Thread: Help with the plot for my fantasy novel

Hey everyone! Well since I'm taking a creative writing course this coming school year, I decided to practice by making a story of my own. This will be a fantasy story with warriors, healers, mages, etc. So if you played an RPG, you would be familiar. The society is pretty advanced since one of my characters uses a gun as his main weapon, while another uses a bow and arrow as hers. So I would say it's mixed. But anyways, here's the plot:
In the Kingdom of Larein, the queen is bed ridden and gravely ill due to a rare and fatal sickness. The royal healers inform the king, Edward Levasseur, that the typical healing spell cannot cure his wife and the only way to save her is by finding a special item. Distressed, the king sends out an order saying "The one who brings me this item will be rewarded 10,000,000 grad (the story's currency)". Filled with excitement, adventurers from near and far, including the main protagonist Austin Ernest, travel to the Larein continent, which is where this item is rumoured to reside in.
The problem is, I have no idea what this item should be! It has to be extremely rare and hard to find because I'm planning on Austin going from town to town, forest to forest, and cave to cave searching for it. So, any idea's on what it could be and what these adventures must do to obtain it? Also, I don't want Austin to be alone on this quest. Any ideas on cool characters that should join/help him? He's a novice adventure. And he is a called a guardian, which are people who carry swords and sheilds and mainly protect their team. The most that I want accompanying him would be about 3 or 4 others. Thanks in advance and sorry if this was too long.

It doesn’t sound like you have a bad start to an interesting modern fantasy. I’d be pretty careful around forming the story so closely to that of popular RPG games, stories, etcetera. Otherwise, you seem to have a great grasp on a plot as it is. Man out to find item that seems hard to find. As for characters, you want people that are easily relatable, interesting, and distinct in their own ways. Try playing around with some character creation tools and traits and see if you can create some interesting ones by yourself. Try to stray from stereotypical characters and give them interesting back-stories. As for the item, it could be anything. It could end up not existing, and the character grows more from the quest instead of the reward at the end. It could end up being an item that only the antagonist as control of or over. Just have fun with it, good luck, enjoy the class, and welcome to WF.

Haha, thanks for the great advice! I'm really thinking about what you said about the antagonist. That's a good idea :0

It all comes back to the golden rule: "It's your story." (There's like 96,423 golden rules on writing sites.) I would recommend just starting out with a WIP, maybe the first chapter or a prologue; maybe even just a scene. Writing something out and see how it looks. Everything else sort of falls into place once you get in the groove.

That sounds interesting!
Well, the thing about that item sounds pretty good. Something rare could be like a jewel or a pendant of some specific sort... Well, I like the way that tiny objects to which people are attached can have a special meaning or special power. Maybe something belonging by a god or goddess, provided your story is set in a polytheistic world.
Or what if it's a person? Or a being such as the las elf or the heart of a fairy? That would be cool, because we are no longer talking about objects, but lives, which is pretty cool to analyze (like meaning of life and whether one life justifies one death and such)
As for the characters, I think there are some tools or things that can help you develop a great character. I think that it would be cool if he started like with one companion and then some others joined them. The thing about the reward is actually interesting, because for each person, money means different things: a cure for someone illness, food to maintain his numerous family, power to control entire kingdoms. You can play with the characters backgrounds and find really interesting perspectives about that reward, interesting ways those people would use that money. Also, if that item is really rare and powerful, there should be people who would want to use it for their own sake...
Also... is this king really loved? Maybe there are people who don't want him to keep being king, right?... Think that in mind to develop characters points of view of the reward AND of that extremely unique item.
What Oasis Writer said is also really cool, too!
Oh, I'm really looking forward to reading it!
Good luck with that and with school too ;D
The most important things is that you have fun and you really like what you are writing. If you would read what you are writing, then you are in the right path!

Lol, thanks that means a lot. And yea, im planning on Austin going just for the money and fame, but then actually changing and realizing that kindness and the well being of those that he's grown to know on this quest is more important than any monetary reward. The thing you said about the king is right also because the main antagonist is from an enemy kingdom. A few years before, King Edward's kingdom invaded the enemy kingdom. During this the royal army killed people, including the main antagonist's parents! So he's planning on finding this item and using it for revenge. Maybe there will be an assassination attempt. Idk since I didn't even start writing yet. im getting my characters and plot together first.

That's great... But let me give you a little piece of advice. You already got the main plot and the main character and the main antagonist. Start writing your story. It is while you write that most of the ideas strike you, because while you write you realize things that you wouldn't realize otherwise, or you think "Oh, Austin going to that castle would be better than him going to this forest..."
Why don't you try it? It doesn't have to be exactly the first chapter, you can just write whatever pops in your mind about the story (how the two kings met, a description about the kingdom, the first appearance of Austin in the story...)... It can help you get a better idea, and your story will slowly become to take form and feel more real to you...
It's just a piece of advice, but I think it will help because it always helps me

I am intrigued by this. I'm a little thrown by the gun, but i like that actually. As for the item, i agree that a gem or piece of jewelry would work, perhaps something from a god or mage. Still this sounds like fun and i wish you luck with it.

Agree with ^, don't spend too much time doing all the legwork on making character plots and models, and all that. Just write a scene and see where it takes you. Maybe write the scenes above that you were describing. You don't want to get stuck where a lot of writers get stuck: the creating phase. You're always going to be creating more for your story, so don't get stuck there. Move on to the writing phase and as things come to you, then start creating more. Maybe after you get some text down, start a document just with terms that your story has (such as that currency, and define it in a way that you will have no problem remembering it later), and another document that has all the specs on your main characters, but you don't want that to be your main focus. It's important to have those documents, don't get me wrong. You don't want Austin to have brown hair on page 3, blond hair on page 342, and brown hair again at the end of the book. However, your focus is to write. You're a writer, darn it!

Oh, no!!! *takes pencil out* I better get started then xD .Grape juice the gun isn't as high tech as the ones we see today its a very basic pistol. Basically the main society doesnt have things like that, things like pistols etc. cost ALOT so only those who can afford it have upgrades in technology. Which is no more than 8% of the continent. so the everyday person would be using a bow instead of a pistol. And the bullets aren't as powerful as they are today. So if you have a nice set of armor and a good sheild you can fight a person weilding a gun without getting too hurt.

The only thing I could think about when I read the first part of your description was the Disney movie Tangled, haha. You are obviously taking the story in a completely different direction, but it might make things a little more interesting if the "Queen gets sick" part is spruced up a bit, such as having her actually die and the king will go to any lengths to bring her back. It becomes his obsession, and eventually he hears of a dark magical object that has the power to bring the dead back to life, and he offers a reward to anyone who can find it. From there, you can have the resurrecting artifact turn out not to be what the heroes were expecting, which would be a nice twist. You've got a great base for your story so far, and I hope that these ideas can help you out in some way. I look forward to seeing how things turn out!

In Neil Gaiman's Stardust, young Tristan Thorn went on a quest to find a star, which turned out to be a woman. Never limit your creativity at all, even by saying it has to be a thing. It could be a person.

My random suggestions:

A tree (could talk)
A person
A needle (for sewing together the very fabrics of life. You'd be looking for a needle in a haystack, in a way)
A special kind of snowflake
A particular person's shadow
A living bolt of lightning (could have an Irish accent)
The soul of an unfortunately powerful beast (cliche!)
The big hand of a clock, the clock of life
The little hand of a clock, the clock of life
The clock of life (just get the whole thing)
The unholy grail (we already have the holy grail, and it doesn't work)
The voice of an angel
An angel (it can give us its voice later)
The invisible ring (good luck finding that one)
The tears of a demon (and it isn't easy to find one, or make them cry)


You don't have to use any of them, but thinking in that sort of style does lead you to think of unique things.

Oh, I actually like the idea of the queen dieing. That could work. And yea, the idea of taking a life (like a some incredible beast) to bring another's seems really interesting. Because it makes you think. Is it really okay to just take a life to save another? Maybe the protagonist will feel bad for the creature once he's about to finish it off and just decide's to let it live. And money just wouldn't matter to him anymore. Soooo many options :0

Good starting point.

Here's a few ideas that came to mind as I was reading.

- The healing object turns out to be a person (like a 'Jesus'), although the protagonist doesn't know that setting out. He is from a rival nation, so doesn't want to help the kingdom of Larien.

- The object is kept in a remote village and protects them somehow, so taking it from them to save the queen will mean dooming the whole village.

- The object is something like a talisman that can heal any wound, but it also carries a curse. Once a person comes into contact with it, they are infected with a disease that is only kept at bay by the power of the talisman, so if they give it up, or someone else steals it, they will slowly die. The protagonist realises this when he steals the talisman from someone else, and must decide whether to pass it on to the queen for the good of the kingdom, or to keep it for himself. An antagonist could also be worked in there somehow.

You can probably tell I like some kind of moral dilemma for the hero to grapple with.

Good luck with it!