Okay, okay, I'm thinking up a prompt off the top of my head...

Get this:

So there's a Matoran civilization somewhere that has developed gunpowder, making it among the greatest military powers in the Domes, and it poses a threat to the greatest of them all... We'll call it... Rongo-Nui. So Rongo-Nui deploys a fleet of protosteel-clad warships to attack the other island and steal the formula for making gunpowder... But the other island is a massive Lightstone-mining facility, and it was the slaves that developed the gunpowder...

So the slaves send out a single Matoran to carry the formula to another land that the slaves have as an ally, and he has to go on a grand adventure to free his people and escape both the... Skakdi... That enslaved them in the mines and the Rongo-Nui warships.

There, that a good prompt? I made it up as I went along.

Ooh, sounds pretty good...I like the whole warship things, but I'm trying to keep the story kind of primitive, with swords and spears and the like.

Oi,

-Rohn

Kay... Here's a primitive version.

So there's a Matoran civilization somewhere that has developed sharpened bamboo, making it among the greatest military powers in the Domes, and it poses a threat to the greatest of them all... We'll call it... Rongo-Nui. So Rongo-Nui deploys a fleet of wood-clad warships to attack the other island and steal the formula for sharpening bamboo... But the other island is a massive Lightstone-mining facility, and it was the slaves that developed the bamboo...

So the slaves send out a single Matoran to carry the formula to another land that the slaves have as an ally, and he has to go on a grand adventure to free his people and escape both the... Skakdi... That enslaved them in the mines and the Rongo-Nui canoes.

...

Nah, don't use that...

Here's some tips:

Keep the amount of main characters low. I guess 6 Toa is standard, but you need to develop every main character, so watch out. And don't have a ton of characters in one chapter and try to develop them all at once, that won't work.

People will argue on whether or not you should make an outline. At the least it's good to know where you want it to end. I haven't written an outline yet but I'm thinking of it so I have a better sense than just in my mind.

Keep some mystery in it, with good writing. Don't give everything away at once, even if it just means expanding on that in the next paragraph. (I've been told I do that. Make you wonder what just happened and then you figure it out immediately following. It keeps the reader there.)

Hope this helps.

-CF