Keep the ideas rolling!

It'll be about trying to reunite say the world, and there are different empires of the sort, and different sides. This won't be a remake of Three Kingdoms or an version of it - more like it'll simply take concepts and ideas from it - so it could have totally different characters and all or whatever. Open to suggestions.

That's practically it - feel free to jump in!

Anyway, I was thinking of writing a coming of age novel type thing about a girl named Kai. She lives in Hawaii with her mom, but they're a little on the poor side, and Kai really isn't getting the best education. At the start of the novel she's 10, btw. Anyway, the mother's sister (her real name is Mele, but that's just the Hawaiian version of Mary, so she changed it to Mary when she left) comes to visit yearly, and wants to take Kai back to the states with her. Mary can't have children, and has no sig other, so she's very fond of Kai, but Kai's mother is reluctant to let her daughter go. She doesn't like what the continental US has done to her sister...however, she really isn't in the best position to give Kai all the opportunities she deserves. Mary has a lot of money, after all, compared to them (but not actually that much in terms of the rest of the country).

I don't wanna talk your ear off about the plot and characters, so even though I've got a bit more, we can talk it over later.

Sooo...I'm looking for someone (or multiple someones) who'd like to work this idea! I'm not too sure of the specifics. The time period is just any time in Hawaii's history that would conform to the plot. I don't actually know much about Hawaii, so this piece would take some research for sure. That's a lot of why I wanna co-author it- I don't feel like doing all that work by myself, since I'm too busy. Honestly, I'd be happy to try this with anyone who doesn't mind a story that's not very flashy! Yep. Regular old thing like we'd read in English class. That means that I'm looking for lots of artistic writing, though. I'm trying to model this after the canonical books, so I can see what's so great about writing like that. Oh, if I didn't already say, I'm hoping we can make this a good long story (nanowrimo length ^-^).

anyway, interesting idea. Since I'm already part of the group 1 project (and also have some writing to do on my own), I won't have time to write. However, you said you want someone to help out with research, right? I don't mind that. I can help you out with that and the plot development stuff, maybe give you my opinion about what makes sense or not. How does that sound?

As for actual coauthoring help, maybe you can try contacting some others who have posted their profiles on the authors thread. Besides concon, frac, ferrett and myself, the others don't seem to be in a project yet. Once you get a group together, you can start a thread like group 1 did and have your discussion there!

So here's my points crab (sorry...your penname is too long and from it I could only identify crab)

Why Hawaii? It could be anywhere - is there significance?

This seems more like a start - she wants to go city but some other she rejects and that's about it. What else would you include as the main plot? Okay, saying coming to age - so something about school life and everything else - learning city/country maybe, but you need more.

Actually, this sounds more like a poor-suddenly becoming rich story. A bit like Cinderella, but not quite. Maybe there's no TV where she lives and all - very tribal and out of date. You come to the city and learn of these wild fashion and pubs and going out at night and all these things she was taught not to do. Play on contrast of the significant two. Eh? I could come up with too much. I'll stop for now.

2. crabs eating hair

That's so scary. Totally away from my elegant style. No. Crabs are cute little side-walkers that play scissors paper rock with you, although they always lose. Poor thing.

EDIT: thanks Dex & crab, there goes free scene for my story - scissors paper rock and crabs.

Lol, just kidding. Actually, my cats eat my hair (so annoying), so in an odd, backwards sort of way, I'm saying crabs are cute. Also, horse eat my hair as well. Maybe I should change my conditioner. As for the flying...well, I thought it was a little fantastical, so I just put it in there. Honestly, if you think that's odd, you should see the sketch I wrote about psychic frogs (coming soon!). I think it's cute and funny, but no one else seemed to >-<

Anyway, about the Hawaii thing, since you guys are probing me and I have more to show...I wanted to write something about Hawaii because I've always wanted to live there, and I felt that really getting down to the real life nitty-gritty culture of the place might help me immerse myself in it a little without actually going. I felt Hawaii would be a good place to go from for this type of story because it's part of the US- which I know- but it has it's own culture. It's so distinct from the rest of the nation, and not simply because it's noncontiguous. I live out on the east coast, in Philly, no less, so the laid back aspect of it are pretty alluring to me as a writer. I love to explore differences.

I didn't mean for it to come off as a rags to riches story (I have no confidence in my ability to pull one of those off without it seeming cliche); more of a cultural shift. Kai and her mother aren't poor, they just don't have access to the kind of education that would enable Kai to get ahead in the quickly developing industrialized America (presumably this is also occurring as America is segwaying into the age of technology that we're currently ending- I think we're hitting an age of information right now, but I could be wrong). Kai's mother has learned to admire education (she admires the great, seemingly advanced country that is inserting itself into her world), possibly because of the way her older sister ran off to the states to go to college (or learn something that's vital to success in the country at the time, I really have no idea what period of industrialism I want to pursue...I'm almost certain it's after WWII, but that's subject to change...eh...when was Hawaii made a state? See how much history I need to learn?), but the younger sister still doesn't approve of her sister's flagrant disregard for her family values? I'm assuming a disregard would be involved. See...I'm trying to say that Kai's mother wants to embrace America without sacrificing her own culture and morals and values, and her struggle with that is embodied by her indecision over whether to send her daughter with her sister.

Ah...see, Hawaii always seems so laid back and easily accepting of the American culture, and perfectly fine with being a part of that, but I feel as though there's something a little deeper than that going on. Hawaii can't have been so happy with its colonization...it had to sacrifice some of itself to be a part of this country. What I'm really trying to do here is explore that and communicate the different aspects of the balance that had to be achieved, and which I feel is in some ways still developing. Of course, it's a little odd for me to have such strong feelings about something I know almost nothing factual about, but I tend to do that with new ideas. :)

Okay, Aunt Mele represents a different aspect of this equation in that she's not really all that special in the states. I would put her at the upper tier of the lower class, or a low tier of the middle one in this country. She's symbolizing that this isn't really all that great...the decomposition of the originally somewhat deified America into a better representation of what it actually is, one that can encompass the good and the bad. Kai is the looking glass for Hawaii in a way? This thing is a microcosm of something much bigger, that's meant to be easier to relate to on a personal level....

These characters represent more than themselves, of course. There will be more characters, but these three are the keys to the beginning, and Kai is definitely the one around which the story will revolve. I'm trying to avoid overly personifying the mother and Aunt Mele/Mary because I want the relationship between them and the two geographic locations to be one of the prevailing aspects that comes across here. The more I write about this story, the more I wish I had the time to really dive into it and try to feel it out myself so I could attempt to show you what I'm attempting to do, but I just don't right now, and I always think that stories can get a lot of benefit from having a lot of views.

Thanks for the help you guys are giving me, for sure!!! The better a picture I can get, the easier it'll be to work with!

By the way, did you know that the University of Hawaii has the largest post-secondary Japanese program in North America?

1. Forums are not to be used to post stories.
2. All discussions, language and content, must be suitable for teens.
3. The owner/moderator(s) of this forum is solely responsible for content posted within this area.
4. All forum abuse must be reported to the moderator(s).

1. Forum admin/moderator
2. Fanatic (on site for more than 2 years)
3. Fan (on site for more than a year)
4. Regular (on site for more than 6 months)
5. Camper (on site for more than a month)
6. Apprentice (on site for more than a week)
7. Newbie (on site for less than a week)