Announcement: I heard from my publisher that my Aegypt novels will continued to be titled Ancient Light and that the next two books will be called Sister of Light and Sister of Darkness. These were the original titles. They will be released individually and as a 3 in 1 volume. I saw the proposed cover. 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:
Let's talk about the craft of writing. I'm talking about grammar and style. Bet you thought style was that special skill of the writer--well that is one type of style, but not the style I'm writing about. What I mean by style is the manual of style that defines capitalization, the writing of numbers, grammar usage, punctuation, word usage, and spelling. You thought your English and grammar teacher taught you everything--didn't you? Well he didn't unless he mentioned about style in professional writing.
If you want to be a professional in any field, start studying. One of the problems with people today, is that they are not willing to put much sweat equity into their desires. If you want to be a writer, you have to work at it. I don't mean you write an hour a day and call it good. I mean, you give up TV and other worthless mind-numbing trash and spend hours and hours working at writing. If you don't understand about writing style, I suggest you study it. If you are not writing about four or more hours a day, I suggest you start. Turn off the boob-tube and turn on your creativity. Dedicate yourself to writing, you may achieve something.
I'll mention again, the rule of thumb for success or extraordinary competency in any field is about 10,000 hours of experience. For writing, this is about one million words. When you have written one million words (about 8 to 10 novels), you may be at about the level of competency in writing. Until then, you are just one of the many who have desires, but with little to show for it.
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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