Since I'm writing a series of 50 stories, I'm hoping to get as many as possible, although most of them will deal with gender (exploring potential gender systems that don't rely on the traditional binaries), politics (different political systems, corruption, authourity figure vs everyman figure), economics (sustainable vs. non-sustainable practices), sexuality (this is gonna be fun), and hopefully get some good ol' fashioned introspection while I'm at it.
How about you? Any particular subject you'll be taking issue with in your novel?
----------
Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia, Canada.
50 Stories; 1,000 words each... will I survive?
Current story:
5,293 / 50,000
Oct 2, 2008 - 18 24
I'll be hitting environmentalism and social justice as the visible results of the undercurrents of Evil. And I'm playing with making the whole thing an allegory of spirituality. We'll see.
----------Meals are books for the body.
"Lies are attempts to hide the truth by willfully denying facts. Fiction, on the other hand, is an attempt to reveal the truth by ignoring facts." -John Green
30,234 / 50,000
Oct 2, 2008 - 18 50
I'm taking it relatively easy this year -- usually I write about more complex themes (usually about gender, sexuality, gender identity, alternative sexualities/genders, that sort of thing). This year I'm sticking with a softer theme -- having characters grapple with how to get THEIR messages across (in their case, through music) without being preachy and turning everyone off. And also the consequences of being a public figure who voices support for a cause. (And, okay, a little bit of gender/sexuality stuff. I can't help it.)
5,398 / 50,000
Oct 2, 2008 - 19 01
I'm writing about the lack of motivation in the younger generations. Since I am a younger person who is also often very lazy, I think this will go rather well if I happen to get any writing done at all.
Other societal issues include death, addiction, sexuality (including sexual identity as a continuum), and most significantly the importance of art and a creative outlet in modern society.
*ETA: And religion! How could I forget religion?
0 / 50,000
Oct 2, 2008 - 19 10
My short fiction, I'm working primarily in that form as well as a novella, will primarily concern itself with vice and depravity, and the kind of depths men and women go to when they're looking for some kind of solace and meaning and aren't finding it. And if it's not that, I'll be addressing aging and death.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
"I kill where I please because it is all mine."
------------------------------------------Ted Hughes
410 / 50,000
Oct 2, 2008 - 19 46
Wow, good luck! I can't imagine doing 50 stories... but that is an interesting idea. I can't wait to hear/read the final product :)
I am dealing with death (as usual), school shootings, honesty and truth, and the aftermath and the stages and emotions we go through when dealing with death. My book will actually be separated into the five stages of grieving, if all turns out well. I'm sure there will be more issues that will pop up along the way, but those are essentially the major ones.
----------o8: Neon Apalonia
35,059 / 50,000
Oct 2, 2008 - 20 12
generally, i try to avoid basing any of my main characters off of myself in the slightest bit, but this year i'm going for broke and making my MC EXACTLY LIKE ME. except a man. a CRIPPLED man. oliver is reclusive, miserable, and gains his only pleasure from music. for some reason, i thought that if i could gain some insight into oliver's problems, i could possibly gain some insight into my own as well. unfortunately, the poor lad and i are so inextricably intertwined that plotting is almost impossible, since, if i could solve my own issues, i already would have, and probably wouldn't need to be writing this in the first place. d'you follow?
----------12,022 / 50,000
Oct 2, 2008 - 21 23
Provided I'm actually doing the story I'm thinking about right now:
Religion
Politics
Divorce
Mental Instability/disease
Homosexuality (possibly)
The Nature of Art
Hypocrasy
Baseball (possibly)
I don't plan on making it very hard-hitting though. My story's more about the characters than the message (which is good since I won't know what that is till I'm done).
32,455 / 50,000
Oct 2, 2008 - 21 29
Circe - that sounds great.
My big one is student - teacher relationships, but there will also be stuff about growing up, learning to be comfortable in your own skin, divorce, social hierarchies at school, the witch-hunt / gossip / pack mentality, and probably something about friendship.
Got to fill 50k somehow.
*Edit*
----------Interesting to see how we're all grappling with the 64-character header limit. I wonder if I could write a novel about that?
Tom
I think therefore I am pretentious.
3,254 / 50,000
Oct 2, 2008 - 21 38
I'm basing my novel this year loosely (very loosely) on some event that actually happened to me about five years ago. It's on the nature of losing someone close to you and then a spiral of alcohol and sex and soul-searching that follows. In the novel, the MC loses his girlfriend in a car accident, and rather than bring his friends closer together, it starts a series of events that cause the circle of friends to fall apart, although life still goes on for everyone. So the point is that there is no real beginning or ending, there just IS.
I don't know. I may be trying to put too much into the novel. So I'm just going to write it and then edit after November to refine the point a little better. I'm also concerned about putting too much into this novel and then not having sufficient material for another without repeating myself.
----------Cthulhu '08. Why vote for the lesser of two evils?
1,389 / 50,000
Oct 2, 2008 - 23 23
I'll be mainly dealing with the line between humanity/other animals, what it means to be human, neurological diversity, and madness.
64,046 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 00 50
I'll be looking at:
Religion
Sexuality
Individuality
Identity
Maturity
Facing reality
Disillusionment
Sounds cheery doesn't it?
5,740 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 05 27
Mine in a nutshell deals with:
Religion (esp. concept of grace)
Pregnancy out of wedlock
Perinatal loss & grief
Support groups
Family conflict
Forgiveness
Why there is evil in the world if God is really good
& a teensy bit of romance in the very end, more realistic than cheesy
I have no idea how I'm going to pull it all together....I don't think I have enough plot; but that's not the point of literary fiction, eh? :)
36,391 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 06 01
I don't know. I may be trying to put too much into the novel. So I'm just going to write it and then edit after November to refine the point a little better. I'm also concerned about putting too much into this novel and then not having sufficient material for another without repeating myself.
So, grief, addictions, social breaks... and lack of reconciliation? Very real-life =) ----------
Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia, Canada.
50 Stories; 1,000 words each... will I survive?
Current story:
36,391 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 06 03
Wow, good luck! I can't imagine doing 50 stories... but that is an interesting idea. I can't wait to hear/read the final product :)
Haha, thanks! I'm quite sure I wouldn't be able to fit a single story into 1000 words, so it may end up stretching to 2k per story, and I will throw up my hands and proceed to break my brain with 100K-OR-BUST.
Right now all I've got are a bunch of nonsensical titles.
----------Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia, Canada.
50 Stories; 1,000 words each... will I survive?
Current story:
35,662 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 08 27
Racial and cultural identity
0 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 09 21
Mine is taking something horrible that happened to me between the ages of 14 and 18, but trying to simultaneously romanticize it while showing that any attempt to do so ultimately makes sexual abuse even darker and more twisted. I'm also throwing in a bit of incest and how a young woman can just crack and destroy herself BECAUSE of everything that has happened to her.
----------cen (excentryke)
5,293 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 10 12
Does anyone else feel like we should all be sitting around dark, smoky coffeehouses, with permanent frowns etched onto our faces? Or is that just me?
----------Meals are books for the body.
"Lies are attempts to hide the truth by willfully denying facts. Fiction, on the other hand, is an attempt to reveal the truth by ignoring facts." -John Green
36,391 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 10 18
I don't know about anybody else, but I'm asthmatic and prone to depression, so I sit in a cheerful cafe where, if it's a nice day out, the big windows are opened. ----------
Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia, Canada.
50 Stories; 1,000 words each... will I survive?
Current story:
3,415 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 11 02
I think there will be only one social/personal issue permeating my novel. I'll be looking at rape, and especially the tendency to blame/punish the victim.
----------Liberal Feminist Hippie
36,022 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 11 31
Mine's going to be dealing with:
- death in the family,
- abandonment,
- abuse,
- suicide pacts,
- eating disorders and
- self-mutiliation.
It's going to be a cheery month.
-----------------------------------
2005: Avaren - Winner
2006: Indundria - Winner
2007: Marionette - Winner
2008: Russian Roulette - Planning
30,868 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 11 58
Looks like I'll be dealing with class issues and questions relating to social status this year. Leave it to me to be inspired by America's economy problems.
- At a core level, what really separates the rich from the poor?
- Why are some people able to move up in life while others seem destined to remain at the bottom of the barrel?
- Is the grass really greener on the other side?
- Why do people almost always want what they can't have and fail to see the value of their own advantages?
- Is it possible to learn to be happy with one's lot in life, and is it desirable?
My main character is going to be the star in a novel that basically illustrates how not to live your life in every way possible. Then she's probably due for a pretty depressing fate, although I haven't finished outlining yet, so it's not official or anything.
----------Visit My Website -- Add Me On MySpace - My Tips for Surviving (and Winning) NaNo
8,256 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 17 01
Hmm... I feel a bit under-planned.
All I have is the disconnect between society and the individual, the strive for instant gratification in society, and the growing need for change, to find something more substantial than a moments pleasure.
----------"Perfection is a trifle dull. It is not the least of life's ironies that this, which we all aim at, is better not quite achieved." - W. Somerset Maugham
36,391 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 17 10
All I have is the disconnect between society and the individual, the strive for instant gratification in society, and the growing need for change, to find something more substantial than a moments pleasure.
Pfft, it's still October. You're doing pretty good for this time of the year! ----------
Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia, Canada.
50 Stories; 1,000 words each... will I survive?
Current story:
30,150 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 20 12
self-image, dependency and limerence, and the the illusion of control. also, whether the members of certain bands are in fact alien cyborgs sent here to destroy us all.
----------"the difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning."
- mark twain
http://noweekwillbewasted.proboards.com/
20,164 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 21 26
My novel touches on a few issues:
Divorce/Marriage
Sexuality
Mental illness
Education/Literacy
Drugs and alcohol
Child abuse
Sexual abuse, also a sexual assault
Homosexuality
Sexuality in general
Education
Maybe some religion
Artistic license
I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of at the mo.
54,902 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 21 34
Mainly...
-----------Rape
-False Accusation
-Assumption
-Expectation
-Inner workings of human relationships and history
41,628 / 50,000
Oct 3, 2008 - 21 49
Even though I'm signed up for YA, I really feel like I should be hanging with you guys. My NaNo this year is written using the conventions of a classical epic, mainly grappling with
- Adulthood vs childhood
- The process of "growing up"
- The concept of heroism/bravery
- Teen violence/sexuality/drug use
- Loyalty
- True friendship
3,254 / 50,000
Oct 4, 2008 - 02 56
I don't know. I may be trying to put too much into the novel. So I'm just going to write it and then edit after November to refine the point a little better. I'm also concerned about putting too much into this novel and then not having sufficient material for another without repeating myself.
So, grief, addictions, social breaks... and lack of reconciliation? Very real-life =)
Very much so, although add self-destruction and self-sabotage to that list. I want the novel to be true, somewhat challenging, and yet identifiable and rewarding if the reader puts in the effort to read it. In other words, I can't resort to my old trick of finding some way of blowing up the world or the entire universe when I get tired of writing it and want to end it in a way that I can't ever go back to it.
----------Cthulhu '08. Why vote for the lesser of two evils?
38,537 / 50,000
Oct 4, 2008 - 04 38
The main driving force behind the novella is the guilt of child abandonment, and turning one's back on family. A woman, thirty-three years ago gave birth to a baby daughter, but gave her up for adoption because of a few factors (age, family, dreams etc.), and now, with her husband dead, and son away in college and living his own life, she begins a series of letters that she never intends to send to a daughter she never met. Throughout letters, hidden behind a flimsy veil of humour and insanity, she pours out everything within her that needs to be said.
Topics that I'm thinking about hitting (or at the very least brushing) include:
-Death
-Gender inequality
-Sexual promiscuity
-Physical abuse
-Bittersweet pains of friendship
-Religion
-And the very nature of rebellion, and the human pysche behind it
35,055 / 50,000
Oct 4, 2008 - 07 23
Well... I`m considering slavery as broad topic, including a questions concerning a definition of humanity, ways of understanding each other, different cultures, self-determination and whatever else linkes to it. So far, it`s no more than an idea that`s been in the back of my head for a few days.
----------2008: They came across the water
Writing experience:
www.portalstones.com Ages come and go, leaving memories that become legend. Legens fades to myth and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again...