[YANS] (aka Yet Another New Story!) NaNoWriMo 2017 (COMPLETE)

Day 29.a - Salvaging a Story

"Less than 5k left... if I had any story left to write I'd be good." The Writer settled in to the writing desk with a determined sigh. "I'm not sure I've got five thousand words of worldbuilding to go. Although the story is pretty broken."

"So let's start ripping the story apart instead and see if we can add anymore missing bits." The Muse pulled out the editing chainsaw of doom and cranked it up with an evil grin.

Dragon decided it was time to move his beanbag next behind the couch where it was safe. In theory.

"So this is our story so far," the Writer said as she laid out the basic plot point index cards. "A girl's family is all killed in a flood. She goes to try and kill the dragon responsible for it. They find out that the town is in grave danger. A stranger shows up looking for help for another city, but they already know he is the key to saving their own town. They find out that there is a shadow dragon hiding in the magic back at the city. They go off to the town dragon's mentor to find out how to defeat it. With a plan (of sorts) the got to the city and fight the shadow dragon. It flees back to the town using magitech made by the town dragon. The girl uses the same magitech to portal back as well. The girl fights the shadow monster and when she about to die the wild magic inside of her flares and she ends up becoming a dragon the hard way and killing the shadow monster. But she burns down the town in the process. The other two dragons get to the town too late to save it, so they start rebuilding it."

"That... is a lot more story that I expected." The Muse admitted. "So what are our main plot points that come out of nowhere that we could write a backstory for?"

"Well, the magitech for one." The Writer frowned thoughtfully. "It was pretty much thrown in there as a plot device to get the fight back to the town and to split Khany up from the other dragons. It needs to have a purpose in the plot before then. But if we're adding the extra POVs throughout the story there's room to expand there."

"Plus we need to explain why the cool magitech can't just solve all their problems to start with," pointed out Jashn. "Or just magic in general."

"The whole concept of wild magic really isn't explained well, plus it never does anything bad only good. But it's talked about as this very dangerous thing." pointed out Dragon. "So it needs to have some sort of downside. Plus the city dragon is very upset about someone with wild magic, so why didn't she just try and kill Khany to start with? Why let her run around the city at all if she's that dangerous?"

"Plus the paranoia of the city dragon also needs to be bumped up a little, so it makes more sense why she's against us. And we need some reason why she suddenly joins our side of the fight," said Khany.

"And this is why it helps not to be a panster," said the Muse.

"So, backtrack, let's get the individual personal plot worked out." The Writer grabbed her character sheets.

"1. The shadow dragon wants to take over the pools in the city and drive away the city dragon."

"2. The city dragon and Jashn want to save the city. Because of the lies of the shadow dragon they think they need to burn down the town to do this." The Writer looked over at Jashn who shrugged, it would do for now.

"And 3. The town dragon and Khany wants to save their town. Because of the visions they think they need Jashn to do this." Dragon made a noncommittal noise from behind the couch.

"But the visions of the town not burning are the visions where we don't stop the shadow dragon, right?" Khany asked, confused. "If it's my turning into the dragon that starts the fire..."

"There are a bunch of futures where the fire is started during the fight, but not all of them are from you turning into a dragon." said the Writer. "Fire was the best way to kill the shadow dragon and Jashn is a fire breather so he could have started it. The town dragon also could have started it with magic or magitech."