25 March 2017, Writing Ideas
- New Novel, part x78, Creative Elements in Scenes, Plot Devices, Ticking Clock
Scenario
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.
 |
|
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)
Story within a story (Hypodiegesis)
Ticking clock scenario – Current discussion.
Third attempt
Secrets
Judicial Setting
Prophecy
Two way love
Three way love (love rival)
Rival
Celebrity (Rise to fame)
Rise to riches
Military (Device or Organization manipulation)
School (Training) (Skill Development)
Supernatural
Comeback
Retrieval
Taboo
Impossible Crime
Human god
Revolution
Games
Silent witness
Secret king
Messiah
Hidden skills
Fantasy Land (Time Travel, Space Travel)
End of the --- (World, Culture, Society)
Resistance (Nonresistance)
Utopia (anti-utopia)
Fashion
Augmented Human (Robot) (Society)
Mind Switching (Soul Switching)
Ticking clock scenario: Here is a definition of a Ticking clock scenario from the link-- Threat of impending disaster—often used in thrillers where salvation and escape are essential elements.
The
ticking clock scenario is a modern theme.
I don’t know if in the past time was viewed differently or if no one
could conceive of an event or plot where time was limited. In any case, modern thrillers have given
birth to the ticking clock scenario. The
most clichéd is the time bomb. The
character must deactivate the bomb to save herself and others. This is almost a toss away plot device. It happens so often in movies and the boob
tube, I want to gag.
There
are many variances of this plot device.
I have used it myself, but in a slightly different mechanism. I usually like to use events rather than time
as the limiting threat. In other words,
the characters must solve how to defuse, solve, or reconcile a problem before
their enemy makes good on a threat. This
is a form of the ticking clock scenario.
The limit is time, but time tied to some other threat or event. I’ll see if I can get you reasonable
examples. First, from Warrior of Darkness:
Klava sought out. She touched each bomb at once. The night air was warm and soothing. For once, it was not wet and chill. Klava liked the heat. She felt her power envelope the night. She reached out all at once and everywhere in
that small space that was the King’s Den Pub.
No one moved toward her and for that she was grateful and at once
alarmed. But it was too late, there was
nothing she could do about it now.
Just like the last time, if these bombs
went off, the pub and all the surrounding buildings would be engulfed in
flames. Klava reached out and touched
the kas of many adults and children. She
prayed the Dagda would protect them and give her success. To her both goals were the same. Inside the tavern and in the buildings all
around she felt the living souls, and the number came to her like it
always did. The number saved this time
would be one hundred twelve. Klava shook
her head. Only one hundred twelve. The number seemed low. She felt hundreds of souls around her. She knew their breathing kas. She couldn’t contemplate this now—she had no
time.
A cheer rang out from the pub. The timers on the bombs clicked over. They were set as close together as Donald’s
bombers could make them, but still the electric signals released at separate
intervals. The fuses ignited at
different speeds. Klava touched them
each and knew them. She gathered the darkness
and cast it out. One after another the
bombs went off and Klava gathered the energy within her darkness. She pulled it to herself and into the tablet,
but the force had to go somewhere. She
couldn’t control exactly where, but she could turn it back to those who touched
and made the bombs.
The power filled Klava. It always was like this. She couldn’t hold it for long. It would destroy her and rebound to its
source. She hated the release, that
meant deaths, but she trusted the Dagda’s justice more than she trusted
herself. She let it go. It whisked from her. It roared from her. She heard a pop and a crackle from the
building across the street. The first
ones were cries of men. Then
unmistakably, the cries of children, suddenly choked off by the fire and
explosions that peppered the upper floors.
Klava felt them. She knew
them. They died. Little children died as the power of the
bombs released within their bodies. It
had happened before—a bomb maker’s child, but not like this, not this
many. The building on the left immediately
burst into flames.
Behind her, Klava heard a scream. It was Scáth.
Before Klava could move, a soft pop and a small fire burned in the space
between the cars. Klava screamed. Then she fell to the concrete and screamed
again. The power went out of her, but
she felt with each death, her own soul wrenched and battered and beaten. She felt more wretched than she ever
had. She couldn’t get it out of her mind
or her heart. They were dying. She made the wrong choice this time. This time, she should have let the bombs go
off. This time she should have given
Niul to death. This time her actions led
to more deaths, not less. She tried to
cry, but tears would not come. Already,
exhausted, she could not get up. She
could not move. She felt wrung out and
dirty, so dirty. Her mind could not
accept it. Her body was too weakened. “Scáth,” she cried, “Even Scáth. I destroyed you.” Klava collapsed completely to the oily
concrete. She clasped her old rosary in
her hand, “Dear God, I failed you this time.
I’m sorry. Grant Niul the chance
for success. Give him life. Protect our children…”
People ran everywhere. Donald’s cell members were all dead. He didn’t have to inspect the blazing
building to know that. The entire structure
was engulfed in flames. People jumped
from the windows and threw their children out of the upper floors. Many of the children were already dead. Some of the mothers stayed and died. Others fell to their deaths. They died where their children had. Donald didn’t care. For all he knew, they were Anglicans and
British sympathizers. He hated both. He and Éan Dia moved directly toward
the place he had last seen the goddess.
Just as the Éan Dia predicted, she collapsed very nicely after the bombs
went off.
They
found her between two cars. She lay on
the ground in a puddle of her own vomit.
Éan
Dia pointed with a very sharp looking finger, “Pitiful isn’t it. Have you ever seen a goddess, Donald? They usually don’t look like this.” He smiled.
Éan Dia rolled Klava over with the tip of his boot. Klava’s face was bruised and she clutched a
rosary.
Donald
noted Éan Dia’s fingers seemed even more like talons.
“She
looks terrible, but don’t have any pity on her.
Now is the time to remove her from this world.”
Sirens
began to go off far away from them in the city.
Donald pointed with his pistol, “She’s praying the rosary. Is she Catholic?”
“Don’t
get squeamish on me Donald. Catholic,
Anglican. It doesn’t really matter, does
it? They both worship the Dagda. You don’t worship the Dagda—do you Donald?”
“I
don’t know what you are talking about, Éan Dia.
I’m Catholic.”
“Just
shoot her. You know that no Catholic
would do what you have done. You don’t
worship the Dagda, you worship the PIRA.
That is your god, and all the killing is your sacrifice to your
god. I will show you a better way. You should worship me. You should sacrifice this goddess to me.”
“To
you?”
“Come
on Donald. Put a bullet in her
brain. That way she won’t feel the pain
when I rip the limbs from her body.” Éan
Dia’s fingers had completely become talons now.
He reached forward. His arms
seemed elongated. His legs were skinnier
than Donald remembered.
Donald
stared at Klava, “She’s pregnant too.”
“Then
you get two lives for the effort of murdering one.”
Donald
aimed his gun at Klava’s head. He began
to squeeze the trigger.
In
this novel, the threat is bombs, but the characters know the time and think
they can disarm them. They are wrong.
The bombs go off and many people are injured by them. This novel includes a ticking clock scenario,
but as I mentioned, it is slightly different than that typical kind of set
up. Second, from Valeska: Enchantment and the Vampire:
Leila wore a silver and
black lace piece of art Scáth and Heidi chose for her. It looked fetching and very chic. The hat matched it, with an angular silver
center and blossoms of lace at every point.
The dress appeared slightly revealing, but strategic pieces of lace
covered all of Leila’s salient parts.
She didn’t realize how risqué the dress looked—Scáth and Heidi hadn’t
let her see herself in it before they left the room. If Leila wondered at the stares she received,
she didn’t make any remarks. It was the
kind of dress Brigitta would have loved on Leila, and that’s saying a lot. The dress seemed alluring in more than one
way. It looked regal and extremely
beguiling. The beings Scáth and Heidi
hoped to meet with Leila would be impressed for more than one reason—that was
entirely the point. It was finished off
with silver and black lace gloves.
Scáth’s dress looked positively severe in comparison.
Leila sat primly, although
not patiently, through the next five races.
Scáth won and kept a close eye around them. After the last race, The
Concerto Group Mare Only Standard Open NH Flat (Listed), they both stood. Bruce handed a note to Scáth along with their winnings. Scáth pulled Leila close and whispered, “I
have a message for us to go to the post side of the course.”
Leila’s hands
trembled. Scáth caught them, “Now is the
time to act like the Lady of Darkness.
They will detect any fear or reticence…”
Leila pulled her hands out
of Scáth’s, “I will not fail.”
“Very good, Princess.”
Leila stood straight and
gave Scáth a withering stare.
Scáth grinned, “That’s
just it…”
Leila pulled off her long
gloves and clasped them in one hand. She
held her head high and left the stands at the race side and crossed the chopped
up turf. If anyone noticed the Lady and
her shadow walking across the course to the post, no one said anything to them.
They noted no one
immediately when they arrived, but soon afterward, a very large man with heavy
features and dark red hair approached them, “Ah, Ms. O’Dwyer, may I introduce
myself. I am Mahon.”
Leila’s eyes flashed, “You
are not to address me so informally, I am the Lady of Darkness, Mahon.”
Mahon bowed, “Yes, Lady of
Darkness.”
Leila squeezed her gloves
tightly, “Now, Mahon, where is my warrior and where is my tablet?”
“That, my Lady is what I
am here to negotiate.”
“Very well. What do you want for them?”
“I wish for you to release
my friends from the tablet.”
“Perhaps that can be
arranged. I need the tablet first. Do you have it?”
“It is in safekeeping.”
“To make so great an
undertaking, I require the tablet at night, and I must touch it.”
Mahon paused for a long
moment before he replied, “Both can be arranged. We would rather have the deed done in the
daylight.”
“Really? I would have thought you would want
everything accomplished in the darkness.
During the daylight, they will all be watching.”
“The anonymity of the
crowd has its advantages, but my master is indeed most powerful in the
darkness. I shall take your request into
consideration…”
“You ask for a great doing
from the Black Tablet and the Lady of Darkness, why do you imagine daylight
will favor you?”
“Yes, I see.”
“Where shall I meet you?”
“You shall come alone.”
Leila raised her hand, “I
shall bring my servants…”
“Who would that be?”
“My two handmaidens. They serve only me.”
Mahon pointed at Scáth,
“This one, you mean…”
“And another like her.”
Mahon sized Scáth up and
down, “She is a creature of the dead.
She will be no match for us. I
see no harm in bringing her. They must
not interfere.”
“They serve me.”
“They perhaps cannot be
killed, but they can be harmed. I warn
you of this—you risk them, and you risk your warrior if you betray us. He is flesh like you and can be killed.”
Leila squinted at him,
“You speak too much little god without any purpose.”
Mahon’s face turned red
and his voice shook, “Insults will only make your trial harder.”
Scáth tugged at Leila’s
arm.
Leila tensed, “You ask me
to make a great doing for you. I simply
wish my servants beside me to help—that is their purpose. You threaten me, but fear to hear the truth. I realize very well what you ask, and what
the risks are to me and mine. This is
something you wanted to emphasize, is it not?”
Mahon’s face calmed, “It
is. We do threaten you and your
warrior. Do not bring any others.”
“I will not. Who will attend you?”
“That is something I shall
not reveal. Only know this, your life
and the life of your warrior stand in the balance.”
Leila tapped her foot,
“You speak too much. Where shall we
meet?”
“At the place where once
stood the bleachers at Valentine’s Brook.”
“The time?”
“What time will most suit
the doing?”
Leila smiled, “Three hours
after sunset, before the moon rises.”
Mahon bowed, “Very well,
Lady of Darkness.”
“One moment. When will you release my warrior to me?”
“When my companions are
free, then I will reveal his location to you.”
Leila snarled, “That does
not seem to be a good bargain to me.”
“It is the best I can
offer you at the moment.”
“Very well. We meet at Valentine’s Brook and the
appointed time.”
Mahon glanced to either
side. He smirked, “We shall be there.”
Scáth and Leila watched
Mahon disappear into the crowd.
In
this scene, there is a direct threat, and there is a time limit. The limit is set more by the time of
day. Still this is a variation of the
ticking clock scenario.
I
had bombs in my first example—bombs and threats. In the second example, I had threats and not
so much bombs. My conclusion, the
ticking clock scenario is a great plot device and can be used by authors as
well as screenwriters. I suggest you try
to downplay the time component, but build the suspense component of this
excellent plot device. That’s my
technique. I find that pacing suffers with
too much emphasis on time. I like my
novels to be enveloped in time, but not necessarily dependent on time. Ticking clock is almost always dependent on
time.
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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