The protagonist is a divorcée who finds herself dependent on the goodwill of her in-laws. The setting is swampy marsh country similar to the Chickahominy Marshes in Virginia. The court's divorce settlement awarded her the husband's abandoned hunting cottage, which is situated on a half-acre island near the downstream outskirts of the marshes. The narrator is the conspiratorial we of plural second person and is generally disapproving and sometimes outright vengeful in tone. The mundane fantasy premise centers around magical thinking and sympathetic magic. No working title yet. That's about it so far. Conflict and goal are floating around in there somewhere.

When I sketch a plot, I visualize a pyramidal graph marking the highlights of plot. Students of dramatic structure will recognize the graph's shape. It's the contemporary version of Freytag's pyramid, without the flatlined-in-tension exposition and denouement wings. Plot movement starts with the lower left point of the pyramid representing the inciting moment. The top point represents the climax and the lower right point represents the resolution.

From the story idea in mind, I compose causation-opposition summaries of each highlight scene; the inciting moment scene, rising action scenes, the climax scene, falling action scenes, and the resolution scene. I'm striving to have all the scenes relevant to the protagonist's goal.

I develop the protagonism/antagonism opposition from visualizing an upside down Fretag pyramid. The inciting moment upsets the equilibrium of forces in opposition. The bottom point of the pyramid marks the inciting moment. Opposition widens as the plot moves toward climax. The top left point of the opposition pyramid represents maximum problems, the top right point represents maximum efforts to achieve the goal. After the climax, opposition narrows toward the point of resolution. In the summary, I correspond the points of causation to the points of opposition.

The following are just some of my early cogitation on developing the plot of the above story idea. Brackets mark my thought processes. [This story obviously asks for a conflict resolution type plot.] I prefer to call it an Aristotlean drama as a reminder that story hasn't appreciably changed in millenia. [I see no reason to try something different for this story.] A conflict resolution plot might first show the protagonist's world falling into chaos. [That belongs in the backstory later on.] An Aristotlean drama opens with the protagonist's world in disarray. Efforts to order the world to the protagonist's liking despite all opposition is at the core of an Aristotlean drama's plot. Whether the protagonist succeeds or fails determines if it's a Greek comedy or a Greek tragedy. [Perhaps the protagonist will be more dramatically changed by failing, or perhaps the story will be more emotionally satisfying if the protagonist succeeds.] I like to sketch the plot up to the climax before deciding which would be the better ending.

Naming the protagonist helps me mentally visualize her and keeps the word protagonist from becoming burdensome. [Say, Maisy Dalington-Fields. Strange, she's kept her married name. She can't afford the court costs to change it back to her maiden name. She can hardly afford to pay attention.] Her financial and marital predicaments offer potential audience resonance and sympathetic interest.

[What is Maisy's goal?] Knowing her goal will establish the overarching conflict and start plot movement. [Does Maisy know what she wants? Money is on her mind. More than anything else, though she doesn't know it yet, Maisy wants control over her destiny.]

The inciting moment is Maisy's first predicament. It should [must] relate to her goal. [Maisy arrives in a minivan cab on the mainland side of a stream across from the hunter's cottage. She doesn't tip the cabbie. He chucks the plastic bags containing her belongings into the trees. A rowboat that she can't shift into deeper water is beached on the stream bank.] The cabbie is a small problem. The rowboat is a good first predicament.

[What might introduce the imaginative premise and complete causation of the inciting moment? She wishes someone would help her get the rowboat into the water. She wishes and it happens while she's not paying attention. In the time she's hassled with the cabbie and gotten her luggage together, the rowboat floated off the bank. She's not perplexed by nor even aware of her magical talents yet.]

This is far from perfect. It's just the beginning of the process. I see the narrator's role as more central than the above conveys. The Fields family comes naturally to sympathetic magic and magical thinking. For Maisy, she's going to have to learn. Doing so will have unforeseen consequences. Besides, none of this might end up in the opening nor the finished story. I'm not married to any of what I've composed yet.

What could be the turning point in a divorce's life? She has hit rock bottom- relying on the inlaws. What if a 'Prince Charming' type character came into the scene?

An Antagonist could be another woman living near her.

Perhaps she is skeptical or hesitant at first and the Antagonist thinks she can win the 'Prince' Using mild magics to do her dirty work.

Then a change of heart perhaps? The antagonist sees the 'Prince' is genuine. Could provide for her?

I have considered a male supporting role; however, the one trap I don't care to fall into is a damsel in distress rescued by a testerone hyperdriven man. I like female protagonists who win through on their own self-determination. On the other hand, a Prince Charming type could be a tempting obstacle to overcome if Maisy falls for him and realizes late that he represents a diversion from her goal.

The question of what would be a divorcée's turning point is one that I haven't answered for this story. Every women I've known who's fled a bad relationship has fallen back into ever more destructive ones. If Maisy's goal is controlling her destiny, I want her to proceed and without becoming a wicked shrew from hell.

A neighboring woman's role might be that of an antagonist or a nemesis of Maisy's. I perceive all the neighbors being extended clan members of her ex-husband's family. They could be nemeses rather than antagonists, though. An antagonist should [must] contribute to Maisy's change through imposing obstacles to her progress. A nemesis might pose opposition, yet won't necessarily compel the change. However, a nemesis might compete against Maisy's interests and if successful might impede her from achieving her goal.

Hmm, yes, the neighbor woman as an antagonist or a nemesis might use magic to encourage Maisy's relationship with Prince Charming so he'll take her away from the marshes and off the clan's stolen legacy. Perhaps a quartz deposit under the island is the repository of the clan's ley network of magic power. A kaolin vein rich with water-clear quartz crystals does run through the region. Kaolin is a porcelain clay that's naturally uncommon in the US.

Eudora Welty said something like--the plot comes out of the setting. This is a great, unique setting. I think you're onto something with the swamp itself being threatened, and the swamp a source of power for the magical people.

Speaking of Welty--Go Southern gothic. It's a natural.

What's at stake for Maisy?

If I were writing this, I'd have to know a whole lot more about Maisy to know her plot. Think of marriages and failed marriages. Some say we recreate our family of origin in the family we form with our spouse. That's why we keep choosing the same, dysfunctional person over and over again.

Maisy's backstory is still in development. What's at stake for her is a question I've asked and not answered yet. I do want it to relate directly to her goal of self-determination. The closest I've come is she's risking her sanity by turning into a hermit.

Southern gothic, my gosh, yes. Maisy's stakes might be related to her family and neighbors wanting her committed to Dunbar University, the locals' name for Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg.

The first US public hospital was The Public Hospital for Persons of Insane and Disorderly Minds established in Williamsburg by the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1770. It later became Eastern State. The hospital has a checkered past, to say the least.

In the inciting moment scene, Maisy's nemesis wants to regain the Fields clan's control of the stolen island. The nemesis uses magic to make Maisy question her sanity. Maisy absentmindedly uses magic in response and questions her own sanity as a consequence. It's a battle of wills that Maisy wins by being closer to the source and more receptive than the nemesis. Maisy learns to control the magic, and strengthens her mental control as a result. The island she didn't want becomes the anchor for her sanity.

Thwarted in her efforts to magically evict Maisy, the nemesis resorts to legal action. Maisy is served with a court ordered competency test.

I've yet to iron out how the competency test might magically connect to the story. Maybe by obviating it through magic, like the Fields' clan recognizes Maisy as one of their own, a long lost prodigal great-daughter returned to the clan. Perhaps a Fields grand matriarch who's the court's appointed mental health evaluator intervenes.

I've named the nemesis Matoaka Fields, she's the mother of the ex-husband, James "Yellow Arrow" Fields. Matoaka was Pocahontas' secret spirit name. She revealed it to John Rolfe as an act of faith when she converted to Christianity. Anecdotal evidence suggests Matoaka means blue lake in the Aztec language. How it came to Pocahontas (who had blue eyes) is another story. Oh, and Pocahontas means little wanton. She was a mischievous young imp when her father named her.

The one context I want to ring through is that magic is Maisy's antogonism. It's what causes her change through posing obstacles to her desire to maintain her mental health and leave the island, but she comes to accept the magic and then must fight to retain the island. She's the outsider who wants to belong to the marshes. No working title yet.