Plotting
This year I think I might actually use a proper novel outlining method. Why? Well, largely because I’ve never seriously attempted it before, and it would be useful to figure out how well such things work for me.
I’ve got a couple of concepts floating around at the moment, but the one I think I’m going to go with for now is a very non-serious fantasy. The basic idea is that for some reason (divine measles probably), all the major Gods have died. This is a problem, because this world pretty much requires Gods to run its affairs or things start breaking. Without the God of the Sea, the currents and tides and storms change utterly and the world would face economic disaster (not to mention a lot of hungry people on the coast) because everything built up around how the Gods organised things, not how the world might naturally be.
It is not, as it turns out, a world which is naturally tenable, but nobody ever thought the Gods would ever go away (least of all the Gods).
The minor Gods – previously enjoying themselves governing such relatively insignificant things as repressed sneezes, dust which accumulates under beds and the kind of intestinal parasite people can catch from eating undercooked pork – are forced to step in, and have to work with their own priesthoods and the former priesthoods of the deceased Gods to try and get things back under control.
In the mean time, the wizards – representing secular magical power on a very significant scale – have seen their opportunity and are also attempting to move in on formerly divine territory before the minor Gods gain the kind of power which kept the wizards in check for centuries.
Obviously I need more details, but it’s something to think about, and I definitely need to try outlining it.
Or at least coming up with some characters.