Zoe and Theia were both trembling a little as they knocked on Athena's door. It swung open without help, revealing a small, sparsely furnished office. Apparently Athena didn't hold with decorations.

Unlike Apollo, the goddess of wisdom seemed to be on top of everything. She wasn't wearing a jersey, at least. She studied both writers critically as they came in.

"You are from the Veritas?"

"Um, yeah." Unsure if they were suitable representatives, Theia waited next to one of the metal kitchen chairs that faced Athena's desk. The room had the feeling of a jail.

"You've expanded, then. But what about Honest101, Jason Strong, JetLinkon…"

"Gone," Zoe said glumly.

"But we've got Encre, Kal…" Theia added. "And Storm's back. Kind of. Sort of. For now."

Athena squinted at her face. "Are you Theia? The one who showed me as an insensitive jerk?"

"Um, you kinda caught my main character's sister and turned her against the MC."

Theia received several seconds of icy stare before Athena seemed to decide to put the matter behind her. "True. Now. You wished to discuss plot?"

Zoe took the lead. "Yep. We've been seeing too many recycled plots. Kid goes to cap, kid gets quest, kid gets hooked up and kid saves the world."

"That sounds like Percy's story" Athena winced as she said the name.

"That's why it's become a cliché."

Athena nodded earnestly. "Plotting is like a battle plan." A piece of paper and a uniball pen appeared on the table out of nowhere, and the goddess drew two circles on opposite ends. "This one is where they start, and the other is the end. And here," she drew a squiggly line between them, "is the bridge from place to place."

Theia pointed her webcam at the drawing and took a picture.

"Name a story," Athena demanded of Zoe.

"Um, Titan's Curse."

"And a fanfiction."

"Um… Years of our Titans."

"Good. So. Titans curse." Athena had taken on the tone of an English teacher assigning her class a new essay format. "We start out with—" wince "—Percy at Westover. Annabeth falls off a cliff." Athena drew arrows pointing to two spots on the timeline, and labeled them "W.H." and "Cliff" in flawless calligraphy.

"You can mark all the important points, and how they relate. See? Artemis disappears here, which relates back a few pages to where she left in search of the monster." She drew a dotted line between the two lines on the chart. "And we can draw a dotted line from Thorn disappearing over the cliff to Thorn reappearing in San Fran. Bianca's death links to Nico's running away." Soon the page is full of dotted lines, and it's starting to look like less of an outline and more like chickenscratch, connecting random points. "It should all be connected, with no lose ends. It only takes a few lose ends to unravel the tightly woven fabric that is your story."

Their remembered that Athena was the goddess of the loom.

"Now, we look at the Years of our Titans."Athena flipped the paper over.

"We start with the Titans in control, and end with the Titans losing. But we have all this space in between. And see? We have these major events—" she fills in part of tie timeline "—but they don't relate. It's just moving forward, ignoring what was behind it. Whole characters disappear. You want something tighter, more like Titans Curse."

"Outlining is good," Theia agreed.

"Yes. Know, or at least have a general idea of where your story is going before you start. More ideas, maybe even story changing ideas, may come along the way, of course."

"When Storm started Wasted Wishss and Silver Scythe she had no idea where they were going." Zoe said tentatively.

"Well." Athena folded the outline paper crisply. "That explains a lot."

"And what do you recommend to do about monsters?" Theia asked.

"Go to Google," Zoe and Athena said at the same time. Athena fell silent and let Zoe speak. "Google Greek monsters and try and find on that isn't used too much. Wiki works."

"Like your monsters, your plot has to be different from the norm too. Everything has been done before. What you need to do is to take an idea, make it different enough that it's memorable. Maybe instead of Ares, Aphrodite is the guilty party. Or Poseidon."

"I bet you'd love that," Zoe said before she could stop herself. Athena stared at her for several long seconds.

"It would be nothing but the truth."

"True…"

"But don't overcomplicate your plot, like James Patterson is guilty of doing. Remember. The plot is for the characters, the characters are not just pieces in your plot.

Think of a chess game. You move the piece depending on what it can do—you can't force the bishop to go in a straight line, and the pawn can't become a queen until it reaches the other side of the board."

Theia nodded, liking that analogy. "No easy outs," she added.

Athena's grey eyes brightened. "They may be saved by a random party ONCE. Don't make your characters randomly come back from the dead, ever. If they do there must be a reason. And don't have hawks come randomly out of the blue to help them, and you defiantly can't have them say 'Oh look at that' and run away. Like they do in all those Disney movies."

"Keep it realistic," Zoe agreed, and Theia summarized everything with a

DON'T WRITE LIKE MAXIMUM RIDE

In her notes.

"And it's not just with escapes. Don't switch it to AU in the middle. Don't make Percy and Ares best friends. Don't throw something really weird in. Don't stretch people's powers. Thalia can't fly." Theia said passionately. "I mean, C'mon."

"Yeah," Zoe sighed. "But don't make it so realistic and bland that no one cares. Or clichés. Sheva and Storm are talking to Ares about clichés next."

When Athena stood, it was without any warning. Thankfully she was human sized. "I'm running late for my next appointment—I said I'd go try and save the Seattle Public Schools, but I think it's a lost cause. Good luck with the Godly Guide. Now please close your eyes."

They did, and the room burned bright for a few seconds before Athena disappeared.

"We survived," Zoe grinned. "Think Storm and Sheva are done?"

"Don't know." Theia opened the door and stuck her head into the hall. The door to Apollo's study was still closed.

"Guess not. Who do we have next?"

"Hermes," Theia said instantly, having already had this drilled into her by Storm. "But it's not for a bit. Come on. Let's go catch George a rat."

O-o

This chapter was a little shorter but I didn't have as much to say on plot as I did on character.

Encre—Thanks! I try and keep them all IC as best I can.

Babykelly—I hope so. That's what it's here for.

You Know Who—Macs are NOT better. Don't get me started. And sure. If you pay me back.

Awsome-O—Um, the character and grammar stuff is highly recommended. You don't need to follow my outlining strategy if you don't want to. I'm not sure what you're asking…?

Luna—I assume you meant 'his'? And yeah. He's a bit egotistic.

Theia—no worries. You don't let anyone insult your hobo jacket. You and Aphrodite have an interesting conversation coming. I'll fix the typos.

Fishpony—I don't even try and write haiku. I think it would just make it worse.

IamAbotticelli—Glad I'm of help.

Kal—'twas. I had my font really tiny to keep people from reading over my shoulder, so I miss some stuff.

ThePersonaNonGrata—Thanks! And I love your username.