I think I’ll probably gloat.
Yesterday’s post—regardless of quality or usability—represents the second full plotting of anything I’ve written here on 1000 Days. The first was that Wolverine and Jubilee comic script I wrote for some contest.
I see that confused look on your face. You ask, “What about the first ten days of this month? What about ‘Gertrude and Grumphook’? That, those, seemed like full plottings.” Yes, but they stemmed from themselves. They were their own point. And they could have been bad and I wouldn’t have cared—7 or 8 were bad. Yesterday’s plotting means that I took something inspired by a scene and extended it outward in both directions to mount it in a beginning, middle, and end tryptich. Malachi almost made it so almost did Charming—they will yet.
I suppose I should be even happier this is the first truly novel level plotting I’ve done with my work. (Shhhh…I know it’s super-ass barebones.)
Along with the straining that went into the bits you don’t see in yesterday’s scant outline I finally resolved the cultural archetypes needed to fuel the conflict of the Terminus stories. Those archetypes fit into a neat little grid that I doodled into a notebook. Here’s the transliteration:
[guilders] – Are Settlers from Earth who have made a good life in Terminus and would like to stay (or have no idea why they should return). They control magic and produce the flight-rods which power the airships of Terminus.
[military] – Are Settlers from Earth who have made a good life in Terminus and would like to stay (or have no idea why they should return). They do not have any magic and rely heavily on the Guilders for their flight-rods to power their ships.
[priests] – Are Settlers from Earth who have struggled in Terminus and would like to return to their homes and Families on Earth. They control magic, but focus their efforts upon the Outbound Spell rather than commerce.
[aboriginals] – Are the displaced people indigenous to the world in which Terminus resides. They used to have magic and would like it and their lost magicians returned. They are not incapable fighters, but the Settler interlopers, despite their minority, have the advantage.
Two groups with magic; two without. Two groups who’d like to stay; two who’d like them gone.
This leaves plenty of room for other minor groups who haven’t decided which way to fall or who play off the tensions between the others.
My shortfalls here are the hows. How will the Aboriginals oust the Military? How will the Guilders quell the Priests? How will the Priests recruit the Aboriginals? How will the Military gain independance from the Guilders?
448 words on day 661