Monday, October 5, 2009

Halp

So I'm totally doing this Nanowrimo thing this year. I've got me a fancy little plot, an outline, and a basic plan of attack.

What I don't have is names for my characters. I'm now accepting submissions.

The plot is a "scary" story, I guess it's more suspense than horror but it's in there somewhere. I'm going to steer away from spatter porn, so no slasher-film-fodder names like Ashleigh, Emily, Mikayla, Greg, Tommy or Andrew. Ya know? Those poor kids have been torn to bits more times than is really fair, and including them in a plot kindof forces a person to do something unspeakable to them. Blegh.

Anyway, here's my list of heros needing names:

One: Female. Mid to late thirties. Brassy, confident. Manager type. She's purchased a haunted victorian house in the mountains BECAUSE it was haunted and she thinks it would make a fun selling point to get tourist dollars. Appreciates the possibility of a haunt, but really thinks it's just fun folklore festering in bored 20th century minds.
Two: Female. Sister of One. Late twenties, early thirties. Still confident but more soft spoken. Web designer. Internet savvy. She's the one who found the place for sale on line and she went in with her sister to get the thing paid for. She'll be doing all the advertising and promotional stuff online. Big sci-fi nerd. Romantic.
Three: Male. Boyfriend of Two. Got laid off from his journeyman-related construction job and is helping the ladies fix up the new place. He thinks it's a good idea but really wants them to set up some failsafe party gags like speakers in the walls so that the guests are guaranteed a good scare.
Sub Plot A: Victorian Chemist. Wants to get his name in history by discovering another of the elements for the periodic table.
Sub Plot B: Victorian Chemist's wife. Practical housekeeper and keen women's rights activist. Finds herself stuck, living in a craphole mountain mining town with her husband. She perseveres though and is not alone as long as she can offer piano lessons and fresh herbs to the neighbors.

That's pretty much the lot. Everyone else is plot-based tchotchke and frankly those names aren't turning out to be much of a problem. All suggestions welcome. Many will play. Few will win. Winning suggestions will be thanked in the final version, which will remain unpublished forever because of the sheer crapt-itude of it. Thankyous will be made though. And when someone finds the digital footprint 60 years from now, they'll know who suggested the names for the characters in my story. Won't that be fun?

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