In order to come around a full circle, I thought I'd link my failed attempt at NaNo 2010. I've learned a lot about what I like to read based on what I wrote. I'm not a big fan of paragraphs spent describing the surrounding area, nor even descriptions of the people themselves. Most of my focus is on the dialogue, rather than actions between people. As I mentioned before, my dialogue is quite stilted and unnatural, so that is the thing I would like to work on the most before trying NaNo again.
The main character was really bland. He wanted to become a mage, but that was pretty much his only character trait. He didn't seem to have any interesting relationships with anyone else, and was a bit of a loner. He did have friends, but I didn't really know what I was going to do with them, so they also ended up being quite two-dimensional.
So the basic plot would have been that a mage came to take Jarrod away for use as a conduit. She was a light/time mage, and quite famous for her work in the war. She explains that while shd did medical magic during the war, it wasn't because she condones the war, but because people were hurt. She tries to tell Jarrod that there are more important things that becoming a mage and fighting in the war.
It turns out that she is his mother (while she didn't give birth to him, she developed a technique to transfer his unborn body into his birth mother - who ended up marrying his father - as she didn't want him), which he figures is the reason he was never able to become a fire mage - or any mage at all. He learns a lot about the different schools of magic as the two of them travel together, but at night he constantly has dreams leading him to a specific place (he can't remember what happened when he went to see the spirits, but they are able to send him messages in his dreams). He finds that he is a very capable conduit for light, time and fire magics, but because of his extensive study at the academy, he is fairly adept at the other elements.
The two of them travel to the place in his dreams, and find out a man has worked out how to use untrained magic-sensitive children as magical conduits, boosting his power to incredible proportions. He wants to use his powers to wage a new war, while the soldiers are busy fighting their current war, but he hasn't managed to find enough children. He meets Jarrod and finds him interesting. Jarrod's personality is a bit of all of the elements, and the man realises that would make him an incredibly strong conduit, as he is able to manipulate all the elements, as opposed to most conduits who specialise in one or two.
Jarrod and his mother realise that using the children as conduits leads to them being unable to attain runes, which explains why there is a magic block in the area - the spirits are having trouble communicating with the children because they are not on the path of rune acquisition. Jarrod tries to warn the man, but he doesn't listen, and so Jarrod and his mother are forced to travel back to Istvar and try to convince the king that he needs to deal with the situation. The king says that they can't spare any troops from the front lines for some unfounded story, and dismisses both of them.
Jarrod comes up with the idea of using the academy students to fight. He says that they have magic inside them, they just can't shape it properly like a mage, but if you have enough of them, then they can act as conduits for the teachers of the academy who are magi, effectively amplifying their power. Jarrod's mother points out that this is exactly what the other guy is doing, and it may lead to these children never becoming magi either. Jarrod decides that he will ask the students of the academy to volunteer for the fight, arguing that at least he's giving them a choice in whether they want to eventually become magi or not, whereas the other guy is just forcing the children into being conduits.
While they are doing this, Pietro joins them and says that he heard what was going on through the air mail, and he wants to help. He ends up recruiting people who had studied with them at the academy to fight.
Most of the older academy students decide to help out, as they want to help save the children who are being used. Jarrod decides this is the best that he's going to get, and launches an attack. During the first moments of the attack, many of the students collapse, unconscious. Jarrod and the other magi are slowly being driven back. Then all the students who had collapsed awaken with runes - as the spirits saw their demonstrations of likeness during the fight, and saw fit to grant them their first rune. This turns the tide of the battle, and eventually, they win.
Jarrod decides he wants to see more of the world, and continues his travels with his mother in order to help people.
So that's my entire NaNo story in less than 800 words!
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