18 March 2017, Writing Ideas
- New Novel, part x71, Creative Elements in Scenes, Plot Devices, Plot Twist
type 3
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)
Plot twist – Current discussion.
Story within a story (Hypodiegesis)
Third attempt
Secrets
Plot
twist:
Here is a definition of a plot twist from the link-- A plot twist is a radical change in the expected direction or
outcome of the plot of a novel, film, television
series, comic,
video
game, or other work of narrative.[1] It is a common practice in narration used
to keep the interest of an audience, usually surprising them with a revelation.
Some "twists" are foreshadowed.
I’ve
written extensively about this concept from another viewpoint entirely. I can identify three types of plots
twists. The first is what I’ve called
the unexpected, expected climax. The
second I haven’t mentioned much--this is a plot change that still results in
the expected climax, but with a different approach than expected at first. The third is a major revelation that casts a
character, item, event, or place in a completely different way than
expected. I’ve called the third, secrets
in the past.
On
to the third type of plot twist. I hope
almost every adult novel has the first type.
I could care less about the second.
The third should also be common in every adult novel and most children’s
and young adult novels. I’ll also tell you
this—every plot twist must be foreshadowed.
You don’t have to tell the reader the punchline, but when the reader
gets there, you want them to imagine they could have figured out what was going
on.
Novels
are interesting pieces of art. The most excellent
are those where the reader feels as though they could potentially see every
plot twist and other plot event, but they never do. Let me give an example. A terrible mystery novel is one where the
solution to the mystery comes out of the blue.
Even if it isn’t a deus ex machina, such a mystery climax is not sufficient
for your readers. The kind of mystery
climax that readers want is one where as the detective or narrative explains
the solution, the reader says over and over in their mind, “I knew it. I knew it.”
They really didn’t know it, but as the mystery unfolds, it makes so much
perfect sense from the foreshadowing, evidence, conversations, experiences, and
etc. that everything falls into place for the reader as it falls into place for
the detective. All novels are like this.
I’m
sure that for some small percentage of readers, they fit everything together in
a great novel before the climax. Perhaps
some small percent never get it. The
major group of readers you are aiming for won’t get it until the climax. When the climax occurs, they will eat up
every part of it with great excitement.
This is true of every plot twist.
All
my novels have major plot twists both the unexpected expected climax types and
the third types. Here is an example of
the third type of plot twist from my soon to be published novel, Sister of Darkness:
Lumière stood just
inside the door. She bent her face in
her hands and sobbed silently. Shudders
racked her thin body. Leora stood by her
side. Then she put her arms around
Lumière. The girl stepped back and
turned her face.
“What’s wrong, Lumière?”
Lumière’s mouth moved, but she didn’t
say anything.
“What’s wrong? Why won’t you speak?” Leora tried to take her
in her arms.
Lumière stepped back.
“Please, Lumière, tell me what you are
thinking.”
Major Lyon’s ears perked up.
Leora grasped Lumière’s arms and pulled
her closer. Lumie’re resisted, “Please,
no, Mama.”
“But why?”
Lumière put her face in her elbow,
“Because, Mama, I did this to Papa. I
did it.”
Leora pulled Lumière into her arms, “How
could you do this, my love?”
Lumière buried her head in her mother’s
breast. There was a sudden blaze of
light and Lumière fell back. Her eyes
opened wide, the tears blasted out of them.
“Mama?” fear overtook any other emotion.
Major Lyons stepped forward, “What’s
going on?”
“Stand back, Lyons
“Mama, please,” Lumière held out her
arms. Then she placed them at her side,
“I cannot make the sign anymore. I
cannot call in the light.”
Leora gingerly took Lumière’s arm and
pulled her closer, but not too close, “What did you do?”
“I tried to help, Papa. I saw him.
He and his men. They were
surrounded by Leila’s servants. They
were trying to capture him. I thought
they were going to kill him. So I did
it.”
“What did you do? Leora shook Lumière’s
thin arms.
Slowly, ashamed, Lumière removed the
small stained book bag from her back.
She opened it and pulled out a wrapped rectangular block. With the block in one hand, she pulled away
the cloth covering to reveal a small black metal tablet.
Leora stared and threw out her hands as
if to ward the thing off, “The Osiris Offering Formula!”
“This is the thing my sister
wants.” Leora’s mouth was dry, “Lumière
how did you get this, and what did you do with it?”
“It called me. From my dreams I heard its call, and I found
it on the top of the chimney. When I
first touched it I knew it was powerful.”
Lumière’s words went on as though she held them ready for a confession
for a long time, “I could sense the power in it, and in my dreams I could use
it.”
“That was my sister speaking to you.”
Lumière shook her head, “When I held it
in my hand I could hear exactly how to use it.
I saw across the world. I saw
their souls, the thing you call the ka.”
“How long…how long have you had it?”
“Just before the dreams began, and not very
long before the Major came to take us away from our house. It worked even better in Britain
“What did you do?”
“I was so afraid. I touched the tablet and sealed their
kas. Then I touched it again and made
Leila’s servants’ kas depart. Mama, what
did I do?” Lumière held her head in her hands.
Leora grabbed Lumière’s arms, “Why
didn’t you unseal their kas again?”
“I’m sorry, Mother. I didn’t know how. I couldn’t find them. What should I do?” She sounded more like a
lost child than a young woman almost fifteen.
“First, put the tablet down.”
Lumie’re placed
the black thing on the floor. She could
almost not take her fingers off of it.
She caressed it gently.
Through
the novel, Sister of Darkness, the
British government, and Leora have been looking for this black tablet called
the Osiris Offering Formula. It had been
hidden on the roof of Leora Bolong’s house in France. When she left with her children during the
fall of France, she couldn’t find the tablet.
This tablet was the focus of the German’s search in the previous novel, Sister of Light. We discover in this plot twist that Leora’s eldest
daughter, Lumière has the tablet and has used it. All though the novel, I sprinkled clues to
who had the tablet. Lumière has been
having dreams and issues from the beginning of the novel. We are led to believe she has had the
Offering Formula for a long time. She
has learned to use it. She used it to
protect her father and his men, but she couldn’t undo what she did. The Offering Formula further gives power of
the Goddess of Darkness over Lumière.
This is a remarkable plot twist in the novel and directs the rest of the
novel in a significant fashion.
This
is the kind of third plot twist I really like.
It is significant, moves the plot, has been properly foreshadowed and
breadcrumbed, and although the reader is surprised, they react with: “I knew
it.” Beyond all this, such plot twists
make for remarkably powerful scenes.
On
this note, in the past, I’ve generally piled all this together as secrets. There are many types of secrets in novels,
this is one of them. Secrets are no good
unless they are revealed. The revelation
of secrets is what usually produces a powerful plot twist of this type. Secrets are a great property of all good
novels.
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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