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 my newest novel, Valeska, is this: 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 power of entertaining in writing is the imagination. It is first, the imagination of the author, and second, the imagination of the reader. If the imagination of the writer isn't engaged, there is absolutely no hope for the writing, but if the imagination of the reader isn't engaged, there is no way to immerse the reader in the world of the writing. I've written extensively about the author, but what about the reader's imagination. How might the author work to ensure the reader is immersed in the writing?
The answer is simple, and I think it is easy to do. You can't show or tell too much, and that includes description. I seem to spend most of my time trying to get authors to spend enough time on descriptions. Most inexperience (and some experienced) authors do way to much telling and don't give enough description to anyone or any thing. So, to reiterate, always introduce every person, place, and important thing with 100 to 300 words of description. Notice, I didn't tell you to introduce every person, place, and important thing with 1000 words of description. There is a serious problem for writing with description to this level of detail.
If you describe people, places, and things with too much detail, you run the risk of not engaging the imagination of your readers too much. You also run the risk of losing the power of imagination in your readers. These are not the same topic or the same problem.
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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