Blood and Metal

Outline

I’ve studied a lot of ways to write a story and experimented with a lot of methods, but I find myself returning to a few useful tools. With my first drafts, I don’t have a strict structured outline, but I use a series of Mind Maps which are transferred to a pile of index cards which I use to gauge my progress.

With the second draft of Blood and Metal, with most of the structure already set up, I can form an outline which will work as a road map from start to finish. Even here, things aren’t exactly set in stone. I use all numbers to order the list—no Roman Numerals or Letters for me, thank you so much—and I can break apart existing chapters, add others that’s still needed right now, and even replace whole parts like what I did with the final chapters.

You’ll note that I really haven’t thought of chapter numbering until this second draft, and there are three sections where I use placeholders in place of the number. These are parts which I’ve got settled into place and will fall into order as I go.

1. Part 1: Messenger

   1. Chapter 1: Eric becomes the cyborg wolf and is sent to Maatla

      1. With a constructed Robiticizer like device and a transformation serum, Eric Krockett gets a replacement left arm and is turned into an anthro American Gray Wolf. He meets King Acorn for the first time, but cannot do anything about it.

      2. Eric recuperates in a health care room, remembering the unfortunate—and racially charged—moments that brought him nearly to death. Acorn comes and invites him to go to Maatla to deliver a message to his daughter, Princess Sarah.

      3. Eric thanks the doctors who installed the arm to him—African-American doctors at that—and rushes through the one-way portal to style in a Harley.

         1. He’s told about a probe that was sent through the portal as a test.

   2. Chapter 2: Eric crash-lands in Maatla and eventually finds Sarah

      1. Eric’s grand entry has become more like a crash landing, since the portal lets him go 15 feet too high.

      2. Eric tools his way on a leisurely cruise around the mountain region toward Vintanii

      3. He discovered a girl squirrel being chased by a Pygg Mech, which Eric thought he dispatched. The girl introduced herself as Sarah who knows where the princess is.

   3. Chapter 3: Sarah takes Eric to the Resistance Group

      1. Eric finds his first group of native Maatlans, and he realized that Sarah was the Princess he was after. She cut her hair short. He tries to think of a way to impress the others:

      2. The Pygg Mech returns! And Eric earns the others’s trust by taking down the mech once and for all.

      3. Sarah gets her message, and Eric gets to know the other Resistance Members more.

      4. Eric is invited to stay in Sarah’s castle for a while as thanks.

   4. Chapter 4: The Group arrives in Vintanos Village

      1. Eric joins the caravan back home with the Princess.

      2. They stop by a gas and supply store while Sarah’s caravan gets the royal colors.

      3. The procession rolls into a Steampunk era town, with some generated electricity.

      4. The procession ends before the looming castle.

   5. Chapter 5: The Vintanii Castle and Eric’s room

      1. Eric meets Sir Nicolas for the first time. At lance point.

      2. Sarah reappears resplendent, and she invites Eric to join her through the garden.

      3. They go into the door, and everyone checks out the new arm candy the Princess has.

      4. He meets with Butler Jules and the maid Astra, who takes him to his own private quarters.

   6. Chapter 6: Eric meets the United Church of Gaia

      1. Eric wakes up with the realization that the transformation after-effects were not finished with him.

      2. Astra calls up Friar Kirpatric from the United Church, who provides a pain-controlling salve and tea.

      3. It is here where he tells why he had to have his arm replaced: He had his arm shot in a race riot and his injury was lost among the racially-charged criminal case that ended up implementing him for racism. He wanted to will himself to death, and almost did until Acorn did his dirty work on him.

      4. Eric was told about a prior package Acorn sent through the portal, and was invited to investigate.

   7. Chapter 7: A prior package from Earth, and Eric’s decision.

      1. Eric finds the probe full of information on Earth, and especially on America.

      2. The US flag and a copy of their documents (Declaration, Constitution, and Bill or Right) are put on display as Eric describes how his country works.

      3. Milo, Eric’s young friend, finds a Captain America comic book, and sees in Eric that same superhero who once took out an evil dictator who looked and acted a bit like Alberect in the young fox’s eyes. That made Eric’s decision to stay with Sarah’s group an easy one, and he ended up being knighted for his actions up to now.

2. Part 2: Knight

   1. Chapter 8: The new Sir Eric meets the Vintanos people.

      1. While keeping his distance from Nicolas and his haughty company, Eric decides to hobnob with the general populace in town, and eventually finds a bar that has some cold brew.

      2. It’s when he comes back when he gets jumped by Nicolas’s hazing committee. But to their surprise, it was Eric who does the hazing when he even defeats a large bear in the group with a fighting style as foreign as he is: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

   2. Chapter 9: Sarah starts training her Wolf.

      1. Sarah starts training Eric in some refinement so she can take him to more formal outings.

      2. It is here where She tells him about the many suitors trying to vie for her hand, but none of them fit the bill.

         1. To Eric’s surprise, she tells him that she prefers a simpler kind of man, someone unencumbered by royalty or high class, and that he fits the bill just fine.

      3. Eric later was showed off in such a formal, and later after he was encouraged to show more of where he came from, turns on some classic rock and roll and cuts the rug with Sasha, to the delight and surprise of the crowd.

   3. Chapter MM: King Acorn contacts Maatla, and plans to return.

   4. Chapter MM: The King returns in a Ferrari F1 car and a ball of Fire!

   5. Chapter MM: Eric takes the King home and discusses the future.

3. Part 3: Prince

   1. Chapter MM: Eric is declared to be the proper suitor for Sarah and a wedding is planned.

      1. Eric wanted to make one last push to destroy Alberect once and for all, and then return to Vintanii to become Prince in a world free from Alberect’s evil.

   2. Chapter OO: The Alberect-Krockett Death Match

      1. During the match, Alberect pulls out his trump card: “Eric, I am your father.”

      2. Eric’s response: “You say that as if that’ll save your ass!” And pulls off the killing combo.

   3. Chapter OO: Tragic revelation

      1. Eric is thrown into a death trap set on a Genetic Lock set to Alberect’s DNA. But Eric finds out that his DNA can trip these locks; proving Alberect right.

      2. Eric tells himself not to panic. Just make sure nobody sees this, set everything to self-destruct, and go back home with everything out of sight and out of--

      3. Nicolas has indeed saw all this and attacked Eric from behind, and he and his group beat him within an inch of his life. Nicolas leaves him to die with the promise that everyone WILL know who his father is, and what they will think of him!

4. Part 4: Martyr

   1. Chapter OO: The roboticization of Eric Krockett

   2. Chapter OO: Command Unit Krockett takes stock of Robitaria

   3. Chapter RR: Vintanii is rediscovered covered in ice and snow.

   4. Chapter RR: CUK-2 investigates, finds the place all but abandoned, and Nicolas meeting the destiny his Karma has designated him.

   5. Chapter XX: “I did not lie when I said I loved you.”

5. Part 5: Alive

   1. Chapter XX: Eric Krockett reborn as a Gaian

   2. Chapter XX: A quiet return to Vintanos

   3. Chapter XX: A life the two wanted all along

   4. Chapter XX: The Vintanii people return in time

   5. Chapter XX: A new Vintanii, a new Government, a new Couple.

   6. Chapter XX: The Krockett clan resumes anew.