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Tempting Henry

Son of a bitch, it’s February already. Which means it’s time again for my “10 Plots in 10 Days” fun.

Sure I scream and yell, but I had fun last month and expect to again this one. Grandstanding aside, I think this is the event to get me out of my cold induced doldrums. That’s right, I’m blaming my health for the crap I’ve written and posted and the crap I’ve written and not posted. Screw off.

A note about the format I follow for 10 Plots: I put the plot from Ronald B. Tobias’ “20 Master Plots and How to Build Them” down in the Theme slot. I am aware that a theme includes more than such a limited one-word scope, but I believe a theme develops during the writing of the story more than it does in the bare bones plotting, so instead of “Temptation leads to blah blah blah and ruin” my theme will simply be…

Theme – Temptation

I am desperate to avoid going meta on you here and talking about my temptations to do things other than write. WML.

Setup – A successful but lonely assassin, Henry, tries to meet other people like himself.

Hook – Obviously some characteristically establishing assassination.

Plot Point 1 – Henry has relatively begged his handlers for information on their other contractor, but they politely refuse. Left alone in an office (or something like that) he’s able to snap a grainy cell phone pic of names and assignments.

Pinch 1 – He rigs an online dating service to hook him up with one of the women on the list. She’s quite wary at their first dinner date and walks the check on him.

Mid-point Twist – Henry discovers all the people he thought were assassins were actually the marks. Which means on the list he was a mark!

Pinch 2 – While trying to do something plot-worthy Henry accidentally runs into his first dinner date and she’s feeling guilty about stranding him and comes on gushy. He falls for her, and needs to protect her.

Lull – Feeling safe in her arms in bed; they talk. After a bit, the conversation gets serious and then turns into a fight where she reveals…

Plot Point 2 – …she’s an assassin. OMG! Was he wrong about which side of the list was assassins and which side was marks? Twice?

Conclusion – They team up; avoid other shooters; make it back to the handlers’ office to confront them. And it all works out. Ta-da! I’ll need to think about this. I’m worried I’ve drifted well away from the Temptation theme and would like to pull that back in better. I’m also inclined to make the list a bit of a McGuffin here too, or a cross between a McGuffin and a Deus Ex Machina. But in a nice way.

477 words on day 668

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Ron’s First Hunt Party

Ron huffed into his clenched hands. When that didn’t work he stuffed them inside his shirt burying them in his armpits. Living in Gordawn, with these city people, had made him weak.

The Hunt stirred behind him, waking hungover from their drinking last night. Questioning the Hunt leaders or his employers was hard on Ron and he wouldn’t do it, but had he been in charge they’d have travelled twice as far last night, slept half as long, and drunk not at all. They’d have been cinching the last panniers on the horses now as the sun tore away from the horizon. Instead, the cooks carried burnt bacon throughout the camp to waft the rich men awake and encourage them from their warm tents.

Ron wanted to kick them down.

131 words on day 662

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The Gloating Scriptures

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