Writing - part x175, Novel Form, Protagonist’s Helper

30 June 2017, Writing - part x175, Novel Form, Protagonist’s Helper

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.

These are the steps I use to write a novel including the five discrete parts of 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

I finished writing my 28^th novel, working title, School, potential title Deirdre: Enchantment and the School.  The theme statement is: 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.  

Here is the cover proposal for Deirdre: Enchantment and the School. 

Cover Proposal

The most important scene in any novel is the initial scene, but eventually, you have to move to the rising action. I continued writing my 29^th novel, working title Red Sonja.  I finished my 28^th novel, working title School.  If you noticed, I started on number 28, but finished number 29 (in the starting sequence—it’s actually higher than that).  I adjusted the numbering.  I do keep everything clear in my records.  I’ll be providing information on the marketing materials and editing.

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 29:  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.

 

This is the classical form for writing a successful 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 (protagonist, antagonist, and optionally the protagonist’s helper)

d.      Identify the telic flaw of the protagonist (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

              

The protagonist and the telic flaw are tied permanently together.  The novel plot is completely dependent on the protagonist and the protagonist’s telic flaw.  They are inseparable.  This is likely the most critical concept about any normal (classical) form novel. 

 

As novels moved out of their earliest development, basically the Victorian era, the concept of “show” and don’t tell became more and more important.  Victorian novels are the earliest form of the relatively new idea of a novel.  In them, the characters, or usually just the protagonist waxes widely on their own thoughts and ideas.  As novels matured and became more complex, authors began to realize, the power in the novel is in the showing and not the telling.  With this concept, the importance of the protagonist’s helper became more and more important.  If the protagonist can’t express their direct thoughts to the reader, how can the author get the feelings and the thoughts of the protagonist to the reader?  The answer is through the protagonist’s helper.  The protagonist’s helper is a much more powerful and richer character idea than this.

 

The protagonist’s helper, in the simplest sense, is the sidekick.  In Cervantes’ Don Quixote, Sancho Panza is the sidekick, philosopher, interpreter, and apologist for Don.  Don Quixote communicates his ideas about the world and his plans with Sancho—the author gets his ideas out to the reader.  Likewise, in Robinson Caruso, Friday is the sidekick and the non-communicator who allows Robinson to express his thoughts and ideas. 

 

In a more complex piece of literature, the protagonist’s helper is the lover or love interest.  You can’t have a love novel without a protagonist and a protagonist’s helper—unless the love interest is the antagonist.  Possible, but very difficult.  In a very complex novel, the protagonist’s helper can be both the love interest and the sidekick.  I’ve written novels like this, and I think they are very fun and entertaining.  Other novels build the protagonist’s helper from friendship.  I like these types of novels.  In fact, I like novels with protagonist helpers.  I think this is a very fruitful and powerful way to write a novel.  You can see more or less successful means of writing like this.  Almost anytime you have a love relationship, you are talking about a protagonist and protagonist helper setup. Especially if the relationship is mutually helpful and communicative.  Some authors set up multiple protagonist’s helpers.  This is possible, but dilutes the power of friendship, love, and many times complicates the novel too much.  An example of this is Harry Potty.  Who is the protagonist’s helper to Harry, Ron or Hermione?  This produces some real complexities in the novels that makes for interesting plots, but difficulty for the author to express the protagonist without going internal. I point out that this is especially true in the later novels where Harry has problems trusting his friends and is written away from the natural protagonist’s helpers. 

 

Another example is The Little Princess where Sara really doesn’t have a protagonist’s helper except for her doll.  Here is an express problem with the Victorian era novels.  No one is really a good enough friend to share one’s true thoughts with, thus the power of the protagonist’s helper is diminished. 

 

Really, the openness of the modern era is what has made protagonist’s helpers powerful in literature.  I would go so far as to say this is why culturally, modern novels, especially in the West have done so much to move the art form forward.  You can’t really present a protagonist’s helper in a society or culture where people can’t trust each other.  And we are seeing other cultures become more open and trusting as the literature of the Western world has infused them.  Perhaps if and as the Western world becomes more isolated through social media, the protagonist’s helper will become more moribund as people lose the ability to understand nonsexual friendship or as people become less trusting and friendless.  On the other hand, the protagonist’s helper might become even more important as an ideal.

 

I write using protagonist’s helpers in almost all of my novels.  I find it easier to write showing and not telling, and I find the concept of friendship and camaraderie powerful and entertaining.  As an aside, first person novels can have a protagonist’s helper, but because of the telling quality of the first person, these characters fade into unimportance or worse.  The reason is simple.  In a third person novel, the showing quality allows strong and deep friendship because we see the end results and hear the characters interact at the level of conversation.  In the first person, it is much too easy for the protagonist to let slip their disappointment and true feelings without repercussion.  Friendship can never last where absolute thoughts have sway—we all unfortunately castigate our best friends and lovers in our thoughts.  When the thoughts are only at the showing and conversation level, friendships can blossom even amid adversity and conflict.  When they are thoughts, the reader may never be able to mend the potential negative assertions of the protagonist.  This is especially fresh in my mind from my newest novel, School.  In it the two girls are developing a very strong bond of friendship.  They argue and fight, but the end result is always moving toward friendship.  If the reader were completely aware of their unvarnished opinions of each other, that friendship couldn’t grow in a positive yet imperfect way.          

 

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  

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