Here’s the dream I had last night. Could it be a NaNo novel? Probably not, but I might try anyway.
I was a young woman working in a low-paid job, like retail or Wal-Mart or something, though there were references to my current waking-world job in there, too. I lived in the kind of student/shared housing where you can get by for a while, but eventually communal living will drive you crazy. I would go to work, come home, watch TV– basically, not much of anything.
At one point, I went into the room where a woman had previously lived and I found or was shown a secret compartment that I was told I was supposed to find. Inside, there was a bag of stuff, which I was told was for me. It had a couple of talismans in it, as well as a pair of socks and a homemade knitted hat. I thought this odd and left everything there. I was told I was the chosen one and needed to take these things because I would need them.
In the communal housing lockers, I also found some things that were meant for me, clues and what-not. I blithely ignored them. Just about when my job was giving me complete burnout, the Big Bad arrived.
I had friends in all this– one portly woman (Kathy Najimby style portly), and a girl with red hair who looked a bit like Willow (no the Buffy similarities were not coincidence). There was a guy there who was a lot like Xander from Buffy as well, but he had actually known the girl whose room I’d raided from before. The girl had left a message for me to give him: “Don’t wear the Mickey Mouse costume.” We all thought this was a Disneyland mascot reference, until he was talking to me about the whole thing, and why she hadn’t left a superhero costume for me, if I was supposed to be a superhero of some sort, and he said “She always believed that you wore your costume inside.” I was startled by that, and told him about her message not to wear the Mickey Mouse costume, by which she may have meant that he shouldn’t waffle around and should be strong and more forceful.
Anyway, all this was going down as I was frantically trying to remember where things were because the Big Bad (looking and acting a lot like Demi Moore did in Charlies Angels 2) had arrived and was throwing sharp missiles at my friends, knocking them out, and exerting her powerful mind control over all of us. I agreed to go with her to some alternate plane to fight, and she was OK with me grabbing a couple of things. I insisted on wearing shoes, but she insisted on me not having any socks. Suddenly, I understood why the previous woman (who I now understood was a ghost) had left me socks in the backpack, and I tried to convey to my friends that I would need that backpack, if they could find it.
They went to try to get the pack. It was buried in the wall, but was spelled so that as they peeled away the wallpaper, they would get distracted and when they turned back to the wall, someone would have put a new poster or framed picture back up onto it, so you would think there was nothing there. Eventually they found the backpack, though.
The knitted hat was important, because it was how you blocked her telepathic control. Not that the hat itself was valuable, but the labor of love that went into it, a labor of love for the recipient. Suddenly, everyone had colorful knitted hats– some quite silly looking– to wear against her.
My hat fell off at one point and she mind-controlled me. That was about where I woke up, but I remember thinking that “Xander” would smack her in the back of the head– her or me– to take control of the situation and get my hat back on my head. I also think the other knitted hats would be made by the portly friend– she seemed like a knitter.
It’s a mark of my NaNo-desperation that I’m seriously considering this as a novel plot.
Key ideas:
Protag is a superhero-to-be who ignores her destiny until almost too late
“Mentor” is a ghost
Talismans are left in secret places
Friends/helpers include a guy who needs to grow up, and a largish woman (mother earthy?) who knits the protection caps
Love is protection
The guy and the protag have “chemistry” even though he was the mentor’s boyfriend (but hey, the mentor’s a ghost)
The Big Bad has been planning her attack and wants a good fight, but also wants to win. She arrives when the protag is still in denial about her destiny. When she and the protag meet at first and she prevents the protag from taking socks (or some other protective talisman/clothing), the protag understands that the mentor was real.
From the Big Bad’s abduction of the protag, though, there needs to be a way to escape her so the protag can train and prepare. The main body of the novel could be this training/preparation in the alternate universe, where her friends meet up with her and try to help her.
Protag and mentor never actually met. Perhaps a subplot is that the mentor ghost appears to one of the friends more regularly, and both the protag and the guy friend keep trying to catch her.
Need ideas and development for:
Character names, descriptions, backgrounds, etc. for:
Protag
Mentor Ghost
Portly Friend
Wimpy Guy
Willow-like Friend
Big Bad
What superpowers the protagonist has.
Alternate universe setting. I’m thinking some kind of hell/illogic setting, a la Labyrinth.
The travels and training experience (subplots).
The eventual conflict and culmination.
The return to the real world.
I just was getting burned out and needed a break, I suppose. I’ve been working really hard and long hours, long commute, plus a lot of other responsibilities have been piling up, and I got overwhelmed. Better now, though. Thanks for the well-wishes and comments– they really do convince me to keep vlogging!