Novel/novella plot outline needs help
Aug 23, 2011 11:43:17 GMT -8
Post by Deleted on Aug 23, 2011 11:43:17 GMT -8
The basic gist of the story I want to write is that a princess who is an intellectual type and doesn't like fighting very much is forced to be a warrior queen who must defend her country from invaders. Here's a chapter-by-chapter outline:
1. Introduction to the heroine. Her personality and non-aggressive personality and her father the king's unhappiness with that are established. Basically, she goes to a martial arts training session at her father's behest but does relatively poorly.
2. Introduction to the Big Bad (i.e. major antagonist). He/she invades the heroine's kingdom and the king is notified of this.
3. The king goes to war, but is fatally injured in the first battle. After he is taken back to his palace, he dies.
4. The heroine goes through a physically exhausting coronation ritual and passes it by the skin of her teeth.
5. Now that the heroine is a queen, she goes to confront the invading army. Some discussion about battle tactics and her anxiety about the upcoming battle might go here.
6. The heroine fights her first battle, but chickens out and runs away from the fray into the wilderness.
7. This chapter begins with guilty angst about the heroine's cowardly abandoning her army. She then finds a village which is being raided by bandits. She is too scared to do anything, which angers the villagers.
8. The heroine learns that the bandits have taken something sacred to the villagers and resolves to recover it.
9. She infiltrates the bandits' lair and, after a lot of fighting and suspense, manages to recover the sacred item. The villagers are elated and she feels emboldened.
10. The heroine returns to her now-battered army, and apologizes for her cowardly abandoning it.
11. The final climactic battle with the invaders. This time the heroine wins.
12. Resolution.
What I'm worried about is the story possibly being too short. I've calculated that if each chapter had around 3,000 words, then the overall word count would be around 36,000, which would make a very short novel. Anything I could do to lengthen it?
1. Introduction to the heroine. Her personality and non-aggressive personality and her father the king's unhappiness with that are established. Basically, she goes to a martial arts training session at her father's behest but does relatively poorly.
2. Introduction to the Big Bad (i.e. major antagonist). He/she invades the heroine's kingdom and the king is notified of this.
3. The king goes to war, but is fatally injured in the first battle. After he is taken back to his palace, he dies.
4. The heroine goes through a physically exhausting coronation ritual and passes it by the skin of her teeth.
5. Now that the heroine is a queen, she goes to confront the invading army. Some discussion about battle tactics and her anxiety about the upcoming battle might go here.
6. The heroine fights her first battle, but chickens out and runs away from the fray into the wilderness.
7. This chapter begins with guilty angst about the heroine's cowardly abandoning her army. She then finds a village which is being raided by bandits. She is too scared to do anything, which angers the villagers.
8. The heroine learns that the bandits have taken something sacred to the villagers and resolves to recover it.
9. She infiltrates the bandits' lair and, after a lot of fighting and suspense, manages to recover the sacred item. The villagers are elated and she feels emboldened.
10. The heroine returns to her now-battered army, and apologizes for her cowardly abandoning it.
11. The final climactic battle with the invaders. This time the heroine wins.
12. Resolution.
What I'm worried about is the story possibly being too short. I've calculated that if each chapter had around 3,000 words, then the overall word count would be around 36,000, which would make a very short novel. Anything I could do to lengthen it?