Announcement: My new novels should be available from any webseller or can be ordered from any brick and mortar bookstore. Information can be found at www.ancientlight.com. Check out my novels--I think you'll really enjoy them.
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.
There are three ways to know truth: the scientific method, the historical-witness method, and logic. The three tests used for all documentary evidence in history are: the bibliographical test, the internal test, and the external test. Let's see how we can use these tests.
If you remember the mathematical proofs you had to do in geometry, you know how to develop a logical proof. You start with definitions. It looks like this:
1. Define the terms
2. State assumptions
3. Produce proof
4. Logical conclusion
Let's look at some logical proofs from the ancient world. One of the most famous is Zeno's paradox. Zeno proposed this paradox. If you are going to Athens, you must first travel half the distance, but you must travel half that distance, and you must travel half that distance so on and on. Ultimately, the question is how can you move at all? The answer, we know today is found in the integration of an infinite asymptotic equation. The area under the curve is a finite real number. This provides a mathematical solution to a very old paradox. The mathematical solution wasn't possible until the invention of integration by Sir Roger Newton. The only real solution to the problem is logical that is mathematical.
The ancients realized there were solutions in logic that must be solvable--in fact, they solved quite a few of them. One of the greatest solutions was the geometric solution (proof) called the Pythagorean Theorem. We don't know how the Greeks solved it without algebra--they did. We are not certain how the Egyptians solved Pi geometrically--they did. The point is that logic allows the solution of problems that can't be solved in the physical world. This was the huge jump in philosophical thinking in the ancient world that led first to mystereum and then to Gnosticism. This huge jump led to the realization that logic could be used to solve other problems in the real world that can't be solved in the physical world. The easiest of these problems are thoughts and emotions.
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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