On Thursday I finally managed to tentatively name my protagonists. I did some research on figure skating costs for a minor detail that took more time to find than it should have. The blurb turned into an detailed outline. I haven't even finished outlining one chapter. I still don't know what I'm going to say in my thesis presentation; I'll probably make up a blurb and talk character sheets, if I get around to making them this weekend.

Today and during the last class period I wrote a pitch to make my own plot clearer to me, and also did some research on the ISU (International Skating Union) to check if my plot was realistic. I looked into the scoring systems and past scores of champions, as well as normal local competition scores, as well as the kind of music picked for routines. Honestly, I really like my current top idea and it requires less world building since it takes place in a modern world, but there are still new problems. I feel like this would work better as a TV show or something since it has so many visual aspects, but it just means I'll have to work harder at using imagery. 

The "pitch" I wrote today will be uploaded in a blog post soon, though it isn't really a "pitch" as publishers and agents would refer to it as. It's like a blurb one usually finds on the back of books as a kind of summary that tries to hook readers, but mine is more for my benefit so there are spoilers and it's longer. Once I finish the pitch, I plan to create a more detailed outline before I begin actual work. I also plan to make a character sheet. The character sheet shouldn't be as long as the one I started out with since this story only has two main characters and the plot is less complicated. 

... I still don't have a title and that really bothers me. I learned last class period that title generators don't really work when you already have a plot in mind. It's much easier to create a plot to fit the title than to create a title to fit the story. I feel like all the good titles have already been taken. Honestly, out of all the terribly cliche titles I've suffered through, the only one I think is remotely acceptable is Requiem. 

Today I made some more outlines and crossed off definitively 2 ideas, including the one I came up with last class. I felt it was too vague and hinted at a lot but some of the tropes I wanted to use might have made it a lot easier for me to fall into plot holes. I returned to another idea I had considered from the beginning, but I haven't finished the outline yet so I need to figure out how long it will run and how confident I feel in my inspiration for the plot before I definitively commit to it. I also realized if I don't want to write 70+ chapters for my original idea, I could always split it into two books and just write one for my thesis. Also I'm having a hard time coming up with titles. I don't want to be ridiculously overdramatic, but I don't want it to be cliche or boring either.

Yesterday I tried outlining a couple of ideas to try to get an idea of how long each book would run if written. I realized my original top choice plot in mind might actually become a saga and decided to try considering other ideas that would run less than 1000 pages. The original idea, when outlined, came out to be about 70 chapters. Unless I figure out a way to condense it so I can finish it by springtime, I'm going to look into novella plots instead. I was thinking about writing an allegory instead in a dystopian setting. It might touch on religion, though, so I don't know if I'm willing to pursue any controversial topics on that end. I know if I go with this one, it will probably concern a challenge to age-old tropes and prejudices, like the association of good with light, and bad with darkness, or religious symbolism. If my outline doesn't change too much, this one should come out to just about 20 chapters at most, which is definitely doable by springtime I think.