There is only a little over a week before National Novel Writing Month. I have finally come up with an idea that would be doable. That's not to say that Angels and Antidepressants wasn't doable, but just that for the life of me, I couldn't figure out anything to write in the middle of the novel, and without a middle and with only two scenes, there is a very low chance of me getting to fifty thousand words.
So, as I sit here and sigh, I have to say that for NaNoWriMo, I'm writing a teen fiction novel. Sigh. Sigh. I mostly don't want to because I don't read teen fiction and have found that stories aren't very good and are very cliched in most stories. Reading only the blurbs on backs of novels in Chapter's Teen Fiction section has told me that much.
Ok, I lied, I have read teen fiction, but honestly, it was like four books. One was really bad. One was better, but not to my taste. The other two were really good, but only because they weren't the usual "oh my god who am I going to take to prom, I dare you to remake the loser so that she'll get popular but along the way you'll fall in love and she'll find out it was a bet and you'll get in trouble but by the end of the hideous story she'll forgive you and love you" books. The first one, Olivia, sort of was. The second one, The Bitch Posse, wasn't at all like that, but I didn't really like it because I think my friend suggested it because the main character cut herself and she was trying to send me a not-so-subtle message. The last two, Dancing Naked and The Lovely Bones, were both awesome. But that's all I've read.
So now I can move on with a clean conscience.
Touer has suggested many many times to write what I know. I used to take that as I should write my life, but I had nothing to write about. My life was one of those whiny teen ficiton books and I knew I couldn't write it without it sounding like one. Then I figured out that it meant I shouldn't try to write about ancient evil coming to life during an archaeological dig goes awry, because I don't have enough firsthand knowledge to make it believeable.
Because being a teenager is all I know about at this point in my life, I should probably stick to teenager stories. That isn't a problem because other than Bitemarks (which is about vampires, and I am not a vampire) I have been writing what I know.
So this next story I'm writing for National Novel Writing Month is about a girl, Vanessa who has a shitty last year of school. She starts off optimistic and with a clean slate (living with her grandma, new year of school, mostly new friends, one less emotionally draining boyfriend). But things start to go wrong, as one would expect them to in a book. Christian, the popular boy that Alicia, her friend likes, likes Vanessa and not Alicia. Nick, Vanessa's ex boyfriend comes back to upgrade his marks and wants to get back together with Vanessa. Vanessa finds out she has a half brother that both her parents knew about but didn't tell her about. Her grandma tells Vanessa she has cancer. Yeah, a lot of junk happens, and more has to happen.
This kind of fiction is always chock full of ideas. That's probably why both of my sisters are writing teen fiction for their NaNoWriMo novels. Laura's writing about her life and Caitlyn and I came up with a good plot for her.
I just hope I don't come off sounding like a wanker.