Writing Ideas - New Novel, part 450, start Questions and Answers Developing the Rising Action

4 July 2015, Writing Ideas - New Novel, part 450, start Questions and Answers 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 26th novel, working title, Shape, is this: Mrs. Lyons captures a shape-shifting girl in her pantry and rehabilitates her.

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 started writing Shape.

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. 

One of my blog readers posed these questions.  I'll use the next few weeks to answer them.

1.  Conflict/tension between characters
2.  Character presentation (appearance, speech, behavior, gestures, actions)
3.  Change, complexity of relationship, and relation to issues/theme
4.  Evolving vs static character
5.  Language and style
6.  Verbal, gesture, action
7.  Words employed
8.  Sentence length
9.  Complexity
10.  Type of grammar
11.  Diction
12.  Field of reference or allusion
13.  Tone
14.  Mannerism suggest by speech
15.  Style
16.  Distinct manner of writing or speaking you employ, and why (like Pinter's style includes gaps, silences, non-sequitors, and fragments while Chekhov's includes 'apparent' inconclusiveness).
17.  Intro the concepts to my boys, using Homer's Illiad, chp 4-7.
18.  Looking for a logical framework for their lit. analysis, or, even tricks, traps & techniques you've employed, as deconstruction/analyis & 'imitation' of good writings

I want to start with 18.  Looking for a logical framework for their lit. analysis, or, even tricks, traps & techniques you've employed, as deconstruction/analyis & 'imitation' of good writings

I've discovered the only way to imitate good writing is not to actually imitate a style, method, or means, but rather in two ways.  The first is familiarity with writing and the second is in the development of creative ideas.  I don't believe you can truly imitate good writing.  Writing is too complex.  The only way to absorb the skills of writing is to write yourself and to use ideas on writing.  For example, in this blog I gave some basic rules and ideas for writing good conversation.  I think you could read great conversation every day for 100 years and not be able to write good conversation.  On the other hand--if you read and understand the 10 short basics of good conversation I gave you, you can begin the practice of writing good conversation.  You will arrive at quality conversation a few years earlier than if you just wrote on your own. I suspect you can gain some good skills in writing by carefully observing a great writer's work, but there are problems with that--especially with ancient writing.  The Illiad is way before the true advent of modern literature (the New Testament Gospels).  The Gospels are the first literature to mix narrative with quotations--this is the beginning of modern literature.  This mix of quote with narrative allows the writer to move from being a storyteller to a storyshower.  Novelists don't tell stories, they show stories.  This is a huge difference, and you can't get this from ancient literature.

You can get creativity.  I've been writing about creativity, and I left up the three means of creative development above.  Creativity means the extrapolation of previous ideas to create new ideas.  You can easily get this from the Illiad or any ancient text.  Take a great idea from the text and modernize it or make it new and different.  That's what I do.  I don't usually do this directly from another text, but Aksinya was an semi-allegory based on the Book of Tobit.  That's about as direct an extrapolation as you can get.      

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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