Clarion Day 1

Clarion Write-A-Thon

From Clarion's blog, they're doing Sunday 'assignments' to help writers with their work.  Since I am at the editing stage, I am no longer allowed to pretend these exercises don't apply to me.  If I can't answer these questions, then I am, in fact, doing something wrong and that is what editing is for.

Assignment is here.


1.Who is the character whose actions and decisions most drive your novel? 
Yu.

2.Describe your hero in five words or less. 
Polite beautiful peasant girl.

3.What has to happen for your audience to know that the novel is over?
TRICK QUESTION.  Properly, the answer should be "get married."  That's the driving tension of the book.  However, since the book has been split from one book into two with a semi-cliff hanger ending on the first, I'm not sure what my new tension in the first book is.  These questions are easy to answer for the two books as a whole, but less easy to answer individually.  I guess I have changed to having a meta tension (who will Yu marry?) that spans the books and then the smaller tension that exists in each book under that meta tension.  So in the first book, how does the audience know I'm done?  People aren't dying, and... Okay, actually, basically, Yu comes into her own and stands up for herself.  Which applies nicely to both novels.  SEE! RAMBLING HELPS.

4.Describe this goal in ten words or less.
Yu comes into her own and stands up for herself.

5.What is the one most profound or pervasive reason that your hero cannot accomplish the goal right away?
Herself, her sister-- Scratch that, herself.  She lacks the confidence, the drive, and is too used to letting people push her around and decide things for her.  Basically, she has to do that part of growing up where she takes charge of her own life.

6.Describe the primary obstacle in ten words or less.
Lack of confidence and desire to overcome passive nature.

7.What person most clearly drives, creates, or causes the primary obstacle?
Mostly Yu herself.  However, several people contribute to this, namely Shu, all of the princes, Jurita-- Okay, so the ENTIRE CAST at some point contributes to this by pushing Yu around.

However, here I think we're running into a problem.  There's the emotional goal and tension, which do drive the novel on the underside.  And then there's the PLOT, which is a different thing.  I'm going to go back through these questions and re-answer them with the plot in mind instead of the emotional goal, because Yu cannot be her own antagonist and the rest of the cast cannot be her antagonist either.  Starting with question three, trying this again focusing on PLOT not character growth.

3.What has to happen for your audience to know that the novel is over?
Still get Yu married (see original point one rant).  However, above that the conflict is the continuation of the kingdom, put at risk due to the death of the old emperor and a potential succession war.  So what the audience needs to see is the continuation of the kingdom and the coming together of those who will now rule.

4.Describe this goal in ten words or less.
Save the kingdom from disorder, chaos, and dissolution.

5.What is the one most profound or pervasive reason that your hero cannot accomplish the goal right away?
Initially, indecision, but later kidnapping, and demon attacks.  Actually, initially it's a complicated political structure and the fact that there are multiple princes vying for the position much to Yu's confusion as she has no idea what she is doing or what would be the best solution to saving the kingdom.

6.Describe the primary obstacle in ten words or less.
Everyone wants to rule and won't share.

7.What person most clearly drives, creates, or causes the primary obstacle?
Alright, looking at it closely, the best antagonist of this first novel (JUST this first novel) is going to be Korin.

8.Describe your antagonist in five words or less.
Arrogant, striving bandit prince.

9.Look at the answer to question 2, and find three other sf&f novels whose hero could also be described in these exact or very similar words.*
Any Cinderella story, ...Okay, a good half of all fairy tales with a female protagonist (the other half are princesses) and anything modern based on said fairy tales.  Some actual novels I can name... Ella Enchanted, The Godmother, aaaaand... blanking on a third.

10.Look at the answer to question 4, and find three other sf&f novels whose conflict could be described thus.
Again, any fairy tale.  Most fantasy for that matter can be summed up by save the kingdom.  For one that is not at all like my book, see "Blue Moon Rising" by Simon Greene.

11.Look at the answer to question 6, and find three other sf&f novels with the same basic primary obstacle.
Any fantasy novel with a strong political kingdom basis.  "Blue Moon Rising" is another good example.  I can think of several, but can't remember the names of them right now.

12.Look at the answer to question 8, and find three other sf&f novels whose antagonist meets this description.
Can't actually think of any that quite fit that description.  Though I am SURE it exists, the character trope is at least seen in the Alana books by Tamora Pierce.  It's not new.

13.Which novels appear more than once in your answers to questions 9-12?  List them here by name.
Fairy tales and general fantasy tropes are repeating.  Basically, this novel is like a lot of YA fantasy novels with a cinderella story basis.

14. List the ways in which your novel stands in stark contrast to each of the novels listed in question 13.
This is set in an a pan-asian fantasy world.  And one of the starkest reasons is a major spoiler, so I won't get into it here.