My advice, if NaNoWriMo really did make you miserable, is to skip it and find another way to write you story -- that's what I'm doing, after the one experience that ended with a mess of a manuscript that needs major work.
As for what to write about, ideas are everywhere, whipping by us like mad. Just open your mind to the two basics of science fiction, which also match every other genre of writing. Ask yourself: What if? And when you've come up with an if, ask yourself: What then? It seems simplistic, but once you get the hang of it, it really works.
For instance, I asked myself: what would happen if a police officer who hated reporters fell in love with a professional photographer? Okay, why does he hate reporters? Because his father, also a cop, was killed in the line of duty. Okay, then why are they stuck together long enough to fall in love? Because he screwed up on the job, and got blackmailed into bringing her along as a ridealong. How? Okay -- she looks young, and he was led to believe she might be a runaway, so he cuffed her and took her to his headquarters. The what then's continued, until I had a story outlined.
Months later, after creating the characters and their motivations, I had the first draft of "Storm Chaser", a romantic comedy. At the moment that manuscript is floating around somewhere at the offices of Whiskey Creek Press, where hopefully some editor is busy convincing the publisher that I've got a bright future ahead of me. :-)
As for what to write about, ideas are everywhere, whipping by us like mad. Just open your mind to the two basics of science fiction, which also match every other genre of writing. Ask yourself: What if? And when you've come up with an if, ask yourself: What then? It seems simplistic, but once you get the hang of it, it really works.
For instance, I asked myself: what would happen if a police officer who hated reporters fell in love with a professional photographer? Okay, why does he hate reporters? Because his father, also a cop, was killed in the line of duty. Okay, then why are they stuck together long enough to fall in love? Because he screwed up on the job, and got blackmailed into bringing her along as a ridealong. How? Okay -- she looks young, and he was led to believe she might be a runaway, so he cuffed her and took her to his headquarters. The what then's continued, until I had a story outlined.
Months later, after creating the characters and their motivations, I had the first draft of "Storm Chaser", a romantic comedy. At the moment that manuscript is floating around somewhere at the offices of Whiskey Creek Press, where hopefully some editor is busy convincing the publisher that I've got a bright future ahead of me. :-)
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