31 January 2016, Writing Ideas
- New Novel, part 660, Scene Development, Style 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.
4a. Show what can be seen, heard, felt, smelled, and tasted on the stage
of the novel.
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 Escape
from Freedom. Escape is my 25th novel.
 |
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Cover
Proposal
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The most important scene in any
novel is the initial scene, but eventually, you have to move to the rising
action. I’m editing many of my novels using comments from my primary
reader. I’m on Children of Light and Darkness at the moment.
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. Historical 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.
14. Mannerism suggested 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 15. 15.
Style
Woah—style
is huge. I just spent more than six
months defining style from almost every angle I could imagine. Here are
the elements I found for an author’s style.
1. Novel based style
a. Writing focus
b. Conversations
c. Scene development
d. Word use
e. Foreshadowing
f. Analogies
g. Use of figures of speech
h. Subthemes
I. Character revelation
j. Historicity
k. Real world ties
l. Punctuation
m. Character interaction
b. Conversations
c. Scene development
d. Word use
e. Foreshadowing
f. Analogies
g. Use of figures of speech
h. Subthemes
I. Character revelation
j. Historicity
k. Real world ties
l. Punctuation
m. Character interaction
2. Scene based style
a.
Time
b. Setting
c. Tension and release development
d. Revelation
e. Theme development
f. POV
b. Setting
c. Tension and release development
d. Revelation
e. Theme development
f. POV
Okay,
my style is to focus my writing on conversation (dialog). I am very opinionated about this because I
think it is a very good technique and a very successful approach. If you don’t believe me, just start reading
modern novels, or take a good look at your favorite novels. I’m just pointing out something that is a
fact—perhaps this “fact” was well known to you already, perhaps not. I’m going to move the conversation to another
element of style—scene development.
How
a scene is put together is a critical element of style. It is also a critical element of writing,
good or otherwise. In other words, one
of the first hurdles of the fiction writing profession is the skill of writing
a good scene. Most inexperienced writers
don’t know this because this is a skill that is rarely taught in a writing
class or at the university.
If
you don’t know already, all fiction writing is scene based. This is a simple fact. Some who write about writing break scene development
into other parts or pieces. This is
okay, but for my purposes, there are just scenes. In my world of writing, the scene is the
smallest functional piece of a novel.
Scenes make up chapters. Chapters
make up the novel. Here are definitions for
scene:
1. the place where an
incident in real life or fiction occurs or occurred.
"the emergency team were among the
first on the scene"
|
synonyms:
|
technicallocus
"the scene of
the accident"
|
§
a place, with the people, objects, and
events in it, regarded as having a particular character or making a particular
impression.
"a
scene of carnage"
§
a landscape.
"thick snow had turned the scene
outside into a picture postcard"
|
synonyms:
|
"an impressive
mountain scene"
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§
an incident of a specified nature.
"there had already been some scenes of
violence"
|
synonyms:
|
"terrible
scenes of violence"
|
§
a place or representation of an incident.
"scenes
of 1930s America"
§
a specified area of activity or interest.
"the country music scene"
|
synonyms:
|
informalthing
"the political
scene"
|
§
a public display of emotion or anger.
"she was loath to make a scene
in the office"
|
synonyms:
|
fuss,
exhibition of oneself, performance,
tantrum,
outburst,
commotion,
disturbance,
upset,
furor,
brouhaha,
row, contretemps;
More
informalsong and dance, to-do
"she created a
scene outside the bank"
|
2.
A sequence of continuous action in a play,
movie, opera, or book.
"a scene from Brando's first
film"
|
synonyms:
|
"a scene from a
Laurel and Hardy movie"
|
What
is great about these two definitions is that they encapsulate exactly what I
mean by a scene. Note that the second
definition is precisely what we mean when we write about scenes in a
novel. The first definition is exactly
what we mean when we talk about the setting of a scene in a novel. I especially like the scene (setting)
definition that states: a place, with the people, objects, and events in it,
regarded as having a particular character or making a particular impression. This is exactly the setting of a scene in a
novel.
When
I write about scenes, I mean, a sequence of continuous action in a novel.
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
fiction, theme, plot, story, storyline,
character development, scene, setting, conversation, novel, book, writing,
information, study, marketing, tension, release, creative, idea, logic
http://www.aegyptnovel.com/
http://www.centurionnovel.com
http://www.thesecondmission.com/
http://www.theendofhonor.com/
http://www.thefoxshonor.com
http://www.aseasonofhonor.com
