Listen to the song that I sing...
I'm divided over what to do for National Novel Writing Month. I've got a lot of ideas I'd like to go places with...which leaves the question -- which one?
Kes Running is a book I'm going to write someday, and part of me thinks I should just write it now. It's the story of a girl who's not quite sure what to do with her life, and has never really been pressured to find out. Kesadee is the daughter of an aging holovid star (think Brad Pitt's daughter), and because of this she's never had problems getting what she wants. Her parents don't completely spoil her, but they also haven't always been there for her -- they haven't been the typical parent figures that one would find in a different sort of family. Her mother also works in the vid industry as a director/producer, usually for her husband's pictures. Kes doesn't have any siblings, and really no contact with any of her extended family.
When the story starts, she's eighteen years old and just months away from graduating from the prestigious Andromeda Academy, a private prep school which prides itself on its students getting into the best colleges or professions in the galaxy (did I mention this was sci-fi?). But Kes starts to ask questions she can't answer -- questions about what she wants to do with her life. She's gotten through school with good grades, though she's not the perfect A student, but she has no real passions, nothing she's interested in pursuing for the rest of her life. The only thing she's seen from her mother and fater is the holovid industry, and Kes doesn't feel she could really make a name for herself there because a) she probably doesn't think she's all that gorgeous and b) she's annoyed by how shallow her parents' friends in the business appear to be.
Finally, something (I don't know what yet) pushes her over the edge. Fed up with being the person who doesn't know, she becomes determined to know. And the only way she figures she'll be able to do that is by seeing a bit of the world. So she gets a fake ID, takes some money out of her savings and a suitcase out of the closet, and is off exploring the galaxy in no time. What happens from then on is just as much a mystery to me as it is to her, but the story will end with Kes a changed person (I just don't know how she'll be changed or what will have changed her).
I think this could be a really good story for Nano because it would be easy to write lots about. I got a little stuck last year because it wasn't easy for me to simply introduce another plot element without things seeming contrived. But I think this "adventure" outline would make it much easier for me to string together a series of episodes that allow Kes to find herself. Also, I like the idea of writing a coming of age story, couched as it may be in sci-fi glamor and glory. I think that, as technology pervades the modern world, it becomes harder and harder to find oneself as distinct from all of one's things, and I'd like a chance to write about someone struggling with this problem.
I was going to write out a whole bunch of ideas here, but now all I really want to do is read, so I'll post some other topics in a while. In the meantime, what do you all think of this one?
Kes Running is a book I'm going to write someday, and part of me thinks I should just write it now. It's the story of a girl who's not quite sure what to do with her life, and has never really been pressured to find out. Kesadee is the daughter of an aging holovid star (think Brad Pitt's daughter), and because of this she's never had problems getting what she wants. Her parents don't completely spoil her, but they also haven't always been there for her -- they haven't been the typical parent figures that one would find in a different sort of family. Her mother also works in the vid industry as a director/producer, usually for her husband's pictures. Kes doesn't have any siblings, and really no contact with any of her extended family.
When the story starts, she's eighteen years old and just months away from graduating from the prestigious Andromeda Academy, a private prep school which prides itself on its students getting into the best colleges or professions in the galaxy (did I mention this was sci-fi?). But Kes starts to ask questions she can't answer -- questions about what she wants to do with her life. She's gotten through school with good grades, though she's not the perfect A student, but she has no real passions, nothing she's interested in pursuing for the rest of her life. The only thing she's seen from her mother and fater is the holovid industry, and Kes doesn't feel she could really make a name for herself there because a) she probably doesn't think she's all that gorgeous and b) she's annoyed by how shallow her parents' friends in the business appear to be.
Finally, something (I don't know what yet) pushes her over the edge. Fed up with being the person who doesn't know, she becomes determined to know. And the only way she figures she'll be able to do that is by seeing a bit of the world. So she gets a fake ID, takes some money out of her savings and a suitcase out of the closet, and is off exploring the galaxy in no time. What happens from then on is just as much a mystery to me as it is to her, but the story will end with Kes a changed person (I just don't know how she'll be changed or what will have changed her).
I think this could be a really good story for Nano because it would be easy to write lots about. I got a little stuck last year because it wasn't easy for me to simply introduce another plot element without things seeming contrived. But I think this "adventure" outline would make it much easier for me to string together a series of episodes that allow Kes to find herself. Also, I like the idea of writing a coming of age story, couched as it may be in sci-fi glamor and glory. I think that, as technology pervades the modern world, it becomes harder and harder to find oneself as distinct from all of one's things, and I'd like a chance to write about someone struggling with this problem.
I was going to write out a whole bunch of ideas here, but now all I really want to do is read, so I'll post some other topics in a while. In the meantime, what do you all think of this one?