A bed of roses

 So, lassarina commented on my Nano outline (as it stood last week - it's changed a bit since then) and gave me some real food for thought.  This morning was supposed to be for detailed plotting but I feel the time will be better spent making sure I've got the outline right!

At the moment, the plot looks something like this...

• Young Sultan wakes up one morning and his heart sinks because he realises today is the day he ascends the throne
• He has a year to prepare to take on the 'fearsome beast' guarding the family treasure, which will give him both wealth and power
• To defeat the beast, he has to learn to use the power of the family genie
• The genie tells him that to use its power he must be strong, and being strong means not giving in to 'feelings'
• He descends further and further into horror and despair, finally lashing out at his best friend who has come wooing his sister
• This is a kind of wake up call for him
• His twin sister is frightened and upset by the change in her brother
• She visits the genie herself but runs away in terror, then returns to confront it
• The genie is deeply unsettled by the twin sister, which partly contributes to the Sultan's mental break down
• The sister manages to persuade the genie and her brother of the strength of love
• They work together to overcome the beast, which turns out to be not so fearsome after all

What I like about this is the quiet courage of the sister and her unsettling influence on the genie, and the idea that men don't have to be angry and violent to be strong.  What I don't like is that the male/female roles are very traditional - the man is the angry one, the woman is the calming influence - and the ending is a bit Disney.  

An alternative might look something like this...

• Young Sultaness wakes up one morning full of excitement because today is the day she ascends the throne
• She has a year to prepare to take on the 'fearsome' beast guarding the family treasure, which will give her wealth and power
• To defeat the beast, she has to learn to use the power of the family genie
• The genie tells her that to use its power he must be strong, and being strong means not giving in to 'feelings'
• But, as a woman, she is expected to be quiet, calm and gentle
• This generates a dissonance in her mind
• She descends further and further into horror and despair, finally lashing out at her fiancé
• This is the wake up call that she needs
• Her fiancé has been frightened and upset by the change in her
• He persuades her to reassess what strength and power mean
• The genie is deeply unsettled by the love between them, which partly contributes to the Sultaness' mental break down
• They work together to overcome the beast, which turns out not to be so fearsome after all

My current format is to tell the story from the Sultan's point of view, then from his sister's, then from the genie's.  I'm not sure that would work so well for the new outline.

Anyway, what I like about the new outline is that the focus is on the woman learning to harness her rage rather than reject it.  The fiancé isn't quite 'rescuing' her, either - the power to rescue is in her own hands.

OK, definitely something to think about!