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Sometimes all you need is a cup of tea, and some dark chocolate morsels.
After being stuck on the opening pages of The Legend of Skyrian for weeks yet again, I think I've finely broken through. I say that, however, with fingers crossed, for I still have a major problem: I have no idea of the plot.
I realized some days ago that I have characters, events, settings, and even a history behind my novel; but no plot. My worst fears were realized.
The Legend of Skyrian has changed so dramatically since I penned the first lines - indeed in the last two months - that I suppose it's hardly surprising I lost the thread of the story. It could quite possibly be the whole reason behind all my other issues in the story.
In my efforts to find the essence of my story I have mercilessly hacked and stripped away so much of what I call either obsolete information or completely unrealistic elements, so that I am left only with the bones. And somehow they don't fit together.
When I first set out upon the rocky way, Skyrian, a magnificent black stallion of lore, took center stage with Cilla, the heroine. His very name is in the title. So how come at if I carry on with the idea for a plot I have at present he becomes obsolete by chapter four? More to the point, how can I make him more of the story? What can he, as a horse from the pages of Ithreal's history, do? I'm beginning to fear that I might just have to scratch him - and that would be tragic.
Another headache inducer is my villain. What a rat. Oh, he's evil enough, doing many unspeakable things. But why? He's so evil he won't even tell me. He's not like most villains in adventure/fantasy who hunt the main character(s), and I wonder if that will be a problem; make him feel like less of a threat to the reader. After all while he's out destroying the countryside and starting a civil war, Cilla is off... somewhere else... sheltered and partially oblivious to the outside world. Out of sight, out of mind?
These are just a few of my problems. Some, I am happy to say, I have solved. Most recently {last night} what I called the AC Predicament.
The Anoad Cappal {ANO - add CA - pöl}, a secret independent force in the Western wood, has gone from a band of around ten to fifteen, to a force of two-hundred, to... three men in their late fifties.
For reasons I cannot go into throughly I have opted for the three older men, who happen to be brothers. The Anoad is very much in decline and yet should prove the perfect spring board for future events for which certain persons must be prepared.
The second 'I've got it!' is the issue of Cilla's parents and how they will affect her future. Cilla is an orphan. Now, before you go get the cheese and cliché crackers, let me say that I am not going to follow the usual knock-off the parents recipe {Died in childbirth, didn't want the baby, sacrificed themselves for child, etc.} but rather make up my own scenario - taking perhaps a dash here and there from Chaucer and a few classics that not many read anymore. Just to make it interesting.
Still, even though I've fixed a few of these, the dark thunderhead of little or no plot looms. I'm thinking I need a day or two with nothing at all to do but search and imagine and maybe, just maybe I can figure it out. Until then, it lurks.
Sometimes all you need is a cup of tea, and some a lot dark chocolate morsels.
-Gwyn
