Writing Ideas - New Novel, part 520, POV Details Character Complexity Q and A

12 September 2015, Writing Ideas - New Novel, part 520, POV Details Character Complexity Q and A

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).

Moving on to 3. 3.  Change, complexity of relationship, and relation to issues/theme

I'll repeat:

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   

Third, I know what they look like and who they are.   What do your characters look like?  I like to remind my readers what my protagonist and/or protagonist's helper looks like again near the middle of a novel.  The reason for this is to provide a second point of view (POV) and to help my readers remember the character again. 

Readers build a character in their minds-eye that may or may not be at odds with the writing.  You need to be careful with this to ensure your descriptions from the beginning and within the novel are consistent.  If they are not consistent, you will simply confuse your reader.  As long as all your descriptions match, the reader will just add these new details to what he knows about the character.  The result will be greater depth in understanding the character.  Here is an example from one of my unpublished Ancient Light novels:

The secretary smiled—she was rarely thanked for anything.  She took a surreptitious at her new director and was not sure what to think.  Svetlana Evgenyevna was not tall.  Her face was delicate with a slightly Ukrainian look.  Her eyes were faintly oriental, but her nose and lips were strong and fine.  They were not too sylphish to appear foxy nor too soft to appear naive.  In all her features blended to make the most astonishingly attractive face Lyubov had ever seen.  Svetlana was disconcertingly young.  Lyubov heard that she was only fifteen.  That seemed possible now that Lyubov had seen her in the flesh.  Svetlana was dressed like a Party official.  That in itself was odd for one so young.  Svetlana’s private secretary was a little less unusual.  Lyubov heard her name was Marya.  Like most secretaries, she was addressed with no patronymic or family name.  Marya was a thin, older woman with a finely wrinkled face as though she had aged much more than her years declared.  She walked with a firm step and watched everything carefully.  Lyubov noticed, Marya closely observed both her and Oleg.  After Lyubov served Svetlana, she left the tray on the sideboard and retreated out of the director’s office.  Lyubov immediately rushed to share her opinions with the other secretary in the office.  She had come closer than almost anyone in the building to the mysterious Svetlana Evgenyevna.

This is an example of a second POV description.  This enhances the narrative and reveals the characters in a new way.  In this case, a simple secretary observes Svetlana and Marya.  You can also use a secondary POV to initially describe your characters, but use this with caution--you must describe your primary characters as early as possible in your novels.  This usually means the initial scene.  Let's put it this way.  If your protagonist and protagonist's helper or antagonist do not make their appearance in the initial scene, you either picked the wrong scene to begin the novel or you picked the wrong characters to write about.

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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