I've created an outline for my most recent story, The Tracking of the Sickle Moon, but I'm not quite satisfied when it comes to the order of final events. [An overview] Essentially, trolls. The protagonist, Atruna, has lived in a small village overlooked in the face of the human invasion upon trollfolk, a holocaust of sorts. When her village is invaded, she is taken to a prison camp. The other main character, Nio, is a troll who, orphaned from birth, had grown up among humans but fled upon the first signs of war. he disguises himself as a human in the ranks of their army, but is soon taken to the same prison camp. [Three points of the ending] These are what I'm unsure of, as to the order of events: Long after his departure, Nio hears that (as a result of climatic events) Atruna is gravely ill: - Nio had torn the sickle moon from the sky, forming it into a scythe to use as a weapon in the war. Upon his return, Atruna begs him to give it back to the sky so that the moon may be full again. - Before he returns it, he uses it to gather herbs in hopes of healing her (something of a throwback to beginning events) -Trolls keep a name of power 'safely tucked between the first name and surname'. Anyone who knows this name will have control over the troll's powers. Nio asks Atruna of her name, once more hoping that he may use her powers to save her life. She tells him. She asks for his, but he has long since forgotten. The ending is to be left open to interpretation as for what happens to Atruna and Nio. I've done a rather poor job of explaining it, I'm afraid. I apologize for that.
Hm... I would suggest Nio had first used the sickle moon as a weapon, but he started using it to gather the herbs when he heard Atruna was ill. Or after visiting her, perhaps. She then asks him to put the moon back, and he does. Maybe this can have something to do with her healing? Not sure where the name-thing comes in, though you might want to put that earlier in the story to give it more of a point.
You need to turn it over in your head for a while. Or you could just start writing, and see where it takes you. What you should not do is fall back on others to finish your story for you.
You're the writer, and as much as I'd like to help, only YOU know what would fit best. Try rolling the ideas around in your head, see which ones would be a larger priority to Nio. Let the characters figure it out for you, but if they're at a crossroad then you can figure it out for yourself. Try the different orders out and see which you like best.
As long as the ending isn't too open, right? :s Open endings are a sometimes food, so far as I'm concerned. The name of power thing? That makes little sense to me. I don't even know how that would work. Would family create it? If not, how would they even know what it was? I mean, if there are other plot events where it matters, go for it, but it seems a bit silly to add that in just for the main character to be like, "Oh, I forgot. MY BAD." The tearing the sickle moon out of the sky? That's awesome. It'd be even cooler if people were around to see him do it, and then they start a legend where they say that he was ten feet tall (or more, whatever), he pulled the moon down, killed a bunch of people, then cut the herbs with the blood-stained blade and it made the herbs RED. *Stare* THAT WOULD BE GREAT. But yeah. Other than the names thing, it sounds like you've got a pretty okay outline. Good stuff.
