Chapter One in Summation

[Again, I apologize for being absent the past few weeks, but work and family do take precedence. However, here we go.]

Up to this point the discussion has centered around the beginning of the novel, the goals, setting, and characters. The first paragraph is the magnet drawing the reader into the story, and a lot information needs included in the first chapter. Does that make it War and Peace length? Not at all. Brief sentences can suffice. Here is what I have included in Chapter One of A Pirate's Legacy: The Brethren.

A successful story begins with a clean thematic question from the hero and a clear thematic argument from the villan.

Thematic question:

         (Hero)    What is more important, glory, fame, and wealth, or family?

         (Villan)   Family is only one stepping stone to achieving glory, fame, and more wealth.

With that, we move into the story with a growing cast of characters.

A Hero

   1.  An orphan

   2.  A pirate

   3.  A successful plantation owner, husband, and father

   4.  A person with moral convictions

   5.  A person with a past he can not forget

   6.  A person who has done something which he regrets and isn't sure how to make amends.

   7.  A person who lives a lie.

   8.  Undeserved misfortune:

           a. loss of natural parents to plague

           b. sinking of Flourette and loss of his pirate family

           c. loss of Henry, his adopted, little brother

           d. sinking of French warship when loses control of temper and the ensuing curse

   9.  Nice to kids and animals

 10.  Quirky and/or fun mannerism

           a.  stands with feet spread and hands clasped behind his back

 11.  Compelling goal

           a.  Stop Lord Chudleigh’s war on pirates and innocent people

           b.  Stakes character(s):

                   1)  Admiral Shaver - if loses his kidnapped family

                   2)  Mariah - if loses her son, Jean-Paul

                   3)  Walter and Melissa if they loses their only son

                   4)  François if discovered to be the pirate Dolphin

                   5)  François if loses his son, Jean-Paul

12.  physical goal

           a.  main action of hero

           b.  is goal that affects most people in story

           c.  goal driven by something that has forced itself on hero in present

               1.  rescue the Admiral's family and get his son home alive

 13.  emotional goal

            a.  objective that means a lot, but only a few people

            b.  directly impacts and drives hero and hero’s inner circle of friends and associates

               1.  come to grips for killing 600 innocent people (most of those on the French warship were passengers.

           b.  Come to face repeating that when engage the English warship - how to cripple into

submission without blowing it to smithereens.

14.  Spiritual goal

       a.  something in hero’s being that is unfulfilled

       b.  does not mean a lot to the many or the few

       c.  innermost fear or regret or ghost hero will deal with from beginning to end

       d.  something has been grappling with for a long time

A Ruthless, committed villian

           a.  Bartholomew Chudleigh

 16.  Mutual goal Chudleigh and Francois are willing to knock heads over

           a.  The treasure of Loro Island? (no - F. doesn't care. He'd give it up)

           b.  Honor?  Chudleigh wants revenge for disgracing his father/family and pirate treasure to compensate.

17.  Chudleigh causes undeserved misfortune - kicks the dog (kills women, children, old people,innocent people. He's not particular.

18.  What Chudleigh wants is the death of Hogshead and the Dolphin which would achieve 16b and deprive the Dolphin of all he values.

 More character points

            a.  Hero does not get respect - there are those like Don Basillio (another landowner on El Hierro) who consider him a Frenchman and because of jealousy, treat him rudely and try to undermine and discredit his position in the community.

            b.  Hero is the absolute best pirate (despite Hogshead Shaver once saying he'd never make a pirate which still gnaws on him.

            c.  Hero starts out being wrong about how he views his son. Slowly comes to realize his son has become a man.

Other characters are introduced to support and help move the story. Some writers will advocate keeping the cast small, but in a tale such as this it takes more than a village to carry the plot along, but they do not become larger than  our hero.

Whoa, that's a lot in 2,876 words that move right along, but credit the years of writing short stories and news reports which have provided the ability to write reasonably tight. All that is left is editing. 

 

With that accomplished it is time move into Chapter 2 and the action begins.