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.
You use the three means to know truth to provide the proof text in your writing. If you have a scientist using the scientific method to prove a point--there it is. If you have an historian using the legal-historical method to prove a point--there it is. If you use logic to draw the points together, you have won your readers--as long as your argument makes sense. The is the entire point in providing you this information--this enables you to build truth for your writing and for your readers.
On the other hand, if you want to make some mischief--intentionally, you can misuse the same means to proof to distract your readers or to make a character's witness false. So, if a scientist tries to use the scientific method on a non-repeating event, you just showed that scientist to be a fraud or a liar. Likewise, if an historian tries to appeal to empiricism or the scientific method to prove a non-repeating event--you have declared the person to be a fake. Your readers may or may not get the niceties of such careful declarations--you might need to show them. They power in this is that you can do so. I used this as a proof method in one of my very newest fun novels called Khione. Khione uses the legal-historical method to prove something very specific in history. I show the reader through conversation, emails, and notes about the legal-historical method and the logical conclusions from the professors and students. That brings us to logic.
You may definitely have to note to your readers when the logic is off, but using poor logic or misunderstanding logic can be a wonderful way to point at a problem with a character. Like I mentioned before, all this is to give confidence or lack of confidence to your readers about the truthfulness of information revealed concerning a protagonist.
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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