Dragon's Tales

Plot 5

2008-08-19T18:50:00.000-07:00

This is the main plot, which I have been avoiding, I suppose in part because it hasn't quite coalesced in my brain. Knowing a lot of the background details will help though, such as what kind of job he had, and such. Now I just need to work out how he learns about the dragon. How much he stalks the dragon. And why he is so obsessed with the dragon.

First meeting: He has seen the dragon before, but he didn't realize it because he uses many different shapes. But the dragon only owns so many cars, and really isn't a fan of public transportation. Most of his cars are very expensive, so easily remembered, and driven with a manic, almost dangerous, style, though the dragon has reaction speeds beyond that of a human. His first happens sometime before the book, or near the beginning. The dragon is interviewing him about his business, because the dragon wants to know what kind of equipment it will need to keep its humans in good shape in its tunnels below the ground. It is especially obsessed with equipment that will last a long time. Nothing that breaks.

Second meeting: Steven spots someone else driving the car (getting gas), and approaches it. This is sometime after the accident, possibly while he is stalking the teacher's brother. But the person who steps out isn't the person he interviewed before, or so it appears. Instead it is a man who works for the military...airforce? (whomever keeps all the ICBMs). This man shows a moment of recognition on looking at Steven, but that disappears and the man moves away. Steven is curious, but not curious enough to follow the man. He does ask a few questions, but the man just waves him away.

Third meeting: This happens at the Dragon Sworn. They show him a picture of the dragon which Steven recognizes, but they claim it is just one of the dragon's agents. The dragon sworn are so obsessed with the agents and what theythink the agents are doing, that he begins to believe some of what they are saying.

Fourth meeting: After losing his job, Steven begins to believe this dragon character might know more about magic than his teacher seems to. So Steven does a little research and discovers where the car is. So he begins to hang out outside that garage, waiting for the car to move. His car is starting to look a bit run down, because it was vandalized, so it appears to be abandoned. While he is there, the police see him and talk to him. During that time, the dragon appears again and takes off in his car. He is again appearing as a military man. Steven wants to follow the car, but is afraid of driving away from the officer, since the officer might well follow him and he has no desire to get into an accident from a high speed chase. The police officer avoids writing him a ticket, and lets him go with a warning. Steven pulsl away, but the car is gone. Steven can't see it, as it is miles away. He tries to figure out where it might be going. He thinks about where he saw it last, at the gas station. And how there is a military base in that direction.

Disaster: Steven parks outside the miltary base, but not for long. He is detained by several officers and questioned as a suspected terrorist after the soldiers find out he was just causing trouble for the police. Hours later he is released, and exhausted. He is determined now to learn all that the teacher knows, because he is becoming obsessed with the dragon. But the teacher won't teach him any more.

After learning everything the teacher knows, which is the hard to understand piece of paper, Steven breaks into the garage with the car. He is desperate at this point to get a proper teacher and hopes the car will have information on the location of the dragon. He finds nothing but oil change information and other useless paperwork. But he does find a book about the place where they intend on storing nuclear waste. At this point his mind begins piecing thigns together and he believes the dragon is planning nuclear war.

Disaster: Steven hunts down the location, stalking it for weeks beofre he finds the entrance. He only finds it because he sees other people exiting it. He finds a way inside. And he sneaks around, learning all about the base. It appears to be some place that the dragon plans to live after inciting nuclear war. He also finds hundreds of children. It is then that the dragon finds him.

Climax: They confront each other, eventually the truth comes out. The dragon plans on killing Steven to protect his seecret. Steven suggests that he work for the dragon, but the dragon has no use for him. Steven must prove he is useful.

Resolution: Steven stares at the papers, and it finally makes a kind of sense. He does some magic which resolves one of the dragons problems...(what?)

Day 18 - Plot 4

2008-08-18T20:58:00.000-07:00

Today's Plot I'll for the moment call the Dragon Sworn plot. This is the group of people who believe that the dragon exists but are seeking ultimate proof.

Inciting Incident: They are carrying the talisman, possibly in a car, which he collides with. A spark of unformed magic enters his brain from that and becomes stuck. there are some clues as to who they are, but he doesn't realize it right away.

The paper: The paper with the magic formula on it has some scrawling on the back that mentions the dragon sworn but in no clear terms that Steven can understand.

The kidnapping: They kidnap him after he is following what they believe is one of the agents of the dragon.

The cell: The cell turns out to be in someone's basement. he tries to use magic to escape, but fails. Eventually they blind fold him and let him go, but only after he has lost the dragon's scent because it has moved on. They drive him around and throw him out of their van.

The deal: He realizes that these are the people that the dragon really needs, because they will willingly live in his underground home.

Day 17 - Plot 3

2008-08-17T17:43:00.000-07:00

The next plot line will be the "romance" subplot. I put romance in quotes, because this is by no means a romance novel. There will be no happy ending. There will be no sex that is shown, and perhaps none alluded too. They won't end up together.

Next step- He asks her to move in with him, but she refuses him. She had a lot of excuses, such as not wanting her finances tangled with his while he is starting a business.

Good news--While he is driving she calls him to say she wants to move in with him after thinking about it. It is then that he gets into an accident.

Next step - After his accident, she offers to let him move in with her. At firs this seems like a good thing, as she can take care of him al lthe time, but it soon becomes clear that he has lost his motivation with life. He spends all of his time watching sports, eating, drinking, not shaving, not showering, becoming a waste. She gives him an ultimatum, and he tries to follow it.

Disaster - She confronts him at work because she thinks he deserves a better job than this. She demands he get a better job than this. This leads to him getting fired, because he does something bad there.

Worse Disaster - The keys on the apartment are changed. He can't go back inside or get his stuff.

Apology- She sends him an emailed apology. He is about to reply, but something comes up.

Self realization-After getting hsi new "job" he finally replies to her email. He tells her that he doesn't want to move back in, although he thinks of sending her an uglier email first.

Day 16 - Plot 2

2008-08-16T18:44:00.000-07:00

I think the next thread will be one involving his job. At the beginning he has one job in mind, but that doesn't turn out so well because of his accident. He needs a new job after that.

Beginning: Steven Right is planning on starting a business with his friend and personal trainer, just like him. The guy I called a boss in the character descriptions. The business is a gym with weights and whatnot, where they have some great idea on how to get people to join and get real results out of them, instead of a place like Bally's that just takes your money. Something like Curves. They are having some troubles with it, but find ways to work around the problems for now.

Next: Steven Right has a horrible accident which ruins his physique, because of the months spent in the hospital where his muscles wasted away. To make matters worse, when he has permanent injuries that make working out very difficult, because he needs prosthetics if he doesn't want to be stuck in a wheel chair, and he only has one good hand, and it isn't even the one he writes with. To make matters even worse, he is seriously depressed when he leaves the hospital. The business has collapsed because his partner is left in the lurch. His partner is going to wait on him, until he sees how seriously depressed Steven is. Steven is in no shape to start a new business, so the guy decides to start a business on his own without Steven. He steals the idea for the business, however, just changing it a bit to avoid any legal trouble.

Third: Steven is seriously hurting for money. He didn't have any insurance, or enough anyway, and has to pay most of the medical bills out of pocket, and he doesn't have enough to cover it. When he begins working for the teacher, it doesn't pay any money. So Steven tries to get away with just a tiny amount of sleep and working at some fast food place to make ends meet.

Fourth: Something happens at his place of work and he ends up fired. (from another thread?) His lack of sleep and depression don't help.

Fifth: He gets a rather unusual job with the dragon. It doesn't pay regular money, but it has its benefits.

Day 15 - Plot 1

2008-08-15T17:50:00.001-07:00

I'm going to use a technique that my friend robin showed me to do plotting. It is called plot braiding, and I believe it was invented by Alison Kent, but I can't promise to me. Essentially what I do is write out each plot as its own seperate thread, which will take me a bunch of days. I'm going to start with the first thread, the magic thread.

First: And accident happens to Steven Right, which damages his brain, his body, and he absorbs some magical energy. This magical energy remains stuck in his brain, although for a short time he is exuding energy, causing things to happen with barely a thought. But that ability quickly fades, until it seemed that it was only imagined.

Second: Steven Right learns that magic exists. He learns this in a meeting for recently disabled people being held in a public school at night. One of the other people there comments on how he was once looking for something to cling to after his accident, and how at one point he came to believe in magic. He even found a teacher, but it turned out to be a bunch of crap. Steven Right heres this and demands information on the teacher, because he also is looking for something to cling onto.

Third: Steven Right hunts down the teacher, but the teacher won't teach him anything. Steven begs, saying he'll be the teachers servent, doign whatever he wants. The teacher takes him up on that, and soon has Steven spying on the teacher's brother.

Fourth: After several weeks, Steven grows desperate, certain that the teacehr wil lteach him nothing. Steven breaks into his private files and his safe. There he finds a piece of paper with a few diagrams drawn on it, and a few words of explanation, but not enough for it all to make sense.

Final: Steven Right believes that he understands magic and trusts himself enough to try it. Because he believes in himself, he is able to achieve what he couldn't before.

That's only about five scenes, so this clearly isn't a major plot of the novel, but is a subplot. I might end up with ten or twenty subplots at this rate. ;) As long as it works, I'm happy.

Day 14 - Setting

2008-08-14T19:37:00.000-07:00

I gave myself 3 days to work on the setting on this novel. That might be too much, as I think the Novel Writing Made Easy book does it to the point of overkill.

Explain how your story suggests a particular setting:
At some point they probably need to go to where they plan on storing nuclear waste, because that is a very stable piece of land. Tearlach will probably want to put his eternal nest there.
They will probably visit a military site where nuclear weapons are stored as Tearlach wants to prevent them from being used.
Other than that, the dragon can move around. The character just needs to live somewhere he can get injured, which is pretty much anywhere.

Explain how your characters suggest a particular setting:
Er...? They'll probably be based in Minneapolis, Saint Paul, or Madison simply because I am familiar with those cities.

There's a couple more questions, but they are a waste of time until I know what the scenes are and where things will happen! I honestly believe this isn't a good way of doing things, to try to figure out the setting and then figuring out the scenes. I figure I should do them at the same time! May the light protect me!

Day 13 - Minor Characters

2008-08-13T14:53:00.000-07:00

Minor characters. I need to do some kind of summary of these, though probably not quite as thorough.

The personality types are again from: http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/intro.asp

Teacher:

The teacher is a type 7, an enthusiast. "Spontaneous, versatile, distractable, and scattered. " He keeps himself always doing something to avoid dealing with his inner self.

Name: Timothy (last name)

Appearance: Often ragged looking, as though he didn't take the time to shave carefully or put away his clothing before they wrinkled. His hair is blonde, but scraggly. And he is a bit too thin as of someone obsessed or a drug user.

Goal: Revenge on his brother

Motivation: He has always been jealous of his brother and mistreated him until his brother attempted to kill him. That caused him to get badly injured, for which he wants revenge.

Negative Trait: He has difficulty focusing on anything too long...except his obsession

nick name: none...?

self-concept: He thinks of himself as deserving more than he has because of his intelligence.

trauma: when his brother tried to kill him.

secret: He wants to take revenge on his brother, he knows magic

Power: limited magic control

adversaries: his brother

allies: no one

darkest hour: when his brother began getting more atteniton than him as a child

shining moments: When he gained the power to get revenge

legacy: Mostly focused on the revenge thing

Girlfriend:

Challenger: "self-confident, decisive, willful, and confrontational." These people express their anger right away with no barrier stopping them.

Name: Anne (last name)
Appearance: She is black, her hair is straightened. Thick lips, wide eyes, cocoa skin, brown eyes. Round face. She always dresses immaculately.
Goal: To live the good life.
Motivation: Her mother was a single mother, and pressed into her the idea that money equals success.
Negative Trait: A bit shallow.
nick name: None....?
self-concept: She thinks of herself as deserving more than others because of her intelligence and effort. She paid for herself to go through college.
trauma: One of her friends was shot in gang related violence.
secret: She blames herself for the death of her friend.
Power: none...?
adversaries: no one?
allies: her mother.
darkest hour: death of friend.
shining moments: Graduating college with a degree in nursing.
legacy: Children going to good school in a good neighborhood.

Boss:

Investigator: "perceptive, innovative, secretive, and isolated" He is afraid of the outside world and copes by withdrawing from it. He uses his minds to penetrate the secrets of the world but never feel they know enough to act on it.

Appearance: Balding, so he shaves his head. He doesn't talk much about himself, and his clothes are non descript so no one can learn anything about him. He never wears t-shirts professing his like of anything. He always wear a suit a tie, as nice as he can afford.

Name: Joseph

Steven Right's Younger sister

She is a helper: "demonstrative, generous, people-pleasing, and possessive" She deals with her shame by getting other people to like her, She focuses on her positive feelings instead of her negative to make herself feel better about herself. As long as Twos can get positive emotional responses from others, they feel wanted and are able to control feelings of shame.

Name: Elizabeth (Liz) Swanson (maiden name Right)

Appearance: Her clothes tend to be home made sweaters or other clothes that suggest niceness without any threat toward other women for being too feminine. She over tans her skin at one of those tanning places, and bleaches her hair almost to white. ASlthough somedays it is too red, other days dark brown, depending on her mood. She has thin lips, and a thin face, and a mousy appearance. She isn't entirely certain what her original hair color was, although it was most likely that brownish blonde color which is so typical of America.

Goal: To make other happys, have children and make them happy.

Motivation: She wants to be like her mother.

Negative Trait: A bit too desperate to please others and doesn't think of herself enough.

nick name: None....?

allies: her husband and Steven Right

I'm thinking she will mostly appear on the phone because she lives far away, though she may visit him in the hospital.

Day 12 - Main Characters

2008-08-12T15:09:00.000-07:00

Today I'm writing out some kind of summaries of the main characters. I thought about doing the character sheets in the Novel Writing Made Easy e-book, but decided against it. It was full of the typical questions and answers that I couldn't imagine would help me write anything about the character. Instead, I'm doing the version found in "A Writer's Guide to Fiction" by Elizabeth Lyon.

There's a description of the main personality types described in this book here:

http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/intro.asp

First I have the dragon. He is a type 1, a reformer. "principled, purposeful, self-controlled, and perfectionistic. " These types control their anger and instincts. They direct their emotions at their goals.

Next I have the protagonist. He is a type 3, a achiever. He is "adaptive, excelling, driven, and image-conscious. " He deals with his shame by trying to become what he imagines as a successful person. He is driven toward success to avoid feelings of shame.

The teacher is a type 7, an enthusiast. "Spontaneous, versatile, distractable, and scattered. " He keeps himself always doing something to avoid dealing with his inner self.

So far, so good. Now the questions, starting with the dragon:

Name: Tearlach

Appearance: Variable

Goal: To create a new race of dragons.

Motivation: His kinsmen were all killed off long ago, and he wants to reconstruct them.

positive trait: his self control.

Negative Trait: his raging anger

nick name: dragon/shadow/the man who doesn't exist

self-concept: He thinks of himself as nearly a god

fear: all life dying around him, leaving him alone

trauma: when all the other dragons died, and when the dinosaurs proved to be a evolutionary dead end

secret: he's not human

Power: extreme self-control, shape changing, magic

adversaries: no one

allies: no one

darkest hour: after the meteorite

shining moments: When his pushing of evolution had created a sentient race, though apparently by accident

legacy: That is what he is trying to build...survival against the strongest adversity--nuclear war.

So far, so good. Now the questions, starting with the protagonist:

Name: Steven Right

Appearance: golden skin, brown eyes with green flecks, black, cut short, square jaw, two fake teeth from being knocked out in a fight, athletic body
Goal: Get married, make money, his sports team to win...until the accident
Motivation: He wants to feel that his life is perfect so he isn't ashamed of himself
Negative Trait: vanity
nick name: Mr Right
self-concept: He feels like he can never achieve enough, but wants to avoid achieving too much and standing out
fear: not doing well enough or appearing too smart
trauma: Didn't make the team as a sophomore in college
secret: He thinks he doesn't live up to his dad
Power: good at football type stuffc
adversaries: gets along well with people
allies: His girlfriend, his boss, bis yougner sister
darkest hour: Not making the football team, see above
shining moments: Making the football team as a junior
legacy: He is more worried about himself than leaving a legacy

Day 1 1 - POV

2008-08-11T18:49:00.000-07:00

Point of View (POV).

This is the last step in chapter 2. I'm not sure why I gave myself a whole day to write down the novel's point of view.

I plan on using limited third person, with the (as yet nameless) protagonist as the viewpoint character.

Day 10 - MMBs

2008-08-10T17:39:00.001-07:00

Oops! I already did this yesterday along with the MME's. I did two days work! Awesome!!!!

Day 9 - MME's

2008-08-09T13:35:00.000-07:00

Today I'm supposed to work on MMEs. First off, I have to remind myself what an MME is. Let's see here...(sound of PDF opening)...

All right, an MME is the characters major motivation experience. It is the experience that much of their life is based on and gives them goals and focus. This is related to MMB, which is a major motivating belief. The belief comes from the experience.

So, let's begin with the dragon, the character I understand the best. His MME is that all other dragons were killed by a meteor nearly a billion years before. He only survived because he was underground at the time. Because of this, he was practically alone for nearly a billion years. This gave him the belief that it could happen all over again. He fears this with all of his being, because of the terrifying loneliness. He believes that humans will destroy themselves with nuclear war and in that way cause it again. So he is preparng for the inevitable by building an underground lair to hide some of humanity in.

The protagonist is the next major character. His belief is that he isn't all that bright and his only strength is his strength and good looks. This came from an experience he had as a child. When he brought home good grades from school, his dad would call him a nerd and tell him not to do that or other kids would make fun of him. His dad pressured him into football and other sports. When he did well at them, it made his dad happy. In fact, he was very good at coming up with plays in football to beat the other team, but he could never apply that intelligence to other things and barely scrapped by in other things, always saying it was too hard. He would sabotage his own efforts to succeed by not studying.

The next major character is the teacher. This person wants to horde all of their power and not give any of it up. He was the first born child in his family, until he was thirteen when his brother was born. No matter what he did, the baby got all of the attention. In part this was because the parents believed they would never be able to have a child again, and in another part it is because he had a skewed version of the world and didn't notice the attention he got, but rather the attention he didn't get. Whenever he could, he would take advantage of his younger brother, until his brother got old enough to get revenge on him. His brother tricked him into bungee jumping, and had cut the chord partially through, though he could never prove it. This led him to getting horribly injured, and gaining magic energy. Afterward, he gained the attention of his family, for a while, but soon it went back to his brother, who was much less negative to be around. Finally he learned magic from another man, and when he had learned what the man knew, he killed his teacher. He has since made it his life to torture his brother in any way possible.

The girlfriend. She judges people based on their appearance, though she doesn't like to admit it. In fact, she puts a lot of effort into looking nice, but not too nice. This was because as a child her mother was very critical of the appearance of others and of her. Over time it changed the way she looked at things until she believed looks were what mattered. She tries to fight against it by not dressing too nice, but the belief is still there. She also believes that men are their to protect women. One time when she was a child, some kids egged her house, some boys from school who didn't like her. Her father caught them, and told their parents about it. When one of them later picked on her, her father put an end to it, though she won't speak of how he did it. In fact, he terrorized the kid straight.

Day 8 - questions

2008-08-08T19:00:00.001-07:00

Who? What? When? Where? Why?

These are the questions I'm supposed to answer today.

I've been thinking about the theme I came up with a few days ago, and I may have meant to say that action begets belief. And belief begets success.

Anyway, on to today's questions:

Who? (As in, who is this novel about?)

The protagonist- a man who has always juged himself based on what he can do physically. He doesn't think he is stupid, but he doesn't beleive he is bright either. He suffers and injury that destroys his looks and ability to do much physically, making him a bit of a cripple.
His girlfriend-I know next to nothing about this woman, other than that she no longer wants to be with him after his injury. I will need to learn more as I progress in this novel writing process.

The dragon-He is the last of his kind. His people were destroyed by a mammoth meteor strike nearly a billion years ago. He somehow survived. He has spent his time since then trying to evolve new dragons, but has failed. Now humans, a branch of evolution he considered a curiosity at most, have the ability to destroy themselves in nuclear war. He will stop at nothing to stop it.

The teacher of magic-This is a little man, though I don't mean in size. He wants his tiny niche of power, his magic, and doesn't want anyone intruding on it, least of all a student. But when the protaognist comes to offer being a servent in return for teaching, the teacher decides to take advantage of the protagonist.

There are probably other characters which I will realize later as Icontinue plotting the novel.

What? (As in, what are the protagonist's main problems?)

1) The dragon seems to be planning armagedon, which is bad all around.

2) He tries to learn magic but is thwarted by the power hungry teacher as well as his own beleif that he isn't smart.

3) His body is ruined, and so he no longer believes he is of any real importance.

4) He lost his girlfriend and wants he back.

Where? (Where does the novel take place?)
I know it ends at the place they intend to put nuclear waste, because that is one of the most geologically stable parts of the country, which is very important to the dragon in making his den. It also seems to the protagonist that the dragon is there to collect nuclear waste for its own uses.

Other than that, I'm not entirely sure. Other that that it should be a place I am familiar with, I don't think the setting matters too much. I'm pretty familiar with the Twin Cities and Madison, but that's about it. I have some familiarity with Washington DC as well, though not as much, as I've only been there twice.

When? (When does the novel take place?)
The modern day, though I have no real intention of naming dates and dating the book so readily.

Why? (Explain why your character wants what he wants?)

The why's are so obvious from the what's I can't imagine writing them down.

Anyway, that's it for chapter 1 of the book. The next chapter is all about character motivations, so that should help me a lot to make this book come alive.

Day 7 - Subplots

2008-08-07T18:41:00.000-07:00

Wow. Today I'm supposed to "figure out the novel's subplots." I could have done with more guidance on this one. It says they should add complexity. That's not much help, practically anything would. It should also contribute to the character's growth.

Let me think of the plots I do have.

1) The protagonist must come to terms with himself and gain real confidence, which will allow him to use the magic in ways he couldn't without confidence.

2) The dragon must be stopped from creating nuclear war.

3) The teacher is hunting the protagonist because he wants to be the sole one with magical power.

I think those are the things I might call plots.

Subplots are probably:

1) He must come to terms with his job.

2) He must come to terms with his ex-girlfriend.

3) He must come to terms with his new handicap, although that might be the main plot listed above.

That seems like enough, for the moment. Though I may very well come up with more later.

Day 6 - Theme

2008-08-06T18:47:00.000-07:00

Theme, huh? Boy, this is a though one.

Let me begin by thinking about some of my favorite movies.

Think about Star Wars episode 4. The theme here is the difference between knowing something and BELIEVING it. That's why the movie ends when Luke believes in the force and turns off his radar. He trusts that it will work. (At least that is one theme)

What about the Matrix? It has two themes. The main one is choice. You do things simply because you choose to. That theme runs from the beginning to the ending of the trilogy, as does the Christ metaphor, which I won't get into here. The other major theme for the original movie is that there is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path. It's not until Neo believes he is the one that he finally is the one.

Strange, two of my favorite movies seem to have very similar themes.

Maybe I want to do something similar. It does seem appropriate. I am sturggling with writing novels because I know I can write a novel, but I don't entirely believe it. But if I am to do it, I must simply believe it.

And if my character is to use the magic effectively, he must believe in it. And he must believe in himself. He must throw away all of his self-doubt and simply do it because he believes he can. He must change his attitude from one of half-belief and half-doubt to one of complete belief.

That leads me to think about the character a bit more. Why would he not believe in himself? Surely his accident is a portion of it. That destroyed what belief in himself he had. But that can't be all of it. There must be some root deep in his apst that destroyed his belief that he can do something.

Yet, that is a question for another chapter. As I read "Novel Writing Made Easy" I see that is something for chapter 2, which is probably later this week.

Belief begets success.

Day 5 - Story Questions

2008-08-05T19:06:00.000-07:00

Today I'm supposed to write down what questions I want the reader to have as they are reading the story.

Questions:

What is the result of his accident? Is there any noticable brain damage? (The physical affects will be explained early, but it will take a while before the character becomes aware of the other changes)

Can the Character get his girlfriend back? (resolved at the end when he decides he doesn't want her)

Can he stop the dragon? (resolved at the end when he doesn't stop the dragon)

Can he learn magic? (this question is introduced when he begins searching for a teacher after his meeting for newly handicapped persons support group and learns that magic might exist. In his fragile state, he believes it might and it might answer all of his problems. He gets a teacher, but that teacher teaches him nothing. He must steal the teachers information, and that put him on the road to knowledge)

Will the teacher get revenge? (The teacher starts chasing him and catches him eventually, putting a magical amulet on him which destroys his magical powers)

Can he get the amulet off? (The police eventually cut it off him)

Will he get his job or find some way to make money? Will he rob a bank? (When he steals the magical information, it is inside a bank, in a safety deposit box. He is sorely tempted to rob the bank then. He only finds a job, of sorts, at the very end. And it isn't one with what might be called a regular paycheck.)

Will he regain the body parts he has lost? (Not in this book)

These are the major story questions I can think of right now, although when I break this down into scenes, I hope to have many more questions, at least one major question per scene.

Day 4 - Climax and Crisis

2008-08-05T19:01:00.000-07:00

Today I was supposed to write out the climax and crisis of the novel, although I prefer calling them climax and resolution, because it seems clearer to me. Anyway, I struggled with this, and I'm not entirely sure if I have it right. The resolution seems a bit too easy right now, unless I write it exceptionally well. Although it might not be the resolution that the readers are expecting, since it apepars that the dragon is hell bent on destroying the earth up to this point of the book. But they will be expecting the resolution to somehow solve his own problems with his crisis of identity. And perhaps it does so a bit too neatly here.

Climax and Crisis

Climax: The climax of the book is when the character finally comes face to face with the dragon. He learns that the dragon doesn't plan on destroying the world, but is building a giant underground lair in which it plans on moving a section of society. It has moved hundred of children down there, children which it can shape into its own beliefs. He has to choose to save these children even though they are in no real danger. He has to save them from the fact that they have no real choice in the matter.

Resolution: He wants the children to be freed, but he doesn't have the power to save the children with his magic, which is weak. Instead he must convince the dragon that there is a better solution. And that better solution is to bring people down here who want to be here. Some of these people he has met already. People who believe in dragons and want to believe in magic. And he has to believe that he has the power to do this, that he has value as a human being, that he can still be useful. And he beleives that the prjoect is useful, because the dragon is right, it is only a matter of time.

Side Resolution: Now he has a job, won't need money, and has the self confidence to say goodbye to his ex-girlfriend.

Day 3 - Obstacles

2008-08-05T18:59:00.000-07:00

The next stage is to write out the obstacles in the characters way. This is by no means an exhaustive list, since I haven't thought of everything yet. But it will get me to the next stage of the outline procedure. I'm hoping that by the end of the outline the story is much more fleshed out than it is right now.

Obstacles:

Self: He wants to believe he has value as a human being, but he has always thought of his value in terms of what he could do, but now he needs other people to help him. He used to help others, but now he can't, or feels that he can't.

Situation: He has no job. This means that he runs out of money rather quickly in this story.

Situation: He has a large obstacle to look like he once did, and that is that it is beyond modern medicine to regrow limbs. Plastic surgery might fix some of the scarring, but that is about it.

People: His girlfriend is more shallow than he realizes, although perhaps in the course of this book he will become aware of it. So he really doesn't have much chance of getting back with her. Even if she tries to give him a chance, she wouldn't be able to get over it.

Day 2 - Desires

2008-08-02T18:54:00.000-07:00

Day 2 of out, is to write out what the protagonist wants.

To explain the character, at the beginning of the story the character has a horrible accident happen to him which ruins his life. It involves damage to his body and his brain. The brain damage appears not to have affected him, but the body damage has, at least directly. It turns out later in the story, though, that the brain damage has given him magic powers that he is unaware of and which may kill him if he doesn't learn to use them.

Desires

The character priamarily wants the life back that he once had. He was once handsome, but was now deformed because of his accident.

His girlfriend leaves him because of his looks. She pretends that that isn't it, but it really is. His personality changes don't help either, as his life goes into a slump, at least at first ater his accident.

Because of his accident, he is no longer able to do his job any longer, or really any job. He has lost his primary hand, one eye, and he walks with a limp. They don't admit to firing him because of his accident, but he is fired none the less.

He wants to believe that he has value as a human being and isn't just a drain on society.

Day 1 - Novel Outline beginning

2008-08-01T18:45:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be keep track of my most recent novel on this blog. I hope to use it as motivation, and perhaps inspiration for other aspiring novelists. The story I'm writing is fantasy, set in the modern day, and involves wizards and dragons. In a way it is a bit like the Highlander movies where the magic exists but only a few know about it.

To start I spent a couple days writing out the rules of magic. Since I am a physicist, my inspiration was Newton's Laws, Maxwell's Equatoins, Einstein's Theory of Relativity, and Quantum Mechanics. Hoever, there won't be any math required when reading the novel, and I didn't use that much to formulate the rules.

To write this novel, I'll be using "Novel Writing Made Easy" by Andera Rains Waggener. www.novelwritingmadeeasy.com (In a way this blog will be a review of sorts of the procedure, as I tihnk the best way to review it is to use it.) I've tried to follow other write novel programs, like "First Draft in 30 Days" by Weisner, and not had the best of luck. However, I've been reading a lot of books about attitude, and believe that my problem has always been a belief that I can't do it. This time I am going to believe I can do it. And to hold myself honest, I'll be writing everything here on my blog. At least in the outlining stage.

Day 1 of Novel Writing Made Easy, the way I broke it down, was to do a series of "What if?" and "Why?" questions. I'll write out the results of today here:

What if? Why?

What if a Dragon wanted to prevent nuclear War?

Because all other dragons had been killed by a similar violent act when an asteroid nearly destroyed all life on earth.

What if Someone knew about this dragon and believed it wanted to start a nuclear war?

Because the dragon acts suspiciously and below the radar

What if someone suddenly gained magical powers?

Because of an accident which damaged their brain, causing their lowest state to no longer be zero magical power.

What if they had an accident that effected their brain? This accident would give them less physical ability, perhaps similar to a stroke.

They would end up joining some kind of support group.

What if they met someone there who had gone through something similar?

That person might have learned magic as well, but be avoiding it.

Why would a person avoid doing magic?

Because they hurt someone near them without because they didn't know what they were doing.

Why would a person still want to learn magic?

Because their injury had taken their life away from them. They would be desperate for something to fill the hole. They had lost their job, their family, even their way of connecting with their kids.

What if they discovered someone who wanted to do magic.

And they didn't want to teach someone else because they aren't a teacher.

Why wouldn't they want to teach someone else?

Because they saw magic as a source of power, so they selfishly guarded it.

What if the student got the person to teach them anyway?

The teacher would do so only reluctantly, holding onto power as long as possible, and using the student as a servent.

What if the teacher taught them nothing at all?

The student would break into the teachers private thigns looking for notes.

What if the student still couldn't find anything?

The student would try something desperate, and break into the bank vault.

What if they broke into a bank vault?

There would be photo's of them and they would become a criminal.

What if the student knew about this person trying to break into nuclear facilities and wanted to stop him?

Despite his being a criminal, he would search for this person using any tools he had.

What if the teacher came searching after the student?

The teacher would find him, and take back the document that was stolen.

What if the teacher had captured the student?

The teacher would have to decide whether to kill the student, or let him live with all the he knows.

What if the teacher had a magical item that drained magical energy, making the student just an invalid

The student would be depressed and think that he could no longer make it?

Why would the student still believe that he could defeat the man without any magical power?

He wouldn't. He would go to the police with his story and try to get them to beleive him.

What if he didn't have any evidence?

The police would laugh at him and not take him seriously?

What if he finally found the dragon, by sheer blind luck, and started to follow him?

The dragon would know about stalking laws and call the police.

What if the man was arrested?

The police would strip him down and take away the magical item.

What if the magical item resisted being removed?

They would cut it off him.

What if the magical item were cut?

The bound magic would be suddenly released (moments before the cutting) and there would be an explosion of unfocused energy.

What if there were an explosion after his arrest that gave him his magical power back?

He might see it as his destiny to escape and stop the dragon. His teacher might also learn of it and come hunting him.

What if he knew where the dragon was going and found a way to get there?

The police would be able to find him easily because of his injury.

What if he evaded police?

He would have to find a way to travel by the safest means possible across the country.

What if he discovered the dragon's hideout?

he would find a place to hide and wait, as well as discover what was going on here.

What if his teacher caught up to him?

He would have to fight a duel with his old teacher.

What if they fought a duel?

There could only be one winner and one dead.

What if they were interrupted during their duel by the dragon?

The dragon would have much more magical power and easily subdue them. Then it would have to decide what to do with them.

What if the dragon had them under his power?

Something would have to happen to resolve the plot.

2008-01-05T20:40:00.000-08:00

Been about a month since I posted. Sorry about that. I guess I took December off from life and my diet and writing. I didn't write anything, psoted nothing on my blog, and gained about 12 pounds. I'm sure I'l lget the weight off soon enough, so that's no big deal, and I'm posting on my blog now. I made a contest with Robin to see who could write the most this month, so that'll help me get some writing done.

I'm writing a book about a teddy bear that was brought to life by a magical book. It started as a book for children, but somewhere around the third paragraph I changed my mind and decided to make it for adults. It's not that different, just the ideas expressed are different. I'd never make any comments on religion in a kids book, but in an adult book I feel that is open game. If adults can't discuss religion without getting upset, who can?

I've got a cheap skate tip for those of you short on money. Renting movies or buying them costs money, which is no fun. And buying books is also a drain, a large drain if you are buying hardcover. I recommend using the library. I use mine quite frequently. I can log onto the library system from home and have them collect a bunch of DVDs for me and then go pick them up when they are available. This costs me nothing. The only major downside is that DVD's are usually scratched so there is on average one minute (sometimes much more, sometimes much less) in every movie that I don't see because my DVD player can't play it. Still the cost of seeing that additional 1 minute is about 5 dollars (if I rent it) so it isn't reall worth it. Besides, the library has more obscure titles than any rental place I know of.

2007-12-01T19:21:00.000-08:00

I spent half an hour searching for a market for Judas' Tree, and now I'm pretty sure that such a market doesn't exist. There is a market for Christian fiction, speculative ficition, and even Christian Speculative fiction, but not Christian Speculative Fiction which challenges people's beliefs. (sigh)

Tommorrow I need to start working on the package for Turtle Island.

I think I need to add a goal to my goals too. Since it seems to be impossible to publish what I wrote I should write something else and try to publish it. Now I just need inspiration...

New month, New goals

2007-11-30T19:30:00.000-08:00

Nano is done. I need new goals for the upcoming month. Goals which will get me moving and keep me from stagnating like I did this summer.

Goal 1: Keep trying to find a home for Judas' Tree.

Goal 2: Make a submission package for Turtle Island and send it out to 3 agents or publishers.

Goal 3: Make some kind of note card outline for Magic's End, with a goal of making it an a 60,000 word book. Then In January I would follow the outline and write the book out.

And I hope to get more exercise in this month, as soon as my flu goes away, anyway. I'm still feeling icky, though the outward symptoms have disappeared. Standing up leaves me exhausted. It's like I have menstrual cramps!

2007-11-30T12:02:00.000-08:00

I finished Nano!!! Here's my winner's Icon!

On another note, y body fat didn't change at all this month. Probably not too surprising, as I was exercising less this month.

Later today I will post my goals for next month and see how I do on those.

2007-11-29T20:02:00.000-08:00

Been really sick for the last couple of days. Think I got the flu. I'm pretty sure that I caught it, ironically enough, on the day I took Diana in to get her flu shot. If doctor's offices are really full of germs, and pediatrician's offices are really super-deluper full of germs. But I got back on the writing horse again and pounded out 2000 words, bringing me to 48000 words. Hope to get to 50,000 words tomorrow and complete NaNo! This is short of my goal of 60,000 words, but respectible enough. Last year I didn't even compelte NaNo, so I feel good about this years accomplishment.

2007-11-23T20:28:00.000-08:00

Was pretty sick on Thanksgiving, which was a real shame. What's the point of being good on your diet if on the one day you let your self eat as much as you want, on that day you get sick?

Still a bit sick today. Will probably write about 1000 words, but that's all. I still plan on getting 50,000 words done for Nano, but I might not hit 60,000. It depends on how much time I have and if I get better quickly or not, and whether or not I reach the end of the book.

Before Thanksgiving Photo

2007-11-21T22:13:00.001-08:00

Here's my photo from today [left] and one from the beginning of the month (actually just before) [right]

No visible differences. Oh well!

2007-11-20T19:20:00.000-08:00

If you like Sword and Sorcery and wanta collection of recent stories, check out Sages and Swords

http://www.ipgbook.com/showbook.cfm?bookid=0975884050&userid=5EDAFF52-803F-2B7A-707AE7892728C909

This anthology is close to selling out, so get it while it is still around.

I was not published in this, by the way. Then again, I don't recall submitting a story...

2007-11-16T21:39:00.000-08:00

I had to write 3800 words today to get back on track. Because Diana was in preschool and I didn't exercise, I was able to manage it. Just barely. But it has left me a bit tired, mentally. It seems like writing is a bit like running. You need time to work up to the longer distances. Time and a lot of training. Tomorrow, thankfully, is only 2250 words. Phew!

2007-11-13T22:17:00.001-08:00

Got 2000 words written today. I figure I only need to write 2250 words a day until the end of the month to write 60,000 words total. I think it should be doable, especially as I get farther in the book and the plot gets more tangible and I can see how it will end better.

Diana went on a bus field trip with her preschool today. I was chaperoning along with her. It was kind of fun. Diana said it was the best field trip EVER. Of course, she also says things like, "This is the best pancake I've ever had." And she'll say that to describe more than one pancake. It's a bit funny.

2007-11-12T21:46:00.000-08:00

I only got 500 words written yesterday (of the 200 I should have written). My wife wanted to watch Spiderman 3, and that sucked up all of my writing time.

On the plus side I managed to write 3000 words today, so I'm only 500 words behind. Yay!

Didn't exercise today, as catching up on my word count was a higher priority, since today was a light exercise day anyway.

Hope to be all caught up tomorrow!

2007-11-10T21:31:00.001-08:00

I wrote the required 2000 words today to stay on schedule. I thought about doing more but decided not to. I'll have plenty of other days to kill myself. Why start now?

Weight loss has been very slow this month. Partially I blame Halloween, but there is another major factor, and that's that I haven't had much time to exercise, what with all the writing. I'm still hoping to have my body fat down to 12% by the end of the month, but I'm also wondering if that is reasonable unless I step up the exercise more.

Tried to make some lowfat, sugar free (Splenda) chocolate chip cookies today. They tasted all right, but they didn't cook like cookies at all. Normally a cookie forms into a nice little cirlce in the oven, and it stays moist, but these were a little bit dry and crunch, and their shape didn't change at all in the oven. I suspect that it is because there was so little butter in them, and the butter is what makes them "melt" in the oven. Maybe I'll try to find another recipe...

2007-11-09T14:22:00.001-08:00

I managed to write 3000 words today! Most of the credit goes to my wife who had today off, and gave me a few hours to do it. That means I'm back on schedule! Yay!

2007-11-08T21:53:00.001-08:00

I only wrote 1000 words today, of the 2000 I was scheduled to write. I guess I wasted too much of the little time I had to get all my work done. I hope to write 3000 words tomrrow to make up the difference. It might be possible ,since my wife is home tomorrow. Might...

2007-11-07T19:25:00.000-08:00

Good news, I am now out of Halloween candy that I want to eat! Now eating healthily will be much easier. THankfullt the next holiday coming up is Thanksgiving and Turkey is low in fat. Woohoo!

2007-11-06T20:32:00.000-08:00

Here's the picture. It looks pretty much the same except I opened my eyes and there's a goofy look on my face. It's only been 1 week, so don't expect me to look like a new man yet!

As long as I'm getting pictures off my phone, here's a picture of my daughter all dressed up to go trick-or-treating. She's got an elmo basket and a Super Girl costume. When you're three, I guess finding things that match makes not one wit of difference.

2007-11-06T19:07:00.000-08:00

I forgot to post yesterday! Whoops! I also forgot to post a new picture, to see if there are any visible hanges in my physique. I'lll be posting one soon.

Writing had been going good. Got up to 7333 words yesterday. Should be up to 9000 by day's end today. Still have to exercise before that.

For some reason I gained 4.5 pounds in 2 days. I can't really explain it. I know it isn't actually fat, that would be physically impossible. My measurements don't seem to show my body fat increasing at all during that period. I guess I've gained water weight. I'll know if it comes off super fast.

2007-11-04T18:08:00.000-08:00

I wrote another 1666 words today (roughly), putting me at 5707 (exactly). Awesome!

Weight loss still going good. Lost another half a pound today, making it half a pound a day for 6 days, which is very strange for me. I don't usually lose weight this fast at all. Maybe I'm finally doing something right? :) Or am I losing muscle? :( It's hard to tell by simply measuring my body fat as it is difficult to get an precise and reliable measurement of it.

2007-11-03T14:15:00.000-07:00

1666 words written today, putting me right on target! Excellent!

On another happy note, I've lost half a pount a day for 5 days, putting my weight at 162.5, the lowest it has been in quite a while. The secret for me that i was missing was to not eat any kind of sugar within a few hours of bed time. Other than that, I seem to lose weight no matter how much I eat. (Which seems a little weird) Perhaps if I eat the calories during the day, I burn the calories, through activity. But if I eat less, my body just burns fewer calories. I won't be sure. Hrad to do a scientific experiment with only one case study!

2007-11-02T20:51:00.000-07:00

I wrote an additional 1333 words today, for a total of about 2333 words. Some of that was going back and adding to what I wrote yesterday. Sometomies I write too much action without having the characters react to it at all, so much of my first level of rewriting is adding those reactions in, as well as adding enough descriptions to follow the story.

2007-11-01T21:57:00.001-07:00

I wrote 1004 words today for Nano, which was the amount I promised myself I would write. I might write more, but I don't have enough time today. It's tough fiting in exercise, writing, AND being married.

Plan to write 1333 words tomorrow!

2007-10-31T18:22:00.001-07:00

I can't describe how nervous I am about the Nano next month. I haven't written anything in months, so writting a whole book in a month is a lot for me. I I made better use of my time, it wouldn't be such a big deal, but time always seems to trickle away from me. That, and I'm still trying to lose body fat (without losing muscle) whilest doing NaNo, which sucks up a lot of my time. I probably won't be exercising as much in the coming month, so I wsill have to be very strict on my diet to avoid a backslide. I don't mind not osing weight so much, but gaining it could really hurt my ego.

I'm not entirely sure what I'll be writing, or even who the characters are. I may name the main character Diana, after my daughter, just to get the ball rolling. I think the book is going to be some kind of science fiction for young children, but perhaps young adults (teens) depending on how things go.

Actually, I'd better decide on that. After a few moments, I decided young adult. I haven't read enough books for 8 year olds to be sure how to write them. So the target market is going to be something like 10-15 year olds.

Only 100 words to write the first day (more on later days) to get the ball rolling. I promised my friend Robin that I'd do it, so there's no choice for me. I hope inspiration of some sort strikes!

2007-10-30T21:46:00.000-07:00

Today I exercised used Jeri Love's 'Get Ripped 1000', which is an hour long workout video that does very high intensity cardio intermixed with high repetition weight lifting. It's probably my favorite workout video. That's true, despite the fact that I seriously doubt it burns 1000 calories, as it claims. I'm certain that while it doesn't burn that much, it does burn at least 500 calories, as well as build muscle and strength.

On a side note, I think Jeri Love might have done the workout too many times, because I'm starting to wonder if she dropped her body fat percentage so low she stopped menstrating. It's really not healthy for women to get too lean...

Again, I did absolutely nothing to prepare for Nano. Here's hoping this lack of preparation doesn't bit me in the ass!

I'll probably post another picture in a week, so I can see if there has been any progress.

Starting photo

2007-10-29T21:18:00.000-07:00

Here is my starting photo. I readily admit to cheating, as I had flexed my belly. I'm also surprised at just how tired I look. Why? I get 8 hours of sleep a day, and nap sometimes too! My goal is to improve the amount of 6-pack that is visible over the next month. Now that I have a starting photo, I can see how progress on that is going.

Today was a 2200 calories day... I was going to exercise after Diana went to bed, but then my regular camera broke so I ended up having to use my camera phone and learning how to transfer photos from their to my computer. I was simply too distracted and frustrated to exercise.

Didn't do any writing or writing related things today.

2007-10-28T22:07:00.001-07:00

Today I made no preparations for NaNo. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing. Is it better to dive in or to make tons of prepatory notes? I find myself often wasting a lot of time on prepatory notes that I never use, so maybe it isn't a good idea for me.

Today was my 3000 calorie day on my diet, but I may have gone over. I went to Maharaja (and Indian restaurant) for the all you can eat lunch buffet, and I fear I ate too much. I tried to compensate by exercising an hour and fifteen minutes after that (and another hour after my daughter went to bed) but I'm not sure if I burned enough calories.

Body fat percentage hasn't changed...yet...

First Post--Goals

2007-10-27T20:24:00.000-07:00

This is the first post in my new blog (Don't ask me about my old one! Lots of bad memories there).

I'm going to use this to discuss my goals and progress on them. I have two major goals. In November I'm participating in NaNoWriMo (Nation Novel Writing Month), in which I hope to write a 60k Young Adult novel. I'll probably talk a lot more about that as November approaches.

My other major goal is to reduce my body fat. I'd like to get it down to about 12%. Right now it is around 14.5%. That should take me about 5 weeks, I figure.

THe main problem is it might be difficult to achieve both goals at the same time, as I'm either writing or exercising. So November may just cause me to have a nervous breakdown. Let's jsut wait and see.