Southern Cross Novel Challenge

Thread for those that want to dare others!

Dare 1
My dare: if you have written a story before, have your main character at some point read/reference it.
Dare 2
Somehow include lines from Green eggs and ham by Dr suess.

Dare 3
Have any character talk to their belly button about how unfair things are.

Dare 4
Choose a normally non scarey animal to be the focus of some terrible crime/rumour.
(example:my NaNO had some papillion dogs as guard dogs/hungting dogs..LOL)

Also I love those sentence starters, I know their is a website that churns out them The Storyteller
I dare anyone to start each chapter with one of these sentences.
Bonus points for those that do not choose a new sentence and use the first one given to them.

Some of the NaNO dares were very genre related and so I tried to avoid that for mine.
I did like the one dare I came across that dared you to choose another genre's dare.. Which of course I did do.
Dare's are great to kick start your mental creative process but I found stopped me writing if I tried to force them in.
If you're stuck, look over the dares, or at a sentence starter. Then see if it helps to kick start your mind.

OH,I will give bonus points to anyone who adds duck related words/situations to their story.

My idea of hell is being trapped in a room with no books!

I love these, xengab! I had to laugh at the belly button one. I'll definitely be trying to add some of these to mine. I like the sentence starter idea too. :)

No Excuses. Just Write.
WIP - Freeing the Flame: 31/66 scenes of scene review #3.
Eve's Vineyard: 3,375/6,000 (Sept Zing Thing)

Oho, I definitely have a dare or two!

#1
Include this phrase: They bought a donkey, moved in together, and lived drunkenly even after.
Infinite bonus points if it's your very last line.

#2
(I don't see anyone taking this up, it might be somewhat progress-impeding)
In your whole story, never say "at".

#3
Fit "elephant", "barbecue" and "razorblade" in the same sentence somewhere.
Bonus points if it's a short sentence.

#4
Have your main character throw a huge tantrum in the middle of an otherwise serious scene. As in: screaming, crying, beating fists on the floor - the works.

#5
In the vein of the sentence starter one, here's one I've quite liked: find a word-a-day website and fit a word it gives into your story every day.

Have fun guys :)

1.) Use one random sentence per chapter/section/whatever you have.

2.) Start a chapter with a random paragraph.

3.) End a chapter with a random word.

Watch Our For Snakes

I love that site.

~Jessi~
Blessed Be

Those sound way too tough for me. Sounds like fun though. Maybe part way though, I'll go silly for a day and try to fit all of those into 1 paragraph! ;-)

Travis.
--
http://cottreau.blogspot.com
http://cottreaureviews.blogspot.com/

Have someone talk only in quotes.
-Bonus points if at least five of them are from American presidents
-Double bonus points if they all are.

Start the book with "...And then he died."

End the book with "What are you doing?"

Sanity: Ha ha ha ha...look! A caterpillar!

Hahaha, those last two bits (the start and end) made me laugh. Very interesting idea though.

Another opening sentence:

"But like, we've done everything. It's time to go home." he said and they all left.

Another closing sentence:

"How about we just start this thing all over again?"

Andrew Chilton - http://kapiti.geek.nz/

#4
Have your main character throw a huge tantrum in the middle of an otherwise serious scene. As in: screaming, crying, beating fists on the floor - the works.

I'm imagining my main character doing that right now. It'd give the people around him the impression that he'd lost his marbles! XD

�First notebooks, now scythes, what else do humans think Death Gods use, toilet brushes? You haven’t even transformed! OK. Repeat after me, ‘Death God Power, Make Up!’” - Oliver.

I just had my secondary character, Byte, talk to her belly button (not that she really has one). She was complaining that things were unfair and her parents just didn't understand - kinda like what bluwaterbabe99 said in another thread.

AND...

Andrew Chilton - http://kapiti.geek.nz/

Nice.
I had one of the characters in my last book quoting Shakespeare and Voltaire, not quite constantly, and always to the point.
I've got a reference to Green Eggs and Ham in this one already and, since it's a sequel, they've referenced the last book several times (just not AS a book).

My dare: reference one thing, incidental to the plot, in every chapter.

maggenpye -
"He's not my dad, he's just my father - big difference."

My dares:

1.) Put a Kiwi in every chapter. Bonus points if it's seen in the background waving a New Zealand flag :)

2.) Name a character after an ingredient in your shampoo. Or, alternatively, after something that can be found in your kitchen :) (Baking Soda, Spork, Very-Sharp-Knife...)

This dare is in honour of getting a teleportation device for cassie. Get one of your characters to invent one, use one or even do the blueprints for it.

Bonus points if it is made out of rudimentary materials like wood, plastic, old CDs that no longer play but are shiny and maybe some stuff from a broken washing machine.

Andrew Chilton - http://kapiti.geek.nz/

wonderful! lol thanks Andy!
I named a character Calendra, after calendar, which I can never spell correctly!

WIP: Ayden: 92,043/95,000 (estimated total).
Rough Editing: Lifelines: 104/104 pages.

J.C Hart

Andy, does having the MFC asking the MMC if he owns Dr Whos Tardis count for that dare?? If so Ive already met that challenge without knowing it.

My MFC coworkers husband is a kiwi, he is going to be killed off but no offense is meant by it.

My idea of hell is being trapped in a room with no books!

Yeah, I think bonus points for anyone who has already fulfilled a dare before it's actually announced.

Are you sure you didn't time travel to see this future thread before you wrote about it? That'd probably be a point or two too.

Andrew Chilton - http://kapiti.geek.nz/

All of my characters are kiwis! Although technically, New Zealand doesn't exist as a nation any longer.

No shampoo names - all the character names are mythology so far - :-(

Travis.
--
http://cottreau.blogspot.com
http://cottreaureviews.blogspot.com/

I like the shampoo names idea. I'll see if I can work that in somewhere.

Sanity: Ha ha ha ha...look! A caterpillar!

All but one of my main characters are kiwi. I am going to try to get the green eggs and ham bit in somewhere. I am saving it for when my scientists become defiant.
haha.
my focus animal is a tuatara, very non-frightening but already two people have been murdered (ok something more sinister comes later).
I like the shampoo names, might be good for a last name. Ummmm

---------------------------------
NaNo winner 2006, 2007
SocNoc winner 2007,
WWWwace 2007, 2008!!!
Easter challenge winner 2007
Body count: 1 Institute heads, 4 professors, 2 postdocs, 2 PhD students, 2 sequencing technicians and numerous bad guys...
Oh I wish I could put that on my CV.

------------------------------------

Oh, I like a quite a few of them. :) While I think a lot of the "include this sentence" ones are genius, I wouldn't feel right putting someone else's words in my story. These are the ones so far that I intend to squeeze in somewhere:

Xengab - if you have written a story before, have your main character at some point read/reference it.

Xengab - Choose a normally non scarey animal to be the focus of some terrible crime/rumour.

andychilton - Get one of your characters to invent a teleportation device, use one or even do the blueprints for it (will be made of wood and possibly ham, knowing my pirates).

I might do the shampoo one and the belly button one as well. :)

Other Dares

Dare 1:
Have at least one character talk like a pirate. (Since I'm writing about pirates, I can't really claim this one!)

Dare 2:
Have someone use the word "Walrus!" as an expression of surprise.

Dare 3:
Have a character suffer a chronic phobia/philia that interferes with the story. eg Your story involves going into a cave - have a character that is lygophobic (afraid of the dark) or claustrophobic. Or even worse mysophilia (aroused by dirt and dirty things such as clothes). Lots of dirt in a cave. ;)

I'm doing the "Walrus!" one because it's funny, that's why!

Andrew Chilton - http://kapiti.geek.nz/