6 May 2017, Writing Ideas - New
Novel, part x120, Creative Elements in Scenes, Plot Devices, Crime
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
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 – Current
discussion.
Theater
One way love
Crime: here is my definition – Crime is the use of an illegal activity to further a plot.
Crime
as a plot device has been around since the beginning of fiction—or almost. Let’s just say, you didn’t have to wait for The Moonstone. Crime was already there in some way or
another. Look at Oliver Twist, Treasure Island,
Kidnapped… in Pride and Prejudice the crimes of outright fraud and statutory rape
are not crimes at all in those times. In
spite of that, Ms. Bronte played them well as cultural and social crimes. Perhaps my definition should be immorality
instead of illegality, but I’ll stand by illegality—immorality includes too
much that even we would think isn’t crime.
For example, in Ms. Bronte’s day, adultery would be a crime, but not
statutory rape. On the other hand,
today, adultery isn’t a crime, but statutory rape is. Filching a shilling in the Victorian Era
might get you hanged. It’s barely a
crime of note today. So for crime we
need illegality of some type—I’ll go for cultural and social mores as well as
actual statues.
So,
to use this plot device of crime, your protagonist can do it, have it done to
them, or see (know) it done. The point
of crime as a plot device is to use the concept of crime, an illegal act, to
further the plot.
I’ve
used this all the time in my writing—in all three modes, and all degrees of meaning. The current novel I’m writing has a climax
based in criminal activity. The
protagonist’s helper is a criminal escapee.
The protagonist has committed crimes but not been convicted or
incarcerated. I think this provides delicious
entertainment and creative elements.
Here
is an example from School:
Sorcha trembled. She slowly regained her composure, “Because
my mother abandoned me, the British Foundling System took over my welfare and
put me in a foster home. Due to my
appearance, that took a while. I lived
in quite a few group homes until they finally found me a foster family.”
“I
take it the whole foster experience sucked.”
“It
sucked all right. They only cared about
the money from the state. In the
foundling homes, I could go to school.
With a foster family, I could still go to school. That was the good part even though they beat
me and locked up the ice box. They fed
me the minimum and made me clean, cook, and take care of their younger
children. I was lucky that was all they
did. From what some of the other girls
said… I wouldn’t have minded all that
except after the beatings started and the kids began bullying me at
school.”
Deirdre
laid back on the bed, “Why’d they bully you?”
“My
clothing looked like it came out of the trash bin. I never had a lunch. I studied all the time and made top grades. That all makes you a bully magnet.”
“That
really sucks.” Deirdre stared at her,
“Your clothing still looks like it came out of the bin.”
“That’s
because it did.” Sorcha scrunched her
nose and continued, “I didn’t take the bullying or the beatings very well. The school said I started acting out. What they meant was, I didn’t let them bully
me. I fought back. If they attacked me, I attacked back. If they hit, I hit. If they kicked, I kicked…”
“They
expelled you?”
“They
didn’t expel me—they sent me to a reformatory.”
Deirdre
sat up, “They sent you to prison?”
“Assault
and battery. She hit first—I just beat
the crap out of her…plus a couple of her friends.” Sorcha smiled at the memory.
Deirdre
put her hand on Sorcha’s, “That’s why I’m here at Wycombe. I’ve beat up a lot of girls and some boys
too, but they didn’t send me to prison.”
Sorcha
lifted her lip, “You’re a rich toff and special. Girls like me get sent to the
reformatory. Girls like you get to go to
a good school.”
Deirdre
made a thoughtful face.
Sorcha
continued, “They sent me to HM
Prison Aylesbury—that’s just up the road from here.”
“Why aren’t you there now?”
Sorcha smiled, “I escaped. They let me go to school there too, but I
learned something much much more useful when I was in there. I learned to use the glamour. I knew all about it, but I didn’t imagine
that I could use it. I used it inside
Aylesbury, and I used it to escape Aylesbury.”
“How did you learn about using glamour?”
“It’s funny the kinds of people you find
in prison, and it’s funny the kinds of creatures who are attracted to
prisons. The Unseelie are everywhere
around such places. They seem to enjoy
the suffering and malignant thoughts of people held captive.”
“They’re like that all right.”
“There were also kids like me in Aylebury. All of them were abandoned. Don’t get me wrong, there aren’t really that
many of us, but many of them are in prison.
I learned that most of them don’t have the knowledge or the power to use
their skills, but some know the rudiments.
From them, I gained the knowledge and learned I had the power. After I perfected the glamour, it was nothing
to change my appearance and slip out of that place. I walked to High Wycombe and found a great spot
to live here.”
“Where?”
“Like I’d tell you…”
“You don’t have to tell me. Go on…”
Sorcha ran her fingers through her hair,
“I saw how much the girls learned and how much they taught here. I was well prepared from my previous
schooling, all I had to do was to attend the classes and make them think I was
just another student.”
“They didn’t call your name in class.”
“Not yet—you screwed up everything for me
on the first day. Because of my last
name, Weir, I almost always end up at the bottom of their list. I just go to the teacher and use a flash of
glamour. I tell her they forgot to list
me—because I was last, they accidentally dropped me off the roll. They always accept that, and because of the
glamour, they believe me. They add me to
the list, and then mostly ignore me for the rest of the year. I hand in my homework. I write my papers. I take the tests. I get my grades. I produce the results, and they forget about
me because of the glamour. Eventually, I
hope to graduate from this school. I’ll
use my records and the diploma to go to university.”
Deirdre clapped, “That’s great. I think that’s fantastic. What a wonderful idea. I wish I’d thought of it. What’s the downside?”
Sorcha closed her fists, “The downside is
when some stupid twit sees through your glamour, gets in your way, and prevents
you from making the pitch on the first and best day.”
Deirdre scrunched her mouth to the side,
“What do you mean the first and the best day.”
“You bink.
On the first day of class, they don’t know you from Pete. Even if they think they remember you from the
year before, they’re too embarrassed to make a mistake. The teachers are clueless. You can easily manipulate them in the
beginning. It becomes harder as time
goes on.”
Sorcha
is an escapee from prison. She was
incarcerated for assault and battery.
She is now breaking all kinds of laws by illegally going to school at
Wycombe Abbey. Deirdre is a girl who
should have been sent to prison. If she
was poor like Sorcha, she would have been.
This is part of the basis for this novel—it provides a large part of the
backstory.
Here’s
another example from Sister of Darkness:
The evening was especially dark. Clouds covered the skies and the moon. A wind blew in from the coast that reminded
them that winter was not long past. An
anguished cry awakened Leora and Paul.
It was a single sound of childish loss.
A howl of fear and grief, “No…”
Paul leapt out of bed and pulled on his
robe. Leora was only steps behind
him. When he opened the door, Marie
stood there already. Two fingers
threatened to slip into her mouth and her threadbare rabbit was clutched by an
ear in her fist. She stared wide-eyed,
“Lumière is gone.”
Without a word, Paul ran to Lumière’s
room. The windows were all opened and
the door was gaping. The raw night blew
through the openings and chilled Paul to the bone. He pulled up Lumière’s bed clothes and
searched her room. Leora stood in the
doorway. She held a rosary in her hand
and mouthed a prayer, “Paul, she is not here.
She is gone.”
“Gone where?”
Leora buried her face in her hands, “I
don’t know. I can’t see her. She is not in the house. There are things in the night that block my sight.”
Paul leapt back through the door. The scream was loud enough, it had already
awakened the house. Major Lyons stood in
the hall followed closely by his driver, Lord Hastings, Goodberry, and a group
of servants.
“What is wrong, Paul?” Lyons
“Lumière is gone. She has been taken—abducted. Leora says she is not in the house.”
Lord Hastings stepped forward, “Do you
need weapons?”
“We are armed already.”
“Then go to it man. Just watch out in the darkness that you don’t
shoot each other.”
“And don’t go alone,” Leora stood in the
doorway and clutched a piece of Lumière’s clothing.
“Quickly, men, go!” Lord Hastings pushed
them toward the outside.
In groups of two, the men ran into the
night and scoured the area around the house.
They found nothing and no one. As
soon as Lord Hastings could make a call on the telephone, they were joined by
the constabulary of the closest village.
In the morning, Major Lyons made a call and a company of soldiers showed
up and began cordoning the fields.
Paul entered into his and Leora’s room
tired and discouraged. When he came in,
Tilly rose from her knees beside Leora and left. She gave him a piteous and, for Tilly, an
attempted cheering look, as she passed.
Leora was on her knees before the
window. Her face rested on the lounge
and her hair stretched across and over the side. Trembling sobs shook her.
Paul went to his knees and lifted her
up. She came into his arms. Her face was wet, her lashes strung with
tears like dew. Paul held her
close. She held him for a minute then a
moan escaped her lips, “Paul, she is gone.”
She shook her head violently, “I searched and searched for her. With the scepter and golden tablet, I touched
her ka once or twice, but each time, it was masked from me.” Her voice rose in fear, “I traced her out of Britain
“If Lumière is alive, we must get her
back again. We know who has taken her,
and we know where they are taking her.”
“And we know why,” Leora moaned, “She is
a hostage to keep us from retrieving the Osiris Offering Formula. Paul, you understand, as well as I, we might
be required to trade our daughter’s life for that cursed thing.”
“God forbid.”
“I should have destroyed it when I had
the chance.”
“The question is what will we do now?”
Abruptly sober and tearless, Leora
turned up her face, “We go to Windsor England Windsor
I
hope you have the chance to read this novels soon. It is on contract and should be published. In any case, Paul and Leora’s daughter is
kidnapped and that propels a large portion of the second part of the
novel. You won’t want to miss the first
part either, but this great crime sets up the second part and the next
novel. Crime is a wonderful and terrible
plot device. It allows the author to
directly control much of the circumstances and entertainment of the novel.
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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