I'm going to start following the steps that Truby lays out in The Anatomy of Story, to start piecing together the story for my project. He has exercises to follow at the end of each section, which I will blog as I go through them. The first step is the premise.
Premise: When an impetuous young goddess is exiled for her reckless behaviour, she must find a way to regain her powers so that she can leave the mortal plane and return home.
Possibilities: She feels like her family have abandoned her by exiling her. What if it turns out that an attack on the higher plan was imminent and this was the only way her family could keep her safe? What if they knew she could be the one to end the inevitable war and lead them all to victory?
Story Challenges and Problems: Keeping a fantasy world exciting, while still enabling the audience to identify with the characters.
Designing Principle: When a woman from a higher plane of existence is reduced to living as mortals do, she learns that even the most seemingly insignificant beings can be invaluable, and that power is not the be-all and end-all.
Best Character: The goddess who is exiled. Lots of space for character growth.
Conflict: Inner conflict over being exiled and having to learn to live as a mortal. Conflict between her and the person that leads the attack on her home.
Basic Action: Fallen goddess searches for a way to regain her powers.
Character Change: W - Impetuous, impulsive, hot-tempered, selfish. C - By having to rely on help from mortals, she learns to think about people other than herself, is able to grow as a person an earn a space in the higher plane once again. She learns that being born into a higher plane does not make you entitled to be there, and that you cannot take life for granted.
Moral Choice: Has to choose whether to save her home, or the new home/family she has come to know - which world does she actually fit into now? // Has to choose between going home, and staying with the new family/world/home she has grown to love.
