NaNo Prep 2011 Day 2 - CONTEST ROUND

Write a background story about your protagonist. Make your readers relate to him or her in such a way that we would be devastated if he or she were to experience conflict (which, ultimately, sometime in November, he/she will.) The object of the contest is to make your judges root for your protagonist! Simply put: the character we like best wins. If your protagonist is an assassin or someone similarly "unlikeable," never fear! I love Vlad Taltos, the professional assassin (reference: "Dragaera" series by Steven Brust.) You can make us love your character, too.

Princess Alexandra was the only child of the King of Bellonia.  Her mother had died at her birth, leaving her father heartbroken.  Even so, the King loved his daughter very much, and attempted to give her everything her heart could desire.  As a small child, she wanted nothing more than friends.  So the King called for his wife’s sister and her family to come live at the castle, giving Alexandra the companionship of her cousin, Georgie.  He also allowed one of the Queen’s companions to remain after the Queen’s death, and her daughter Nell became Alexandra’s second companion.  The three children were raised together until the age of thirteen, when Nell’s mother died and she was sent to live with her grandmother.  This was also the age at which male children were sent away to school, and Georgie left as well.  And so Alexandra was left alone, missing her friends and discovering that her heart’s desire lay not in schoolroom games and talk of princess’ futures, but in something much larger.

Princess Alexandra wanted to become King.  It was not that she wanted her father’s death, but she wanted the right to rule the Kingdom of Bellonia.  She wanted the right of succession, the one thing her father could not, or would not give her. 

So deep was her yearning and her desire for this right, for this path, that she practiced all of the skills that a young prince would learn.  She learned archery and sword fighting and riding astride a horse as a male.  She sat in on important meetings regarding the workings of the Kingdom.  These she did not hide from her father, although she knew he did not quite approve of her choices.  What she did hide, however, were her visits to the attic, where she tried on the King’s old clothing, and practiced very hard to look and feel like a young man. 

In the three years that followed the departure of her companions, Alexandra grew more confident in her skills, more passionate about her desires, and more desperate than ever to convince her father that she was the right person to succeed him as King of Bellonia.  As the summer of her sixteenth birthday approached, she had made no headway in persuading the King.  In fact, the King had become desperate in his own way, to convince his daughter of the error of her ways.  And so he invited Nell and Georgie to visit for the summer, in an effort to help her become a proper princess.  At the end of the summer, there would be a birthday ball, at which all three youngsters would be celebrated.  Alexandra was excited to see her friends again, but feared their reactions to her hopes, her plans, her dreams.  Most of all, she loathed the idea of being made to stuff herself into a ball gown and be presented as a Princess with a capital P.