October Novel Prep Challenge

Or, in this case, the Samuil in the details...(aha! No...sorry...)

I'm having the hardest time narrowing this story down to the minutiae. I can think in the broad scope, and I know the emotional arc for pretty much all the characters (well...Aoife, not so much. She's...pretty happy being who she is right now.), but I'm having a hard time taking the themes and breaking them down. I have a decent idea where I want to split the first two books and end the first half, but the individual events are eluding me.

I know the first book (up from two, I'm now at four...) ends with Aoife and Philo joining our crew. Moira is captured by the Burnt Men and thrown in prison for being a Westerner, and it's Philo who helps Eamon get her out. Aoife, whom they've already met and who has somewhat of an adversarial relationship with Moira, is also in prison at the time. Most of the book is the group traveling through the lands of the Goddess trying to recruit people into their group, but getting rebuffed by the tribes of Avernia because they've been conquered by Tiberium and are totally OK with the chaos this will cause. And then they cross into Dacia (where Philo lives) and that's where Moira is captured.

It's Philo that allows them to find the pieces, so I suppose they could search Dacia for a piece of God and have no success finding it. I was also thinking of introducing Timon, who starts out as their ally, but whose fear and prejudice overcome him and cause him to betray the group. Maybe he is traveling in the borderlands between God and Goddess trying to convert people? This won't work, of course, as people who belong to the Goddess can't NOT belong to her. (Of course, Philo is a bit of an exception to this as his fever as a child actually awoke the influence of the Goddess that was dormant within him. I'm also trying to figure out how to have him switch allegiances at a soul level, too...as if, because both are active in him, he can choose...)

And then...how do I get him to join them? I know he dislikes the Burnt Men because he thinks they're as evil as they are, but...what causes them to join this group trying to bring Him back to life? He can't communicate with Agrippa, so he's just supposed to believe a couple of Westerners and a blind Dacian that God is dead? But I don't want him to be evil...I want him to be tragic, undone by his fear.

Does this count as brainstorming? Or is brainstorming actually ANSWERING the questions I ask? See...I haven't even gotten to the second quarter yet. I know that one is mostly a quest book, collecting the pieces of God, and then BAM! A twist that'll have M. Night retiring forever (PLEASE!). That one should be easier. I'm not even contemplating the second half right now because it'll pretty much be plotting an entirely different story. A war story of alliances and spies.

Oh God...when do I inject Caecilia into this? She's not supposed to show up too early, but I want to have a couple of chapters from her POV showing the political situation in Tiberium-the-City. How women are losing their freedoms, but not obviously so. It's Caecilia who convinces Corvus to join the Westerners in the second half. I guess I know what I want to do, but I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out how to plot it so it makes sense, moves quickly, etc. Does Caecilia show up in part one or part two? I'm thinking part two, but when? Or should I do it in part one? Philo has POVs throughout part one to show what's happening in Dacia...

fkon[WF]wdf]inDFFONaf]ind]inf <---That is what happens when I bang my hand on a keyboard. Why is this novel not coalescing in my head? They *always* coalesce.

And...do I really need both Moira and Agrippa POVs when they're doing the same story line? It's important that Agrippa's POV is included because his view of Moira is important to their relationship, but Moira is also...sort of the main character. And her growth because of her relationship with Agrippa and her journey is also important. But they are 100% bound; they'll be doing the same damn thing. It'll just be different reactions. Is the foreign reaction to the West more important than the local one? Would it be weird to have Moira show up as a POV halfway through part one when she's kind of the main character? I don't want her to start up when she's captured. Agrippa's POV starts the novel with his death. I suppose I can just tell the story from their alternating POVs until Philo joins up with the group and Moira is captured and her reaction is more important than Agrippa's.

I suppose Agrippa's reaction to Moira's emotional state isn't all that important; what's more important is how he makes Moira feel, I guess. He can't really grow as a character...he's dead. As he's linked to Moira, they're not really separated that often. I guess I could inject his POV if I really need to for the story. That's not a problem, right? It's not a problem to have one or two POVs for a character, right? I mean, an interaction between Agrippa and Cuchulain (the two spirits) might be fun. Hmm...I wonder if Philo can't see Agrippa? He can see souls...Anyway, I do want Agrippa's reaction to Moira's emotional state; his conscious decision to be kind to her because he senses how fragile he is, and perhaps her misinterpretation initially, but eventually trust and intimate friendship-perhaps-romance-if-one-of-them-weren't-dead. But...is an emotional storyline important enough to warrant POVs?

I'm officially logging this as my brainstorming, people.

COALESCE, DAMN YOU!
-Quaddy

ps- I'm officially brainstorming in this forum from now on. That way, I can get out all the questions and other people can help me answer them.

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