Writing Ideas - New Novel, part 439, Historical Extrapolation Creativity and Entertainment in Scenes Developing the Rising Action

23 June 2015, Writing Ideas - New Novel, part 439, Historical Extrapolation Creativity and Entertainment in Scenes Developing the Rising Action

Announcement: Delay, my new novels can be seen on the internet, but the publisher has delayed all their fiction output due to the economy.  I'll keep you informed.  More 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.

Today's Blog: To see the steps in the publication process, visit my writing website http://www.ldalford.com/ and select "production schedule," you will be sent to http://www.sisteroflight.com/.

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 shuttle pilot not following the rules crashes on the island.

Here is the cover proposal for Lilly: Enchantment and the Computer.  Lilly is my 24th novel.

Cover Proposal

The most important scene in any novel is the initial scene, but eventually, you have to move to the rising action.  I've just started on the next major run-through of my novel, Escape.

I'm an advocate of using the/a scene input/output method to drive the rising action--in fact, to write any novel. 

Scene development:
1.  Scene input (easy)
2.  Scene output (a little harder)
3.  Scene setting (basic stuff)
4.  Creativity (creative elements of the scene)
5.  Tension (development of creative elements to build excitement)
6.  Release (climax of creative elements)

I can immediately discern three ways to invoke creativity:

1.  History extrapolation
2.  Technological extrapolation
3.  Intellectual extrapolation

Creativity is like an extrapolation of what has been.  It is a reflection of something new created with ties to the history, science, and logic (the intellect).  Creativity requires consuming, thinking, and producing. 

In a historically  based novel, the main focus is historical extrapolation to develop creativity.  The point of creativity isn't necessarily to develop something that has never been seen of known before, but to develop something new from something in the past.  I keep going back to the Bram Stoker example and Dracula.  Dracula was not a new idea.  Tying Dracula with a vampire was not necessarily a new idea.  Writing a gothic horror novel about a vampire was a new idea.  The new idea was making a novel about a vampire. 

You might ask, why didn't anyone else write a novel about a vampire.  Who knows.  Likely no one else was ready, willing, or able to write such a novel.  Bram Stoker just had the idea and put it all together.  The novel itself flowed out of his idea. 

The point here is that with every day in human existence, new ideas for novels are created.  The trick of the novelist is to take an idea and create a novel out of it.  My novels and ideas spring out of mythology.  Almost all of my modern historical novels touch on mythology in the modern world.  My science fiction novels generally touch on way future tech, or like my newest novel, Escape, on retro science fiction.  These novels require technological extrapolation.                 

More tomorrow.

For more information, you can visit my author site http://www.ldalford.com/, and my individual novel websites:

http://www.ancientlight.com/
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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