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 25th novel, working title, Escape, is this: a girl in a fascist island nation will do anything to escape--a young cargo ferry pilot not following the rules crashes on the island.
This theme statement lends itself well to each part of the development of a novel. Note, there is a setting, an initial scene, protagonist, protagonist helper, antagonist, and the climax is obvious. Let's talk about each.
More small digression: I'm now on a demo tour in the AT-6 to Paraguay. I'm writing from Colon Ecuador. In fact, I'm in the Hilton Presidential Suite--I think they mixed me up with someone...
I mentioned that I like to let a novel write itself. The point of this is not to force the writing in one way or another, but to build the world from the setting. The details come out of the writing itself.
Let's put it this way. If you sat down and tried to develop on paper a world as complex as say Dune. You would find this to be an impossibility. The complexities and the details are not usually written by the author and then placed in the novel. The author develops a complex "world" by building the setting and the thinking about it. I'm can't speak for Frank Herbert, but I can speak for myself.
When I need a spaceship, I don't pull one from my notes on the science fiction world--I build it from the science fiction world. I know this well. I've already written a group of novels about the far future of my Chronicles of the Dragon and the Fox world. I know the planets in that "world." There area couple of planets that produce spaceships. The spaceship of that "world" are based on principles from the setting and science of that world--this is not to say it isn't an extrapolation of the future based on real science, but rather that the science in the world I created is already an extrapolation. The spaceships of the different eras in this science fiction universe look and operate in ways defined by the extrapolated science. This fiction universe is just one way the future could look. I'll discuss this further.
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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