Thank you, Prep, and all the amazing people who keep it alive! Today and yesterday's assignments have answered questions I didn't know I had about my novel and filled in stubborn blanks I couldn't fill before! I'm so excited! I have been really attached to this idea for a long while, but it started as a vague but lingering image of a performance in my head. I never expected to actually be able to grow a story around it, and I've been pretty sure I'd fail for most of the month so far. I decided to give it my best, anyway.

I know the story and its ideas need a whole bunch more development, but I feel like I'm on more solid ground, now. It's a great feeling.

In the past couple of days, I've learned:

         1.) There might not be a name for the system of government my world has. It seems for all the world like a monarchy, since by mutual agreement the temples have installed a sort-of-kind-of-not-quite puppet ruler who is the face of peace in the country. However, behind the scenes, the temples are the ones that have access to the 'gods' (which are actually just very curious and playful multidimensional beings) and the ability to petition them for help, so they hold most of the power. It's not actually a theocracy, since the "gods" in question are more tinkerers than anything and have no interest in ruling. And anyway, it started out as a good thing: the country was torn apart with war before the church stepped in, took the ability to petition the gods away from the people, and acted as intermediaries to maintain peace. The country settled into a comfortable rhythm and hasn't seen war for centuries, but at the cost of an information blackout and the deaths of potential dissenters. (Cue the entrance of the protagonist, whose actual soul exists to shake things up. )

         2.) An event I had previously written as, "and then some sort of BIG CONFLICT happens on the journey in order to drive those two to work together" now has a reason rooted in hundreds of years of suppression and quiet but growing unrest the protagonists won't even have an inkling of the reason for until at least midway through the book. I now know exactly what event happens and what drives it. And it's really exciting.

Now I just need to figure out how to make the story progress in a way that is Not Boring.