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.
I've mentioned this before, when you develop a theme for a novel, you should develop a unique theme. Themes that are not very unique will not go anywhere with today's readers or today's publishers. If your theme isn't unique, you will not be able to compete in the novel marketplace.
I know already what you will say--every theme has been used before and none are unique. I used to believe that too--I think it is completely untrue. Look at the theme statement above--that's a pretty unique theme statement. I'm not sure anyone has written a novel like that before. I'm not sure anyone has written using the themes I did for many of my novels. I will not go into the detail I did before about writing theme statements, but I will note for you that a single word theme such as redemption, has been used over and over again. This is why I think single word themes are not very useful. Although redemption is the theme of many of my novels, the single word "redemption" is not enough to describe their themes.
In trying to define redemption, I have written about gods and goddesses. I've written about demi-gods and demi-goddesses. I've written about dragons and a phoenix. I've written about undead and demons. I've written about sorcery and magic. In most classic themes about redemption, all the beings and ideas I listed would be on the evil and unredeemable list. In my novels, I explore the possibility of the redemption of these creatures and of regular people as well. Perhaps it would help to define a redemption theme.
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
No comments:
Post a Comment