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
If you can determine what a person is thinking through their actions and response, then can you see other hidden things in the world? The Greek answer is--yes. They concluded that if you can use logic to see into the minds and motivations of people, then you could use logic to see into the hidden parts of the universe. The Greek view of the world is a little different than our own.
Greeks started with the plenum of everything and within it placed the Kosmos. The Kosmos was the created universe. They weren't certain who or what created the universe, but the Kosmos was part of it. Within the Kosmos was the Philosophia. The Philosophia is a little different than our view of philosophy. Philosophy to the Greeks did not mean "love of knowledge." It was something else. Phileo is the love humans can have--the love of man. Sophia is "what is knowable." Philosophia is the bounded universe that humans can understand. Within the Philosophia is the physical world. Thus, in the Greek mind, the physical world can be understood with science (empiricism) and legal-historical methods, but everything outside of the physical world, but within Philosophia requires logic. Thus, both their and our view of logic and philosophy.
To the Greeks philosophy includes the study of the physical world, but it also includes the study of everything that humans can know. Logic was required to exceed the bounds of the physical world's understanding. Thus, the Greeks believed they could use logic to understand about the gods and then God. They used logic to define gods and God. They used logic to delve into the mysteries of the universe. They used logic to develop mathematics--actually geometry. Logic, in the eyes of the Greeks was the only means to see past the physical world into the rest of the Philosophia.
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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