Saturday, October 15, 2005

TWQ: Your First Novel

The Weekend Question (TWQ) this week takes a literary slant:

You are about to write your first novel. What will the title be? What is the basic plot outline? Name two or three characters.

Here is mine:

If I were to write one, it would be called something like 'Lucy Parkinson's Revenge'. It would be set in the English Regency period, with a woman cheated out of her inheritance by her relatives. Lucy, who is mad, kills off her family one by one to get the title and to run 'Savannah', which is the estate. Aside from Lucy Parkinson, there would be Sir Giles Parkinson, who runs 'Savannah', Christina Parkinson, Lucy's cousin, who is the only person who sees what is going on and Lockley, the gamekeeper who plans secretly to burn down Savannah.

Now it's over to you...

33 comments:

lazylol said...

Here from Michele's. I'm not a writer I'm afraid but you have great ideas.

Anonymous said...

Can't write either, but I am into romance today, it's a weekend thing... so I would write about a couple meeting under odd circumstances and having to overcome tremendous difficulties (family enemies, maybe a hidden relationship, a mean illnes, you name it) but it would definetely have a happy end...:D Michele sent me! have a great weekend!

Karen said...

Hi Jean-Luc. Here via Michele's! Happy Saturday!

Panthergirl said...

Mine would be called "The House of Good Shepherd", and it's about two sisters, sent to live in a "home for wayward girls" by their widower-father. They encounter Sister Benedicta, a curiously kind nun who turns out to be a guy.

Wow. I just made this up! Thanks!

Here via Michele...

Bec said...

I love lucy, but where's the spaceship fit into Regency England?
Here via Michele

Anonymous said...

I guess I like memoirs and non-fiction better.

Yes, there was an echo chamber over at michele's. It wasn't just you. It seems to be shut down now. Sort of a traffic jam? I'll be thinking further about your question while I eat breakfast!

Kristal said...

Oh, man. It is WAY to early to think about assignments. I'll have to come back after I've had my coffee.

Ramona said...

Oh jeez...I just woke up, have not even finished my first cup of Java. I would love to be a writer of travel destinations. Either that, or write a soap opera...wouldn't it be fun to screw up other people's lives?!

Ramona said...

oh! here via Michele's!

Rebecca said...

Hi! Thanks for stopping at my "place"! Fun post you started here....

Actually - I wrote my first novel when I was 12.It was 13 chapters long, and it was called "Leather and Lace". It was about an all boys "gang" , and an all girls "gang" and their intertwined romances, and fierce protection of one another. I was in my "Outsiders" phase at that time, so it was a strong influence!

Ciera said...

This isn't a fair question.

I've written two so far. My first one was a Star Wars novel and by the time I got it finished...the new books started coming out and they stole all my ideas. I don't remember what I called it.

Since then I have written a novel called, "Dominions of Darkness" and despite the name it is a Romance novel. It follows the meeting of Craig and Angela and how a fragile friendship forms, which of course want to turn into something more but they are both scared out of their minds to pursue those emotions. Both have had traumatic experiences that cause those fears ... and they've also been in denial and anger and all that since those events happened in their lives. the idea is to show that no matter what has happened to us, God still heals, that there is hope...and love. For the different things that have happened Angela blames herself, and Craig blames God. Of course there is some family intrigue...Angela was stolen/adopted and never told..she overheard the conversation. And it ends with a "to be continued" as I have Angela be kidnapped at the end [this is after they have decided to be married]. I haven't written the second one yet.

It's not a fluff read. It deals with intense emotions and situations.

Jen said...

I like your ideas, have you been working on them a long time or did you come up with them just this morning?

I think I would like to write a horror novel. The problem is, I don't really write fiction very well, and there are so many many many BAD horror novels out there that I just don't want to start.

Hmmmmmm. I will think about it.

Helen Louise said...

Aah, I started a novel about a sorcerer's apprentice. Original, I know. I haven't written any for about five years (!) but as my longest novel beginning I'll tell you about it: It doesn't have a name but "The Enchantress of Sedriah" might work. The main character is a girl called Lu'sha (yes, really) who is just a bit based on me and is learning to be a wizard/enchantress/sorceress. Or something, I haven't got the terminology sorted yet. I tend towards 'magician' for some reason.

She's sixteen/seventeen, and she lives in an eccentric country called Sedriah which has a very advanced civilisation with equality between the sexes and democracy but is afflicted with extreme xenophobia thanks to the fact that they rose up from their foreign oppressors 1000 years before and still think that anyone with a Sedrian ancestry less than 1000 years old is probably inherently corrupt. Lu'sha has to travel to neighbouring Ganirria to get lessons in magic from a misogynistic wizard called Hannarius. She has to do a lot of growing up and meets some other wizards, including the chief dude, Syren Peleras. He is very mysterious but is convinced that Lu'sha is actually a very powerful wizard/enchantress/sorceress/thing. Lu'sha turns out to be a telepath. Her childhood friend Am'li becomes a spy and a shape-shifter. There are mysterious elf-like-things. It goes very very slowly so I've written loads but she's only just turned seventeen and hasn't done much magic yet. It will probably never be finished but I'm kinda fond of it anyway :)

I'm also writing a story about a school for gifted children, but sadly not in the 'X-men' sense :)

Trinity13 said...

Good question...but I have no clue Capt! I've never thought about it since I'm not a good writer.

Jon the Intergalactic Gladiator said...

I've been working on a little murder mystery myself, you can read some of it "right here.

Professor Xavier said...

Title - Wake up Humanity, your days are numbered

Plot - Evolution steam rolls over Homo Sapiens

Characters - A dashing, charismatic mutant leader who happens to use a wheel chair, his outstanding personal army of super-mutants, and a bunch of hopelessly outclassed genetic dinasaurs.

Cheryl said...

My novel is top, top secret. ;) Thanks for visiting my place!

Jean-Luc Picard said...

So far, your entries have been wonderful. I had no idea you were all so literally minded.

Haris, Rebecca, Ciera, Helen Louise, Jon, Professor & PureMood, you have sent some excellent plots.

Olyal said...

Ohhh that requires too much brain power for this time of night... at a stretch though it'd probably be some tacky b-grade bodice ripper.

Michele sent me.

utenzi said...

Michele sent me your way, Jean-Luc. Does your post have anything to do with the upcoming NaNoWriMo? I've been thinking of taking part in that though the thought of kicking out something like 1,600 words a day, every day, for a month is a little intimidating!

I'd probably write something of a mystery written in a cyber-punk voice. No idea about title or characters yet. I need to get my act together and do an outline so I'll be ready for the Nov 1 start!

Bec said...

Ok, I'm back via Michele's and a little less tired this time!
Title: Just a Second!
Plot: A family of three children constantly wait for their mother to do the things she says she is going to do, when she is going to do them and not in "just a second". Eventually the clever children turn the tables on the mother by answering - each time she asks them to do something - "just a second!". The mother dies of guilt and the kids get a nice foster family.
Principal characters: guess.

The story is, of course a work of fiction and bears no resemblance to any real characters, living or dead.

Because when I die of guilt my kids will stay with their dad, not go to a foster home, silly!

Anonymous said...

Hi, Michele sent me again. You've got great comments here! Happy sunday!

Twisted Cinderella said...

Mmmm, titles for my novel:

-Adventures in a Mixed-up Fairy Tale?
-Cinderella, life after the glass slipper?
-Life in the Fast Lane?

kenju said...

JLP, your book sounds like a bodice-ripper to me! I'll buy the first paper-back copy.

If I ever wrote a book, it would be a memoir about my early misadventures - and I have no title yet. Michele sent me.

yellojkt said...

It would be either Orson Scott Card style science fiction or Vonnegut imitation randomness. Too many people write better than me for me to dip my pen in the well.

Here from michele.

melinama said...

Yeah, my agent wouldn't allow me to divulge ... Michele sent me.

BarbaraFromCalifornia said...

I have thought of this question often, and when confronted with it, I seem to draw up a blank.

Probably, I would write some type of murder mystery, with forensics.

dddragon said...

I like stories where people from the future get stuck in the past. So I'd place the crew of the Enterprise in your story's Regency period, Captain, and see if they can win the day!

And have a few romances along the way, of course.

M. C. Pearson said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
M. C. Pearson said...

I just wrote my first novel so this question was way too easy for me, Jean-Luc! Here is the title and the synopsis:

F.A.I.R.I.E.S.: Be Careful What You Wish For

The F.A.I.R.I.E.S. (Fantastical, Aerial, International, Reasonably Inconspicuous, Emancipation Squads) are in need of a fresh recruit. They decide to try a new recipe: Ingredients for a Chosen F.A.I.R.I.E. Squadmember: Take one spoiled and bitter twelve-year-old, have her run away after being teased by her three older sisters, mix with various fantastical beings that worship the Light of the One true God, throw in a few Dragons, pinch in some evil Imps and have a Witch who serves the Dark One stir it all up, roll in a quest to free beings that are enslaved in Darkness, bake in a fiery battle with spiritual hosts of wickedness, and the twelve-year-old might just learn how to use the full armor of the Light to turn her selfishness into love.

Anonymous said...

I like yours but mine would suck. It would start with why I am awful at writing and go down from there ;-)

Jean-Luc Picard said...

Wonderful plots, everybody! You have excellent imaginations. If my book ever comes out, you may all have signed copies.

Anonymous said...

Very intersting..You all really get into this star trek stuff.Have fun.
Hugs
Moira