Time to Outline

Now to introduce Makos to his savior. How should I handle this? As a writer, I need to consider his challenge that I want him to overcome. I've used Deus Ex Machina to save him, but it is for a specific purpose of introducing a new character while creating conflict and demonstrating the character's personality and powers to an extent.

Deus Ex Machina is a term and technique which involves having something new save the day when your characters are unable. It can be a cheap, lazy way to write your characters out of a tight spot, unless you have a specific thing in mind that will be achieved by doing so.

I want to involve someone who can help introduce Makos to the new world of magic. He needs a guide.

He also needs to learn to trust someone his age. Its one of his weaknesses. Perhaps I should have shown more examples of his distrust of his peers while leading up to this point, and I intend to do so in my second draft of the story. I can still show his struggle in this meeting, however.

Today I am going to try to outline the scene. I have been discovery writing so far with minimal planning. The two methods of story creation both have their benefits and an author who can employ techniques from both will have a larger range of tools in their craft. I will write an article on this later, though, so for now: outlining.

Key point: Makos meets Larca.
-She is also nine years old. She was raised in the magical realms.

Key point: Makos distrusts her.

Key point: Makos has no alternative but to learn to trust her, for now.

How am I going to work out the interaction from one step to another with the most conflict without straining the relationship?

Solution: Larca can answer Makos' questions.

Solution: Larca knows how to get back to town.

Solution: Larca can provide further protection.

I will paint in some distrust and embarrassment to add conflict. Larca won't care so much, for now, and reply to his judgements with reasoning. Makos will relent.

Now to use my discovery writing techniques and fill in the blanks:

Paint the scene again.

He looked around cautiously. 'Whoever killed the monsters is probably still out there, somewhere.' He thought. 'If I'm not careful, I might be next.'

He feet made little noise on the dry pine needles. After circling the clearing where the moster tree had fallen without hearing anything besides the wind blowing through the forest, Makos stood straighter and walked out to inspect the burnt tree.

It was covered in soot and almost all of the pine needles were gone. The ground all around it, leading up to the trees nearby, was charred. He noticed how odd it was that none of the surrounding trees had been damaged by the fire besides a little bit of singeing of the ends of needles closest to where the fires had sprung up.

Key point: Makos meets Larca.
-She is also nine years old. She was raised in the magical realms.

Makos moved back to inspect the skeleton of the burned tree. He was nervous what he would find, but wanted a better look at the monsters who had controlled the large pine.

"It's dead."

The voice made Makos jump a foot into the air. He landed clutching his chest and breathing wildly. He spun around and saw a girl standing a couple yards away. She was about his height, had long golden hair that was tied back into a single, thick braid, and her skin was very light, more than he had ever seen on a person. She wore pants and a jacket that looked like it was made out of some sort of leaf-patterned leather, both brown and green. The colors were smoothed into and out of each other throughout the pieces of clothing. Her shirt was a pastel yellow, embroidered around the neck in violet, orange and red thread patterns that made Makos think about stars amidst falling leaves.

He realized he hadn't said anything once he noticed her smiling at him. "Who are you?" He asked.

"I'm Larca." She said.

He frowned. That was a strange name.

"Well?" She said.

"Well what?" He asked.

"What's your name?" She eyed him with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, right." Makos replied. "I'm Makos." Something occurred to him. This girl had burned the monsters. He took a step back. "You killed them."

"Yes." She agreed. She turned to look at the remains of the tree and her eyes grew sad. "I didn't want to burn the tree, but they weren't going to leave it."

Continued tomorrow...