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.
So, let me make this very clear--first you develop your characters. This is what I tried to show you about the vampire and the agent. I designed and developed each character before I began to write the initial scene. Following the initial scene, in the rising action, I reveal the character that was developed.
Let's talk about the scene next to the initial scene and then following. This will help us explore how revelation of a character works. At the end of my first scene, the vampire, Heidi is her given (German) name and Valeska is her Polish name, has disappeared. The agent, George Mardling is unconscious, but alive--the reader is left with an ambiguity that he survives. This is a classic, and the correct, means of writing a scene. A scene is set (the setting), a rising action, a climax, and a falling action. Scenes don't necessarily have a dénouement. This means that a scene can and should always have some kind of unresolved action--this is called a cliffhanger. A cliffhanger doesn't have to be like the one in my vampire novel--it doesn't have to be about life and death. It can be a simple unresolved question or point. For example, the character can simply ask a question that will be resolved in the novel, or there can be an obvious break in the conversation with a wrap-up that leads to the next scene. The group makes a plan and the next scene they execute it. This is one way of stating that the end of one scene introduces the beginning of the next scene. Since George loses consciousness at the end of the first scene, we can expect a funeral or a hospital scene (or something in between. I chose a hospital scene.
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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