I’ve decided to look over the future plot outlines of Legends of Windemere and I keep coming back to book 9, The Merchant of Nevra Coil. It was a cute and funny idea that came to me one afternoon. I noticed that many anime series and some television shows have a humorous, goofy middle story before the plot hits the point of no return. Character development and plot events still happen, but the short-term story is silly. Part of me fears that I went to far here.
As the series progresses, readers will notice that technology is beginning to emerge in Windemere thanks to the gnomes. The titular merchant is an old friend who lives in the flying city of the gnomes, Nevra Coil. This character has begun to produce action figures of the champions and some of their allies. It is a popular business that helps fund other experiments. Luke’s figure has sword-swinging action, Nyx fires a fake fireball, Trinity grows claws, there are multiple Sari’s for dressing up, and other champions. The only one is the newest champion that debuted in the previous book. Oh, and there’s a Fizzle plushie in the toy line.
Anyway, one of the villains, the goddess of chaos, is angry that she doesn’t have a figure. She’s in hiding from the other gods, so nobody knows of her involvement, but she’s . . . she’s just crazy. She ends up putting the spirits of the champions (and Trinity who is in the wrong place at the wrong time) into their figurines, which are accidentally shipped to Gaia for sale. The figurines get into adventures while trying to regroup and find their way back to Nevra Coil before the villains attempt to destroy their bodies.
I could ditch the idea, but several things happen here. The goddess of chaos, Nyx, Trinity, Fizzle, and one of the other heroes (no spoilers) go through some important developments in their relationships and roles. The nameless hero’s discovery that he’s seen as a simple, unimportant warrior drives him to leave the group and go back home in the next book. The goddess is trapped with another goddess who wants to be the new chaos goddess, which investigates this formerly background character. The new champion gets showcased here since she has to save her new friends. So, important stuff does happen here.
It’s just that the action figure thing is striking me as iffy now. At least, I’m not sure readers will take to it. I considered having only some of them turned while other things happen to the other heroes. Maybe Sari, Fizzle, and the nameless hero are transformed into their action figures. Luke and another nameless hero could be transformed into something else like babies or something else that’s vulnerable. Nyx and Trinity could be teleported into an asylum for the magically insane where their minds are scrambled, so they believe everything they have experienced is a delusional dream. This takes away some of humor of the entire situation unless I have everyone, but Nyx and Trinity turned into figurines while they’re put in the asylum. This is just so confusing and might require a full re-write of the outline, which I can do next week or even at the convention if things are slow.
Does anybody have any feedback on the sounds of these ideas? I’m really stumped.
Legends of Windemere 
I think the only way to flesh out an idea is to write it. Sometimes, I write several versions of the same thing, and I may throw all of them out. (I don’t outline. I think it’s fine, but I just can’t do it.)
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I’m an obsessive outliner. I’d hate to spend 2 months writing this story and find out that overall idea was terrible. I’ve done it before and it makes me feel like I wasted my time. I won’t be getting to this book until 2013 or 2014 (depending on my rate of writing 5-8), but I’m thinking of slipping a few foreshadows into some of the books. Maybe have a child randomly recognize one of the heroes from their action figure without mention the figures. If I cut out the figures then the foreshadowing will be a waste.
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I think part of my problem on this is that I really like that asylum idea, but it removes Nyx and Trinity from the original idea.
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I really like the action figures idea. It’s interesting and different, especially in a fantasy context. That said, the asylum idea sounds intriguing. But maybe that’s something that can be explored separately?
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Definitely, but I’m not sure if I want to boost the books up to 16. That’s why I might try to have most of the heroes turned into action figures. Nyx and Trinity are the powerful spellcasters (Trinity being a villain and Nyx being a hero), so they would be the only two capable of easily undoing the spell. So, it could make the story more interesting if they’re taken out of the equation entirely and given their own side-story as another thing that the chaos goddess needs to fix eventually. Either way, I think I see an outline re-write in my future. Thanks for the input.
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Well, if they could undo the spell…it would be a little frustrating for the reader if they know that and they’re following them being action figures and thinking “Why don’t they just change themselves back?” So maybe it is a good idea to take them out of the equation. Good luck with it! And, by the way, your blog has inspired me to put Legends of Windemere on my to read list. Not sure when I’ll get around to reading it, but I will eventually! (Promise!)
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Thanks for the input and taking an interest in my book. This story is book 9 of the series, so I have a long time before getting to it. You bring up a good point. Why don’t they just reverse it while in action figure form? I didn’t want to take away their magic. Although, a plastic figurine hurling real fireballs might have some ugly side-effects.
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I think the action figure idea is awesome! I’ve thought about doing something like that, but turning the hero of my story into a bunny or something, and the villain into a tiger. 🙂 Just a funny idea, but I haven’t gotten around to it. But personally, I think you idea has a lot of potential. Have you ever seen Indian in the Cupboard? (This that’s the name) That’s what I thought of when I read this post. And I loved that movie. So good luck! I’ll be excited to hear what you decide to do. Can’t wait for the book!
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Never saw the movie, but read the book when I was a kid. The original idea came from the idea of Nyx as a child using her magic to animate her dolls and do battle around her room. She’d be that type of kid.
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That is cool, and I agree: sound like a Nyx move to me! The book sounds awesome. (And it’s a great idea to outline all the books in the series…I should do that.)
Thanks for the idea! 🙂
You’re a great inspiration to aspiring authors!
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Thanks and you’re welcome. Glad to inspire and be inspired by everyone.
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See? If only your dad knew how much you help people, maybe he’d understand.
But I sort of know where you’re coming from; my Dad wasn’t very supportive of me being an author until I self-published my book and he got to hold some physical ‘proof’ and found out a publisher liked my work. He was always telling me I needed a “fallback”. Before that, he wasn’t too keen on me wanting to be an elementary school teacher. But one thing he’s always supported and encouraged was me being in the cattle business. (You know how ranchers are, they won’t talk their kids out of following in their footsteps!) 🙂 So good luck!
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My dad doesn’t see me helping people as a good thing at times. He keeps asking how me helping people helps my book. I explain contacts, friends, fellow writers, and simply being nice. Doesn’t get anywhere. My dad never had a dream career, so I don’t think he’s really known how to support me. He didn’t bring up a fallback until I graduated college and it was more ‘you should have had a fallback’. Eh, it’s in the past.
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Again, I am sorry. And I know it will all be better some day really soon!
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Thanks. He’s being nice and supportive today, which is making me think he might be a little bipolar or whatever it is when a person keeps doing mood flips.
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I call it multiple personalities, and it sucks, no matter what the official name for it is. Those people are like the stinkin’ Gollum.
Sorry for the outburst…it’s a farmer thing…no, maybe it’s just me 🙂
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There’s a different between doing it on purpose and having no control. It’s not done with malice, but out of frustration. I’ve always been an easy target for bullies or people looking to let off steam. Not sure why.
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No, not on purpose, but it still isn’t fair. (I’m speaking from experience)
And I get letting off steam, but why can’t they do it in private, or in another way? I know stuff doesn’t go right, but that isn’t our fault! We have no control over what the world throws at us! Grrr….
Sorry about that, now I’m letting off steam! LOL
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Some people just need a target.
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Guess so. Dang it all! 😉
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I like both the action figure and asylum ideas. Many times I write a couple of different “takes” of a novel. It takes more time, but it helps me figure out which one works the best. Plus, I have found that the other “takes” get incorporated into other writings by pulling out chunks of them and switching them to fit another story. Does that make sense. Basically, what I’m trying to say is anything written is never a waste because it can always be recycled one way or another 🙂 I’m looking forward to see what you end up doing in your books!!!
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Thanks. The asylum bit came to me this morning when I tried to think of the worst way I could end my series. Just for fun. I came up with the idea that the entire thing was an insanity-induced dream by the powerful spellcaster, Nyx, who has been locked in an asylum since childhood. The adventure was her escape.
This would destroy every future series I had, but I liked the idea of finally taking that step to making her go insane. It gets teased about a few times because she’d be a threat to everything in existence. So, it could be a race against time too because only the other champions would be able to help her. Wow. This book is becoming more epic and nerve-wracking than I expected.
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I think that idea sounds really cool! Can you imagine a whole series simply an insanity-induced dream. Readers would want a spin off series or something that could play of that ending…just saying
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It would be cool, but all of my series are in Windemere. If the big one at the beginning is nothing more than Nyx’s insanity dream then I’d have no explanation for the other series. I’ll be happy using the idea for one story where Nyx begins to think she has been dreaming everything up. Given her background and power, she could erase most of the world.
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Sounds good to me 🙂 you’ve got a very creative mind so wherever you take us we will follow!!
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Great. Just stay a couple yards behind in case I lead somewhere dangerous. Dragons, demons, an angry goblin, etc. They tend to sprung up when one least expects them.
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They don’t want to mess with me I’m an evil sorceress!!! Lol
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Then you’re so going to love Nyx and Trinity in the sequel. 🙂
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Smiling!!! Now that sounds like fun 🙂
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No, you really can’t ditch the idea because now you have gone and gotten us all excited about it. Don’t you know that we are your audience and you can’t make us blubber like fools?
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A man can dream. I think (as you can see in the comments) I figured out a way. It just means I have to remake the entire outline, which shouldn’t be a problem. Gives me something to do if the convention traffic is slow. 🙂
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