17 April 2017, Writing Ideas
- New Novel, part x101, Creative Elements in Scenes, Plot Devices, Silent Witness
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)
Third attempt
Secrets
Judicial Setting
Legal argument
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 – Current discussion.
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)
Unreliable character
Incarceration (imprisonment)
Valuable item
Identification
Contest
Search
War
Brotherhood (sisterhood) (camaraderie)
Crime
Theater
Silent witness: here is my definition
– Silent witness is the use of an
intentional or unintentionally secretive evidence or person who observes an event
to further a plot.
The
classic event is a crime and the classic storyline is the threatened or
implicated witness. I can’t think of a
novel off hand, but you’ve seen examples in a hundred cheesy crime shows. It’s almost a modus in itself. I have used variations of the silent witness
as a plot device, but I haven’t used it in a classic form. Specifically, I did use a version of silent
witness a couple of times in Shadow of
Darkness. Generally, in silent
witness, the witness has knowledge of an event, but restrains from revealing
their knowledge. In Shadow of Darkness, the protagonist begins to understand who she is
and was, but she doesn’t reveal her enlightenment until the end of the novel—and
not even then completely. There is
another silent witness plot device going on at the same time.
Here
is an example from Shadow of Darkness:
Bruce Lyons returned to his house in London
“Is that the information?” Tilly asked.
“Might be,” Bruce answered. “I’d like a cigarette, to read the paper, and
a Scotch whisky before I have to explain anything.”
“Very well,” Tilly gave him a look,
“It’s just…we’ve waited so long.”
“Then a little longer won’t make any
difference.”
They did wait until after dinner. At the table, after dessert, Bruce Lyons
pulled out the packet again, “Are you ready to know the truth—or at least the
best my operatives can tease out about this woman, Svetlana Evgenyevna Kopylova?”
“Yes, please,” mouthed Tilly and Marie
together.
“Very well. Here it all is.” He pushed the dishes back and opened the
package. There were many photographs and
lots of printed material. “You don’t
have to read it all. I have, and here is
the synopsis.” He paused for a long time
until Tilly and Marie both complained, “All right. Here it is.
Svetlana Evgenyevna Kopylova was injured in Berlin Berlin
“Why was she in Berlin
“The Soviet tale is that she was brought
there by the Germans as a sex slave and escaped.”
“How horrible.”
“That may not be the whole story. They think she is Russian.”
“Why?”
“She speaks perfect Moscow Russian. We haven’t been able to piece anything
together beyond that. A Jewish writer
brought her to Moscow from Berlin
“Why?”
“Our report doesn’t say. There are some indications of lasting
injuries—perhaps mental.”
“Poor Lumière.”
“Her paperwork is perfect.”
“What does that mean?”
“It meets all Soviet criteria. They think she is fully Soviet.”
“That is good for her?”
“Bad for our theory—if there were
questions, that might be more indicative.”
“It might be possible to get perfect
papers—right?”
“Possible, very difficult.”
“What else is there?”
“She started acting as a translator for
His Beatitude, the Patriarch of Moscow
and All Russia.”
“The
Orthodox Church?”
“The
same. From there, the NKVD, the People's
Commissariat for Internal Affairs, and SMERSh, the Counterintelligence
Directorate became interested in her translation skills. Apparently, she speaks languages perfectly
with no accent and understands them like a native.”
“That
would be Lumière.”
“The
NKVD hired her and set up a special office for her called Embassy
Relations. She was essentially a spy
inside the embassies. A very good one
according to the embassy staff we talked to.
Somehow she gained Stalin’s attention.
Pravda calls her Stalin’s Little
Ptitsa.”
“What’s
that mean?”
“His
little bird. Stalin was also impressed
by her skills. He made her his personal
translator and put her in charge of a new directorate in the new MVD, the Special Directorate for
International Understanding. Marvelous
the names the Soviets give their agencies—isn’t it? She manages all the offices she previously
controlled, all the Soviet translators, and the university language programs.”
Bruce paused for a long moment, “Marie, I want you to think about this
with me very carefully.”
“When
you say that, I’m always afraid it means I will be very unhappy.”
“You
may be, but contemplate this. Whether
this person is Lumière or not, this woman has acquired power in the Soviet Union . She
is a member of the Communist Party. She
is the head of a Soviet directorate. She
has the ear and the approval of Stalin.
If it is Lumière, how difficult would it be to spirit her away?”
Marie
looked down at the table, “Impossible.”
“If
she wanted to leave, how difficult?”
“Impossible.”
“How
much effect do you think this woman has on the Soviet
Union and all the nations it works with?”
Marie
looked up into his eyes, “I suspect she has a lot of effect.”
“She
has connections with the Orthodox Church, the Jewish community, and the MVD.
This woman is powerful and can act with incredible power. You can say nothing about this, but we know
from the Americans, she helped get a very important Jewish manuscript out of
the Soviet Union .”
Bruce
pulled Marie close to him. Tilly put her
arms around Marie’s shoulders. Bruce
murmured to her, “Marie, even if we wanted to, I don’t think we could get her
out alive. She might not want to
leave. She might see the work she is
doing as beneficial to many. It might be
better to imagine she is not Lumière. To
imagine she is just whom the Soviets believe her to be.”
Marie
tried hard not to cry, “What about mother and father?”
Tilly
pulled her closer, “For them, Lumière is dead.
If we bring up this hope, this false hope, what do you think that would
do to them? What has it done to you?”
“I
loved her so much, Tilly.”
“I
loved Lumière too. I loved her like a
daughter. What do you think we should
do?”
A few
gentle sobs escaped Marie’s lips, “This is so hard for my heart, Aunt Tilly,
but I know what we must do. We must keep
this our secret. Mother must not know. Mother must not suppose. Lumière is dead for her and for father. She is dead, and she should remain in her
grave. Anything else is too horrible to
contemplate.”
Bruce
quietly choked, “She might not even be Lumière.”
Marie
glanced up at him and fell weeping into Bruce and Tilly’s arms. After a while, Tilly helped her up the stairs
and into bed.
The
silent witness is Marie. She has learned
her sister is in the Soviet Union and not dead as everyone thought. She decides to keep this knowledge secret
from her family and especially her mother.
You can see the delicious entertainment value of this entire setup. The
setup continues to the end of the novel where Marie’s sister’s existence is
finally revealed. This revelation is the
power of the silent witness, by the way.
The silent witness always results (usually and should) in a scene where
the witness spills their guts. That is
perfect entertainment.
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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