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.
The use of imagination is started by the writer and continued by the reader. If the writer doesn't have much imagination, the writing isn't going anywhere. I have written about building up your imagination--perhaps I should write about that again.
To immerse yourself in the world of your writing, you must have a very good imagination. You don't build imagination by copying, but you do build imagination through unique ideas set in realism. What I mean by that is that all writing is not imagination. This is why setting is so important. I build my settings from real life. Even in my science fiction and fantasy (I haven't written much fantasy), I start with something I know. I like historical fiction best because I can place it in the real world and build the plot and theme with imagination. Think of it this way, by using (and reusing) elements you know well or that you can research, you begin to establish a world that looks, feels, tastes, smells, and sounds real. Notice, I used all five senses to describe the elements.
If you need to imagine a kitchen scene--don't make up one. Go to your kitchen, or to a kitchen like the one you imagine or look at a picture. Build the scene from the picture and from what you know about that kitchen. Bring in the scents, feeling, temperature, sounds, etc. Build a scene setting that is like the one you want and apply minimal imagination to develop it. Why waste your imagination on something so trivial that you can see in the real world? Use your imagination for things that rarely if ever happened in the real world. Thus, in Valeska, I don't need to imagine Gdansk--I need to imagine the life, thoughts, and actions of a vampire and a British agent. There's more.
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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