Writing Ideas - New Novel, part 446, more Scene Development Creativity and Entertainment in Scenes Developing the Rising Action

30 June 2015, Writing Ideas - New Novel, part 446, more Scene Development 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. 

Let's approach scene development from the standpoint of extrapolation.  In this case, we will be extrapolating the character revelation, plot, and theme of the novel.  That is, to develop scenes (ideas) for the rising action, we take the already developed characters and extrapolate their actions into the future.  The point is to develop the plot and reveal the theme. 

So, in shape what will the characters do?  I already started this down a plot path in the rising action.  The beginning was the initial scene.  In the initial scene, Mrs. Lyons caught a naked girl in her pantry eating her ham.  She confronted and tried to capture the girl in the pantry, but accidentally knocked her out.  This is in itself entertaining and exciting--it's a great initial scene. 

The next scene extrapolates creatively from the initial scene--it also uses the initial scene's output.  The output of the initial scene is that Mrs. Lyons has a naked, unconscious girl in her pantry.  The obvious question is what will she do about that?  A normal person might call the constable and that is that.  Mrs. Lyons is a little different.  She has never had her own children, but she has taken care of many of her friends children and grand children.  She calls them her adopted grands and greats.  Mrs. Lyons has always had a thing about helping children and especially girls get back on track.  Second, Mrs. Lyons' friends are not your regular kinds of people.  Mrs. Lyons has pretended most of her life to ignore the special capabilities of her friends and their children, but she knows...that is the basis for her actions about the girl.           

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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