26 March 2017, Writing Ideas
- New Novel, part x79, Creative Elements in Scenes, Plot Devices, Chekhov's
Gun
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)
Story within a story (Hypodiegesis)
Chekhov's gun – 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)
Chekhov's gun: Here is a definition of a Chekhov's gun from the link-- Chekhov's gun is a dramatic principle that every memorable element in a fictional story must be necessary and irreplaceable, and any that are not should be removed.
A Chekhov’s
gun in my world is the same as a creative element. I’ll repeat the basics of a creative
element. A setting element is any item,
place, or character that is described as part of the setting. A setting element becomes a creative element
when it interacts with a character. In
my definition, every creative element is a Chekhov’s gun. This means that in my writing, I expect every
creative element to be irreplaceable. From
Chekhov’s own thoughts, he would say, if you place a gun on the wall as a
decoration in the first act, you shoot it in the second act.
I
won’t go this far in literature. In a
play everything should be essential and vital.
In literature, I always have setting elements that may or may not become
creative elements, but I think every creative element is a Chekov’s gun. In other words, in my writing every item the
character’s interact with become plot elements.
To me creative elements are always plot elements. They exist to forward the plot revelation to
the climax. This is a concept that can’t
be easily demonstrated. I will try to
find some for you.
First,
from Valeska: Enchantment and the Vampire:
George identified the sound behind him at the
street as the scuff of a boot on the cobblestones. Then he heard a click. George spun around to the street and backed
toward the collection of garbage and not the dumpster with its hidden
person. A green laser dot appeared on
the left side of his chest. In front of
him, he caught a very bright flare in his night vision scope. Directly after the flare came a thump. It took only an instant to process that a
bullet had been fired at him. By then,
it was too late. George felt something
tear into his left chest. It pushed him
half around, and he dropped to the damp ground.
The bullet pierced him and he felt it tear through his skin. It broke a rib, and burned as it drilled a
hole through his lung. He felt it break
another rib and exit at his back. The
pain was excruciating, but he was too shocked to make a sound. If he made any noise, it was a great
exhalation of breath when his left lung collapsed.
George fell into the pile of garbage. The pain and burning was so intense, he
didn’t notice if it hurt when he struck the ground. The man behind the dumpster moved—he didn’t
say a word. The man who fired the shot
didn’t say anything either. They just
bolted and left him there…to die. He
heard their rapid steps as they ran down the street. The sound slowly died out, and was gone. For a while, he perceived no sounds after
that.
George knew he was dying. It wouldn’t do any good to cry out—too late
now. He dragged his phone out of the
pocket of his jacket and fumbled with it for a moment. He pressed the panic button. He sighed.
They would be here in an hour maybe two.
He tried to dial the local police, but the phone slipped from his
suddenly slick hand and dropped to the cobblestones. He couldn’t gather the energy to pick it up
again. The blood poured out of the
bullet wound in his chest and he felt it bubbling out of the hole in his
back. He pressed his hand against the
wound in his chest and groaned—that hurt.
It didn’t staunch the blood much, and he could do nothing to stop the
flow of blood on the other side. He was
amazed. In all the movies when people
were shot, they moved around and chased the bad guys. He couldn’t do anything but lie there on the
cold and wet ground.
He was dying.
A movement caught him by surprise. It came from the dark alleyway away from the
street. A small person moved very
quickly from the opening to stand right in front of him. It stopped suddenly and whimpered, then sat
on its haunches. It squatted outside of
his reach and watched him. Its face was
thin and pale. The face barely showed in
his night vision goggle. That in itself
was surprising. It wore clothing that
seemed exceedingly fine, but which was filthy and obviously damp, the remains
of a girl’s party dress. The dress had
once been white with red or pink ribbons, but now it was torn and
bedraggled. The ribbons blended with the
stains on the dress. The stains seemed
to be long dried blood and not just the dirt of the streets.
The girl, it was a girl, stared at him with
bright eyes tinged with silver. They
appeared slightly dull in the night vision goggle. Her hair was black and matted. It reached almost to the cobbles of the
alleyway where she squatted. Her face
was finely etched and hard. She let her
tongue slip out of her mouth. She licked
her lips. Her tongue was slightly
pointed, and George could swear her incisors were elongated and pointed like
fangs.
She raised her eyes to his and spoke. It wasn’t Polish. She pronounced her words in high German with
a strange lilt. Her voice was low and
melodious, “You, mortal man, you are dying.”
George groaned, “I’m dying. Can you call the police with my phone?”
She eyed him strangely, “I don’t have a phone
here—what good would it do?”
“My iPhone.
It fell at my side.”
She shrugged, “I don’t know what that is. I wouldn’t be able to use it. You are dying.”
“I am dying.
Can you help me?”
The girl stared at him, “You are dying. It’s a full moon—I’m starving.”
George laughed and immediately wished he
hadn’t. He felt the blood bubble from
the wound at his front and his back. His
laugh cut off suddenly, “What did you plan to do—eat me?”
“I’d like to dine on your blood.”
He wanted to laugh again, but stifled it, “Are
you a vampire?”
The girl
drew her finger across the cobbles, “I’m a vampire, and I’m very hungry. It’s a full moon, and you interrupted my
hunt.”
I’ll
center on the phone as a creative element, plot element, and Chekhov’s
gun. The phone eventually brings help to
George. He uses it to alert his help—too
late. The girl vampire doesn’t
understand what it is. The element has
legs for entertainment and for the completion of the scene. It comes into play later in the novel as
well. It is a necessary part of the
scene and provides a degree of entertainment as well as informing us about the
modern knowledge of the girl.
Second,
from Warrior of Darkness:
Rain
sizzled across the broken concrete. The
black skies drained dark cold drops and sprinkled frozen bits of ice. They touched Klava Diakonov’s skin and numbed
her cheeks and fingers. A blast of
lightning cascaded across the heavens.
She could not see it with her eyes.
Still, she wrapped her black scarf more tightly over her face and pulled
her dirty black coat closer. In spite of
that, the blaze of light touched her senses and blinded them for a moment.
The
lightning outlined and illuminated her.
She stood across from The Bishop’s Cross Pub in the grass at the base of
a knoll. She was a slight woman with
very black hair and dark skin. Her
complexion was uniformly the color of coffee au lait. It was much darker than the Irish norm of Belfast British Museum
Regardless of the downpour, Klava lifted up her cold
wet hands. Water dripped down her
sleeves and further chilled her. Her
features tensed in concentration and strange words that were neither Irish
Gaelic nor English escaped her lips.
Note
that there are many setting elements, creative elements, plot elements, and
Chekhov’s guns in these short paragraphs.
I’ll focus on the black tablet.
This creative element is definitely a Chekhov’s gun that plays a part
through the entire novel. The black
tablet is necessary to the scene and to the novel. This is indeed a plot element. It is, as I remarked, a Chekhov’s gun as
well.
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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