[Prep Day 1] Plot Outline

tl;dr: I outline the main elements of the novel I am going to begin writing in a week, using some articles I found elsewhere on the internet.

SPOILERS ABOUND BELOW, SKIP IF THAT BOTHERS YOU

Story Goal

The main goal the main character has in this story is going to be finding a safe and happy place to live after surviving the raid which destroyed her village.

Possible Tie-ins to this goal include:

• The Raiders Reappearing, or Appearing in Local Rumor.
• Wild Creatures scaring and creating an unsafe place to live.
• Natural conditions worsening, possibly due to a change in seasons.
• Travelling Merchants or Pilgrims who let her gang a while.
• Obviously, the Spirit of the Stone offering confidence and companionship.
• People talking about the port city on the other side of the mountain, where she has an uncle who works as a scribe.
• Food and Water difficult commodities to come by in the wild.

Consequence of Failure

The first consequence of her not finding a safe place to live would probably be death, as she would continue to search unless she dies. Secondarily, a less world-ending consequence might be enslavement or loneliness.

Forewarnings of Failure

1. Hunger after a week in the wild.
2. Strangers in an in take too much interest in her.
3. Getting Lost in the Forest at night.
4. Being attacked by a wild animal.
5. It begins to snow. Heavily.
6. No landmarks she can see after the snowstorm.
7. She is captured by a lone raider who is going to sell her into slavery.
8. She is followed by the city guard for being covered in blood and dirt, arrested?

Requirements of Success

1. Locate a source of food and water enough to hike over the mountain.
2. Hear tell of the City having successfully fought off a large scale attack by Raiders.
3. Begin travelling on the mountain paths, trying to head East using the sky.
4. Survive a run-in with a wild animal near an abandoned road shelter.
5. Find shelter during first snow of the year.
6. Gang with a group of travellers who are heading her way for a while.
7. Escape from captivity of a lone raider who fled from the rout at the Port City.
8. Try not to be arrested in the city before finding her Uncle.

Costs

1. Survival of Initial Attack means hiding and letting Village be destroyed before her eyes.
2. Survival Post Attack means leaving entire past behind, to be buried in the winter snow.
3. Having Food and Water means doing nasty things she may not have liked to do, like killing animals or cleaning fish.
4. Finding Shelter means trusting the Spirit in the Stone with her life during the snowstorm.
5. Escaping from the Raider is only possible if she is able to kill him.

Dividends

1. …She survives the attack. Really, nothing else.
2. She will no longer be an orphan, being in the care of her Uncle in the City.
3. She will gain the ability to be self sufficient, and do things herself.
4. Realising the bond she could build with the Spirit would be beneficial.
5. She gets closure and catharsis on those who killed her family.

Prerequisites

1. She must calm down and clear her head.
2. She must hide the fact that she is hearing voices from a stone.
3. She must be told where the port city is by someone.
4. She must attempt to defend herself (unsuccessfully) in other ways before throwing the stone at it.
5. She must realize that the blanket she has is not going to be enough to protect her from the worsening snow.
6. She must decide to leave her snow-cave.
7. She must somehow obtain the stone, by having the raider give it to her to play with.
8. She must make it to the city.

Preconditions

1. She has been running for days, not eating or drinking much of anything.
2. She responds to the stone verbally, and by moving her body.
3. The map she recieves is destroyed somehow.
4. She rushes into the abandoned shelter without checking or listening to the stone.
5. She sees the clouds forming in the sky, and feels the chill in the air.
6. She stays in her snow cave long after the snow stops, running out her food supply.
7. She is knocked unconsious by an unknown assailant.
8. She walks into the city covered in the blood of the person she killed.

Full Plot Outline Using the Above, sans ending

After the attack on her village by the wandering raiders, the heroine flees into the surrounding forests in a frightened haze. She eventually finds a rock which seems to talk to her, and offers her companionship and confidence which she just does not have after the trauma she has undergone.

Finding a nearby inn, she is able to scrounge up some food and water… and, as she works off the meal she is unable to pay for, overhears that the Port City where her Aunt and Uncle Live recently was attacked too- but they survived. Indeed, they were almost unscathed, and routed the enemy completely. She decides to head to that city, in the hopes of finding shelter from the untamed wilds she now must call home.

She obtains a map from the wandering travellers, and uses it to go a ways, before it is blown out of her hands and lands in a river. She then gets lost once again, until she realizes that she can use the stars to find her way. She comes across an abandoned road shelter, which unfortunately housed a hungry wolf.

She gets out of this by accidentally summoning the spirit in the stone, which takes care of the problem for her. This, however, freaks her out to such a degree that she nearly disposes of the stone and the spirit altogether… until it begins to snow. The spirit is able to find shelter for them, proving his loyalty to her… and so she does not destroy him, and instead attempts to bond with him more as they wait out the storm.

She is hesitant to leave the cave after the snow seems to have stopped, until her cave is visited by a group of travellers. She of course does not trust these strangers at all, but they seem to be going her way, and as she has no clue where she is going, she decides to walk with them a while.

When they point out the trail to the port city, she steals away in the night, thanking them silently… only to be knocked unconscious as soon as she stops moving. She has been captured by a lone Raider, the same one who 40 days ago she saw in her village.

He plans to sell her into slavery, once they get back to the badlands. He has taken all of her belongings, including the stone, and tied her up. She eventually convinces him to give her the stone… and the spirit is able to cut her bonds and grab her a knife. However, she knows she cannot outrun or outpower her captor, and so she must kill him when he next returns.