Actually Registered

I was about to post "Actually Did It" but I haven't done it yet. I registered for NaNoWriMo. I've wanted to do so for the past 4 years since the English teacher at my last school district had her 8th graders writing novels in November. She was brilliant with the kids and it was a fabulous project.

Before you wonder how she managed it (50,000 words is a lot for anyone, let alone a 13 year old) I'll tell you she modified it a bit. First she had them write nonstop for 15 minutes. After writing for 15 minutes she had them count the words, double the amount, then calculate the number of words a student could ideally write if they spent 30 minutes writing 6 days a week for a month. In class she spent the month of October developing characters and themes, etc., and then they went to it.

I've read some of these stories and they turned out great! Their novels were around 15,000 to 20,000 words long (quite a feat for an 8th grader, especially considering we worked with a crowd of disadvantaged youth) and they were pretty good. Sometimes they were pretty far out there (robot zombie vampire adventures is one I kind of remember) but unique and interesting. And the kids were so proud.

So this year I don't have a job and nothing really is holding me back. Besides which I have a 10 hour train ride to and from Rochester this upcoming week, which should help. Now all I have to do is decide which one of the stories that's been floating around in my head the past few months I actually want to write.

Story one is set in Germany in the region my husband comes from. There's a canyon called something like Katz something or another where legend has it that a witch protected a pirate castle with her broom. It's called Katz whateveryoucallit because the word has something to do with the amethysts that line the canyon river. This all sounds like a pretty good story to me. The heroine isn't a witch, her name's Katarina and she diverted disaster with diplomacy that somehow shows itself in the form of a broom (I'm thinking aid after a fire or something like that). I've actually started a full synopsis of this one, but I think it needs a bit of work

Story two was a dream I had. A boy along with his friends finds a set of strange mechanical devices that appear to need a key to open it, but he has no key. He pries it open anyway and somehow gets the gears and chambers to start moving. Another boy comes up and tries to help but the discoverer is called back to his house. Even though he can't figure out what it does the boy takes it home to his house where his mother is having a dinner party. Strangers come to the door and ask for help, the mother invites them in and they have a nice time altogether at the party, but the mother doesn't invite them to spend the night. The strangers leave but take offense for a lack of hospitality. We find out that they are from another world/time and their culture has clear hospitality rules. With hospitality broken they vow to take over the "kingdom" and proceed to use an army of trolls to take over the land. They discover that in our world food isn't grown nearby so they disrupt food supply and pretty much take over the US. It looks pretty grim for the humans but then the boy who was mysteriously helping the discoverer boy open the boxes decides he doesn't like the bloodshed and thinks the human race should have a fair shot (after his parents become upset finding this out their sense of honor allows them to agree that his decision was fair). He gives the key to the boy but doesn't tell him what it does or how the box would sold humankinds problems.

Yes, that really was a dream I had, unfortunately I never got to the point where we figure out how the key works or what it does to save the humans. My guess is that it imprisons the other race (elves?) or sends them to another planet.

Anyway, those are a few ideas. Who knows where, or if, this will go.