Once again the threads of ‘sum-up your novel in one sentence’ are springing to life across the various forums at NaNoWriMo.org. It’s a time-honored tradition of finding out if you have enough of a hook to spark other folks’ interest and to see how good a grasp you have on your novel’s core concepts.
Since I’ve only a vague idea of what’s going on in the novel this year, I figured it couldn’t hurt to give it a go.
The results have been… interesting.
NaNo 2011 in 20 Words or Less
- A girl and her dog investigate the disappearance of multiple children in a national park.
- A sentient city fights to maintain the stability of a purposefully fractured dimensional timeline.
- An elf and his boy fight a faceless killer who is systematically massacring their people.
- A scientific team grieving over the loss of their entire world sets out to reassemble the pieces.
- Wendy and Peter Pan fight over the future of humanity.
… And yes, that’s all the same story.
I’m not sure how everything ties together yet, but things have been building up as I sketch out different visuals of the world. Nothing like a few hours at the sketchpad to bring things into focus! (I think I may be more of a graphic novelist at heart some days.)
Sketchy Random Things
- The girl comes from a genderless society and is older than she looks due to anti-aging biochemical manipulations
- The dog is a cyborg genesplice and is not a dog per se
- The elf is a feral cat-like thing, but highly intelligent
- The boy is from a medieval society existing in an elven predatory ecology
- The scientific team lives inside the City, which is outside of time, and do not age.
- The City is sentient, but limited to a defensive method of problem solving.
- I haven’t decided who is Wendy and who is Peter Pan and which one is the Good Guy…
Hopefully the momentum will continue and I’ll have something nice and solid to work with come November 1st. I may have a trip coming up during the month, so I need to be 99% done by November 21st!
This should be fun! (for values of fun in: hard, crazy, insane, and awesome.)
