Writing Ideas - New Novel, part x32, Creative Elements in the World of my Enchantment Novels, Valeska: Enchantment and the Vampire

7 February 2017, Writing Ideas - New Novel, part x32, Creative Elements in the World of my Enchantment Novels, Valeska: Enchantment and the Vampire

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

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 Sorcha: Enchantment and the Curse. 

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 also working on my 29^th novel, working title School.

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: transition from input to output focused on the telic flaw resolution)

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.

 

For novel 28:  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.

 

For novel 29:  Sorcha, the abandoned child of an Unseelie and a human, secretly attends Wycombe Abbey girls’ school where she meets the problem child Deirdre and is redeemed.

 

These are the steps I use to write a novel:

 

1.      Design the initial scene

2.      Develop a theme statement (initial setting, protagonist, protagonist’s helper or antagonist, action statement)

a.       Research as required

b.      Develop the initial setting

c.       Develop the characters

d.      Identify the telic flaw (internal and external)

3.      Write the initial scene (identify the output: implied setting, implied characters, implied action movement)

4.      Write the next scene(s) to the climax (rising action)

5.      Write the climax scene

6.      Write the falling action scene(s)

7.      Write the dénouement scene

 

Here is the beginning of the method from the outline:

 

1.      Scene input (comes from the previous scene output or is an initial scene)

2.      Write the scene setting (place, time, stuff, and characters)

3.      Imagine the output, creative elements, plot, telic flaw resolution (climax) and develop the tension and release.

4.      Write the scene using the output and creative elements to build the tension.

5.      Write the release

6.      Write the kicker

 

To me, the most interesting themes are about worlds, people, and life that goes on around us that is hidden or unrealized.  I have developed this type of world and theme and used it to build creative elements for my plots and scenes.  I’ll use my own novels as examples for this.  I’m moving to my Enchantment Novels.  I’ll move on to Valeska: Enchantment and the Vampire.  This novel is not on contract yet—I’m looking for a publisher. 

 

I’ve written before, I wrote the Enchantment Novels to allow more scope for my writing and to entertain themes much different than those in Ancient Light.  The Enchantment Novels are still historical novels with a touch of myth or the supernatural.  I’ll be more specific, the Enchantment Novels relate in history those ideas that people once or still believe.  For example, the Gaelic, Saxon, and Celtic peoples once believed in myths or their gods, goddesses, and other creatures.  Why shouldn’t I write a novel about the modern era that includes these beings that these peoples once so fervently believed?  This is the essence of the Enchantment Novels. 

 

The fourth Enchantment Novel, is Valeska: Enchantment and the Vampire.  This is a really fun novel.  Remember, I told you, don’t write a Vampire novel, then I did.  This is the vampire novel.  I wrote it because of the creative elements I could inject and use to create the plot.  The setting begins in Gdansk, Poland also known as Danzig.  The major creative elements are vampire, British Intelligence, covert operations, agent, ambassador, and friends.

 

George Mardling doesn’t have many friends.  He isn’t exactly friendless, but he is a covert agent of the British Government.  Heidi or Valeska doesn’t have any friends at all.  She is a vampire and has been a vampire for over 200 years.  Her vampire master disappeared and left her without a place to stay and without anything at all.  She lives in a used crypt and hunts humans during the full moon.  She accidentally meets George when she is hunting and he is hunting.  They have the same prey but for different reasons.  George is mortally wounded, and she asks for his blood.  He acquiesces because he doesn’t believe in vampires.  When he inexplicably survives, and Heidi can only hunt him, their lives (deaths) become intertwined.  They are both people looking for friendship—they find it in an odd relationship.  There is much more to this story.

 

Additional creative elements come out of other novels I’ve written.  These are the Organization (old Mi-19), Stela, Leora, Scáth, magic, and Britain.  The novel begins in Poland, but then George is recalled to Britain (because of Heidi), and she returns with him.  The novel takes on a romantic hue with Leora contending with Heidi for George and George in the middle of an interesting situation not at all of his fault. 

 

The point of a vampire novel can’t be about a vampire or the focus of a vampire.  Heidi is a critical character and the theme is her redemption, but the novel encircles much more than a vampire—the vampire is simply an entertaining creative element that focuses the theme and plot.     

 

The next novel’s creative elements we will look at are those in Lilly: Enchantment and the Computer.   

 

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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