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.
I'll describe an example of how to set up a discovery conversation in a concurrent scene that doesn't include the protagonist. Like every scene, you simply set it (description), set the characters in it (description), then set them loose in the scene (conversation and action). In this case, we are writing about conversation. You could have a couple of characters get together for drinks at a bar to discuss business and their conversation sways toward the background of your protagonist.
Their discussion could center around their school day remembrances of the protagonist or their business operations or their personal experience. They could be school-mates, business partners, friends or lovers. They could be friends, lovers, enemies, ex-friends, ex-lovers. I hope you are getting ideas. The point of this "discovery" is to present something to the readers that they didn't know or realize about the protagonist--the level of truth is up to the author.
We are used to "truth" for some reason in writing and can't seem to even imagine the characters might be misleading us. Think of this, if we wish our writing to be like the real world, there will be little "truth" in it. If we wish to idealize the world, there will be nothing but "truth" in it. I've written before that novels idealize the world for the purpose of entertainment--that doesn't mean everything is true.
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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