Step 1: One Sentence Storyline|
Step 1-1/2: What Type of Series?
Step 2: One Paragraph Storyline- Exposition
Step 2: One Paragraph Storyline- In Practice

 

Now, we’ve finally come to the part of step 2 where we’re going to talk about how to build the One Paragraph Storyline from scratch. This one will also come with a Project Journal post because we’ll be brainstorming the overarching plot for the entirety of our series. So, just like with the Harry Potter example, The Dragon God’s Canticles is going to be a seven-book series, meaning it will be constructed with my slightly modified version of the snowflake method. This means that instead of three disasters and an ending, we’re going to have six disasters and an ending. We must also keep in mind that these disasters are going to be the basis for what we turn into the one sentence storylines for the next-ish step. So, let’s get started.

The Dragon God’s Canticles

One Sentence Storyline:

An unlikely team of heroes are gathered together to prevent the darkness of the demonic dragon god from spreading across the land.

Sounds like the tagline for the next Power Rangers TV show…

Anyway, aside from that, now is the point in time where I need to open up a new document and get to work on the disasters.

Note to self: It is also very important to remember that these disasters will be the climactic moments of the books, not the end of the book.

(And, now practically a week later I get to go back to working on this post.)

So, by the time this post goes up I’m sure you’ll have noticed the project journal for The Dragon God’s Canticles has gone up, and I have finally caught up on my homework, so I am now able to return to my attempt to entertain and enlighten.

The process of coming up with these disasters, is basically sitting down and thinking of the whole story as one work, then going slightly forward with that work. I tried to make the disasters as character based as I could, rather than specifically plot based, but when I’ve got so little information on my characters, as of right now, there’s not much to hinge on that. Particularly, I like the turn of Trizog from villain to returned paragon paladin king. It will certainly make for an interesting turn of events when the story reaches that point.

(Also, I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this or not, but the genre and category I planned on placing this series in is YA Epic Fantasy.)

And, on with the disasters:

1. Evelyn is captured during the final battle against the great blue dragon and is whisked away to Fiend-Fire Citadel by Trizog of Balfor.
2. The cult of the Ligdo Drakko Nekro reveals that it is involved in Balfor’s war in a big way.
3. Trizog reveals to Azariel and Evelyn that he is actually Tristram LaFeya, the lost king of Bertran.
4. As though it were a miracle, King Tristram LaFeya and the knights he fought alongside are able to free themselves in the final battle of Balfor’s War, and with the apparent death of Trizog of Balfor they return Tristram to his throne.
5. The kingdom of Bertran explodes into a civil war, as Tristram LaFeya and Richard LaFeya battle against one another to see who truly has the right to the throne.
6. The Ligdo Drakko Nekro is out in the fields as the men are dying. It is resurrecting them and building an army with which to blot out the sun, it plans on using Richard LaFeya as its host body.
7. The portal to the abyss is open, and dracodemons are pouring out of it like water from a cleft rock. Desperate and out of options, Evelyn and Azariel lead a strike team back to Fiend-Fire Strand to find some way to end this conflict once and for all.

 

And, now we can finally put together that One Paragraph Storyline:

An unlikely team of heroes are gathered together to prevent the darkness of the demonic dragon god from spreading across the land. Evelyn is captured during the final battle against the great blue dragon and is whisked away to Fiend-Fire Citadel by Trizog of Balfor. The cult of the Ligdo Drakko Nekro reveals that it is involved in Balfor’s war in a big way. Trizog reveals to Azariel and Evelyn that he is actually Tristram LaFeya, the lost king of Bertran. As though it were a miracle, King Tristram LaFeya and the knights he fought alongside are able to free themselves in the final battle of Balfor’s War, and with the apparent death of Trizog of Balfor they return Tristram to his throne. The kingdom of Bertran explodes into a civil war, as Tristram LaFeya and Richard LaFeya battle against one another to see who truly has the right to the throne. The Ligdo Drakko Nekro is out in the fields as the men are dying. It is resurrecting them and building an army with which to blot out the sun, it plans on using Richard LaFeya as its host body. The portal to the abyss is open, and dracodemons are pouring out of it like water from a cleft rock. Desperate and out of options, Evelyn and Azariel lead a strike team back to Fiend-Fire Strand to find some way to end this conflict once and for all.

Yes, that paragraph is literally the disasters and one sentence storyline copy and pasted together. I do think I’ll try to tidy things up a bit. Maybe not so tidy as they’ll get when I turn the disasters into One Sentence Storylines, but I don’t really intend on doing that here. Anyway…

“Cleaner” One Paragraph Storyline:

An unlikely team of heroes from all walks are gathered together to prevent the darkness of the Ligdo Drakko Nekro from spreading across the land. Crown Princess Evelyn LaFeya is taken captive at the battle for the Solarian Tower and whisked away to the forbidden fortress of Fiend-Fire Citadel by the vile Trizog of Balfor. Trapped in the heart of Balfor, the princess finds a way to escape her captivity in time to learn of Trizog’s true reason for starting this war. Trizog holds a hidden hand though, one he reveals to Evelyn and Azariel; Trizog is really Tristram LaFeya, the lost king of Bertran and Evelyn’s father. Bertran’s war with Balfor comes to its climax with the apparent death of Trizog of Balfor and the escape of Tristram LaFeya and the knights who went missing with him nearly twenty years ago. Tristram returned from the dead means Richard’s claim to the throne has been invalidated, rather than surrendering to his brother, Richard and the Ligdo Drakko Nekro plunge Bertran into a civil war. Richard perishes in his quest for the crown, but his role in the grand play has yet to reach its end, the Ligdo Drakko Nekro intends to use his corpse as a host and lead an army of darkness greater than anything ever seen under the sun. With the portal open to the dracodemon’s hell dimension, the Ligdo Drakko Nekro is well on his way to eliminating all life, only Azariel, Evelyn, and company are left to stand in the way of the deranged god …and, they live happily ever after… (couldn’t resist).

Ryan S. Kinsgrove