7 April 2017, Writing Ideas
- New Novel, part x91, Creative Elements in Scenes, Plot Devices, Military
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
|
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) – Current discussion.
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)
Unreliable character
Incarceration (imprisonment)
Valuable item
Identification
Contest
Search
Military (Device or Organization manipulation): here is my definition – military is the use of a military organization or military regulation to further a plot.
Thus,
if you use a military unit in your works, you are likely using a military plot
device. If you are using military
actions, terminology, and organization, you are definitely using a military
plot device. Therefore, an intelligence
agency usually uses military actions, terminology, and organization—this is a
military plot device. Police and
firefighters also use military actions, terminology, and organization. Of course, if you use military organizations
within your plot, you are usually using a military plot device. I write, usually, because, it is possible to
mention ro have military units in a plot, but not use the military plot
device. Just to mention that the Queen’s
Black Guard are at their stations or that they repelled a terrorist attack isn’t
the use of the military plot device. On
the other hand, if you actually relate the internal actions of the Black Guard
in defending against terrorism, you are most likely using a military plot
device.
I
use it all the time. The reason is that I was a military officer. I worked in the AF and with the Army, Navy,
Marines, and the forces of many other countries. I know exactly how military units and
military people think. I know how they
act and how they fight. It is easy for
me to include the military plot device in my writing. I have some examples for you.
The
first is from Aegypt. You can buy this novel and read it for yourself:
Paul signaled his men to remount. His horse l’Orage was skittish and danced
back a step as Paul hauled his aching frame into the saddle. Her muscles rippled like silk under her black
coat, and Paul touched her gently to soothe her. l’Orage had been his steed for nearly three
years, almost half the time he had been in Tunisia
He bought her from a Berber’s
market on the coast. She was the most
beautiful horse he had ever seen. Feral
and full of fire, she was uncontrollable in the hands of her merchant owners
and stood blindfolded and hobbled in the market horse pen. A demon in the guise of a horse, she was
black as charcoal without a trace of lighter markings. Paul knew she was stolen the minute his eyes
lit upon her. He paid in cash—francs, and
few of those, because of her temperament.
When he entered the pen to claim
her, Berbers, Arabs, and Tunisians lined the enclosure to watch the black fiend
trample the foolish Lieutenant. Paul
walked quietly up to her, and when the laughing merchant striped off the
blindfold and hobbles, Paul spoke a single word. l’Orage calmed immediately and let him stroke
her face. Contemptuously, he led her on
a light field-lead out of the market-square.
The marketplace turned into a
frenzy of babbling men, women, and children.
The native peoples sidled out of Paul’s way as if he were himself a
demon from the pit. At the edge of the
market, to the amazement of the spectators, Paul leapt upon l’Orage bareback
and rode off at a gallop. He laughed all
the way back to the garrison.
l’Orage was a horse trained for
war. She was an Arabian, bred and
drilled to the battlefield. She was
trained to kill and to the tactics of combat.
She was a European’s horse. Paul
could tell by her carriage and by the saddle scars on her flanks. Only one type of European warrior found his
way into the wilds of Tunisia
l’Orage was nervous; she smelled
the blood that stained Paul’s uniform as well as her own sweat covered
flanks—relics of the battle they fought not many hours ago.
Paul chuckled without
humor. The reaper had descended like a
night demon. The sleeping bandits didn't
have a chance. Abdu Habad and his men
would not soon again attack the villages in this district. After the slaughter of last night, it would
take the bandit a good while to rebuild his band. That is, if Habad were not also dead along
with more than half of his men.
Merde. If this job weren't so horrible it would have
its grim pleasures. Slicing the heads
off of men like Abdu Habad was a great pleasure.
Automatically, the column of thirty
Legionnaires formed behind Paul. They
were dressed like him: combat khakis almost the same color as the sand,
finished with the signature Legionnaire’s cap and its trailing cloth. Their clothing was stained from combat and
sweat. Their hands were marked by powder
burns and blood. Each man slung a true
rifle, ready, over his right shoulder.
There were no carbines in Paul’s command: the flat desert visibility
allowed long accurate rifle shots, and yet, the weapons had to always be ready
at hand because the dunes and mountains provided good cover to the bandits for
ambush.
Without a word from the
Lieutenant, Sergeant le Boehm nodded, and the flankers and pointmen immediately
took their positions. The Sergeant
himself rode on Paul's left only a few paces back. The men also seemed to bunch toward their
Lieutenant. Whether they did so for the
little security he could afford or to provide for his own protection, Paul
couldn't tell—never could tell.
The hard rocky desert went on and on and
was lost in the blurred horizon. Even
now, in mirages and bright lines, waves of heat rose harshly upwards. Already, the lingering signs of the rainstorm
had disappeared, and the ground cracked as the sun baked out what little moisture
remained.
The sun treated a man the same way—it tore
the water out of him. Paul had seen
corpses uncovered by sandstorms. They
were desiccated, like leather, ghastly.
Not long after death, their bodies burst from the heat. The organs cast like limp balloons, dried
into fantastic shapes, and the faces so clear you could read the terror of
their last thoughts.
A similar horror had followed Paul Bolang
from the battlefields of the Great War.
Paul had seen much death since he entered the deserts of Tunisia
Paul laughed, that was his simple plan:
the bandits would be shamed. His
Legionaries patiently killed all men who fought or remained in the camp and
contemptuously allowed those who ran to escape.
The word of the attack and the cowardly actions of the bandit chief
would circulate from the lips of those who got away. In the eyes of the desert people, they were
less than men, and they would likely never fight again. Their will was broken.
Paul laughed again. Another victory, another orchestrated defeat
of the enemy, another cast of the dice. Sacré
bleu, he had won again. The fire of
battle still coursed like wine through his veins.
One
of the key ideas in Aegypt is the
French Foreign Legion. Pau Bolang is a Lieutenant
and a member of the French Foreign Legion.
The imagry and the ideas pervade this novel, as it does many of my
novels.
The second
example comes from Centurion. You can also buy this novel and read it:
“Your
came here with your mother. You are a
strong looking young man with a young man’s ambitions. You are a Roman citizen, or so I pronounce
you. What do you wish from me?”
The
words came out in a rush from Abenadar, “I wish to be a legionnaire.”
“You
and every other young Roman in the Galil.
Why should I choose you? Are you
trained in the use of any weapons: the pila
or the gladius?”
“No
sir.”
“What
skills do you have which would make me need you?”
“What
skills do you need?”
“A
fair question. Burthus, what kinds of
men do we still need in the III Gallica?”
The
legionnaire to the left of the Primus
answered him, “I am not sure Primus. Should I get the Cornicularius?”
“Yes
call in Fonteius.”
The
legionnaire saluted and left. In a few
moments, a burly man in a short tunic and leggings followed him into the
chamber.
“Yes,
Primus,” said the Cornicularius while saluting.
“What
skills do you still need, Fonteius?”
“Chiefly
in the librarii, I need men who can
translate and speak to the people of the Galil.”
“You,”
the Primus pointed at Abenadar,
“Abenadar, the Roman, can you speak the language of the Galil?”
“Yes
Primus. I can speak it as well as anyone born here.”
“I
know you can speak Latin; what other skills do you have?”
“I
can write some Latin, and I know the language of the Greeks.”
“Better
than your mother can read Latin, I hope.
Will this one do, Fonteius?”
“Yes,
Primus, this is just the kind of man
I am looking for.”
“Very
well Abenadar, consider your probatio
to be at an end. I shall accept you as a
librarius, but I have few immunii in this legion. You will answer to Fonteius as a librarius, but you shall fight for
Centurion Capolinius in the Hastatus
Posterior Century. Centurion
Capolinius commands the sixth century of the tenth cohort. They are the last of the centuries in the
accounting of this legion, but they call themselves the Lions. You will find with them an appropriate
beginning. The Cornicularius Fonteius will instruct you and place you with your
century. Follow his teaching and prove
yourself a worthy Roman and you shall not be sent back to your mother’s house.”
“Thank
you Primus.”
“Now,
Abenadar, are you ready to take the sacramentum
and accept the Emperor’s viaticum?”
“What
are these, sir?”
The
Primus laughed, “The oath and your
first payment.”
Abenadar
did not hesitate a moment, “Yes. I am
ready.”
“Cornicularius, administer the oath!”
Fonteius
took a standard from an honored position behind an altar in the corner of the
chamber. The standard sported a golden
Roman Eagle perched on the top of a pole.
“Abenadar, place your hand on the Aquila of the III Gallica
and repeat the sacramentum after me.”
Abenadar
touched the golden bird and repeated after Fonteius, “I Abenadar, son of Abenadar Iustus from Natzeret a
citizen of Rome Aquila
nor do anything against any law prescribed by the consuls and the
Republic. I will follow all orders of
the consuls and of any official placed over me by them. I promise to always act on the behalf of the
Republic, and I will not leave my post or responsibilities until I have served
my full term. I swear never to shrink
from death on behalf of the Roman
State
Fonteius
slapped Abenadar on the back, “Welcome to the III Gallica boy. Ha, but we will make a man of you.”
The
Primus took three gold aurei out of
his pouch and motioned for Abenadar to come to him. The Primus
handed Abenadar the coins, “I also welcome you, young Abenadar. If you have the strength and wisdom of your
father, you will bring great honor to us.
Go with the Cornicularius
Fonteius and he will settle you in your new responsibilities.”
“Thank
you, Primus,” Abenadar tried to
salute like he had seen the others.
Fonteius led
Abenadar out of the chamber by the side door that he entered.
Again
the use of a military to convey history but also the plot of the novel. I just gave you snippets from these
novels. They are mostly focused on the
military from 1926 and from the first century.
I recommend the military plot device if you can use it and know how to
use it.
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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