21 April 2017, Writing Ideas
- New Novel, part x105, Creative Elements in Scenes, Plot Devices, Fantasy
Land (Time Travel, Space Travel)
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)
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
Secret king
Messiah
Hidden skills
Fantasy Land (Time Travel, Space Travel) – Current discussion.
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
Fantasy Land (Time Travel, Space Travel): here is my definition – Fantasy Land (Time Travel, Space Travel) is the use of fantastic or scientific (natural) means to transport a character(s) to a new, historical, or fantastic setting (world) to further a plot.
Edgar
Rice Burroughs is the fantasy land plot device author. ERB transports the reader to the world of
Tarzan, to the world of Pelucidar, to Mars, to Venus and beyond. None of the worlds of ERB are real—they are
all fantasy constructs from the jungles of Africa with people, animals, and
stuff that just never was there or existed to the center of the earth with dinosaurs,
strange people, and beautiful princesses.
The same for all his other novels, and he could do it without the reader
really gathering that ERB moved them to a fantasy land.
Harry
Potty uses a fantasy land plot device.
The magical world lies just between platform 10 and 11, that is the
means and the place. The fantasy world
of Harry Potty is right there, but not there—it is a fantasy land. I mention time travel and space travel. The time travel concept in fantasy land is
when the author takes the reader back or forward in time to places outside of
human history. If the place is purely
historical in time travel, it isn’t really fantasy land. Space travel is always fantasy land (at the
moment) unless you go to the moon or any of the real planets. The moment the author uses space travel to go
to a world outside of human knowledge, that is fantasy land.
I
use fantasy land in all my science fiction.
I develop worlds outside any other person’s experience. In my regular fiction, I have presented
places outside of time and history, but not often. Most of my regular fiction is not fantasy
land—not that there is any problem with fantasy land as a plot device.
Here
is an example from my novel Athelstan
Cying:
In a slow
transition between open space and the safety of the civilized universe, the
Twilight Lamb coasted into the orbital starport of the city of Neukoln. Neukoln was the capital and largest city of
the planetary moon Neuterra. Below, the
city spread out in the nighttime darkness like a blanket of lights that
stretched from one horizon to the other, while above them, Asa-Thor, Neuterra’s
primary stared balefully down on the Twilight Lamb.
During
the entry into the system and docking, Den held the command position on the
bridge. His father observed the
operations from his office with pride and pleasure. Natana wasn’t on duty this time—instead,
first officer Kern sat at the main helm and directed their course. Den called for docking, and the Twilight Lamb
settled gently into the giant repair berth. On every side, the ship was dwarfed by the
many gigantic ships and structures around her.
The
council of the Twilight Lamb negotiated the details for repair while the ship
traveled inbound through the Neuterran system.
The Athelstan Cying in their hold was as good as sold. Den knew a sense of loss, but he felt a
greater pang when he thought about Natana.
She hadn’t tried to talk to him for weeks, and he stayed away—partially
from concern about her mother’s threat, but mostly in response to Natana’s request
and his own guilt.
Natana
had not returned to her normal affability, but she was back in command of
herself and her actions. She threw
herself into her work, and Den did the same.
With the ship’s schedual, they were too busy to spend any time together.
Dr.
Kern was as good as her words—Den earned his Master of Command rating. His debt, though still quite large was, from
a future perspective, only a shadow of itself.
Additionally, she and Chaplin Snee convinced the council to extend Den’s
privileges. He could now use most of the
ship’s facilities, and he was granted the freedom to travel planetside on
Neuterra while the ship was in dry dock.
This
was the fifth planetfall the ship made since her encounter with the Cying. The first two occurred while Den recovered
from his injuries. During the last two
his debt restricted him to orbit. Nata
had traveled planetside, of course, and the very scent that clung to her on her
return reminded Den nostalgically of the many planets he visited in his extended
lifetime.
From
the bridge, the planet Neuterra appeared like a beautiful blue and white ball
under them, and Den’s heart swelled at the thought of that he would soon set
foot on it. The thought of planetfall
exhilarated him. He remembered this planet
from another age. In that time, Neuterra
was the center of biological research and production. Although that was still true today, many of
the discoveries of the past had been lost.
Humankind made many key developments since Den’s past lifetime, but
biological developments were not as fruitful as other disciplines and in some
respects had regressed.
Den
drew the first run of passenger shuttle flights to the planet. He didn’t know if that was due to his new
trustworthy status, the luck of the draw, or Dr. Kern. On the first flight Johan gave him a line
check to qualify him in a real shuttle as opposed to the virtual sim.
The
terminal building they were assigned was ancient and low, and like most of the
planet’s buildings painted a light pastel.
Multiple shipways stretched from it.
On the ground, Den and Johan didn’t shut down the engines, just off
loaded their passengers and made a quick turn around. They flight planned using the shuttle’s
instrumentation and planetary and orbital data connections. This was the procedure they followed while
they conducted multiple passenger flights until they ran out of crew day. The operations schedule required that they
leave the shuttle at the space port for the next crew and take their crew rest
on the surface. With a shuttle-full of
planet-bound crewmembers, Johan and Dan flew their final shuttle flight for the
day to Neukoln’s spaceport on the planet.
The
weather was beautiful and clear. It had
been that way all day, and the spaceport spread across the horizon with orderly
rows of ships parked from the far perspective into the haze of the city. Every type of modern vessel and many ancient
craft sat on the tarmac. Johan turned
command of the ship to Den, and Den flew the shuttle to a smooth running
landing on the huge ten kilometer runway.
They taxied the shuttle to one of the many secondary terminals that
spotted the field.
After
they off loaded their final group of passengers at the low terminal, Den taxied
the shuttle to their parking spot. Den
shut down the engines, and Johan swiftly opened the lock for the first time to
the open air. When the hatches opened,
Den reveled in the planetary atmosphere as it filled the small ship. All the smells: biological and wet, thick,
oxygen rich air swept into him. He
closed his eyes and unbidden knew again an ancient time. He heard military commands. His men ready for planetfall. The ship dropped into darkness and settled
unpressurized. A jarring mental
recognition thudded against his thoughts.
Who was that? He touched a gentle
mind that wasn’t his second in command.
The mind…
Johan
shook his arm, “Hey Den,” he laughed, “No time to take a nap now.”
Den
gave him a silly grin, “Just preparing for later. I need about a week of sleep to make up for
all I missed.”
“Let’s
get the niceties attended to and we can both get some shuteye before they call
us back to duty.”
Their
passengers had already long left for the city of Neukoln before Den and Johan
secured the shuttle and stepped into the brilliant light of Neuterra’s sun and
planet. Neuterra was a moon that circled
the gas giant Asa-Thor. Asa-Thor rose
late that morning—the days would be very pleasant for the next week of the
lunar cycle, and the evenings would be nearly twilight, the skies augmented the
light of the planetary primary.
Asa-Thor was an aborted star, an active
gas giant. And because of the additional
heat it provided its large moon, Neuterra, the combination made the winters and
summers warm. The system's sun alone was
not nearly close enough to give Neuterra a properly comfortable climate, but
with both of sources of light and heat, Neuterra was a veritable paradise.
The only disadvantage to this combination
was Neuterra's diurnal cycle—the human metabolism could barely adapt to
it. When the sun and Asa-Thor shared the
sky, the days and nights were in proper order, however, when the sun and
planetary primary were on opposite sides of Neuterra, the separation between
night and day was nearly indefinable.
Normally, the cycle divided into four weeks: a week of proper light and
dark; a week of successively lighter nights and slightly darker days; a week of
nearly similar dimly lit days and nights; and a week of lightening days and
darkening nights. The cycle, except for
eclipses and odd angular lineups was incredibly regular.
Human beings could not properly align
their bioclocks to the phenomenon, and other difficulties presented
themselves. One problem was the tides—a
difference of thirty meters was not unusual.
Landmass on Neuterra was at a premium already, and the high water didn't
help. Neuterra, an old and established
moon, didn't suffer often from the earthquakes that would have plagued a
younger planetoid, but minor vibrations were common when the star and Asa-Thor
came into juxtaposition.
The
spaceport bordered Neuterra’s capital, Neukoln.
The city was larger than Den remembered.
Over it hovered a towering line of clouds fully natural, but drawn by
the vast number of soaring skyscrapers.
Johan clapped Den’s shoulder.
“Been a while since you were last planetside?”
You
don’t know, thought Den.
They settled the Twilight Lamb’s
business quickly. Den and Johan left the
shuttle in the hands of the surface spaceport.
Then they registered it and the Twilight Lamb and organized some of the
details of the shuttle cargo traffic and orbital work at the spaceport command
center. The port authorities noted
Johan’s well-worn Master’s badge and Den’s new Journeyman’s badge and passed
them quickly through customs and control.
When they passed through customs, artificial psy scanners flashed at the
periphery of Den’s mind. He blanked his
thoughts, just in time. A large sign on
the other side announced the use of mind scanning equipment for identification
purposes and public safety. Den guessed
this was the legacy of Neuterra’s synthetic talent studies.
Cheap
shot, I know. This is a science fiction
novel about space travel. The worlds
developed in space travel have to be fantasy land—they are developed entirely
from the mind of the writer. That doesn’t
mean they can’t be based and developed from science and knowledge—it just means
they are fantastic are created worlds.
Use fantasy land when and where you need it—it’s just another plot
device tool for the author.
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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