Ah, that time of the year seems to be rolling around. That's right (or "write" for those who speak only in puns), it's time for NaNoWriMo! I can't thank Jake enough for suggesting I enter this. It seems to be precisely what I need to get back in the writing thing/start and finish an actual project.
Here's the deal: starting November 1, I have to write on average 1,666 and 2/3 words a day until midnight of the last day of the month for a total of 50,000 words (about the length of a small novel). If I should succeed, I shall receive a nifty web banner to add to my blog as well as a printable certificate. It's not so much about the glory but the fact that I could pull off such a task. I shall start uploading on the NaNoWriMo website to track my progress. Granted, there's no way for them to prevent "cheating" but since it's not a contest in the technical sense, it's an honor code. Even if I'm not exactly an "honorable" woman in the traditional sense (what with the premarital sex and all), I do keep my word (or at least try to).
At the very least, I have a reason to write again (other than as my only ticket out of splitsville, Midwest). So, here are my ideas:
1) In the not so distant future, all "ethnic" foods will be banned in this country to encourage "cultural solidarity." And with them, all "ethnic" restaurants will go the way of the dinosaur: Thai, Chinese, Indian, Mexican, even Greek and Italian food? Forget it. In order to encourage people to eat in a more "family" environment, government sanctioned "Mom and Pop" restaurants will open in their wake serving old people buffet type items. "But isn't spaghetti and pizza Italian? Even hamburgers and hot dogs were German once, right?" Blasphemy. This is America, learn to eat American food. Besides, in order to strengthen the family unit, the bland horrible cafeteria food will only encourage mom to stay at home and cook. After all, a woman's place is in the kitchen.
But of course, like all totalitarian regimes, there shall be a resistance, in the most American way possible: Capitalism. Curry powder will be worth its weight in gold on the black market due to sanctions and bans on imported food. A "pan-Asian" restaurant in some nondescript town in the Midwest will help spark a rebellion by refusing to close its doors despite city council officials throwing the book at the second generation Filipino family living there. A little girl who once grew up ashamed of the "weird, smelly food" her parents lovingly packed for her every day for her school lunch will find pride in who she is, as she discovers what it means to be an American. For you see, once again, I will be yet another author who questions what it means to be American.
Meanwhile, a quirky female detective (the return of Jane Francisco perhaps?) with a taste for the past and a nose for trouble (ah, pulp cliches) will investigate what connects everything from a corpse found by the docks on some East coast port riddled with bullets and clutching a bag of tumeric/saffron/something colorful and exotic to the family restaurant in the Midwest.
* I may actually hold off doing this story until I do more research concerning spices, food and the like. It might not be good, but I at least want it to be delicious.
2) The lifetime of a building. I'm thinking of titling it "312 E Main" or some random address I come across in my wanderings. Here, I will experiment with setting and how a building can be a character in a story. Every chapter will take place in the building over the years from when it opens as a movie theater or restaurant or something and transforms over the years until it finally gets torn down amid protests to preserve it as a historical site. I figure here I could cheat a little as if I was writing a series of short stories as opposed to one continuous story line. Maybe I could play around with it and not write the chapters in chronological order. Either way, I'll need a lot of characters and a lot of dialogue and setting descriptions.
* This one I may go with since it seems more conducive to the spontaneity of NaNoWriMo.
So everyone who's doing this, bona fortuna!
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1 comment:
I like the first idea. There are many dystopian stories doing the rounds at the moment (understandably so, for obvious reasons), but this one is actually quite original, plus it addresses the whole question of national identity and the construct of the nation state/culture, and I'm a sucker for this kind of thing.
However, the second one is interesting too. I like the idea of making a building the protagonist of the story, or almost like an onlooker of the dramas which occur. You could set all kinds of stories, internal family dramas, period-related scenarios (eg. WW2), in that building. It definitely has potential.
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