The Hong Kong space port, a drakonage, and antigrav boots

Stealing a baby dragon is easier than you'd think. Especially if you've been put on community service at a drakonage, a shelter for stray dragons and close-to-hatching dragon eggs. Stealing the right dragon: that's tricky, as Ezekiel shortly discovers.


Check out the science-fiction short story, "Ugly Drakeling"
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Bo Miranda

Writer, storyteller, grammatician

According to Bo, a great story must be so well imagined and told it shows us the truth that is hard to spot amongst the clutter of the real world. She attempts this time and again with varying success, throwing her favourite fantasy creatures and technological inventions into the mix for good measure.

She has been reading and writing furiously ever since she first learned to make sense of the squiggly lines on paper, and through thousands of German books she devoured in her childhood and English books savoured in her teens she has taught herself a lot about language, style, and two different grammar systems (three, if you count her native Swiss German).

Today, she writes in English, but even so she still draws inspiration from many of the German literary masters whose eloquence and stylistic brilliance first awed her.

Her short story "Ugly Drakeling" is available on amazon.

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Bo's Secret Story Recipe

 
 

Ingredients

  • 1 determined protagonist
  • several complicated supporting characters
  • an overwhelming problem to solve
  • some mystery or a dark secret
  • a surprising plot
  • an invented world
  • (optional) fictional technology
  • (optional) mix and match favourite fantasy tropes
  • (optional) a love interest
  • (optional) a Big Bad
  • Secret Ingredient *

Instructions

  1. Start off with the fictitious world you built
  2. Introduce your protagonist
  3. Present your protagonist with the overwhelming problem
  4. Have them set out with their determination to overcome the obstacle
  5. Have them meet one or more of the complicated supporting characters
  6. (optional) If you are adding a love interest, start your romantic subplot here
  7. In the pursuit of problem-solving, introduce the mystery and/or hint at the dark secret
  8. (optional) If you are adding a Big Bad, you may want to sacrifice a supporting character here to establish the Big Bad's "badness"
  9. Sprinkle in plot twists
  10. Tie everything together in a startling finale
  11. Garnish with fantasy tropes and technological gimmicks to taste **
  12. Let set ***
  13. Enjoy! ****
 
 

RECIPE NOTES

* Secret Ingredient is not listed because, you know, secret

** Bonus points if you put an unexpected spin on your chosen trope and use the technological inventions in meaningful ways

*** Once the story has set, go over it and rework as needed

**** For the best result, don't forget to spellcheck and edit before you serve to readers!