Tag: plotting

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Priests Bad

At the end of yesterday’s post I noticed I was one word off of having my word count match my day count. I wanted to say something about it, but that would have marred the coincidence. So here I am today asking, “Did you notice how I wrote 494 words on day 494?”

I did. It felt kinda cool.

Yesterday I told you I’d be plotting more later that day. I didn’t plot so much as brainstorm. Wrote down my three elememts and spawned related words and concepts from each. Writing down related ideas helps me find unexpected connections between the elements while also exploring the greater depths of the elements themselves. Often I sense an idea has deeper details but can’t articulate them because I earworm the element.

From this I came up with a surprising number of common links between dermatographia and my river-place. temporary, fragile, unique. Then, because I knew I’d get hung up on it later, I tried to work out a name for the river-place. I got close but wasn’t overly satisfied with the results: Song of the Benha river. Which typed better than I expected just now. And it’s ironic–not telling why.

I’d hoped yesterday to explore the sacerdotal element in a way that gave my priests some possiblity for goodness, but as I’ve thought about it since, I don’t really have the time to make every element the good guy and find a new bad guy. So: priests bad.

251 words on day 495

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It’s Sacerdotalicious

This morning went oddly and I find myself writing later than I’d planned.

Plotting rather.

A friend has challenged me to a writing duel. I think it’s mostly self-serving on his part, but since it gets me writing to a deadline I’m happy to oblige. C, if you want to avoid spoilers then you should stop reading now.

I’ve served up three inspirational tidbits (http://www.evernote.com/pub/palisade14/notes): the word ‘sacerdotal’, a picture of a woman’s legs exhibiting dermatography, and another picture of a cluster of floating docks and pontoons clinging to the side of a heap of jungle in the middle of an Asian river somewhere near the coast. He wanted reality, but I’ve made it challenging not to drift into the fantastic to incorporate all three.

Sacerdotal: of or relating to priests or a priesthood : priestly. The secondary definition includes the intimation that priests are required intermediaries for speaking to the Divine. So far I’ve poised this element in my thoughts as mildly ominous. These priests may arrive with plans to spirit my MC away or barter with her family to take her away. I’d like to at least consider some more positive role for this element, but I’ve not come up with one that doesn’t seem lame. Plus I need conflict.

Dermatography: skin writing. Turns out this is a physical aliment rather than a mental one; I was surprised to learn this. I suspect this is partly why I’ve latched on to the priests as nefarious since this one became neutral. I’m thinking my MC will discover she suffers from dermatography. That she will live in a community small enough that no one has ever experienced or seen it. Or if they have, they haven’t shared such experience. Thus far I think she’ll find the dermatography interesting and something to conceal but not something to be terribly worried about until the priest arrive. Or something else sours her complacence. I’d like to make this magic, but I’m tempted to challenge myself not to–partly because I can’t figure out how it would work and partly to make things harder (maybe).

Islands in the stream: I’ve written to this inspirational photo before though I can’t find where that ended up. Or maybe I haven’t yet. Either way it didn’t stand out. I like pictures like this because they smack me in the face with their foreign, but backhand me with their reality. A small city of cargo containers and pontoons clinging to the steep sides of a hill in a river is just too crazy not to compel writing something. Even something bad. I’ve only considered this as my setting, but I could set it up as a destination or a goal of some kind. Maybe the MC lives inland and needs to get to this river-place for some reason. This bit worries me the most so I’m going to do a maquette for it tomorrow or later today extra.

494 words on day 494

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Armburster: Light Plotting

I’m supposed to be writing already having completed my plotting on Tuesday.  Since I didn’t complete that I’m not writing today.  I’m tempted to put fingers to keys to see where the story goes, but I won’t.  Instead I’ll do the work.

For those of you not privy to my brain or office my first week will revive a brief mech motivated entry from December 2007: https://1000days.douglasblaine.com/20071222/day-119-armburster/

I keep coming back to making the character of “Doc” be the mysterious antagonist.  Which I then resist in various ways.  Then counter.  I’m starting to realize how much I prefer situations, events, or formless monsters to be the baddies than primary characters.

It makes sense in a 1000 word piece that the bad guy would be there all along.  All the motivations I come up with are thinner than I’d like to use.  I don’t want accidental or coerced badness.  I want dead-on purposeful seeking your death or destruction badness.

Regardless of the badness vector I’ve arrived at an event path that goes something like this: Armburster tests the XO and is surprisingly impressed and visibly enthusiastic about the results; they tuck it away for the night and return to testing the following day, early in that testing a virus locks up the XO’s controls and takes over to a great degree (Arm has some control but very little).  I need to determine what happens next.  Comic book style structural rampage to highlight the XO’s capabilities?  Specific target seeking quest? A vendetta or a robbery?

What’s the ending?  Does The Antag relent and power down the virus?  Is Arm forced to sacrifice the XO and himself for the greater good?  Maybe Arm is able to re-take the XO and stop the Antag?

Let’s say there is no virus.  The Antag takes a hostage and coerces Arm to do bad things with the XO.  Thus Arm is using his skills to protect one person at the disperse expense of others.  None of these really attacks his self-concept unless I change that concept a bit.  Maybe he is aloof and less caring more selfish?  Nah.  I think I’ll stick with a straight hero and just work a better angle.

Testing occurs on a specific planet consisting of the proper gravity or terrain.  Arm is the lead tester but soon other pilots will be on planet and in danger.  Or able to suit up themselves.  Arm’s brought a daughter or son or a wife or hooked up with a civilian contractor taken hostage.  So we’re on a remote planet.  What could The Antag want to accomplish?  Straight robbery?  Capture of a highly placed local political figure?  If it’s Doc then it would be knowledge of some sort.

Day 412