The End of Days: An Outline
Nov. 12th, 2012 12:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kasihyaThe End of Days
Part One: The Morning Paths
— first: by water
— second: by vultures
— third: by miscommunication
— fourth: by zombies
— fifth: by hunger
— sixth: by fire
— seventh: by walking away
Part Two: The Noon Paths
— first: by falling
— second: by brimstone and ash
— third: by darkness
— fourth : by divine retribution
— fifth: by lies
— sixth: by collusion
— seventh: by sleep
Part Three: The Paths Through Clouds
— first: the island of colors
— second: the mountains in between
— third: the city at war
— fourth: the sugar fields
— fifth: the vaunted oceans
— sixth: the second range of mountains
— seventh: the cold and the snow
Part Four: The Paths Through Sunlight
— first: the shining city
— second: the slow and the sun
— third: the quick and their friends
— fourth:
— fifth: the birthplaces
— sixth: the caves
— seventh: the stone necropolis
Part Five: The Evening Paths
— first: by locusts
— second: by division
— third: by ennui
— fourth: by contagion
— fifth: by
— sixth:
— seventh:
Part Six: The Midnight Paths
— first:
— second:
— third:
— fourth:
— fifth:
— sixth:
— seventh:
So it comes up that the end of days has been sweeping across every world they have visited?
WHY.
There is a big fucking WHY here.
I wanted the end to be the realization that they could, theoretically, prevent the end of the world, but they decide not to.
What if that’s not it? What if they really do just wander into the other world, and only upon going back to them do they realize that they have escaped the ends of their worlds? And they try to figure out why that is, but then they discover that it’s all of them. It’s all of the worlds that are dying, and they are the only ones who have survived. But why? Why take them away before the end? Because they needed to meld together in order to be able to utilize their powers effectively; and now that there is no more power being used up in the maintenance of the other worlds, they can get the go-ahead to absorb that world.
Or it’s a family thing. If you’ve got a backup support system, then I suppose that seeing the end of your own world wouldn’t be as bad.
So the end of the world is the Evening Paths, and the Midnight Paths are when they figure it out, and what they’re going to do about it.
I like the idea that they go back to their own worlds individually for the Evening Paths — like they never were destroyed — only to find that they don’t fit into those worlds anymore. Or that so much time has passed, that they don’t belong as the people they were.
Maybe at the end of the Paths Through Sunlight, they discover the reset button, and they press it. What is the reset button? FUCK IF I KNOW.
My problem is that I keep thinking that nothing plot-related can happen until the seventh act of each part, and that is just not true. Things can, and should, happen spread out over the course of each section. I'm trying very hard to write using kishoutenketsu structure, so things don't have to happen by hitting the same notes as a three-act structure, but they still can change, and adapt.
Part One: The Morning Paths
— first: by water
— second: by vultures
— third: by miscommunication
— fourth: by zombies
— fifth: by hunger
— sixth: by fire
— seventh: by walking away
Part Two: The Noon Paths
— first: by falling
— second: by brimstone and ash
— third: by darkness
— fourth : by divine retribution
— fifth: by lies
— sixth: by collusion
— seventh: by sleep
Part Three: The Paths Through Clouds
— first: the island of colors
— second: the mountains in between
— third: the city at war
— fourth: the sugar fields
— fifth: the vaunted oceans
— sixth: the second range of mountains
— seventh: the cold and the snow
Part Four: The Paths Through Sunlight
— first: the shining city
— second: the slow and the sun
— third: the quick and their friends
— fourth:
— fifth: the birthplaces
— sixth: the caves
— seventh: the stone necropolis
Part Five: The Evening Paths
— first: by locusts
— second: by division
— third: by ennui
— fourth: by contagion
— fifth: by
— sixth:
— seventh:
Part Six: The Midnight Paths
— first:
— second:
— third:
— fourth:
— fifth:
— sixth:
— seventh:
So it comes up that the end of days has been sweeping across every world they have visited?
WHY.
There is a big fucking WHY here.
I wanted the end to be the realization that they could, theoretically, prevent the end of the world, but they decide not to.
What if that’s not it? What if they really do just wander into the other world, and only upon going back to them do they realize that they have escaped the ends of their worlds? And they try to figure out why that is, but then they discover that it’s all of them. It’s all of the worlds that are dying, and they are the only ones who have survived. But why? Why take them away before the end? Because they needed to meld together in order to be able to utilize their powers effectively; and now that there is no more power being used up in the maintenance of the other worlds, they can get the go-ahead to absorb that world.
Or it’s a family thing. If you’ve got a backup support system, then I suppose that seeing the end of your own world wouldn’t be as bad.
So the end of the world is the Evening Paths, and the Midnight Paths are when they figure it out, and what they’re going to do about it.
I like the idea that they go back to their own worlds individually for the Evening Paths — like they never were destroyed — only to find that they don’t fit into those worlds anymore. Or that so much time has passed, that they don’t belong as the people they were.
Maybe at the end of the Paths Through Sunlight, they discover the reset button, and they press it. What is the reset button? FUCK IF I KNOW.
My problem is that I keep thinking that nothing plot-related can happen until the seventh act of each part, and that is just not true. Things can, and should, happen spread out over the course of each section. I'm trying very hard to write using kishoutenketsu structure, so things don't have to happen by hitting the same notes as a three-act structure, but they still can change, and adapt.
