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.
Here is my proposed cover for Valeska:
The use of tags in the narrative can also be a powerful identifier as well as a clue to your readers. For example, I mentioned that a sign of nervousness in one of my characters in my unpublished novel, Khione was to draw his finger through his hair. If, in the narrative, he pulls his finger through his hair, the readers know he is nervous. This is part of the showing in description and action that I was writing about before. Your entire purpose as a writer is to show and not tell. Using a tag such as this in narrative shows your readers a lot about your character's frame of mind without telling anything.
This is what I mean about showing and not telling. This is also a classic writing trick of expressing the feelings of a character without telling the readers what is in the character's mind. I also want to relate all of this back to tension and release. If you tell me a character is scared--who cares. On the other hand, if the character shows signs of nervousness, if his hands are sweating, if his teeth are chattering, shazam, the character might just be scared. How much more power is there in description that leads the reader to a conclusion as opposed to telling the reader the conclusion. This is what I call an ah ha moment--this is obviously a small ah ha moment, but a natural one. There is much more that the author can do to develop such moments.
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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