;)
Whims: Who gets to tinker with my NaNo?
Monday, November 15, 2010 at 12:00PM Whims are funny. This morning I had the whim to sew myself a new shirt to teach myself how to do properly-oriented darts. Earlier this week I had other whims.
Whims happen to me a lot.
One whim was about changing my Mainstream Fiction NaNoWriMo novel to science fiction by dropping in “a fraternal alien-twin for one main character and a liberal sprinkling of the word ‘ovipositor.’” I decided to resist this one.
That whim was followed by the one where I invited you lovely people to suggest something outrageous to drop into the novel instead. Here were my seed ideas:
- A blender
- A pair of handcuffs
- Some Ceilidh dancers
- Three guys named Baldy
- A nose-picking stiltwalker with eczema
In various forums, several of you had suggestions.
Patrick: “I say you throw in a swarm of bees and some lemonade shaved ice.”
Mmmm. Buzzzzz. I have a scene with ice cream cones right now. BAM! I’ll change it to lemonade shaved ice.
Cass: “How about they open up a dvd cover and get sucked into another alternative dystopian world? A little Alice in Wonderland meets Pan’s Labyrinth meets Hot Tub Time Machine.”
Snort. I *do* love John Cusack. Hmmm…
Cab: “I was thinking that maybe Carlos was obsessed with prime numbers and/or had the world’s largest collection of Hello Kitty paraphenalia, but those are just character quirks, not outrageous scenarios.”
Ha. Hello Kitty. I’ve actually been looking for a funny inside joke between Carlos (one main character) and his best friend. I could have Best Friend give Carlos Hello Kitty stuff all the time. His bedroom could have oddball Hello Kitty stuff here and there.
Maria: “Set it on fire.”
Heh heh. In particular she suggested setting fire to a boring party scene. The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire. Ok, nothing is on fire yet. But I always keep this one in my back pocket in case things get boring. I had someone throw up in the middle of the party instead. I know, sort of mundane, right? Fire might be better.
EVF: “You need a massage and a steam bath.”
Oh wait, I think she meant that for ME.
Beth and Clownfysh approved the liberal sprinkling of tweets through the novel, which, because the story is set in the mid-nineties, led to the suggestion of Time Travel in the novel, which connects it back to Cass’s Hot Tub Time Machine suggestion. Twitter party in the Hot Tub!
You’re all really fabulous, you know that?
I don’t REALLY want to change to science fiction right now. Or maybe ever. I love to read Science Fiction, but haven’t ever written it. While I think that NaNoWriMo is an excellent opportunity to push boundaries and boldly go where I haven’t gone before as a writer, I’m just not there yet. BUT! The story is set mainly in a video store. Opportunities for allusion to SciFi classics abound!
What do you think about stilt-walking Ceilidh dancers taking over the video store to have a lemonade-shaved-ice party with John Cusack, except that the party is ruined when Hello Kitty lets loose 13,931 bees in the store, and when everyone rushes out in a panic, one stilt walker trips on an electrical cord and sets fire to the life-sized cardboard cut-out of the White Rabbit?
Oh yes, and my word count right now is 35471. Not prime, but pretty sweet.
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