8 February 2016, Writing Ideas
- New Novel, part 668, Total Setting, Outline 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.
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 editing 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
When
I write about scenes, I mean, a sequence of continuous action in a novel. This is the smallest element of a novel.
My
method for scene development will accommodate the focus and style of any
author, but it is a method. Here is my
method for scene development.
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)
Listen
closely—most inexperienced writers don’t spend enough time on description. Follow Arlo Guthrie Jr.’s advice from his Field Guide to Fiction Writing and
provide at least 300 words of description for each scene and major
character. Provide at least 100 words of
description for each minor character.
Every
scene requires a description as the setting and each character requires some
degree of description. As an author,
this must become ingrained in your writing.
As I mentioned, most inexperienced writers short description. Many inexperienced writers give too much
description of unimportant stuff and not enough of the important stuff. This is an important concept to note.
Think
about it this way. As an author, you
must include only writing that supports and moves the plot and theme—anything else
should be excluded. You use the plot and
theme to reveal the characters.
Therefore, for example, it might be important to write about a lunch
shared by your main characters. You
should write about and describe the lunch if it progresses the plot or theme
and reveals the characters. If it doesn’t
accomplish this, don’t write about lunch.
You don’t need to say anything about it.
With that said, meals are a wonderful part of a novel to progress the
plot and theme and to reveal the characters.
When wouldn’t you write about a meal—if it didn’t progress the plot or
theme or reveal the characters. So, a
meal eaten by a solitary person. Unless
that meal progresses the plot and theme and reveals the person, there is no
reason to include it. We don’t need to
know every time the protagonist goes to the bathroom, unless a bladder control
problem is a revelation of the character.
I’ve
read much writing with extraneous information.
No extraneous information is allowed.
On the other hand, how a writer can provide enormous amounts of
worthless information but not enough basic description is beyond me. Aim for consistent description—this is the
basis for setting. Now we’ll talk about
the style of the setting.
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
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