NovMo 2024: MaryAnna

Table of Content

Shoutout to @Carlito for the inspiration of the outline of my thread.

Info
Camp NaNo July '24: The Shadow League
Writing Progress Tracker

PlanMo Challenges 9/10
Elevator Pitch
Character & Location List
Main Character(s)
Side Characters
Most Challenging Character
Vibes
Inspiring Music
Character Questionnaire - Martha
Inciting Incident
Participating in the Question Game

Spooktober PlanMo Challenges 0/0





Other
The UnderWorld - The Shadow League
Why is the title/ name of the protagonist "MaryAnna" ?
SpookyTag - #ScaryLine
The Days We Cried Rain

Writing Progress
-October
Day -22

Elevator Pitch

This story is about a fourteen year old girl named MaryAnna Bradshaw who is a very stubborn, kind and interesting girl who lives in Eastwood Valley with her brother, Alex (shy, introvert and smart) and his best friend, Jake Dalton (loud, extrovert, caring).

MaryAnna’s father Richard Bradshaw, is a mean jerk who abuses their lovely mother and tries to shape MaryAnna into a sophisticated young lady ready for marriage, but MaryAnna is not that easily manipulated.

On the other hand, criminal, drug dealer and mafia boss, Daniel Anderson cooks up lots of devious plans with his team of Shadow Reapers; Rani tries to hold herself together for the group, but in real life she's broken. Ace wants to be there for her, but she pushes him away. On the other hand Zayn gets himself in some real trouble for his bro, when he tries to cover for Rafael who is using his hacking powers recklessly and broke Rule 2.

Now what happens if MaryAnna’s mother gets a call from an old friend and Richard finds out? She lands in the hospital. At the same time Daniel gives his Shadow Reapers the order to carry out Mission MaryAnna.

Character & Location List

Main Characters
- MaryAnna Bradshaw
- Daniel Anderson/ Ben Cooper

Side Characters
- Alexander "Alex" Bradshaw
- James "Jake" Dalton
- Rani Ahmed/ Rajni Ratan
- Zayn Ahmed/ Archie
- Rafael Rodriquez/ Julien Lopez
- Ace Gabriel/ Dash Wilder
- Margaret "Martha" Zavala - Bradshaw
- Larissa "Lara" Dalton
- Dr. Karan Rathipal
- Richard Bradshaw
- Gloria Stone

Background Characters
- Bryan, Bernard and Rosie Dalton
- Mr. & Mrs. Stone
- Durga
- Calypso
- Neele
- Detective Gonzales
- Reggie Carter
- Carla Sanchez

~~~

Location
- Eastwood Valley (Mary's house, the school, Jake's house)
- USM >> United States of Marriot
- Youth's Clothing Brand >> Company aka Daniel's secret lair
- TBD
- TBD
- TBD

Main Character(s)

MaryAnna
MaryAnna Bradshaw is a 14-year-old girl who believes that every tomorrow will be a better day than it was yesterday.

-Desire
She desires a happy family where her father is a sweet and loving father who will braid her hair for her and her mother is the same, but with a bright smile on her face.

- Everyday Life
In her everyday life, Mary goes to Eastwood Valley's High School with her brother, Alex and his best friend, Jake. She's not allowed to see any friends after school nor go to any parties they invite her to, because her father said so. Because of these strict rules, she hangs out a lot with Alex and ~Jake. She used to spent a lot of time with Jake's older sister, Lara, but now that she's gone to a fashion school far from where they live, she doesn't have a choice anymore.

- Plot
After living 14 years in peace, some events occur that challenge Mary's ways of thinking. She uncovers a lot of family secrets about her mother, father and Alex.

Daniel
Daniel Anderson is a 38-year-old man who believes that he'll never life to see a world with peace. A world where people with powers (electricity, h2o, hacking) are allowed to be free and be themselves in their daily lives.

- Desire
He desires to live with his family, but because of his powers he's hunted. Because his wife is an ex- agent of the NS (National Security) gone rogue and also hunted, they can't live together. For the sake of their daughter, he distanced himself from them and hasn't seen them in 12 years.

- Everyday Life
In his everyday life, Daniel checks in the company Youth Eternal - a clothing brand as CEO Ben Cooper. After which he clicks a button in his office and gets transported to his secret lair - The Shadow League - an undercover secret service that keeps the world safe. There he talks with his Shadow Reapers (a bunch of assasins) to see what their next mission is. The Shadow Reapers are like Daniel's family too.

- Plot
Well in the book, after 12 years of keeping his daughter and wife safe and hidden from the public eye some events happen which lead to him taking some daring steps to keep it that way. This only confirms what he believes in. He also knows that he'll do whatever it takes to keep them safe.

Side Characters
I worked everything out, but I'm not going to reveal a lot about them.

Alex - TW: Violence
Role: 17-year-old brother of MaryAnna

Alex used to look up to his father when he was younger, but nowadays he doesn't always agree with everything that his father does.

His greatest fear is becoming like his father (abusive)

Jake
Role: 17-year-old best friend of Alex

He wants to join the Army when he's older and his greatest fear is betraying/getting betrayed by his friends.

Martha
Role: 38-year-old mother of MaryAnna & Alex

Martha is a housewife without any connection to the outside world - she has no phone, no ID, no passport - she basically doesn't exist on paper.

Her biggest fear is losing her children (especially MaryAnna).

Lara - Secret relationship
Role: 21-year-old Best friend of MaryAnna/ Jake's older sister

Her biggest fear is never being able to see colours (as she's colour blind)

~~~

Rani & Zayn
Role R: 27-year-old assasin - Leader of TSR (The Shadow Reapers)
Role Z: 24-year-old-assasin - Younger brother of Rani

Rani's greatest fear is dying alone.
Zayn's greatest fear is clowns.

Ace- Friends to Lovers
Role: 27-year-old assasin- Part of TSR

His greatest fear is not being able to save Rani.

Rafael - Secret relationship
Role: 24-year-old-assasin - Part of TSR

His greatest fear is black rain and losing himself

Most Challenging Character
Definitely Martha or Rani.

Martha, literal spoilers here!!!

Spoiler

because she has an important role in the entire story. From an innocent bright child at 5 to an undercover agent for the National Security at 16 while living in an abusive household. At 19 her father married her off and she had her first born on the brink of 20/21, Alex. Two years alter she was contacted by the agency again to tackle a big crime boss, but she ended up falling for him and had her second child, MaryAnna at 24. The National Security branded her as an agent gone Rogue so she went into hiding, but as her arranged husband came to know of this, he promised to hide her with no contact to the outside world; no phones, no id, no etc. But the sight of the girl made him hate every second, reminding him how careless, so he became abusive too.

This went on for 12 more years until she receives a package one day of her lover (MaryAnna's father) and then everything gets upside down again.

I'm afraid that I'll mess up her character. I have a vision of how I want her to be, but I'm not sure I'll be able to really write her like that.

Rani,

Spoiler

because she also had a rough childhood. For starters when she was 12, her parents were murdered in front of her and Zayn, because they married each other. (Her father being a muslim and her mother an indian; they fled to the US in hope of peace, but no luck) She was in a boarding school for girls until she was 16 and killed someone for the first time. Daniel took her out of school and tried to help her to heal, but he knew that the damage that had been done to her was beyond healing and helped her justify her anger, actions and made her the first Shadow Reaper.

She's been through several toxic relationships and everyone always ends up leaving her, that's why when Ace gets close to her she's afraid he's going to leave her too sooner or later, so she leaves him. She claims that she doesn't need him or someone to help her, but in real, she's barely holding herself together and Ace knows this.

Her character has a lot of depth and needs patience to be written, which even I don't have.

Vibes

Lara


She's a fashion designer & model. She has a secret relationship with an assassin (Rafael). No one knows who he really is. She's colour blind. She's best friends with MaryAnna. Gigi Hadid portrays Lara.

The Shadow Reapers


They are a group of assassins who work for Daniel. The word Shadow has 6 letters - there are always 6 members. Their parts in the book are mostly action, that's why the cars, motorcycle's and guns. Rule No.2 is No Emotional Attachments; Yet Rani and Ace have a slow-burn (friends to lovers) 'cause she has a hard time trusting people. Rafael has a girlfriend (Lara). Zayn is Rani's younger brother.

Inspiring Music

Why did I choose “MaryAnna” as the name for my protagonist?



Two years ago, when I decided to start writing this book, I was listening to the song “Mary On A Cross” by Ghost. I was so tired, I heard them singing, "MaryAnna" instead of "Mary-On-A". And I thought, “Perfect choice for a name!”

So it stuck with me for a whole year until I found the song again and checked out the lyrics and then I was like, “Ohhhh, really? I could’ve sworn they were singing MaryAnna.”

Shoutout to Ghost for this amazing song, I still love it.

Inciting Incident

The part where MaryAnna's mother (Martha) receives a package with a phone from her lover and Richard finds out about this.

because of this she lands in the hospital.
because of this her lover, Daniel Anderson, has to leave the shadows (his own damn fault though)
because of this Mary lands in an insecure, mentally unstable state
because of this Alex has no one to talk to when his ex-gf commits suicide (it'll haunt him forever)
because of this Richard finally gets his revenge

Well...that sounds like a lot of problems which need to be solved. I'm working on it though.... But yeah, that's the start of everything actually.

Character Questionnaire

Martha - TW Violence (mentions of abuse)

Spoiler

Name: Margaret "Martha" Hazel Zavala - Bradshaw/Anderson
Pronouns: She/Her
Age: 38
Height: 1,6m
Eye colour: Brown
Hair colour: Blond/Brownish
Physical appearance: Yeahhhh (I'm not good at describing stuff)
Unique physical attributes: Not really.

Favourite clothing style/outfit: Jeans with a casual t-shirt
Favourite shoes/footwear: Heels
Defining gestures/movements: She nods a lot when she's nervous.
Speaking style: normal paced, slow when she's nervous and fast when she's excited
Things about their appearance they would most like to change: Nothing

Physical health: Well, apart from the medicine that she has to use, because of the abuse. She's perfectly healthy.

Pet peeves: Arrogance
Fondest memory: Her years with Daniel.
Hobbies/interests: -
Special skills/abilities: She's a trained agent for the National Security; shooting, combat, CPR, etc.

Insecurities:
Quirks/eccentricities:
Philosophy of life/motto:
Positive traits:
Negative traits:
Things that upset them:
Things that embarrass them:
Things that make them happy:
This character is highly opinionated about:
Any phobias? --
Superstitions:
Deepest, darkest secret:
Reason they have kept this secret for so long:
Where do they live? What is it like there? --
Description of their home:
Description of their room:
Family (describe):
Any pets? --
Other people's opinions of this character:
Favourite bands/songs/types of music:
Favourite movies/TV shows:
Favourite books:
Favourite foods:
Favourite sports/sports teams:
Dream holiday:
Best thing that has ever happened to this character:
Worst thing that has ever happened to this character:
Three words to describe this character:
If a song played every time this character walked into a room, what song would it be? --
Favorite ice cream flavor: