Writing Ideas - New Novel, part 847, The Stage of the Novel, Developing Action on the Ancient Stage

5 August 2016, Writing Ideas - New Novel, part 847, The Stage of the Novel, Developing Action on the Ancient Stage

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, proposed title, Essie: Enchantment and the Aos Si, is this: Mrs. Lyons captures a shape-shifting girl in her pantry and rehabilitates her.

I finished writing my 27^th novel, working title, Claire, potential title Sorcha: Enchantment and the Curse.  This might need some tweaking.  The theme statement is: Claire (Sorcha) Davis accepts Shiggy, a dangerous screw-up, into her Stela branch of the organization and rehabilitates her.  

Here is the cover proposal for Essie: Enchantment and the Aos Si.  Essie is my 26th 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 started writing my 28^th novel, working title Red Sonja. 

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)

 

How to begin a novel.  Number one thought, we need an entertaining idea.  I usually encapsulate such an idea with a theme statement.  Since I’m writing a new novel, we need a new theme statement.  Here is an initial cut.

 

Red Sonja, a Soviet spy, infiltrates the X-plane programs at Edwards AFB as a test pilot’s administrative clerk, learns about freedom, and is redeemed.

 

Let’s go back to the beginning.  I’ll use my newest novel as an example.  It’s a historical novel, and you can see the theme statement just above.  Let’s look at a novel from the standpoint of a stage play.  A novel is not a stage play or a screenplay, but the author should approach some aspects of the novel from this vantage point. 

 

In setting the stage of the novel follow my rules for writing 4a above:

 

4. Don't show (or tell) everything.

     4a. Show what can be seen, heard, felt, smelled, and tasted on the stage of the novel.

 

The first step in writing outside of now time is to know what existed in the time you are writing about.  You have to know what to populate your stage with.  I guess you could make it all up—that’s what most movies and many authors do.  Instead, if you want your novel to be accurate and to reflect the actual times, you need to know what the world was like at the time.

 

Primary and secondary sources are your best friends.  After you exhaust all these, go to tertiary sources, but realize—tertiary isn’t really considered historically accurate.  To review, a primary source is a first person source.  The author saw the event he or she wrote about.  A secondary source is the record of a primary source taken by another.  Examples of primary sources that most people are familiar with are the Gospel of John, the Gospel of Matthew, Paul’s Letters, Julius Caesar, Aristotle’s works, Plato’s philosophical works.   Usually, secondary sources are newspapers, but in the ancient world, they might be a record from a primary source that another wrote down.  Examples are the Socratic Dialogues (written by Plato and attributed to Socrates), The Gospel of Luke, The Gospel of Mark.  Tertiary sources are not primary or secondary.  The author never saw the events or interviewed a person who saw the events.  Common examples are most of Josephus, Hippolytus, Theodicles, Pliny. 

 

The problem with many ancient works is they don’t tell us much about the daily lives of the people of the times.  Luckily, we do have good information and the historian can pull a lot from archeology and from logic.  For example, metal was dear.  So dear that iron was used for some coins.  Only the very wealthy had any kind of metal bowls or pots.  Without metal bowls or pots, you can’t boil much of anything.  There are tricks, but most common cooking was done over open coals or in ovens.  The people had roasted stuff, but not much meat.  They had bread, but not much of that.  They had beer, mostly barely beer, cheese, flat breads, but very little meat.  In the ancient world, most people only ate meat at the religious festivals about 12 times a year for the Greeks and Romans and six times a year for the Hebrews.  All meat was sacrificed to the gods or God.  The people ate a shared meal with the gods or God.  Only the very wealthy ate meat more than this and those were the very wealthy.  Fish was more common to the Greek world, and the world was Greek.

 

The civilized world in the West was a Hellenized world.  Greek language, Greek gods, Greek athletics, lyceums, gymnasiums, everything was Greek.  The world was one of slavery—mostly white barbarians who gave the name Slav that became slave in English.  Slavery was the way of the world until about 1830 when Western civilization began to outlaw the practice of owning human beings.  Free men and women lay down to eat.  They had little furniture.  Only the very wealthy had much more than cushions and a low table—much like the Japanese until recently.  I could go on and on.  The important thing to note is what they had and what they could do.  If the author imagines a Greek world without much metal, with food that can be cooked as I mentioned, without many things, he or she might begin to build the stage of the ancient world.  For more details, read my historical fiction.  

 

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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