Writing - part x211, Novel Form, Tension and Release, Pathos, Trust

5 August 2017, Writing - part x211, Novel Form, Tension and Release, Pathos, Trust

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. 

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. 

 

Here are the parts of a normal (classical) novel:

 

1.      The Initial scene (identify the output: implied setting, implied characters, implied action movement)

2.      The Rising action scenes

3.      The Climax scene

4.      The Falling action scene(s)

5.      The Dénouement scene

             

So, how do you write a rich and powerful initial scene?  Let’s start from a theme statement.  Here is an example from my latest novel:

 

The theme statement for Deirdre: Enchantment and the School 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 scene development 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

          

If you have the characters (protagonist, protagonist’s helper, and antagonist), the initial setting, the telic flaw (from the protagonist), a plot idea, the theme action, then you are ready to write the initial scene.  I would state that since you have a protagonist, the telic flaw, a plot idea, and the theme action, you have about everything—what you might be lacking is the tension and release cycle in the initial scene.

 

Tension and release is the means to success in scene writing.  The creative elements you introduce into the scenes (Chekov’s guns) are the catalysts that drive entertainment and excitement in a scene, and this is what scenes are all about.     

 

I am moving into the way to develop sufficient tension and release.  One of the best means is through pathos.  I’ve written about pathos developing characters.  What I want to do is expand this into pathos developing scenes.  In most cases, a scene with a pathos developing character can be made pathetic.  In any case, almost any scene can invoke pathos—pity and fear.  This development of pity and fear is the driving force in tension and release.  The question is how the author develops it.

 

Fear is just one mechanism for developing powerful and sufficient tension and release in a scene.  The other mechanism is pity.  

 

In a novel, pity is the emotion of sorrow and compassion in the reader caused by the suffering and misfortunes of the characters. 

 

Pity and fear are the classic means of producing tension and release in a novel and in a scene.  There are other emotions that can be used for tension and release.  Here is a list of emotions:

• Fear → feeling afraid
• Anger → feeling angry. A stronger word for anger is rage.
• Sadness → feeling sad. Other words are sorrow, grief (a stronger feeling, for example when someone has died) or depression (feeling sad for a long time). Some people think depression is a different emotion.
• Joy → feeling happy. Other words are happiness, gladness.
• Disgust → feeling something is wrong or nasty
• Surprise → being unprepared for something.
• Trust → a positive emotion; admiration is stronger; acceptance is weaker
• Anticipation → in the sense of looking forward positively to something which is going to happen. Expectation is more neutral.

Is trust really an emotion?  We can let it slide for now, but let’s evaluate it in terms of writing and tension and release.  The first and most important point is, who do you trust?  In a kiddy or young adult novel, you might trust the protagonist, especially in a (gag) first person novel.  I should clarify.  First person novels are okay, but like I’ve written before, you better have a great reason for using the first person.  The Hungry Games girl is literally the most important person in her world—this is a good enough reason for using the first person in a novel.  I still like the third person.  I still have to confess, I wrote a novel that starts in the first person.  This character dies at the beginning of the novel, but she is the most important person in the universe (at the time). 

 

Do you trust protagonists?  In adult novels I wouldn’t trust anyone.  In an adult novel, no one is going to go completely open kimono, unless you are writing in the first person.  You can’t hide anything or few things in the first person.  The protagonist’s every secret, feeling, and social issue is out for all the world to see.  That’s the way first person works.  You can’t help trust a first person protagonist—everyone else is likely lying. 

 

In a third person adult novel, and by adult novel, I mean a novel written for adults not anything else, the world is supposed to reflect the real and adult world.  People lie.  Your best friend might put a knife in your back.  Your children might hate you.  Your spouse might hate you.  In any case, trust is a commodity traded in the marketplace of human affairs.  Trust is not necessarily an emotion, it is something dealt in human affairs—you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours.  You can’t even do much with trust in tension and release.  Now, I can do something with lack of trust or failure of trust.

 

Here is the power of trust in tension and release—a character breaks trust with another character.  That is potentially powerful tension and release.  Breaking trust can be one of the most powerful of novel ideas.  In other words, betrayal.  When the protagonist is betrayed, that leads to more and more tension and release cycles in the writing.  Here is an example from one of my unpublished Ancient Light novels.  This is from Warrior of Light:

 

Daniel took a taxi directly to the Paddington Station and boarded the train to Oxford.  When he arrived, he walked to Sveta and Klava’s dormitory.  They were still in a late class, so he remained in the dormitory’s large foyer until they returned.  They didn’t return.  It was near supper time, so Daniel began to search around the main restaurants in town for them.  He still didn’t find them.  Finally he returned to their dormitory.  He asked at the front desk, “Have Sveta and Klava Calloway returned to their room?”

“They came in.  I saw them.”

Daniel started up the stairway.

“Wait, you can’t go up there alone.  It’s too late.”

“Could you call them and ask Sveta to come down?”

The woman called.  She turned from the telephone, “Who’s asking for her?”

“Tell her, Daniel Long.”

The woman listened for a moment, hung up the telephone, and turned abruptly toward Daniel, “She said she doesn’t want to speak to you under any circumstances.”

“I want to speak to her.”  Daniel took the steps two at a time.  The woman below bellowed after him then she picked up the telephone again.

Daniel ran to Sveta and Klava’s room.  He knocked on the door.  Sveta answered.  When she saw him, her eyes slitted, and she tried to slam the door.  Daniel was too quick for her.  He put his foot in it and his fingers.  The door slammed partially against his hand and he grunted.  Daniel pushed the door open.  Sveta’s strength was nothing compared to his.  She stood defiantly in front of him.  Klava sat in the desk chair.  She had turned to face them.

The room was small with two single beds, two desks, and two chairs.  Books covered nearly every surface.  Klava called out, “Hi, Daniel.”

Sveta snarled, “Tais-toi, Klava.”  She stared at Daniel, “What do you want?”

“I want to know why you stopped writing to me.  Is that any way to treat me?”

“You didn’t tell me about Pevensy.”

“I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“What do you think it feels like to be lied to and led along, Daniel?”

“I had other things I was thinking about that night.  Do you honestly think I could tell you the horrible things Mr. Pevensy said about you?”

“I think you could have told me that he would never hire me.  Do you know how embarrassing it was for me to face him?  He said I had a voice that sounded like a retarded child.  He said I couldn’t control my voice.  He said I would be an embarrassment to his organization and the nation.  That hurt, Daniel.  But he told you all that already, didn’t he?”

“Yes, and I tried to defend you.”

“How can you defend against that?  He didn’t attack my abilities, he attacked who I am.  I can’t fix these things.  They are a part of me.”  A new thought came to her, “Do you feel the same way about me, Mr. Long?”

“Never.  I love you the way you are,” the words sounded trite to Daniel.

“Really?” Sveta’s reply was frosty.

Daniel caught the sound of running steps on the stairs behind him.

“Please Sveta, they will be here in a moment.  I have so much I want to talk to you about.  Please let me stay for a moment.”

Klava spoke behind her, “They are coming for him, Sveta.  Betty must have alerted security.”

“I don’t have anything more to say to Daniel right now.”

“Please, Sveta.  When can I speak to you again?  I’m begging you.”

Klava scraped her chair back, “That sounds earnest.”

“Write me.  When I am of a mind, I might reply.”

Two security officers rushed up behind Daniel, “Sir, you will have to leave the woman’s dormitory.  You were not invited in.  If you don’t leave, we’ll have to arrest you.”

“I’ll leave officer, but let me say just one thing more.  Sveta.  Klava make her look at me.”

“She’s listening.”

“Sveta, perhaps I should have told you what Pevensy said, but what have you not told me that you should?”

Sveta whipped around.  Her mouth opened wide.  Daniel was already being escorted down the hall and toward the stairs.

Almost hysterically, Sveta cried after him, “I can’t tell you.  I can’t tell you.”  When Daniel was out of sight, Sveta stared at the ring on her hand.  She had never taken it off since Daniel put it there.

Klava smirked, “You’ve lost him, Sveta.  You should have told him.”

“I can’t tell him, and you know why.”

“Then you’ve lost him, and you know why.”

“Tais-toi, Klava.  Tais-toi,” Sveta burst into tears.           

 

Here is a real betrayal of trust.  Sveta has secrets, and she isn’t telling.  She blames her fiancé, Daniel for the circumstances above.  She believe he betrayed her.  We have a Mexican standoff.  The rest of the novel is about bringing these two love birds back together.  This is powerful use of trust—it is betrayal or mistrust that becomes so powerful.  I’m still not sure this is an emotion.  What about making the reader feel trust?  I’m not sure this is the point.  

 

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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