What is everyone writing then? I'm torn between the airplane disaster movie, dystopian sci-future flick, and a rom com. Oh and I got an idea for a time traveling historical flick this afternoon.

Anyone got any idea of what they are going to write? Is someone that is really organised and already has everything planned out? If so do you want to share with the rest of us? I really need help, I failed to reach the 20K required last year.

Mine's a bit of a dark comedy, based on those sitcoms about families you often see. I suppose it has elements and the same toning as Little Miss Sunshine.

Anyway, it's about a family that nearly falls apart because of their own problems and prejudices. The eldest son reveals that he is gay, much to the chagrin of his father, while the devoutly religious mother is having a real crisis of faith after her terminally ill mother asks her to help her commit suicide, while the other son finds out that his teen girlfriend is pregnant, and he himself has caught HIV. It seems the only one in the family who doesn't have a problem is the daughter...

I'm not sure how all these plots are going to link together, but is going to be explosive...and if I carry on like this it will literally explode. Gah! Screnzy's only a few weeks away now...must write...must write...

Yep. That's the plot - generally.

Raeble - my advice would be not to go straight for the top or set your sights to high. If you didn't finish last year, I wouldn't do anything epic-sounding such as your first two. The rom-com could work. The time travel historical fic may have a lot of plots that you might find difficult to tie together. If you want something simple - try something with a plot and a sub-plot (or drop the sub-plot if you like). I often find something like a romance, or maybe some comedy is quite simple and non-stressful to do.

Sorry if I'm sounding patronising and belittling you - I just want to help a bit.

I'd say that's some good advice from Chris. Write what comes naturally, and don't write anything that leaves you with too much thinking to do. I always write comedy, because to do otherwise is simply painful.

As for my own plot, I'm torn between a number of options...

1. Badass Monk - A story about Gregor, a pious but unconventional monk who must go on some sort of journey to defeat some sort of evil. Probably the Devil. As you can tell, I like to leave my plots open and flexible (read: 'I'm lazy'). I'm not sure I really want to do this one. I'd like to save it for NaNoWriMo.

2. The Phantom Of The Grammar School - A parody of a certain musical, although my version would have no music, because I wrote a musical last year and it was horrible. The Phantom in this version would be a genius at mathematics, desperate for his protegée to succeed in the school's 'Battle of the Brains' and willing to destroy all in his path. Oh yes, and he wears a mask because he has really bad acne. Beyond that, I have no idea.

3. A screen/stage adaptation of my first NaNoWriMo novel, Sunny Hill University For The Psychologically Impaired, in which the protagonist attempts to escape the mental asylum he finds himself mistakenly imprisoned in, with only a liberally urinating midget to help him.

4. Wing it. This is the easiest option in the short term, but will likely end up as an incoherent mass of half-plots and word padding by April 30th.

I'm not sure whether my chosen option will be a screenplay or a stage play yet. I wrote a stage play last year, so I'm sort of familiar with that, but I think I'd prefer to write a screenplay... Does anyone have any advice?

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NaNo '05: Sunny Hill University For The Psychologically Impaired - 50,036 words
NaNo '06: Dread Claw - 101,273 words
Script Frenzy '07: Rue Britannia - 20,224 words
NaNo '07: Untitled (Something About Greengrocers And Knickers) - 181,260 words

First of all, DuraKaN - fantastic ideas!! Wish I was that original! And Raeble, if you failed last year maybe the historical or the romcom would be best, and keep it small? I don't know how grand your ideas are for these, sorry if I'm completely wrong =) Good luck, hope for the best and type quickly, spelling mistakes can always be rectified in a flash ;)

I must admit I've got quite a lot of mine planned already - I kind of wrote a couple of pages earlier, but since I decided to put it on hold for April it's given me the chance to flesh out the characters and the story a lot so now I know basically where I'm going. :)

I fell in love with Cranford and Lark Rise to Candleford when they were on, (one episode of LRTC to go!!) and I could see their influence creeping in a bit. My script's gonna be about an eccentric twentysomething called Felicity in a staid office job, who one day finally snaps and storms out in the middle of a meeting, giving her boss a two-fingered salute then running for her life. She withdraws all her savings and buys her dream home, a little two-bed conversion in a rural village, but soon comes to wonder if she really made the right decision running out on her boyfriend and neglecting to tell her mother about the move... this she doesn't particularly regret. But then one day she sees her own name on a headstone and it's revealed she's actually a novelist with a turbulent past.

I know, not THAT original (badass monk! Wow!!), and not that eventful, either, but like Cranford and LRTC I want to see if I can concentrate on the minutae of life and make the audience care about the little things. Plus I live in a fairly similar rural village myself so it's good to be able to let off a little steam ;)

xXx

Sounds like you guys have some good ideas. I love DeathBean's in particular - I can just see it starting with the scene in the office, with opening credits and her working away, then suddenly her storming out - absolutely iconic :)

My plot is two strangers sheltering from the rain in a phonebox. They talk and ... well, that's about it. Then the rain stops and they both go their separate ways. I was thinking about stuff like Before Sunrise, 12 Angry Men, and The Breakfast Club, and also Hitchcock movies like The Rear Window; plus I wanted to break the record set by Lifeboat (which I've not seen) for smallest set :) And I thought it would be cool to write a script I could actually film, although I can't see that I ever will. And we've actually written it as a stageplay not a film :) Not that that makes very much difference given the setting.

Tom

I think therefore I am pretentious.