October Nano Novel Prep

October Nano Novel Prep

Novel title: At Large

Day 1:

Two 18 year old women are in transit being taken by boat to a prison facility on an island in the Caribbean. Courtney Curtis and Vanessa Vaughn are being incarcerated for check forgery and identity theft.

A dimensional rift pulls half of the boat into another world, while the driver and their section of the boat remains on Earth. The two young women end up on an island of tiny people known as Lillitopians, a race of miniaturized people from another galaxy who are identical in appearance to humans, but they stand around an inch tall.

The Lillitopians were originally criminals who were shrunk and deposited on a planet where they would live out their lives, but a cosmic catastrophe forced them to flee, and they chose a planet occupying the same coordinates as Earth, but in a parallel reality.

Day 2:

1) Setting(s). Where and when does your story take place?

The story starts in Florida then shifts to an island of shrunken people in another reality.

(2) Protagonist(s). Who is(are) your main character(s)?

18 year old Courtney Curtis and 18 year old Vanessa Vaughn, two recently convicted convicts.

(2b) Flaw(s). What is(are) the protagonist's major flaw(s)?

Courtney is cruel, while Vanessa is a slob, cowardly, and dumb.

(2c) Goal(s). What does(d) the protagonist(s) want (or want to avoid)?

The two young women want to rule over the Lillitopians and avoid returning to Earth and going to prison.

(3) Conflict(s). What's keeping them from their goal(s)? Why?

The Lillitopian scientist who brought them to their world made an error in bringing them there. He wants to return them to Earth, but they refuse to go back.

(4) Antagonist(s). Who or what is creating the conflict(s)? Why?

A group of Lillitopians who want Courtney and Vanessa to remain with them stage a revolution against Vertragus, the Lillitopian scientist who advises the Lillitopians.

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Additional information about Courtney and Vanessa:

Courtney is a neat freak, brave, cruel, smart, and dominant.

Vanessa is a slob, cowardly, nice, dumb, and is a switch who toggles back and forth between being submissive and dominant.

Day 3:

Courtney Curtis character profile

Background
Birthday: August 13, 18 years ago
Place of birth: Conyers, Georgia
Parents: Father is ex military, mother went to college during her childhood. She was raised by a single mother.
What was important to the people who raised her: that she do good in school and go to college
Siblings: two younger sisters
Economic/social status growing up: lower class to middle class after her mother graduated from college when she was 13.
Ethnic background: white and Native American

Places lived: Georgia and Florida
Current address and phone number:
Education: GED
Favorite subject in school: history
Special training: none
Jobs: worked as a dishwasher in a restaurant in high school
Salary: $10,000/year
Travel: doesn’t travel much

Friends: Vanessa is her best friend, they met in juvenile hall when she was 16
How do people view this character: controlling and manipulative
Lives with: her mom
Fights with: her siblings
Spends time with: her friend Vanessa
Wishes to spend time with: her dad
Who depends on her and why: her younger sisters depended on her when they were younger.
What people does she most admire: Alexander the Great, and any conqueror.
Enemies: Rich girls who went to her high school
Dating, marriage: She lost her virginity when she was 12
Children: none yet
Relationship with God: believes in God, but hasn’t been baptized yet.

Overall outlook on life:
Does this character like himself: she thinks she should rule the world
What, if anything, would she like to change about her life: she wants more control over her environment and other people.
What personal demons haunt her: she was addicted to cigarettes and likes to get drunk
Is she lying to herself about something: she thinks she’s smarter than she really is, and that she’s never wrong.
Optimistic/pessimistic: optimistic about gaining control in life. She thinks it’s a matter of time before she takes over whatever career she goes into.
Real/feigned: she is a genuine person and tells you what she feels, without sugar coating things.
Morality level: chaotic neutral
Confidence level: she is fully confident.
Typical day: she wants to think of ways to get to the too in life, either by hook or by crook.

Physical appearance
Body type: thick and muscular, with a slight amount of bodyfat.
Posture: good posture.
Head shape: normal
Eyes: gray
Nose:
Mouth:
Hair: light brown, medium length
Skin: slightly tan
Tattoos/piercings/scars: none
Voice: normal woman’s voice.
What people notice first:
Clothing: she dresses slutty on normal occasions.
How would he describe himself: capable
Health/disabilities/handicaps: in good health, she recently quit smoking cigarettes.

Characteristics
Personality type (choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholy): choleric.
Strongest/weakest character traits: great leader, horrible at following directions
How can the flip side of his strong point be a weakness: she thinks she should be the leader at all times.
How much self-control and self-discipline does he have: she follows through on most of her plans.
What makes her irrationally angry: when others don’t do as she commands
What makes her cry: when she doesn’t get her way
Fears: being remembered as ordinary after she dies.
Talents: she can sew and crochet
What people like best about her: she is confident and a good leader

Interests and favorites
Political leaning: undecided
Collections: collects coins
Food, drink: likes beer and pizza
Music: likes contemporary popular music and rock
Books: she likes books based on films.
Movies: she likes love stories.
Sports, recreation: she is good at frisbee golf
Did she play in school: yes
Color: purple
Best way to spend a weekend: getting drunk
A great gift for this person: a keg of beer
Pets: none
Vehicles: bicycle
What large possessions does he own (car, home, furnishings, boat, etc.)
and which does he like best: none

Typical expressions
When happy: as long as things go my way, life is good
When angry: I will destroy all those who oppose me!
When frustrated: this sucks!
When sad: I hate my life.

Idiosyncrasies:
Laughs or jeers at: someone with pride being humbled
Ways to cheer up this person: breakfast in bed
Ways to annoy this person: refusing to follow her orders.
Hopes and dreams: wants to be the richest person of all her high school friends.
How does she see herself accomplishing these dreams: by going to college and starting a company.
What’s the worst thing she’s ever done to someone and why: she filmed a boy she knew discussing his masturbation habits with her female accomplice, and posted the video online.
Greatest success: getting her GED in juvenile hall.
Biggest trauma: her parents divorce
Most embarrassing thing that ever happened to her: she was buying tampons when her crush entered the store.
What does she care about most in the world: becoming the most powerful person in her social circle.
Does she have a secret: she buried a large amount of cash somewhere, and only she knows where it is.
If she could do one thing and succeed at it, what would it be: ruling the world
She is the kind of person who: would help people, but only if it helped her in some way.
What do you love most about this character: she is beautiful and confident.
Why will the reader sympathize with this person right away: she is a confident woman who doesn’t back down from challenges.
How is the character ordinary or extraordinary: she is very intelligent
How is her situation ordinary or extraordinary: she ends up in a parallel reality where inch tall people reside.

Core Need: the need to be worshipped
Corresponding psychological maneuver (delusions, obsessions,
compulsions, addictions, denials, hysterical ailments, hypochondria, illnesses,
behaviors harming the self, behavior harming others, manias, and phobias): she wants power and prestige
Anecdote (defining moment): when she was a kid and read about Alexander the Great, she wondered why there were no female conquerors.
History: She has a pattern of manipulation, starting with her younger sisters and escalating to coercing her friends to engage in illegal activities with her, that is how she ended up sentenced to prison.
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Day 4:

(1) Describe your protagonist's life in the beginning (Ordinary World or Stasis) of the story. Brainstorm ways you could establish normality through action and dialog to avoid boring your reader.

Courtney Curtis was in her prison cell at the reception center, awaiting her ride to the island prison where she would serve the majority of her time. She had a book about Alexander the Great her mom had made arrangements with a bookstore to mail to her while she was incarcerated.

Her cell mate Vanessa Vaughn asked her why she liked reading about dictators and conquerors.

Courtney replied, “There have been no real female conquerors, and I intend to be the first one!”


(2) Describe the inciting incident or trigger (Call to Adventure) that prompts your protagonist(s) to embark on this story's journey (whether literal or metaphorical) and face the conflict. This incident could be large and obvious like a death or disaster, or it could be seemingly insignificant, such as an offhand comment by another character.

Courtney was looking at expensive jewelry in a store window that she couldn’t afford. A wealthy rival who had attended her high school told Courtney that she was a guttersnipe, and would never be able to afford the luxuries she could.

That was the moment when Courtney decided to start forging checks.

Day 5:

Where is your story going? Describe the climax, the point at which everything changes and the tension of the primary conflict is finally resolved. Use the 'What If' brainstorming exercise to create a list of possibilities, remembering to consider the growth of / change in your main character(s) as a result of this event. The climax can be as hidden and seemingly tiny as that moment when your character finally makes that decision they've been dreading or avoiding for fifteen chapters, or it can be as huge and obvious as an exploding planet. Sometimes, the climax is a little hard to pin down. Was it the moment Ender won his game? Or was it the moment he realized the moving images on his screen were not a simulation, not the game he thought it was, and that he had just personally wiped out an entire alien race?

Courtney goes through a character arc where she doesn’t think of her own needs and wants, but decides to help the Lillitopians. Vertragus, the Lillitopian scientist, wanted to send Courtney and Vanessa back to Earth, but the rebels wanted them to stay. Originally, Courtney and Vanessa wanted to stay, also.

The rebels destroyed the power source that fuels their civilization in an effort to force Courtney and Vanessa to remain, but Courtney decides to dig up some quartz crystals that are located nearby, to find crystals the Lillitopians can use as a power source. Quarts a crystals are always located near gold deposits, and originally, Courtney wanted the tiny people to supply her with vast amounts of gold.

Now she is choosing to help them, rather than exploit them.

Day 6:

* Exposition: Setting the scene.
* Rising action: Building the tension.
* Climax: The exciting bit.
* Falling action: Tidying up loose ends.
* Resolution: Ending the story.

Courtney and Vanessa are sitting in a prison cell. Courtney is reading a book on Alexander the Great. She mentions that there have been no significant female conquerors, only men, and she intends to be the first one. She explains to Vanessa how she got into this whole mess. She was looking at jewelry in a store window and a rich rival walked by and told her she was a guttersnipe, and would never be able to afford the luxuries she could. That inspired Courtney to break the law and start forging checks.

The two young women were on a boat heading from Florida to a prison in an island in the Bahamas. A dimensional vortex rips the boat in half, sending the two women to the world of the Lillitopians. They meet Vertragus, the top scientist among the tiny people. He claims they were brought there by mistake. A rebel group decides to destroy their power source to force them to remain. These rebels want to worship Courtney and Vanessa.

After Courtney and Vanessa have been ruling over them, Vertragus is able to convince Courtney that he has the power to alter history. He can make it so she never went to prison. Their history lies outside of human experience, because the Lillitopians are not human, so he can alter human history without affecting his own people. This convinces Courtney to help him, so she decides to dig up some Quartz crystals, under the direction of Vertragus. This will allow her to head back to Earth.

When Courtney arrives back in Earth, it is in a time before Courtney cashed her first forged check. She is able to talk her younger self out of making the same mistakes she or originally made. The younger Courtney listens, and the older version of her disappears. In the present, Vanessa is alone on Lillitopia, because Courtney changed history and never ended up there.

Vanessa sees the changes made to Courtney’s life on a view screen, and also wants to go back and fix her life. Vertagus allows her to do so, and neither she nor Courtney have any memory of prison or Lillitopia.

Day 9:

1) Identify allies and enemies encountered along the journey and describe how they help or hinder your protagonist(s).

(2) Create a list of characters in a format easy to edit and expand.

(3) Write a brief profile on each new character.


Name Antonius

Age 35

Occupation electrical apprentice

Relation to the main characters he was the pupil of Vertragus, and wants Courtney and Vanessa to remain on the island.

Most of the Lillitopians trust him, he has a gift for oration and can persuade people to follow him. He was the grandson of an electrical engineer when he was banished to Lillitopia, so he was able to learn quickly to grasp the scientific principles Vertragus taught him.

He goes through a character arc where at first he opposes Vertragus, but then realizes the error of his ways and uses his knowledge of the personal life of Courtney Curtis to convince her to go back to Earth, with the plan to alter her past so she never made the life choices to end up in prison in the first place.

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Name Vinicio

Age 45

Occupation electrical journeyman

Relation to the main characters second in command to Vertragus, he wants to send Courtney and Vanessa back to Earth.

He was already a capable electrician’s apprentice when he was banished to Lillitopia, so when the scientist Vertragus arrived, he was able to learn about science and help the Lillitopians reach a higher level of technology.

Day 10:

Review your notes from the "Premise" and "Beginning" plot exercises, and tweak the conflict(s) and inciting incident as needed before proceeding with the "Rising Action" plot exercise, as follows:

(1) Describe any initial refusals on the part of your protagonist(s) to face the conflict.

Courtney wants to rule over the Lillitopians, but their scientist says he made an error in bringing them to Lillitopia. Courtney refuses to return to Earth, and destroys the power supply the tiny people have.

Vertagus warns her that if she and Vanessa don’t return to Earth, it could irrevocably alter history for the worse. Courtney doesn’t care, and wants to remain in Lillitopia.

(2) Describe the moment when your protagonist(s) makes the choice to face the conflict.

Antonio is the leader of the rebels, and initially wants the two young women to remain on the island. He knows that Courtney’s mother will miss her, and when he tells Courtney, it sways her to want to return to Earth.

He explains to her that he can alter history so that she never went to prison, and she agrees to go back if they do that for her.

(3) Describe the moment when your protagonist(s) crosses the point of no return and cannot change their mind.

Vertagus is in prison, and Antonio releases him under the condition that he alter history so Courtney never goes to prison. When Vertagus assures her that he can do this, Courtney is 100% convinced that going back to Earth is the right choice.

(4) Fill in some of the blanks: How will your characters get from the point of no return to the climax?

Courtney and Vanessa must dig up quartz crystals to use as a power source until the Lillitopians can construct a new nuclear fusion reactor. It should be enough to send them home and alter history. The Lillitopians forge tools for them to dig with.

Under the guidance of Vertragus, they construct a boat to return to Earth.

Day 11:

Spend at least fifteen minutes clarifying things through "What If" brainstorming, mind mapping (see resources at the bottom of the calendar), freestyle writing, lists, drawings or research as follows:
World Building: For fantasy, science fiction, or other speculative fiction, develop the history, economy, geology, ecology, and/or maps for your world. You might find this activity helpful: "World Weavers' Workshop"

[13+]
Research: For reality-based fiction, research aspects of your novel that will lend credibility to your writing.

Crystals of any kind are valuable to the Lillitopians, because they can be used as a power source. Gold and copper are also valuable because they can be used to make circuits. The Lillitopian economy thrives on these three substances.

On the world the Lillitopians originally came from, they were normal sized. Their society had mastered time and space. There are five civilizations who have complete mastery over time and space. Their home world is in another galaxy. They look identical to humans, but can’t procreate with them because of their different DNA structure. They are completely immortal, and don’t age. They can go indefinitely without food or water.

Serious criminals were miniaturized and sent to Lillitopia, a world where they can’t harm anyone. A group of cadets arrived in that world and eventually, one of them sent a nova bomb to blow up the star Lillitopia orbits. They constructed a dimensional portal and the cadets returned to their home. The remaining Lillitopians had ten years to evacuate before their star exploded.

They arrived on Earth until they could find a world in a parallel reality occupying the same coordinates as Earth. Once they found that world, they journeyed back to Neolithic times and set up colonies there. The capital is in the Bahamas, and they use their technology to lure boats and planes from analogs of Earth to their world from time to time.

Normal sized humans don’t age while on Lillitopia, because of a dimensional field that surrounds the planet. If the dimensional generator is shut down, normal sized humans in Lillitopia will begin to age again. For this reason, Courtney begins to reconsider going back to Earth.
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Day 12:

Courtney Curtis was looking at jewelry in a store window and a rich rival named Tiffany walked by and told her she was a guttersnipe, and would never be able to afford the luxuries she could. That inspired Courtney to break the law and start forging checks.

Courtney and Vanessa are sitting in a prison cell, about a year later. Courtney is reading a book on Alexander the Great. She mentions that there have been no significant female conquerors, only men, and she intends to be the first one. She gets a visit from her mother, and her mother explains that she is going to an exclusive minimum security prison in an island in the Bahamas. The mother is excited for Courtney, but Courtney is not enthused.

Later that afternoon, two young women were on a boat heading from Florida to a prison in an island in the Bahamas. A dimensional vortex rips the boat in half, sending the two women to the world of the Lillitopians. The driver of the boat remains on Earth. They meet the inch tall Vertragus, the top scientist among the tiny people. He claims they were brought there by mistake. A rebel group decides to destroy the power source of the Lillitopians to force Courtney and Vanessa to remain. These rebels want to worship Courtney and Vanessa. Vertragus is thrown in prison, and the two women destroy the power source the Lillitopians use, under the instructions of Antonius, the leader of the rebels.

After Courtney and Vanessa have been ruling over them, Antonius explains to Courtney and Vanessa that they will begin aging while in Lillitopia because they destroyed the dimensional generator. He is able to convince Courtney that Vertragus has the power to alter history, and can make it so she never went to prison. The history of the Lillitopians history lies outside of human experience, because the Lillitopians are not human, so he can alter human history without affecting his own people. This convinces Courtney to help him, so she decides to dig up some Quartz crystals, under the direction of Vertragus. This will allow her to head back to Earth.

When Courtney arrives back in Earth, it is in a time before Courtney cashed her first forged check. She is able to talk her younger self out of making the same mistakes she or originally made. The younger Courtney listens, and the older version of her disappears. In the present, Vanessa is alone on Lillitopia, because Courtney changed history and never ended up there.

Vanessa sees the changes made to Courtney’s life on a view screen, and also wants to go back and fix her life. Vertagus allows her to do so, and neither she nor Courtney have any memory of prison or Lillitopia.
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Day 13:

Draft a profile of the antagonist(s) you identified in the "Premise" assignment. If your antagonist is a situation rather than a person, choose another minor (but significant) character to profile.
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Name Antonius

Age 35

Occupation electrical apprentice

Relation to the main characters he was the pupil of Vertragus, and wants Courtney and Vanessa to remain on the island.

Most of the Lillitopians trust him, he has a gift for oration and can persuade people to follow him. He was the grandson of an electrical engineer when he was banished to Lillitopia, so he was able to learn quickly to grasp the scientific principles Vertragus taught him.

Back on their original home world when he was normal sized, he became interested in a woman named Regina who was part of a treasonous terrorist organization. He learned electrical technology in college to impress her with his skill in designing weapons. He used a mind control device to force an engineer to authorize the terrorist organization to receive funding. When he was caught, the woman he pined for was also held accountable, and they were both miniaturized and sent to Lillitopia.

When he became a pupil of Vertragus on Lillitopia, she became a general. Antonius taught her most of what he knows about electrical technology.

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Name Regina

Age 25

Occupation electrical apprentice

Her father and grandfather were sent to Lillitopia for treason for belonging to a terrorist group, so she wanted revenge and became part of that terrorist group herself. She was held in high regard by the terrorists because of her family history with that organization.

She teams up with Antonius to overthrow Vertragus when they rebel and try to force Courtney and Vanessa to remain with them. Most of the Lillitopian men think they are attractive, and want rulers they can worship. Since most of the Lillitopians were criminals who were guilty of treason, they have contempt for democracy, the form of government where they originally came from.

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Day 16:

(1) Theme. What is the theme (see below) or moral of the story?

There are no good or bad people, and some people can be redeemed.

(2) Resolution. Brainstorm ways you could resolve the conflict(s) within the confines of the theme. You are not required to identify a chosen resolution from your list of possibilities yet, so really think outside the box! Anything goes.

Antonius rebels against Vertragus, but decides to warn Courtney that by destroying the dimensional generator, she will age normally. If he had not told her this, she never would have helped Vertragus. This is a chara Gard he goes through, from evil to good.

Courtney decided to dig up quartz crystals to get the technology up and running again. The neutrino dissimilators could still function, because they had internal power sources. They use them to enlarge miniaturized food so the two young women can eat. The Lillitopians are immortal, so they don’t need a power source to stay alive.

At first, Vanessa wants to remain with the Lillitopians to rule over them. She goes through a character arc where she still wants to remain, but return to Earth to help people with Lillitopian technology, then return to Lillitopia.
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Day 17:

Describe the cultural, political and/or religious setting in your novel, regardless of whether the cultural setting is fictional, historical, or modern.

(1) What do your societies believe?

The civilization the Lillitopians came from, the Lillan Imperium, believe in peace, and are completely against violence or warfare of any kind.

(2) In what practices do they engage?

They study other civilizations and monitor their progress.

(3) What laws or rules of society are in place?

They are forbidden to tamper with the history of a more primitive civilization. Dangerous criminals are miniaturized and sent to Lillitopia, where they can harm no one.

(4) Who/what enforces the laws and rules and how successful are they?

The judicial system enforces the laws. The decisions are made by computers, but a man has the job of sentencing the accused, he is a judge.

(5) What technologies are in use?

They have the most sophisticated computers of the five known civilizations who have achieved mastery over time and space.

(6) How does the setting impact your protagonist(s) in their pre-story lives?

Criminals from the Lillan Imperium want vengeance against the society who judged them a d sent them to Lillitopia.

(7) How does the setting impact the plot of your story?

The Lillitopians have advanced technology and can do amazing things. Size inhibitors in their spinal column prevent them from returning to normal size, though they can re-enlarge food items and inanimate objects that have been miniaturized.
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Day 18:

(1) Spend at least fifteen minutes clarifying things through "What If" brainstorming, mind mapping (see resources at the bottom of the calendar), freestyle writing, lists, drawings or research. You may also choose to use this time to finish a previous assignment that needs more time.

What if changing history has drastic results? For the good or better. If Courtney never broke the law because she talked her younger self out of it, maybe it would save lives. By forging checks, someone who needed medication couldn’t get it and died, but by changing history and not breaking the law, that person survived. If she never got locked up, she might have done landscaping work as a summer job and saved the life of an older person whose yard work she did; she was able to call 911 to get help for the elderly woman. By getting locked up, she was not there to save that person.

Or maybe by Courtney getting convicted, the prosecutor was nominated for judge, and by Courtney not breaking the law, it had an adverse effect in his career because she wasn’t there for him to convict to boost his career. In the original timeline, when he became a judge he convicted a killer who ended up in prison, but because he didn’t become a judge, another judge set him free and he absconded, and is on the loose somewhere and can possibly strike again.

(2) Update your characters, definitions and settings lists as needed.

Courtney had a summer job doing landscaping for someone she knew, to earn cash. She did this every summer before she got arrested.

Vanessa knows she can’t alter her past, because if she never got to Lillitopia, she would’ve never helped all of the people she was able to help. She can leave eventually, and return to get incarcerated. Because she doesn’t age on Lillitopia, she can remain there for many years and return to the moment she left without anyone knowing she was gone. When she returns, no one has any memory of Courtney ever getting arrested.
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Day 19:

Aquaducts: Lillitopia is connected by a large number of aquaducts. They channel fresh water from higher elevations to the area where the reactor is. Lillitopians are immortal, so they don’t need food or water, but they need water to bathe and to manufacture deuterium and tritium to fuel their reactor.

Crystals: Crystals can be used as an emergency power source until the nuclear fusion reactor is online, but to get the same kind of power from them as fusion would drain them quickly. For this reason, crystals should only be used as a catalyst to get the reactor functioning.

Factions: There are two main factions of Lillitopians. The followers of Vertragus, the leading scientist, and the rebels, led by Antonius. The people following Vertragus want order in their society, similar to the civilization they originally came from. The rebels want a more anarchic and chaotic environment, such as their way of life before the arrival of Vertragus. They like a life of no rules.

Monorails: Monorails connect most of the land areas of Lillitopia with the Capitol. They rely on electromagnetism supplied by solar panels set up out in the desert areas. The power is channeled through underground cables, connecting to the monorails.

Nuclear Fusion Reactor: The Lillitopians rely on nuclear fusion for their main power source. If it ever shuts down, they need crystals to extract power from as an emergency measure.

Size Inhibitors Each Lillitopian is fitted with a size inhibitor in their spinal column, which prevents them from being restored to normal size. They can shrink smaller than their current size, but they can only return to one centimeter tall. They can die by trying to remove it. The Lillitopians don’t possess the technology to disable or remove size inhibitors.

Solar Cruisers: The Lillitopians fly around on solar powered flying machines. They use four propellers in each corner of the vehicle to create lift, and a thruster propeller in the rear. Solar panels are on each of the two wings. Because the Lillitopians don’t weigh very much, these flying machines can travel pretty fast. When the main reactor is shut down, the solar cruisers can still function, because they have an internal power source.
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Day 20:

(1) Create a list of settings in a format easy to edit and expand.

The world of the Lillitopians, it occupies the same coordinates as Earth, but in an alternate reality. The main continent is located where the Bermuda Triangle is located on Earth.

The women’s reception prison is located in Ocala, Florida.

The island prison is located on an island in the Lucayan Archipelago in the Bahamas, it is a low security prison for women. Most of the cells have a window facing the ocean, there is an indoor yard and an outdoor yard. The prison is hurricane proof.
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Day 23

(1) Expand or add profiles for one or more minor characters.

Calpurnia: The woman who is the girlfriend of Antonius. She is all for the resistance, and wants their society to be anarchy. She is tired of following Vertragus, and wants to use their technology to summon people from analogs of Earth and bring them to Lillitopia. She is a follower of Regina, a member of the Death Matrix.



(2) Spend some time updating your character list with new information, images, etc.

Antagonists:

Name Regina

Age 25

Occupation electrical apprentice

Her father and grandfather were sent to Lillitopia for treason for belonging to a terrorist group, known as the Death Matrix. She wanted revenge and became part of that terrorist group herself. She was held in high regard by the terrorists because of her family history with that organization. She teams up with Antonius to overthrow Vertragus when they rebel and try to force Courtney and Vanessa to remain with them. Most of the Lillitopian men think they are attractive, and want rulers they can worship. Since most of the Lillitopians were criminals who were guilty of treason, they have contempt for democracy, the form of government where they originally came from.
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Day 24:

Plot Complications

Complications. Identify additional things that could go wrong for your protagonist. You are not required to resolve any problems yet, just create them. Remember: The more hardships your main character faces, the more readers will cheer them on, and the more engaged and invested the reader will be in your story. Brainstorm a list of problems you could throw at your protagonist(s) throughout the story, using "What If," mind mapping (see the resources at the bottom of the calendar), freestyle writing, or any other form of brainstorming you prefer. Hint: Other characters are a great source of realistic strife, since characters often are driven by conflicting motivations.
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Conflict A Courtney and Vanessa volunteer to be reduced down to the same scale as the Lillitopians, so they can explore the world of the Lillitopians more easily. They can be re-enlarged, but the Lillitopians can not, because of the size inhibitor chips in their spines.

Courtney and Vanessa watch a large monitor and observe events happening back on the version of Earth they came from. A group of 12 year old children, two boys and three girls, are on a boat being hijacked off the coast of Florida. They are put into a lifeboat with minor provisions, and the bigger boat leaves. Courtney wants the Lillitopians to bring them to Lillitopia. The Lillitopians do as she suggests. Once there, the kids try to conquer the tiny people. With the neutrino dissimilators damaged by the kids, Courtney and Vanessa are stuck at one centimeter tall!

The children demand that the Lillitopians provide them with gold.

Conflict B Calpurnia wants Courtney and Vanessa to remain small, because she doesn’t trust normal sized people. Her husband Antonius disagrees with her, but goes along with anything she says. With them against Courtney and Vanessa, it doesn’t look like they can get re-enlarged any time soon!
*******************
Day 25:

Mage is a Lillitopian time traveler from the distant future. His younger counterpart disappeared into the future, and his older self returned. He predicted that an analog of Courtney Curtis would help carry out a temporal experiment that verifies a theory about time travel that even the Lillian Imperium has yet to carry out. It would prove that they can alter history without generating an additional timeline, such as erasing part of a tape and recording over it.

I chose this literary device:

Self-fulfilling prophecy: Protagonist attempts to thwart prophecy but in attempting, fulfills it.

Vertragus believed he acquired the wrong version of Courtney, and wanted to send her back to her version of Earth, but she chose to remain. She wants no part of the time travel experiment.

Courtney gets to know the thunder children who took over Lillitopia, and finds out their greatest desire. They are convinced by Courtney to go to an analog of Earth where their grandparents never died. The people of their reality will believe they died at sea. This allows the Lillitopians to restore Courtney and Vanessa back to normal size.

When the temporal experiment is a success, and Courtney is able to alter her past and never get locked up, Mage informs Vertragus that he knew the correct Courtney had been selected, but couldn’t share that information because it would’ve interfered with the sequence of events.

The versions of the thunder children from the reality where their grandparents never died end up back on Lillitopia, but the Lillitopians are smart enough to shrink them down to Lillitopian size so they don’t take over, as their counterparts did. They are grateful to dwell among a more technologically advanced society.
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Oct Nano Prep Day 26

(1) Review your plot elements thus far and organize them into your outline.
(2) Fill in any gaps in your outline template and/or flesh out more details.

Opening image: The Lillitopians look on a huge monitor at an image of Courtney Curtis and Vanessa Vaughn in the reception center of a women’s prison in Ocala, Florida. Mage informs Vertragus that Courtney will allow them to prove a theory about time travel that has never been tried before; they will be able to alter history without generating alternate timelines.

Theme stated: Vertagus is concerned that they might not be able to trust Courtney or Vanessa, because they are criminals. Mage informs him, “There are no good or bad people, and some people can redeem themselves.”

Setup: Courtney gets a visit from her mother. They are separated by bullet proof glass. Courtney’s mother says the prison Courtney is going to is on an island in the Bahamas, and sounds excited about it; Courtney isn’t thrilled. Courtney returns to her cell.

Courtney and Vanessa are sitting in their prison cell. Courtney has a book on Alexander the Great. She wants to know why there have been no major female conquerors, only men. She wants to be the first female conqueror.

They are called out of their cell to a prison bus, to head to the coast to board a boat that will take them to the island prison.

Catalyst: Courtney and Vanessa are on the boat, far from land. Vertagus activates the continuator and the boat is sliced in half, separating the driver from the rear of the boat. The driver remains on Earth, while Courtney and Vanessa end up in the reality of Lillitopia.

Debate: A Lillitopian in a solar cruiser flies to rescue Courtney and Vanessa, who are in chains and handcuffs. He uses a ray gun to cut them free, and guides them to swim toward land. They wash ashore on a beach several hundred yards away.

Break Into Two: Courtney and Vanessa explore the tiny civilization. There are miniature monorails, a nuclear fusion reactor system, aquaducts, and miniature dwellings. Vertagus introduces himself, and asks them if they want to be brought down to their scale. They agree, and are shrunk down to Lillitopian size.

B Story: Courtney and Vanessa observe a monitor showing a family on a Yacht being hijacked by pirates in the Caribbean. The pirates put five children about 12 years old in a life boat and set it adrift. Courtney asks Vertragus to help the children, so he uses the continuator to bring them to Lillitopia.

Fun and Games: The thunder children arrive and try to conquer Lillitopia. Mage and Stringer are ordered by Vertragus to send them back to their reality, but they accidentally end up in another reality themselves, along with the continuator, the only neutrino dissimilator, and neural stimulator. As long as they are gone, there is no way to reduce the thunder children in size.

It is an analog of Earth, and they are captured by an 8 year old girl. Her mother interrogates Stringer and Mage, and they tell her their continuator is malfunctioning, and in need of repair. The woman agrees to let them remain with them, but they must agree to be her daughter’s toys.

The woman catches her daughter swallowing Mage, and Stringer uses a neural stimulator to make her vomit him back up.

Midpoint: Back on Lillitopia, the thunder children are facing the Lillitopians to build thrones made of gold. The leader of the kids is a boy named Franklin, and the other boy and three girls are his cousins.

Back to Mage and Stringer: The young girl holding them captive is now in junior high school. Mage assures Stringer that time is inconsequential, and when they get the continuator repaired, they can return to Lillitopia within a week of the time they left.

The girl has her friends over, and wants to have a swallowing contest with Mage and Stringer as party favors. Both Lillitopians are tied with string, and the girls take turns swallowing them and vomiting them back up.

Bad Guys Close In: Back on Lillitopia, the thunder children are swallowing Lillitopians greedily. Vertragus explains that since they are immortal, they can’t be killed by stomach acid or asphyxiation. This does nothing to deter the thunder children.

When we return to Mage and Stringer, the girl holding them captive is a junior in high school now, and takes them to a keg party. Her and her girlfriends take turns swallowing them. A female cousin who is visiting the girl is a senior, and plans to major in electrical engineering. She wants to help Mage and Stringer repair their technology in exchange for the schematics to their various devices. Stringer explains that on the world they originally came from, they are forbidden to give technology to primitive cultures. She confiscates their technology unless they agree to her terms.

All is lost: Mage informs Stringer that they have the only working equipment that can re-enlarge Courtney and Vanessa, and the only functioning continuator. If Lillitopia is to survive the onslaught of the thunder children, they must disobey a directive of the Imperium and get help from the cousin of the girl who is holding them hostage.

Stringer refuses, so the senior girl swallows him and refuses to vomit him back up.

Dark night of the soul: Mage agrees to the young woman’s terms, and together they work to develop the technology that will allow them to repair the continuator and the neutrino dissimilator.

Break into three: For three years they work on the technology together. The girl who is the cousin of the girl who kept them as prisoners successfully transcribes the schematics to the devices Mage and Stringer brought with them from Lillitopia. The two Lillitopians decide to arrive on Lillitopia at night, while the thunder children are asleep. They say farewell to their former captors, and return to Lillitopia.

Finale: They arrive less than a week after they left, and awaken Courtney and Vanessa and March them to an open area, then re-enlarge them. Courtney and Vanessa overpower the 12 year olds, and Mage uses the neural stimulator to force them to vomit up their captives.

Vanessa reasons with them, and finds out that they miss their grandparents. Vertragus is able to find an analog of Earth where their grandparents are still alive, and intends to swap them. The kids agree, and they are returned to the mainland on Earth. The kids from the reality where their grandparents never died arrive, and they are miniaturized down to Lillitopian size. They want to become honorary Lillitopians.

Final Image: Courtney is sent to the moment when she decided to live a life of crime. Her older self talks her out of it, and the younger self agrees. The older version of her disappeared, because she never ended up on Lillitopia. According to Mage back on Lillitopia, the circle is complete. Vanessa is now the only pass here of the prison boat to end up on Lillitopia, because Courtney was never there in the altered timeline.

Vanessa agrees to be miniaturized and stay with the Lillitopians, to protect them in case normal sized people try to take over again.
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Oct Nano Prep Day 27

Day 27:

You are a journalist. The story of your novel is complete. Interview your protagonist and ask the following questions:

(1) How is life for you now, compared to life prior to these events?

Journalist: How is life for you now, compared to life prior to these events?

Courtney Curtis: I met a future version of myself during a time when I was about to make a bad decision. She told me that a life of crime will lead to regrets, and she came back to prevent me from going on that path. Before she disappeared, she went into a lot of detail about how she screwed her life up. By following her advice, I prevented myself from going to prison like she did.

Journalist: Why did she disappear?

Courtney Curtis: She came from a temporal event sequence where she was sentenced to prison, by changing my future, she was absorbed into the new timeline. I replaced her.

Journalist: If she never existed because history was altered, how were you able to follow her advice?

Courtney Curtis: She told me she doesn’t understand temporal mechanics, but to trust her that I can have knowledge of her future so I can avoid it by staying out of trouble, and I can still exist as someone who lived my life differently than her.

Journalist: How did the events of your story change you?

Courtney Curtis: I want to go to college and start a career, instead of getting rich by breaking the law. People can tell you the difference between right and wrong, but you might never follow it unless they’ve walked a mile in your shoes. I’m in junior college, and when I graduate with an associates degree in electrical technology, I plan on transferring to Georgia Tech to major in electrical engineering. I’m going to change the world for the better! Another thing I’ve learned is that there is hope for some people to change for the better, despite their circumstances.
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Oct Nano Prep 2023 Day 30

(2) Identify your story type from this list of story types

or define it with your own nomenclature.

Science Fiction/Adventure

(2) Describe your target audience. Identify a demographic profile of your ideal reader (try using your character profile template!) Explain in detail what aspects of your novel will appeal to this particular audience and why. Please read this blog post to understand the importance of marketing, and why targeting "mass appeal" or "all readers" isn't good enough: "Building Your Brand"

I want to entertain readers from about age 12 to age 19. My novel contains characters who are young to about age 18, so people from the ages of 12 to 19 should find it appealing. It is also about miniaturized people, and teenagers love that. Older people will like it, too, but younger people are who I’m writing for. My story contains no death or profanity, so it will be geared more for younger readers. I want 12 year olds to be able to write a book report about my story, without worrying about finding anything inappropriate in the story.

(3) Write a synopsis of your novel using the same narrative voice you will use to tell the story.

The Lillitopians are criminals from a world that achieved mastery over time and space. They miniaturized their criminals and sent them to Lillitopia. They are identical to humans. When the star orbiting Lillitopia was set to explode, they fled to another world occupying the same space as Earth, but in a parallel reality.

When they brought two women from Earth, the Lillitopians made the mistake of trusting another group of young people who were adrift at sea. When those young people arrived on Lillitopia, they took over. Two Lillitopians escaped to try to repair their equipment, but will they succeed on their mission before the thunder children completely conquer them?
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Oct Nano Prep Day 31

Now that you have spent a month planning your novel, revise your initial premise. Identify the following:

(1) Setting(s). Where does your story take place?

The main setting is the world of the Lillitopians, occupying the same coordinates as Earth, but in a parallel reality.

(2) Protagonist(s). Who is(are) your main character(s)?

Courtney Curtis and Vanessa Vaughn, two 18 year olds who were sentenced to prison on an island in the Bahamas.

Vertragus, the leading scientist of the Lillitopians.

Mage, a time traveling Lillitopian with future knowledge.

Stringer, an apprentice of Vertragus.

(2b) Flaw(s). What is(are) the protagonist's major flaw(s)?

Courtney is dominant and doesn’t yield to authority figures.

Vertragus is too trusting, and not cut out for being a criminal.


(2c) Goal(s). What does(d) the protagonist(s) want (or want to avoid)?

Courtney wants to avoid changing history, despite wanting to change her past for the better.

3) Conflict(s). What's keeping them from their goal(s)?

Mage informed Vertragus that it is Courtney’s destiny to alter her past without generating a new timeline.

(4) Antagonist(s). Who or what is creating the conflict(s)?

The thunder children they rescued from pirate attack take over the Lillitopians and damage the equipment that can open realities and the neutrino dissimilator that can restore Courtney and Vanessa to normal size. They also have no way of shrinking the thunder children.

(5) Resolution. How does it all turn out in the end?

Mage and Stringer make friends with two young women in another reality, and one 9 them studies to becomes an engineer and repairs their equipment for them, in exchange for schematics to their devices.

They return and restore Courtney and Vanessa to normal size, then the two young women over power the thunder children. Courtney finds out what they really want, for their grandparents to have never died. Vertragus finds a reality where they are still alive, and swaps the two groups of kids. The original thunder children go to that reality, while their counterparts arrive a d agree to be reduced in size.

Courtney goes back and warns her younger self to avoid a life of crime, then her older self fades away. Vanessa is now the only one from prison who was on the boat, in the altered version of history. Courtney never got locked up. Vanessa stays among the Lillitopians to protect them in case normal size humans try to attack them again, and is immortal.

(6) Theme: What is the theme or moral of the story?

There are no good or bad people, and some people are irredeemable, but some people can redeem themselves.

(7) Outline: Update your outline as needed.
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Oct Nano Prep Names

Normal sized human characters on Lillitopia:


Beverly Vitalis: She is a 12 year old cousin on Franklin and Kalina’s mother’s side, she wants to help the Lillitopians at first, but is persuaded to join with the others who want to conquer.

Dover Lambros: The 12 year old boy cousin of the other kids.

Franklin Lambros: The oldest of the 12 year olds who are brought to Lillitopia and try to conquer. He is insecure about his first name, and that is his motivation for striking out and proving he is a conqueror.

Kalina Lambros: Cousin of Franklin Lambros, she is also 12 and agrees to conquer the Lillitopians. She has always wanted to be a goddess.

Peyton Vitalis: 12 year old cousin of Beverly, Franklin, Kalina, and Dover. She thinks they should elect leaders among themselves, with herself being leader first.

***********************
Characters who live in analog of Earth where Stringer and Mage are stranded:

Rikki Reinhardt: the high school senior who is the cousin of the girl who has been caring for Mage and Stringer since she was 8 years old. She is a year older than Sadie.

Sadie Straplin: When she was 8 years old, she captured Mage and Stringer while they were trying to escape from the thunder children. They stayed with Sadie until she was a junior in high school, then they remained with Sadie’s older cousin Rikki Reinhardt.
**********************
Opening image: Sadie Straplin is a 17 year old high school junior, and Rikki Reinhardt is her 18 year old cousin who is a high school senior. They are throwing a keg party while Sadie’s mother is out of town. The two high school girls are observing the miniaturized forms of two Lillitopians, Mage and Stringer. Rikki wants Sadie to explain why she has never told her about them. After swallowing Stringer, she asks Mage to tell her his story, or she won’t vomit him back up.

He tells her of how the Lillian Imperium decided to miniaturize criminals and send them to Lillitopia. He tells the story of Vertragus, a scientist who rebelled against the empire. He tells of he cadets, who were stranded on Lillitopia and how Vertragus organized a way to construct a dimensional portal so the cadets could return home. He also explains how one of the cadets fired a nova bomb into the star Lillitopia orbits, giving them ten years to evacuate.

Eventually, the Lillitopians found a planet that was an analog of Earth where no life had evolved. It occupies the same coordinates as Earth, but in a parallel reality.

Mage had traveled into the future and returned to guide Vertragus with his future knowledge.

The Lillitopians look on a huge monitor at an image of Courtney Curtis and Vanessa Vaughn in the reception center of a women’s prison in Ocala, Florida. Mage informs Vertragus that Courtney will allow them to prove a theory about time travel that has never been tried before; they will be able to alter history without generating alternate timelines.

Theme stated: Vertagus is concerned that they might not be able to trust Courtney or Vanessa, because they are criminals. Mage informs him, “There are no good or bad people, and some people are irredeemable, but some people can redeem themselves.”

Setup: Courtney gets a visit from her mother. They are separated by bullet proof glass. Courtney’s mother says the prison Courtney is going to is on an island in the Bahamas, and sounds excited about it; Courtney isn’t thrilled. Courtney returns to her cell.

Courtney and Vanessa are sitting in their prison cell. Courtney has a book on Alexander the Great. She wants to know why there have been no major female conquerors, only men. She wants to be the first female conqueror.

They are called out of their cell to a prison bus, to head to the coast to board a boat that will take them to the island prison.

Catalyst: Courtney and Vanessa are on the boat, far from land. Vertagus activates the continuator and the boat is sliced in half, separating the driver from the rear of the boat. The driver remains on Earth, while Courtney and Vanessa end up in the reality of Lillitopia.

Debate: A Lillitopian in a solar cruiser flies to rescue Courtney and Vanessa, who are in chains and handcuffs. He uses a ray gun to cut them free, and guides them to swim toward land. They wash ashore on a beach several hundred yards away.

Break Into Two: Courtney and Vanessa explore the tiny civilization. There are miniature monorails, a nuclear fusion reactor system, aquaducts, and miniature dwellings. Vertagus introduces himself, and asks them if they want to be brought down to their scale. They agree, and are shrunk down to Lillitopian size.

B Story: Courtney and Vanessa observe a monitor showing a family on a Yacht being hijacked by pirates in the Caribbean. The pirates put five children about 12 years old in a life boat and set it adrift. Courtney asks Vertragus to help the children, so he uses the continuator to bring them to Lillitopia.

Fun and Games: The thunder children arrive and try to conquer Lillitopia. Mage and Stringer are ordered by Vertragus to send them back to their reality, but they accidentally end up in another reality themselves, along with the continuator, the only neutrino dissimilator, and neural stimulator. As long as they are gone, there is no way to reduce the thunder children in size.

It is an analog of Earth, and they are captured by an 8 year old girl. This is Sadie Straplin, introduced in the beginning as a high school junior; this is her when she was only eight years old. Her mother interrogates Stringer and Mage, and they tell her their continuator is malfunctioning, and in need of repair. The woman agrees to let them remain with them, but they must agree to be her daughter’s toys.

The woman catches her daughter swallowing Mage, and Stringer uses a neural stimulator to make her vomit him back up.

Back in the present, Rikki asks 17 year old Sadie why she never told her about having shrunken people. Sadie says her mother made her keep it a secret. Mage continues with his recollection.

Midpoint: Back on Lillitopia, the thunder children are forcing the Lillitopians to build thrones made of gold. The leader of the kids is a boy named Franklin, and the other boy and three girls are his cousins.

Back to Mage and Stringer: The young girl holding them captive is now in junior high school. Mage assures Stringer that time is inconsequential, and when they get the continuator repaired, they can return to Lillitopia within a week of the time they left.

The girl has her friends over with mugs of root beer, and wants to have a swallowing contest with Mage and Stringer as party favors. Both Lillitopians are tied with string, and the girls take turns swallowing them and vomiting them back up.

Bad Guys Close In: Back on Lillitopia, the thunder children are swallowing Lillitopians greedily. Vertragus explains that since they are immortal, they can’t be killed by stomach acid or asphyxiation. This does nothing to deter the thunder children.

When we return to Mage and Stringer, we are back to the present day with the 17 year old Sadie Straplin holding them captive is a junior in high school now, throwing a keg party while her mom is out of town. Her and her girlfriends take turns swallowing them. Sadie’s cousin Rikki Reinhardt who is visiting the girl is a senior, and plans to major in electrical engineering. She wants to help Mage and Stringer repair their technology in exchange for the schematics to their various devices. Stringer explains that on the world they originally came from, they are forbidden to give technology to primitive cultures. She confiscates their technology unless they agree to her terms.

All is lost: Mage informs Stringer that they have the only working equipment that can re-enlarge Courtney and Vanessa, and the only functioning continuator. If Lillitopia is to survive the onslaught of the thunder children, they must disobey a directive of the Imperium and get help from the cousin of the girl who is holding them hostage.

Mage refuses, so Rikki refuses to vomit Stringer back up.

Dark night of the soul: Mage agrees to the young woman’s terms, and together they work to develop the technology that will allow them to repair the continuator and the neutrino dissimilator.

Break into three: For three years they work on the technology together. The girl who is the cousin of the girl who kept them as prisoners successfully transcribes the schematics to the devices Mage and Stringer brought with them from Lillitopia. The two Lillitopians decide to arrive on Lillitopia at night, while the thunder children are asleep. They say farewell to their former captors, and return to Lillitopia.

Finale: They arrive less than a week after they left, and awaken Courtney and Vanessa and March them to an open area, then re-enlarge them. Courtney and Vanessa overpower the 12 year olds, and Mage uses the neural stimulator to force them to vomit up their captives.

Vanessa reasons with them, and finds out that they miss their grandparents. Vertragus is able to find an analog of Earth where their grandparents are still alive, and intends to swap them. The kids agree, and they are returned to the mainland on Earth. The kids from the reality where their grandparents never died arrive, and they are miniaturized down to Lillitopian size. They want to become honorary Lillitopians.

Final Image: Courtney is sent to the moment when she decided to live a life of crime. Her older self talks her out of it, and the younger self agrees. The older version of her disappeared, because she never ended up on Lillitopia. According to Mage back on Lillitopia, the circle is complete. Vanessa is now the only person here who was on the prison boat to end up on Lillitopia, because Courtney was never there in the altered timeline.

Vanessa agrees to be miniaturized and stay with the Lillitopians, to protect them in case normal sized people try to take over again.