Welcome to the uncoordinated posting of the world/plot/story-building for my 2017 NaNoWriMo Novel! In which, the Writer, her Muse, and various Fictives (characters) attempt to make some sort of plan for November.
You have been warned…
Post Wordcount: 492
Total Wordcount: 2,618
NOTE: This is a MuseFic in which the Writer, the Muse, and her fictives work to create the rough draft of a story (or just worldbuild). There will be spoilers for the story being drafted, which will most likely contain plot holes, retcons, and other inconsistencies.
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What’s In a Name?
“You can’t just call me Dog!” Dog objected as she bumped the Writer’s leg with her nose. Barking at the Writer had failed to work, so the dog was reduced to more direct interference. The plot bunnies seemed amused.
“Well I don’t have a name yet, so unless you want to start looking through the baby books, you’ll have to wait until November.” The Writer frowned down at her growing pile of color-coded outline notes. “Heck, I never got around to renaming the folks in In Dreams of Trees, they’re still all named after colors and it’s been six years.”
“So name me now!”
“Your human name doesn’t matter,” pointed out Daniel from where he had been playing cards with the Muse. “The people who gave it to you will be long dead only a few chapters into the story and you’ll forget it yourself after a while. I have no idea what mine was.”
The Muse was glaring at her hand and the cards on the table and trying to figure out if there really were five aces in the deck or if she was imagining things.
“Then I need one in order to lose it,” said Dog stubbornly.
“Fine.” The Writer summoned the baby name book out of the mists and flipped through the pages. “Teiran, Connie, Kellina– they all mean ‘stubborn’, so pick one.”
“I like Connie, but it’s not… fantasy enough.”
“Konny, Koni, Koneh, Conny, Conneigh, Konneigh,” offered the Muse. “Although I like Teiran myself.”
“We have less than 24 hours before this thing starts and you’re worried about a name.” The Writer sighed. “Look, it’ll probably just be a placeholder anyway, so let’s go with Khany. It’s not too hard to remember and it doesn’t mean anything that Google can find.”
“Good, I’ve got a name. Now, what do I look like?” Khany tried to turn and get a good look at herself, but ended up getting sidetracked chasing her tail.
“You look like a slightly less fluffy Golden Retriever.” Admitted the Muse after watching for a moment. “You should probably look a little more like a lab or a hound of some sort, I can’t see the village having much use for a long-coated dog.”
Khany gave herself a shake and shortened her coat to a more lab-like appearance, but kept the narrower muzzle and longer ears. With a thoughtful sniff, she shifted from a plain tan to a tan with slightly darker saddle pattern like a German Shepard and one white forepaw.
“You’ve got a name and a general idea of what you look like, anything else you think you need before we hit the road?” The Writer was not quite being sarcastic.
Khany nodded. “I kill the dragon and we ad-lib from there.”
“You attempt to kill the dragon,” pointed out Dragon without opening his eyes from where he’d been napping in his bean bag bed.
“Says you.”
…
And then it was November!
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