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:
If you describe people, places, and things with too much detail, you run the risk of not engaging the imagination of your readers enough. You also run the risk of losing the power of imagination in your readers. These are not the same topic or the same problem.
As the author of novels, your first job is entertaining. You accomplish entertainment by engaging the imaginations of your readers to see generally what you see. Notice, I didn't say to see exactly what you see. Your readers will never be able to see exactly what you see--this is a huge problem in writing. It is one I've discussed in detail before. What I haven't discussed very much is that you can describe in too much detail--you can show or tell too much.
Look at my rules three through five:
3. Ground your readers in the writing.
4. Don't show (or tell) everything.
5. Immerse yourself in the world of your writing.
These all relate to the imagination of your readers. Grounding means to set each scene and to write in such a way that your readers are not thrown out of your writing. The setting and the writing are intended to jump start the imagination of your readers. I have given all kinds of tricks and ideas on setting and the writing. I'll do more in the future. Suffice to say, you must get your reader into the scene--you can do this best by the setting.
The second point is to not show or tell everything. You want to engage the imagination of your readers so you don't need to give every gory detail. One of the best example given about this it Ernst Hemingway's short story Great White Hunter. I think that is the title. In it, the wife accidentally shoots her husband in the back of the head with an Elephant Gun. Hemingway doesn't describe any of the wounds--he leaves it to the reader's imagination.
The third rule is to immerse yourself. I'll stop here and take the time to break down these areas in regard to the reader's imagination in more detail.
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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