La Bene Vita

NaNo 2015 Dilemma

This transcript comes from an IM dialog, but it summarizes the scope of my story arc and my potential 2015 projects. Any thoughts or questions are welcome.

Synopsis of the Story Arc:
The Elements and Elemental Magic rule. If they don't stay in Balance, the world ends or something.
The Elements almost take each other out (in antiquity) so they created the Druid Order to maintain Balance.
To prevent the Elements from being too powerful, they created their Champion Races and imbued them with a portion of their power
          Leviathans represent Water and contain a portion of Water's power
           Witches, Air
           Ursae, Earth
           Dragons, Fire
Merlin (an early Druid) fell in love with Nimue (a leviathan) and proved interspecies love was possible.
Quiver woos the witch Midge as an experiment since it worked with Nimue.
Midge bears the half-witch, Molly
The dragons launch a plot to overpower their peers and their patron (Water) by overpopulating and taking more and more of his power - Fire weakens.
A prophecy says the heir of Quiver will bring about the destruction of the Elements. The ursae think that means Molly and declare war on the witches and Druids.
The dragons join the ursae against the witches and Druids mostly for fun and in the end, all the witches die except Molly and Mildred (the youngest witch) - Air fades almost entirely.
Wisdom (Quiver's apprentice) steals the Butterfly Stone (the source of magic), proving she was the object of the prophecy, not Molly.
          The fairies are the neutral party among the Champion Races, peers to the witches, leviathans, etc. but not beholden to an Element... and therefore they're the Keepers of Magic
With the Elements out of Balance and the Butterfly Stone gone, the fairies all die
Kaleb (a young Druid) falls in love with Mildred (legitimately, not the way Quiver did) and they bear children...

And, essentially, Life Magic is able to replace Elemental Magic.

The overriding theme of the story arc, besides things like friendship and loyalty and bravery, is "change is inevitable."

***

I just like the character Tan'rothia, and I feel like she's got a story to tell. But it's got to be a tragic one, because they only thing that really happens in this story arc is that they all die. They step in now and then before that happens - but just to send messages, sway opinions, nothing plot-worthy. I can just see the death of the fairies because a fantastically tragic story. Wisdom steals the stone, and their powers start to fade. They take steps to try to replace the magic, but with the Elements out of Balance, they just don't have enough oomph to do it. Throughout the story, more and more of her close friends and family will die, along with statistical scores (and therefore less tragic) of her people... that will be tragic for Tan'rothia but less so for the reader because we'll never meet those fairies. But we WILL meet her sister and some other key characters that are close to her. And she'll watch them all die before she dies herself. Fairies are the keepers of magic, but magic also sustains the fairies........

I'm having an idea.

***

Okay, and remember I might be messing some of the details of the story arc up... it's long and complex and I haven't gotten through all my rereads yet this year. But basically... I was wrong about Quiver, he didn't know about Life Magic (I knew that felt wrong) - the Healers are the only ones who know, and they've been passing it down for generations. Kaleb is the Druid Healer when he falls in love with Mildred, so he knows about Life Magic and is able to create the magic when they fall in love. If he were any other Druid, I'm not sure it would have happened.

But I've always had the fairies as the representative of Life - I said they were neutral, but actually, they're just neutral with respect to the Elements, who represent Non-Life. In fact, there's a courtyard in the center of the Druid Fortress with statues honoring the four Elements - and a giant butterfly (I'm not kidding, colossal coincidence, lol) representing Life. The fairies are the champions of Life. So it seems to me that if Kaleb manages to bring about Life Magic in time, he might save the fairies. Probably not all of them. Maybe even just Tan'rothia.

But here's the problem - the stories are concurrent. They're not the same book!! Tan'rothia has her own story, while Kaleb (known later by his Druid name, Emergence), has his own story. They have their own book titles, lol! (Tan'rothia and Emergence, of course)

***

I have several other projects I was thinking of writing first, though. Incomplete stuff:

1. Quest of the Last Witch
The Elements give Mildred a quest, which is basically to impregnate her and revitalize Air, who is almost vanished. Traditionally, witches procreate via magic (that's how Mildred was born, she had nothing to do with Quiver.) Mildred succeeds in the quest and gets pregnant. I started this book, I think 2012? and never finished it.

2. Warrior's Redemption
Probably last on my list. It has to do with Wisdom (who trains Betsy to become a warrior) running off with the Butterfly Stone after hurting Betsy pretty badly. Betsy is looking for revenge, and meanwhile, a Druid is trying to get the Stone back. They fail... I think... this is starting to make me think even more that maybe Tan'rothia's story should be built into the other books. But I'm not sure. I like her so much I'd like to give her a book of her own.

3. Quiver's Heir
The third book of the War of the Witches trilogy that I didn't finish last year, which is when Wisdom steals the Stone. Gah! All my books are so freaking tied together.

4. To Woo a Witch
Love story between Quiver and Midge. I'm not sure if I'll give it a happy ending or go a little farther to the point where Midge discovers his deception and it ends tragically between them, except for the birth of her little girl, Molly. I'm leaning that way because the reader will either have clues or know outright that Quiver is deceiving her. Hence, this is the "tragic" love story I mentioned.

5. Emergence
The story of Kaleb and Mildred falling in love, and the creation of Life Magic.

Then I also had Tan'rothia on the list. I just dunno.

I think it's between Emergence and Tan'rothia, or possibly a combination of the two, but I might also finish Quest. I'll scratch off the other three. I sort of need Quest finished to write Emergence. Because she succeeds in her quest and gets pregnant, which brings about a new hope that Air will grow strong again, so it's a happy ending. But she loses the babies later... that's what Emergence is about. Kaleb (Emergence) is the Druid Healer, and the last witch - pregnant, and the only hope for the recovery of Balance - is very ill, loses the babies, and is in danger of dying. So Kaleb goes to heal her, and that's how they fall in love.

Or I could tell Tan'rothia with the tragic ending, where only she survives, maybe because she's queen and transcends the need for the magic (that seems backward, somehow.)

But the bottom line, her story ends before the climax of Emergency. Then Emergence comes along... and we bring Tan'rothia into the book, AFTER her tragedy, after she loses her nation of fairies, for a sort of bittersweet new ending for her: she's lost her people, but maybe because of Life Magic, she will be able to rebuild the nation.

I've got a time problem anyway...

In 5100, the War of the Witches ends, the witches die, Air fades, and Wisdom steals the Stone.
Eleven years later, we meet Mildred and the children, and stuff starts to really happen... the quest, Mildred gets pregnant, she and Emergence fall in love (probably in year 12.)

So it's a dozen years from the time the stone is taken until Life Magic replaces Elemental Magic. Which means - either the fairies hung in there for a really long time, or they died years ago and Tan'rothia hung on that long.

I think I like that option. Her story takes place BETWEEN War of the Witches and Poor Witch. And it's tragic.

Cheers,
Michelle

MTMS, Music Lessons in Columbus, Ohio