my nanowrimo novel

“I did some research on this a couple years ago,” Augustus continued. “I was wondering if everybody could be remembered. Like, if we got organized, and assigned a certain number of corpses to each living person, would there be enough living people to remember all the dead people?”
“And are there?”
“Sure, anyone can name fourteen dead people. But we’re disorganized mourners, so a lot of people end up remembering Shakespeare and no one ends up remembering the person he wrote Sonnet Fifty-five about” ― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

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The idea for my NaNoWriMo novel was sparked by the above quote.  I was sitting in a WWII museum, my mind full of airplanes and soldiers and POW camps, when I decided to pull out my writing notebook and flip through it.  I find that doing so is mildly entertaining, since I have so many weird things written down, conjured up from who knows where.  Anyway, I found a note on one page that basically said ‘write a story about Augustus’ fourteen dead people quote’ and while I probably hadn’t thought of doing anything like that for awhile when I scribbled that down, right there, in the museum, I decided it would be perfect for NaNo.  Up until that point, I didn’t have much of an idea for what I was going to write – I wasn’t really enthusiastic about any of my options.  Now I’m excited and rejuvenated and really, really eager to start writing something other than fan-fiction. (I have a lot of love for fan-fiction, believe me, but I need a break from it)

So what’s Project Remembrance (working title) about?  It’s futuristic, a little sci-fi, that kind of thing.  Not originally supposed to be dystopian, but after a great brainstorming session with another teen writer (shout-out to Vanessa Weaver!), I saw that there it fit in with the plot.  Steampunk influences (or would it be cyberpunk?), inspiration from Frankenstein, MD…and a bunch of other things.  A world where being remembered is everything.  I wrote a little back cover blurby thing for the NaNo novel page, and I guess I’ll just paste it here, so you get a quick plot overview. (be warned: I suck at writing plot summaries)

Skye Amsden is too busy with law school and repairing old machines to memorize facts about a bunch of dead people. But the government is insistent, so she accepts the task reluctantly…until she stumbles across a file that has farther reaching implications than she could have imagined. Rebellion against the government, a broken family member, and people who are out for blood. Skye must go through a gauntlet of political, diplomatic, and physical maneuvering to find the truth, while falling for a dead rebel, and helping a best friend go through personal battles of her own.

Ugh.  That summary is awful.  So cliched.  But at least you get the general picture.

What are you working on for NaNo?

Eva