Announcement: I received the proofs and a three-day deadline to give comments. One of my regular prepub readers and I went through the three book. I was able to correct some second edition issues in Aegypt. The proposed cover and info can be found at www.ancientlight.com. I'll keep you updated. I should have three new books out soon.
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 purpose of a novel is to reveal the protagonist and usually the protagonist's helper, the author needs to place them in circumstance that allows them to reveal themselves. The means can be conversation, exploration, discovery, other's conversation, confession, accidental discovery.
You can see point of view is a very important concept in writing and in "real" life. I showed you the concept of the description of beauty in POV because I wanted you to see that although the POV of the source is useful in revelation of a character, the reader (and the writer) always must take into account the POV. What one POV thinks is beauty another POV might see as ugly. The POV is never omniscient and the POV is never unbiased. That said, POV other than the protagonist is still very valuable to your writing. I would say, the ambiguity makes it more valuable. Some might say the difference in POV makes it valuable. I agree with both, but everyone should realize, different POV is just another means of conveying important revelation about your characters.
Now to other's conversations specifically. The use of other's conversations is for the author to convey character revelation or important plot ideas (plot revelation) that would not otherwise be known about the protagonist or the protagonist's helper. Obviously, unless you use the idea of a foreign language conversation in front of an ignorant (lf the language) protagonist, an other's conversation should take place in a separate scene that doesn't include the protagonist or the protagonist's helper. It could potentially include the protagonist's helper as one of the participants. The participants conversation should be about information concerning the protagonist (or protagonist's helper) concerning the ideas the author wants to convey to the reader. Obviously, in this context, the revelation is now known to the reader, but the protagonist might not realize her secrets have been made known. If the reveled information is a secret, the writer has set up the tension for a discovery release (a revelation) the protagonist was not expecting. Let's just say, as I've described before, the knowledge given to the readers concerning a juicy revelation is an automatic setup for a turning point in the novel. These make very powerful scenes and release or tension devices in the plot.
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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