13 March 2017, Writing Ideas
- New Novel, part x66, Creative Elements in Scenes, Plot Devices, In Medias Res
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 27th 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.
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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 started writing my 28th novel, working title Red Sonja. I’m also working on my 29th 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 scene
development 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
Below is a list of plot
devices. I’m less interested in a plot
device than I am in a creative element that drives a plot device. In fact, some of these plot devices are not
good for anyone’s writing. If we
remember, the purpose of fiction writing is entertainment, we will perhaps
begin to see how we can use these plot devices to entertain. If we focus on creative elements that drive
plot devices, we can begin to see how to make our writing truly
entertaining. I’ll leave up the list and
we’ll contemplate creative elements to produce these plot devices.
Deus ex machina (a machination, or act of
god; lit. “god out of the machine”)
Flashback (or analeptic reference)
In medias res – Current discussion.
Story within a story (Hypodiegesis)
Secrets
In medias res: Here is a definition of an In
medias res from the link-- Beginning the
story in the middle of a sequence of events. A specific form of narrative hook.
Also from the link: A narrative work beginning in medias res (Classical Latin: [ɪn mɛdiaːs reːs], lit. "into the middle things") opens in the midst of action (cf. ab ovo, ab initio).[1] Often, exposition is bypassed and filled in gradually, either through dialogue, flashbacks or description of past events.
I’m
all into the In medias res. The In
medias res
is your friend and should be a part of your every initial scene. Indeed, always start in the middle of the
action. This is why I wrote The End of Honor the way I did to place
the reader into the In medias res for one of the most important and action
oriented parts of the novel. I try to
begin every novel this way. I’ve given
you examples from the beginning of every one of my novels, you should be able
to look back and see these examples and how they work.
There
are varying degrees of In
medias res
but you don’t have to sweat it. For
example, you can start with the action in the middle of a fight—that is a
classical In medias res. You can begin with the beginning of an action
scene. This is a little less
direct. You can begin at the end of an
action scene. Let me give you some
examples from my writing. The first is a
middle action In medias res. This is from my soon to be published novel Sister of Darkness.
Leora woke with a start. A heavy weight pressed against her chest, and
she couldn’t breathe. She tried to
scream, but a hand covered her mouth.
Her eyes flashed open and widened—in the pitch darkness, her sister,
Leila, straddled her. Leila’s eyes were
ecstatic. Her mouth curled up in a feral
smile. She held one hand over Leora’s
mouth and with the other pinched her nose.
Leora heaved her body up. She pressed with her legs and tried to roll
Leila off. She twisted her head to the
side, and spotted Amisi, her servant, by the door crumpled in a heap across the
threshold. A cloud of darkness seemed to
rise from the spot where Amisi lay.
Leora snapped her head back toward Leila. Her sight of Leila was also being swallowed
in darkness. Leora suddenly realized no
dark cloud came from Amisi; the darkness wasn’t filling her room—her vision was
fading away, slowly, so slowly. She
stared imploringly at her sister. Leila
laughed harshly deep in her chest.
Within the darkness of her failing mind
and body, Leora grasped for her last hope, she opened her mouth as wide as she
could. Leila’s ruthlessly crushing
fingers pressed into her mouth. With all
her remaining strength, Leora bit down on Leila’s fingers. She tasted blood.
Enraptured in her zeal, confident in her
success, Leila didn’t notice Leora’s response for one long moment; then with a
howl, she ripped her fingers out of Leora’s mouth and leapt off the sleeping
cot onto the tiled floor.
Leora took a long and strangled breath
and rolled off her cot on the other side.
She knelt on the cool tile and coughed and drew in deep revitalizing
breaths. Leila knelt in a crouch on the
other side of the cot and nursed her bloody fingers. After a moment, she moved threateningly
toward Leora.
The sudden noise
of running bare feet and soldier’s sandals stopped her. Leila stared across the cot, down at her
sister, “I will have my way with you, sister.
Darkness rules the light. It
always has from the beginning of the world.
If you won’t bow to me in the temple, you shall certainly bow to me
everywhere else.” She spat at Leora and
ran out of the single door to Leora’s small bedroom.
You are placed right in the middle
of the action. This is the initial scene
from the novel. A beginning of the action
example follows. This is from Essie: Enchantment and the Aos Si:
Mrs.
Lyons, actually, Matilda Anne Robina Acland Hastings Lyons, who happened to
once be married to Colonel Bruce Lyons, and who held onto the Mrs. and the
Lyons as mementos although the man was long dead, heard a crash in her
kitchen. She was a light sleeper anyway,
but the crash rang loud enough to wake the dead. She reached under her pillow for the
prototype Etan Arms AP-1 nine millimeter semi-automatic pistol she kept
there. She examined the sleek weapon, a
gift from her favorite adopted great grandchild, Leila, and returned it, with
the safety still on, to its hiding spot.
She
slipped out of the covers as quietly as a very old woman could and instead of
her pistol, picked up the heavy cane beside her bed. She constantly carried it, not because she
needed a cane, but because everyone expected her to carry one—she enjoyed the
privilege and the recognition. Mrs.
Lyons was very old, but not weak, demented, or non-mobile. She looked wrinkled and gray now, but didn’t
care a lick about appearance anymore.
She still looked thin and athletic—about as athletic as she always was,
which wasn’t very, but she could move as well if not better than a woman half
her age. So she imagined.
Mrs.
Lyons pulled her dressing gown over her nightgown and hefted her cane. She didn’t turn on any lights. Her vision was still good, and her eyesight
was already well adapted to the thick moonlight that shined outside her
windows. She walked through her open
doorway and down the hall toward the front of the house.
Her
country house was small, much smaller than the places she inhabited as a child,
a young woman, or a married woman. She
was now a widow, and a small cottage in the country seemed to suit her. The hallway led to a classic branch. To the right, lay the foyer and front
door. The foyer opened to a dining room
on the left and a parlor to the right.
To the left lay the servant’s quarters—none in use at the moment. In front of her ran a short hall to a phone
closet and a water closet—an odd combination to be sure. To the right of that short extension, lay the
dining room and to the left… the kitchen.
Mrs.
Lyons heard another peculiar bump and then a thump from inside her kitchen—she
strained to listen closer… or perhaps the sounds came from her pantry. She held up her cane like a baseball bat and
peeked around the opening into the kitchen.
She squinted in the darkness, but didn’t spot anything amiss.
She
heard another thump. Slurping sounds and
a slight growl followed it. Mrs. Lyons
wondered at that. The constable had
reported thefts of food and unusual break-ins across the shire, but they seemed
wholly of human origin. This
sounded…animal-like.
This is the middle of the action,
but the beginning of a scene of the action.
You aren’t thrown into the exact middle, but into the action. Here is an example of the end of the
action. This is from Sorcha: Enchantment and the Curse:
Shiggaion
Tash woke with a start. Her eyes flew
open. Her mouth tasted vile and bitter
like bile and chemicals. She tried to
swallow the taste away, but her throat felt bone dry. Bright light shone all around her. She tried to raise her hand to cover her
eyes, but her arms wouldn’t move. She
tried her legs. They wouldn’t move
either. She attempted to wrench her body
around, but without any success. She
could move her head—at least that part of her didn’t seem to be completely
immobilized.
At
first, the light appeared so bright, she couldn’t make out anything. Gradually, her eyes adjusted. That seemed to take longer than usual. She sniffed.
Her nose felt stuffed up. Her
mind couldn’t stop, never stopped evaluating. She put together everything she
knew about drugs and anesthetics…and came up short. Cocaine and other amphetamines caused some of
these symptoms, but they weren’t anesthetics—they were stimulants. What was the last thing she could remember?
The
last event happened to be the hostage training exercise. At the time, she fumbled her pistol and
accidentally shot one of the hostages…whoops.
That would be another looming black mark on her ledger. In her own records that made eight now. Nine if you counted the accident during the
Oxford laboratory lecture. That one
wasn’t entirely her fault. She couldn’t
review her classified records, so she didn’t know if they counted that one or
not.
Ah,
she remembered, right after she accidentally shot the hostage, she felt a sharp
pain in her left buttocks. They weren’t
using real bullets, only laser gunfire trackers. She sniffed and felt slightly miffed. They shouldn’t get their panties in a wad
about a little accident like that. Well
enough self-scrutiny—Shiggaion took a good look around.
This one is end of the action
beginning of the scene. All of these
examples plop the reader directly into the action. As I wrote, I suggest this plot device for
every novel and every initial scene.
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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