More NaNo planning

[st_aurafina]

I've spent the last couple of days compiling a list of names, getting a vague idea of the layout of my country town, and doing some basic research. I've decided to go with German immigrant farmers as the population base for my town. The town where I live is mostly Dutch, but there are clusters of German settlements from here through South Australia, and it gives me lots of family names to draw on, as well as a list of place names that were changed during WWI when a German-sounding name was a big no-no. Using German beliefs and superstitions gives me some wiggle room - there's lots of overlap between Teutonic, Norse and Prussian mythology.

The NaNo book suggests that I write a list of things I like to read, and an opposing list of things I hate. It's an interesting exercise, and helped me to focus some ideas about the way I'll be using mythology as I write.


Things I like to read

Third person narration
Worlds with detail
Comprehensible systems and continuity
Interesting and developed secondary characters
Location as an interactive tool, rather than just a setting for conversations
Characters that lie to themselves, characters that don't know themselves as well as the reader does
Descriptions that aren't just visual - textures, smells, tastes
Weather as a character
Abandoned places, empty houses, rubbish dumps
Pseudoscience
Non-conventionally attractive people
Characters with personality tics - fussy people, shy people, gruff people. People with something that keeps them apart from others
Using or changing fairytale archetypes, fitting them into a contemporary setting.
Shapeshifters and other supernatural beings living mundane lives.
Kink worked into a lifestyle. People accepting and living with their kinks.
High achieving people failing at the little things like changing fuses and paying bills.
Sex not in beds.
People of mixed ethnicity, or at least people with an awareness of where they are in the world. Or people who are hopelessly clueless about such things, and it shows
Characters who keep trinkets and treasures
Letters, newspaper articles, literary quotes setting the tone at the start of a chapter
Remnants, oddities, weird things that the original purpose has been forgotten



Things I don't like to read

Talking heads
First person narration
Characters with obvious purpose to the narrative
My unicorn is pastede on yay: - fantasy creatures that don't fit the setting
Generic settings
Cultural references - to people, artists, fashions. Things that date.
Plot lines left untied. Unresolved issues, especially for the secondary characters.
Dwelling on what everyone is wearing beyond the point of relevance. Heavy boots in the mud - okay. Black suede pumps - pointless.
Long-winded descriptions with no point - describing everything from point A to B, even though the interesting stuff happens at point B
Popular people, people who are happy and comfortable with their position in life
Sex scenes closing chapters. "And then they had sex and fell asleep."
Kink for shock value
Actions without consequences. You can't blow up the school and walk away.
Hair longer than shoulder length that isn't a bit ratty at the ends
Characters that exist in a bubble with no connection to family or friends of any kind, unless they acknowledge it it and bemoan/cherish that isolation.
WASPs as the default population
Characters without flaws, characters who never doubt themselves (unless that's a flaw), characters who are always right (but not portrayed as smug)
The smart character who may as well be a brain in a jar because all they do is provide facts and exposition
Secondary characters who don't get to do anything.
The Evil Ex.


Next thing to do: Fill out this interview for Jane. And possibly for Miranda.