Announcement: There is action on my new novels. The publisher renamed the series--they are still working on the name. I provided suggestions as did one of my prepub readers. Now the individual books will be given single names: Leora, Leila, Russia, Lumiere', China, Sveta, and Klava--at least these are some of the suggestions. They are also working on a single theme for the covers. I'll keep you updated.
Introduction: I wrote the novel Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon. This was my 21st novel and through this blog, I gave you the entire novel in installments that included commentary on the writing. In the commentary, in addition to other general information on writing, I explained, how the novel was constructed, the metaphors and symbols in it, the writing techniques and tricks I used, and the way I built the scenes. You can look back through this blog and read the entire novel beginning with http://www.pilotlion.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-novel-part-3-girl-and-demon.html.
I'm using this novel as an example of how I produce, market, and eventually (we hope) get a novel published. I'll keep you informed along the way.
The four plus one basic rules I employ when writing:
1. Don't confuse your readers.
2. Entertain your readers.
3. Ground your readers in the writing.
4. Don't show (or tell) everything.
5. Immerse yourself in the world of your writing.
All novels have five discrete parts:
1. The initial scene (the beginning)
2. The rising action
3. The climax
4. The falling action
5. The dénouement
The theme statement of this new novel is: An agent of the organization becomes involved with a vampire girl during a mission, she becomes dependent on the agent, and she is redeemed.
The point I am trying to make to you is this: the theme is a critical aspect of any novel. The development of the theme is the meaning of authorship. Your themes need to be somewhat unique. The reason I am using a vampire in a novel is not to catch the wave of vampire based books, but rather because I was inspired by the idea of the possibility of redeeming a vampire and the idea of a vampire that was dependent on a human.
The second part is kind of simple. All vampires are dependent on humans--that is they must hunt and drink the blood of humans for survival. Here is part of the fleshing out of the vampire character and development. First, vampires in history and literature are defined by Bram Stoker's vampire Dracula. Bram Stoker invented, not the idea of the vampire, but rather the literary idea of the vampire.
Bram Stoker's vampires could not come out during the day. They drank human blood. They were seduced first by the vampire and then they were turned into a vampire by that seduction. They were immortal beings and they were spiritual beings. I used all the ideas from Bram Stoker's classical vampire to develop my vampire. I also clarified some points about vampires to develop my plot and the idea of dependency on a human rather than on humans in general.
With this theme statement I am ready to tackle the novel. The next step was to flesh out the characters and the setting.
More tomorrow.
For more information, you can visit my author site http://www.ldalford.com/, and my individual novel websites:
http://www.aegyptnovel.com/
http://www.centurionnovel.com
http://www.thesecondmission.com/http://www.theendofhonor.com/
http://www.thefoxshonor.com
http://www.aseasonofhonor.com
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