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Tonight is the second writing phone call with Mr. Ronn. Our goal to enter the conversation with our one-sentence book synopsis and some basic plotting, maybe for the first couple of chapters.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I completely underestimated the one-sentence synopsis. It's not at all as easy as I thought it would be. My initial attempts ranged from the obscure to the "train wreck" as Ronn put it.

I had been struggling with this and realized that my problem was that you can't write a synopsis of a book when you don't know what the plot of the book is. Which went directly to the real problem I had: no plot.

Well, for NaNoWriMo, "No plot? No problem!" But this isn't NaNoWriMo. So I'll need a plot.

The thoughts about this boiled and swirled in my head for a few days, with nothing coming out but strange simmering noises. Until yesterday morning. I woke up thinking about it (dead tired as usual). I thought to myself, "How the heck am I to come up with a plot for this novel? I have the hero and the goal. What happens in between?"

Then I thought, "Well, the basic hero plot has the hero facing three obstacles." I realize this is not entirely accurate, but, well, I was still sleepy. I thought, "What would be the three obstacles? An Escape, the Environment, and the Enemy." BAM! That gave it to me.

I went downstairs and, before even putting the coffee on, typed my thoughts into the computer. I subsequently lost them when we had a brown-out, but I was able to recreate them.

So the basic plot of the novel is:

1. Slavery! The hero is captured and must escape bondage.
2. Desert! The hero must survive a brutal environment replete with beasts and other dangers.
3. Battle! The hero must face the enemy from No. 1 and conquer them.

So there's the basic plot of my novel. I have an idea of what happens after act three (the anticlimax), and what happens before the novel begins. I call that a "story." Okay, I actually call it a "plot," but I can be optimistic, can't I?

Oh, and the synopsis? This is what I have so far:

To escape a desert world, a lost pilot must fight her way through a brutal society based on dueling in the Blood Ring.

... and "Blood Ring" might just make a good book title, too.

Muhahahaha!