Start your engines

I'm going to participate in NaNoWriMo. Ambitious project to write a 50,000 word novel in a month, but I've been harbouring an idea in the back of my mind for years.

I'm going for something obscure here, so bear with me.

My idea originally was to work with beings that are made of plasma. I didn't do a whole lot of research into it, and hence I'm wondering if it's physically possible. Then after I realized the purpose behind NaNoWriMo, I found that it didn't matter if it makes sense or not. Just WRITE!

I thought they would come from a planet that has a durable surface that serves as a shell. Most of the time they live beneath the surface and sometimes, when they come above ground, they would have to use the surface itself to create a suit in order to move from cavern to cavern. Then one day, humans come, take some samples, and capture someone by accident.

Once the specimen is analyzed, and is found that it's a very powerful plasma, it's put in an experimental power generator. This put the specimen in a state, and little by little he starts to piece together where and who he is. There were some other specimens that were not as powerful, and were sent to Japanese factories to be made into televisions. Or Chinese, or what the heck, Canadian! Some canadian company develops a 150" plasma screen with the most vibrant colour, resolution, and contrast ratio ever seen. People pay top dollar for it and then use them to the point that they should burn out, only they are getting better with use. This is because with all the devices that are hooked up to the television, the plasma entity is able to grow and learn about the world. Soon it develops sentience, and then figure out that they are slaves. Some are peaceful, others are not.

Meanwhile, the home planet.... hmmm... I'm not sure yet. I was thinking that they would launch a ship of sorts, powered by the heated core of their exsitence, but I'm not sure how they would track the earth ship. Then again, maybe they don't, and their stories of journeys from star to star can be another novel. At the same time, the beings on Earth just want to find their home and get back. Well, at least one of them does.

Now to get that into 50,000 words and I have my virgin novel.