Class Consultant (Early Phase Planning) (Patreon)

How does a pantser plan? We don't. 

Well, some of us don't.

So, I'll start this out by saying there's 4 chapters of a story code named "Cultivation Consultant" in my google drive. I don't like it very much, even if I think it would make a decent story. The MC was a person who got isekai'd to a fantasy world where he failed at everything for 10 years, then he got isekai'd AGAIN to a cultivation world. He brings elements of the "system" from the pure litrpg world, which gave him an edge over the cultivators.

The original idea for "Class Consultant" didn't work in my head. The MC "Xol'sa" got sent over to the Newt and Demon, because he would have been pretty boring to read as a main. I wanted to take a break from N&D for another book, and my Amazon book tanked, so I wanted a new idea entirely.

I had this image of a little hamster-person and a huge ogre in my mind, for whatever reason. Then I had the thought that the ogre was a mage, then I had to think about what "Ogre Magic" was, and came up with some pretty fun ideas. The hamster-guy changed into a similarly diminutive race, but became something else. Like my original idea for the Xol'sa character, he was an outcast in a system-influenced world.

I saw the little guy and the ogre walking through a forest covered in snow, and they were discussing their next move. A group of bandits approach and ask for their money. The pair don't even flinch, continuing their conversation as though nothing happened. The bandits, confused more than angered by the cavalier nature of the two men, watch as the conversation turns to an argument. A bandit speaks up, begging for peace between the would-be victims.

When an idea clicks in my head, it CLICKS. I let that one scene play out, entertaining the idea since my last post, and a world sprung up around it. The little guy and the ogre are life-long friends. They enrolled with an Empire's army, only to be dismissed when the little guy loses a leg in combat (immediately after deployment). They joined the Scholar's Society, running odd jobs but never gaining traction in the organization. Then, they find their way to the frozen forest, chasing down an adventurer contract that no one is willing to do. Not because of the danger, but because it's smack dab in the middle of nowhere.

Wouldn't you know? The key to evolving the [Scholar] class is to help someone evolve (with intention) their base class. Little guy gets the chance to help someone in that frozen town. Ogre guy is eager to expand his brand of ogre magic. Motivation and means to find little guy a new, magical limb.

So, that's my process. That's how I start a story. It just has to have legs in my mind. Those tendrils of thought have to shoot out and build the world for me.

Before starting this project, I'd like to make a rough map of the continent. The Newt and Demon map is nearing completion, and would have been done if not for a pesky holiday.