I'm not sure who/what the bad guy is yet or how Morland was put in his sleep. I know it has something to do with why Jack no longer has the Seven keys.

Also, something I didn't mention is that Morgil is actually the Prince's younger brother who is under an enchantment and doesn't remember who he is. The last key is part of his harness.

I'd use NaNoWriMo for the fan fiction. The second idea is a good idea, and if you rush it into 30 days then it could be ruined. Its the same reason i changed to a not very good idea the other day for NaNoWriMo, not saying your fan fic idea would be bad though.

Yeah, I decided on the fanfiction. There are still too many unknowns for the other one yet, and I know the plot of my fanfic really well. I'm hoping NaNo will at least teach me some proper motivation, though...that's my biggest writing problem.