Twenty-eight Scenes

Without magic Malachi’s daughter will die. He must escape from a Texas prison and rescue his senile mentor from a dragon before that dragon extracts the man’s secret to unravel and destroy all magic.

I think this needs more work along the lines of yesterday’s exercise, but I’ll table that for today’s different exercise. Not before saying that I’d still like to clean up all the character references via pronoun and I think it’s important I find a smooth way to do more than imply Malachi is a mage. I’m not even certain I’ve implied that here.

I can pretend that I have stated his mage-itity. And will. My next step is to get some scenes from the above. I’m tackling this like my one-minute drill: no time; no filter.

  1. Malachi breaking out of jail
  2. Malachi learning his daughter is ill
  3. Malachi put into jail
  4. Daughter becoming ill/poisoned/injured
  5. Daughter and Malachi face to face in visiting room.
  6. The clockwork spider appearing to Malachi in his cell
  7. Malachi pleading with warden/lawyer
  8. Malachi battling dragon
  9. Mentor being abducted
  10. Malachi gathering help to battle dragon
  11. Finding out if dragon is metaphor or literal-ish
  12. Daughter having complications
  13. Dragon directly threatening daughter
  14. Mentor divulging secret to unraveling magic
  15. Escaped Malachi hounded by police
  16. Malachi committing crime
  17. Malachi being sentenced
  18. Malachi chatting with lawyer
  19. Mentor teaching Malachi
  20. Dragon attacking police chasing Malachi
  21. Malachi convincing police to help him battle dragon
  22. Dragon beginning the process to unravel magic
  23. Malachi discovering that unraveling magic will do more that threaten just his daughters life
  24. Discovering why/how magic supports his daughters continued life
  25. Dragon capturing mentor
  26. Mentor in captivity
  27. Malachi communicating with mentor somehow
  28. Prisonyard brawl to characterize Malachi

I’ll not stretch that exercise too much further.  I think I had a couple repeats in there and a few that aren’t scenes as much as they are situations.

Part of my trouble is that I never meant for this to be a prison break situation and now it is.  I like that.  I’m just not certain how to write it up with much credibility.  I need to do research or find a plausible way to truncate the prison portion of the plot.

I’ve got time left on my so-called hour to flirt with number four.

  • Daughter becoming ill/poisoned/injured

At the start of yesterday this element wasn’t an element.  Now it’s crucial.  At that time I’d just considered her need for magic in the sense that she needs the existence of magic to be alive–like air.  While that gives the story a mysterious larger world quality her mana-like dependence on magic doesn’t lend much immediacy to the story.  However, I’d rather not have her injured and laid up in bed–at least not at first.  If I put her in a bed then I need to create a intermediary to inform Malachi and that kneecaps the potance of the relationship.  Maybe she has a magic injury he can sense.