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:
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.
In showing and not telling--don't show anything that is not visible to the reader or obvious in the context. If it is obvious, there is no reason to show (or tell) it. Your job as an author isn't to become the imagination of your readers, but to stimulate the imagination of your readers. Too little stimulation is a terrible book--too simplistic and bland. Too much stimulation is tedious. In simple terms too little scene setting and description ruins a novel because the author doesn't give enough to the reader. Too much scene setting and description ruins a novel because the reader doesn't have the time, freedom, and proper stimulation to excite her imagination. They will be bored by the tedium of slogging through all the description. If you don't think this is a problem just go read some novelists of this stripe. I don't think you will be pleased.
The point is to strike a balance between too little and too much. The average beginning writer never, I repeat, never provides enough description or scene setting. So, if you haven't already written about eight novels, you are likely not in the too much description and scene setting group. If you don't know what I'm writing about when I write scene setting and description, you likely need some help there.
On the other hand, if you are a very experienced writer and your novels are topping 200,000 or more words--you might have a little problem with being too verbose. I'll draw it down a little. If you are writing novels of longer than 150,000 words, you might have a problem with too much description. Of course, it might be that you just have some pretty complex novel writing skills, but more than 150,000 words is too long.
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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