You can see the full outline that Chat GPT came up with for me in this post. The foundations are okay, but there are certain nuances that Chat GPT doesn't get and there are things that I didn't tell Chat GPT that I want to have happen, so I'm going to work on the outline for all three books now. This may take a few posts because structure is my kryptonite.
Let's start with what I want out of each book in the trilogy. In the first book, I want to introduce all of the characters and set up all of the betrayals, the reasons that Nakia is a misanthrope (or, as Chat GPT pointed out, a disappointed idealist). There are three major betrayals that Nakia experiences in her life.
The first is Ahmose, the princess who essentially adopted herself into Nakia's family when Nakia was four and Ahmose was seven. Then, when Nakia was seven, Ahmose brought Nakia to the palace in order to be her personal servant. A combination of superiority, possessiveness, and jealousy that Ahmose felt, along with absolutely zero consequences for her actions toward a servant, led Ahmose to justify abusing Nakia more and more severely. This culminates with Ahmose making sure that Nakia is sacrificed in order to be Ahmose's father's attendant in the Afterlife. Nakia is sixteen.
The second betrayal comes at Atlantis, after Nakia comes back from the Afterlife to find The King. Nakia makes a friend that she confides her secret in (that Nakia is a mummy) and the friend confesses to the priest or whatever of Atlantis and Nakia ends up being sacrificed to the volcano in order to save Atlantis.
The third betrayal comes in America when Nakia is burned at the stake after a witch trial. In this case, Nakia has made friends again, but not the mistake of trusting any of them with her secret. She's not actually burned alive because someone finds out she's a mummy like I had originally planned. Instead, they just think she's a witch...for similar reasons that actual women were thought to be witches and killed.
The scope of the first betrayal is intensely personal. Nakia loves, almost worships Ahmose for several years, and that changes slowly. Her murder is personal. Ahmose, by this point in the story, hates Nakia and wants her gone.
The scope of the second betrayal is less personal. Her friend doesn't mean for Nakia to be killed, she actually thought that the priest could restore Nakia or something. And her murder is not personal. She's a means to an end, it's her or an entire island full of people.
The scope of the third betrayal is personal but in a different way from what happened with Ahmose. Similar to Atlantis, it's a fever pitch of culty behavior and superstition. Plus, the politics of an evil man who wants to secure his power over this town. The friends she makes here don't betray her, but they don't save her either. She basically dies because her friends choose themselves over her (and because men ain't shit).
Book 1:
I want all three betrayals to play a part in all three books, but in the first book, we'll focus the most on Ahmose's betrayal and juxtapose that with modern-day Nakia trying NOT to get close to any more humans, and failing. I definitely want to at least mention that Nakia is sacrificed to a volcano and burned at the stake as additional reasons as to why she's so untrusting, but I want keep the focus of those stories to the second and third books (not to create mystery, but just because you can only fit so much into one book).
In modern day, Nakia will be getting to know Thai, Candy, and China and finding them surprisingly charming. She'll also find out about each of their secrets (Thai's not-so-selfish interest with Prince Machiavelli, China's soup kitchen, and Candy's secret boyfriend -- along with the fact that all three independently visit a friend who was hurt in a car accident a couple of years prior). This is going to be the deepest personal betrayal and the shallowest form of the Beverlee Hills friendship that we see in the series.
Nakia hasn't just been let down by kids her own age and actively evil adults, she's also been let down by systems. So, since the alias that Nakia takes on is a minor whose parents just died, she is assigned a social worker. The social worker, Jacki, shows herself to be willing to bury some red tape deep in the desert, when necessary, and we get to know her better throughout the trilogy.
We'll also have things like parties and school and football games and other high school hijinks that Nakia will have to navigate. Nakia doesn't actually need high school because she's thousands of years old and self-taught. Also, she knows more accurate history than any of her teachers.
Book 2:
In the second book, we'll get to play in Atlantis (I'm really excited about this one. It's going to be like Greek Steampunk with gold and jewels everywhere). In this book, as opposed to the first book, Nakia's betrayal by her Atlantis friend is entirely unintentional and a result of trying to help Nakia. I also want to have Nakia realize, after the volcano, when she's sulking for a thousand years, that The King is actively avoiding her. So, the personal betrayal will come from that, with a more understandable betrayal that makes her want to avoid humans (forever) but not think that they're all terrible.
Modern-day Nakia is deepening her friendships with Thai, China, and Candy, as well as getting to know Ophelia. This book has the medium betrayal level and the medium-level depth of friendship. I want the second book to culminate in modern-day Nakia finally tracking down The King and having him reveal to her why he has been evading her search (selfishness not cruelty or active rejection). He'll also reveal that Nakia doesn't have a human body anymore and she can change it if she wants to.
Book 3:
In the third book, we'll get the witch trial story, the most nuanced of the three betrayals. There is an actual villain, similar to the first book (but less personal) On the personal level, Nakia isn't killed out of malice. Her friends' self-preservation keeps them from helping her.
In modern-day, Nakia will be getting accustomed to her new adjustable body, she'll be eating for the first time since the Afterlife, and grappling with the nuances of all of the betrayals and disappointments humanity has put her through. This is the most nuanced version of betrayal and the deepest version of friendship that Nakia allows herself to have. We end the book with Nakia going into the direction of being able to finish the life that was interrupted when she was sixteen.
We're definitely more in synopsis territory but that's an easier way for me to write. When I'm done, I'll paste all of this in Chat GPT and let it turn this into an outline for me. Three story elements that I still need to add are the arc with Jacki (Sunny's social worker) where I can work on Nakia's distrust of social systems (with good reason), Nakia's interactions with Sunny's staff so that I can explore class issues, and Nakia's life as a high school girl so that we can explore what it's like to deal with trauma, heal, and move on. Essentially, her life was derailed and her emotional development was stunted once Ahmose started abusing her, and the trilogy is going to explore Nakia resuming her emotional development and moving on into adulthood, even though she's literally thousands of years old.
These are a lot of elements, but they are necessary in order to make Nakia a real person and to make this world feel real. I've described a lot of Nakia's emotional development through betrayal and friendship, but aside from being killed three different times, I haven't really explored plot. I'll need b and c plots for each flashback location in order for those to feel real. And in order to explore the friendship and betrayal themes, I'll need the characters to be doing something throughout the book. So, setting that around b and c plots with Nakia's staff, following Jacki around, and going to high school parties and stuff, those are the mechanisms I'll use to explore those themes.
I think tomorrow I'll figure out what I want to do with Jacki. I was working with Chat GPT today on that and it had some good ideas that I'm excited to think about more.
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