26 August 2017, Writing - part x232,
Novel Form, Culmination in Tension and Release
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 c9n 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 28th 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 29th novel, working title Red Sonja. I finished my 28th 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 your scenes.
Here is an example of developing or
building emotional tension and release in a scene. This example is from Shadow of Darkness an Ancient
Light novel. Sveta has a penchant
for learning and speaking languages. Her
mind was injured during the battle for Berlin.
She doesn’t remember the languages she speaks and understands. I showed you a scene before were she realizes
she can read Hebrew. In the previous
scene, she reads Greek without understanding that she is reading Greek. This
scene is a cumulative scene. It is a
type of very high level tension and release.
In many previous scene, some that I showed you, Sveta’s language skills
were displayed and we learned more and more about her capabilities. Finally, in this scene, we see a showing of
explanation about her skills. The Mother
Abbess is right and wrong. She is more
right than wrong about Sveta. This is a
key revelation in the novel. Many scenes
foreshadowed and built to this particular scene, but this is not the climax of
the novel—it is an intermittent release in the novel. It is a specific and important revelation in
the novel.
If, as I mentioned yesterday, that
scene was an ah ha moment, this is the explanation of that ah ha moment. This is a type of reflective scene that my
writer friend likes to call a sequel. I’ll
go for that, but notice—there is no mental reflection in the entire scene. This is a type of reflective scene, but there
is only showing in the scene. The
showing and revelation in this scene are very complex. We have the Mother Abbess making deductions,
some of which are right, through the entire scene, but no mental reflection. Everything is expressed through dialog,
action, and description.
Here is the scene:
Immediately after the communion
dismissal, Mother Marya brought the message to Sveta, “Mother Anna would like
to speak to you in her office, Sister Svetlana.”
Sveta nodded. Then with great trepidation and faltering
steps, Sveta made the trek through the long hallways and around the foyer of
the convent. She had never been ordered
into the abbess’ office. She understood
from the sisters that a summons was the beginning of the highest form of
dissatisfaction from Mother Anna. She
wondered if she did something wrong during the service. None of the other sisters spoke to her before
the message came from Mother Marya, but they had all been looking at her
strangely. Sveta intentionally made the
walk slowly. She could not move very
fast, but she hung back, filled with fear and foreboding.
When she arrived at the office door, she
paused for a few minutes while gathering up enough courage to knock. Her first tap was too quiet to hear. She had to rap her knuckles against the door
a second time. This time the knock
seemed much too loud to her. Mother
Anna’s distracted voice came from behind the door, “Enter.”
Sveta, with her head bowed, opened the
door and stepped into the room. She
closed the door carefully behind her before she turned to face the abbess.
Mother Anna sat behind her desk with her
hands tightly clasped in front of her, “Come closer, Svetlana. I need to speak to you.”
Sveta moved to the center of the area
before the large desk. A chair stood
there. Sveta sat down at Mother Anna’s
gesture.
Mother Anna sat quietly clasping and
unclasping her hands as though she didn’t know how to begin. Finally she started, “Svetlana, about the
reading this morning.”
Sveta raised her face.
“Do you realize you were reading Greek?”
Sveta’s eyes widened. Her face contorted in amazement and denial,
“Greek?”
“Yes, that is why Mother Larisa and
Mother Inna were weeping. They had not
heard that language used in the readings for many years. Didn’t you realize the words of the Epistle
were strange?”
“No Mother Abbess.” Sveta bit her lip and dropped to her knees
off the chair, “I’m so sorry. I…” She laid her face against the floor, “I will
do any penitence, if you will continue to let me read and worship. Please Mother Abbess…don’t send me
away.” Hysteria tinged Sveta’s petitions
though they were muffled by the floor and her emotion.
Father Nikolay’ deep voice came from the
left, “For the Lord’s sake, Mother Anna, the girl thinks she has done something
wrong.”
Sveta jerked up in embarrassment. She had no idea someone else was in the room.
Mother Anna abruptly rushed around the
desk. She lifted Sveta up and sat her
back in the chair. She kissed Sveta’s
eyes and her forehead, “Svetlana, do not cry.
Do not be sad. You have done
nothing wrong. I will not send you
away. You will not stop having your
place in the readings or in our worship.
Stop crying.” Mother Anna pulled
her handkerchief from her Exorassa, her outer robe, and wiped Sveta’s cheeks
and nose, “You’ve done nothing wrong.
One of the sisters played a typical joke on you, and child, that joke
could not have better spent itself. You
didn’t know you understand Greek?”
Sveta bit her lip again and shook her
head.
Mother Anna moved her gaze to Father
Nikolay, “This child astounds me at every turn.” She snorted, “She is brought to us by a Jew
who shows us an affidavit of her competency in Hebrew. She works in a Jewish bookstore, sorting
Hebrew and Aramaic texts. The local
commissar wants to place this jewel in a people’s asylum. Yes, jewel.”
She turned back to Sveta, “You, Svetlana are a jewel, a pearl of great
price. We spent nothing to gain you, and
I am not sure we know your full potential or capability. Father Nikolay, we did not speak enough on
this subject before. We need to now.”
Father Nikolay stood a little
straighter.
“This girl, Svetlana, is about
fifteen. Is it conceivable she learned
what she knows in Moscow
Father Nikolay moved a little closer, “I
have connections, and I have heard nothing about such a person or such a
search.”
“Then, could the Germans have taught
her? Is she the result of one of their
horrible experiments?”
“That might explain her dreams and
fears, but it is not unusual to find multilingual people in much of Europe . They learn
from their parents and through study when they are young.”
“But not in the Soviet state. She would have to be the child of a scholar,
a scholar in Hebrew and Greek. She read
the epistle in classical Greek…what other languages do you know, Svetlana?”
Svetlana shook her head.
Father Nikolay scratched his beard, “Why
don’t we see. We know she speaks French,
Hebrew Aramaic, Classical Greek, Russian.
What other books do you have on your shelves? Why not try Latin.
Mother Anna went to the shelves of books
that lined her office, “There were some Latin texts here at one time. I remember them before they took this place
away from the church. Ah, here we are.” She brought a book to Sveta and held it out
to her, “Svetlana, try to read this book.”
“I’m not sure I want to, Mother Abbess.”
Mother Anna knelt beside Sveta’s chair,
“Why not Svetlana?”
Sveta turned her face full of anxiety
toward the abbess, “I am not sure I want to be a jewel. I don’t want to be different. I just want to be whole.”
Mother Anna stroked Sveta’s hand,
“Sweet, sweet Svetlana, you are who you are.
We only want to know how great your skills so we can use them for God’s
kingdom. What other great gifts do you
already have are locked inside you ready to be used? To not use them would be a greater sin than
to hide them from yourself.” With sudden
inspiration, Mother Anna smiled, “I think I understand. I, we will not let everyone know of your skills. I see; you are afraid they will separate you
from your sisters who are becoming your friends. It is too late to hide your Greek from
them. I suspect you will give Mother
Larisa and Mother Inna great joy by speaking to them in that tongue, but any other
skills we will hold in confidence. We
will not let the knowledge out to anyone.
Don’t you see, Svetlana? I never
told the sisters your full name. We are
very aware that SMERSh, NKVD, and other Soviet agencies want to infiltrate us
and to know who is in our church. We
don’t use your full name. We don’t mark
your official papers. We don’t keep them
for you. We encourage you to keep your
job in a Jewish bookstore. If something
happens, you have a cover and a place to go.
Do you understand?” Her voice was
almost a whisper in Sveta’s ear, “For the good of the Church, we do these
things to protect the Church and you.
For the good of the Church, we must know what tools we have available to
use…”
Sveta nodded and took the book. Her eyes brightened with delight. She began to read. After a page, she stopped, “I know this book. I read it as a child.”
Father Nikolay stood close to them, “Do
you understand what you read?”
“Oh yes,” Sveta smiled. “I understand it all.”
“She knows Latin. I would definitely guess a scholar’s
family. A scholar of theology.”
Mother Anna stepped back to the shelves,
“If she was born in 1930, that leaves few Russian scholars.”
Father Nikolay handed Sveta a book, “Try
this one then.”
Sveta took the book and opened it. Her face turned down in a frown, “I
understand this book too. It is German.”
“Do you speak it?”
Sveta bowed her head more deeply, “Yes.”
Mother Anna came back with a book, “What
about this one?”
Sveta smiled peculiarly, “I understand
this one too. I can read it two
ways. Listen. Sveta read the text of a page in one way and
then another. What does that mean?”
Father Nikolay put his thumbs in his
zone, his cincture, “I don’t know the language well, but she is reading
English. The first is the way the
British speak, and the second, I think is the way the Americans speak. I know because I saw an American movie once.”
Mother Anna returned to stand beside the
chair, “What can that mean? Did her
parents take her to America England
and France and Germany Greece or Rome
or Israel
“No,” Father Nikolay laughed, “Let’s try
some others. What else do you have?”
“Here is an Arabic book and a Coptic
copy.”
Sveta could not make heads or tails of
the Arabic, but she could partly understand the Coptic. Father Nikolay brought an Italian book and a
book in Polish.
She deciphered some of the Italian, but
couldn’t speak it. She could read some
Polish, but not speak it.
“She knows some of these languages only
because they are close to others she understands well,” Father Nikolay
remarked. “We know more, now, but I
don’t think we know all.”
“I have an important question for you
Svetlana,” Mother Anna bent close to her.
“When you first awoke after your injury, what language did you speak?”
Sveta grasped Mother Anna’s arms,
“Please, Mother Abbess, don’t make me answer that.”
Mother Anna pulled Sveta close to her,
“Why not, child, that might tell us what tongue you were born to. I’m not sure it was Russian. You speak as though you were born in Moscow , but…let’s say, I am making a guess, that you could
not have learned all these languages in Russia Russia
“Please, Mother Anna, if I answer that
question, it will be worse for me.”
“Why, child? Why would anything change? We realize you might not be Russian by
birth. Your papers tell who you are—in
the Soviet state they are all defining.
We will inform no one. You have
my promise.”
“If I answer it means I lied to you
before.”
“Then the confession will be good. You may whisper it into my ear.”
Sveta didn’t move for a moment, then she
put her mouth near the abbess’ ear, “When I first could speak, I spoke
French. Vasily taught me Russian.”
Mother Anna nearly jerked back, “He
taught you Russian?”
“What is she saying Mother Abbess.”
“May I share your words with Father
Nikolay, Svetlana?”
Sveta nodded slowly.
Mother Anna stood and threw out her
hands, “She said, she spoke French when she could finally speak, and that
Vasily Grossman taught her to speak Russian.”
“Svetlana, when were you injured? Do you know?”
Mother Anna spoke out of her reflection,
“Don’t you remember Father Nikolay?
Grossman said it was during the fall of Berlin Moscow Moscow
Sveta’s head was still bowed, “In early
June.”
Father Nikolay’ mouth was dry, “So, she
effectively learned Russian in a month.”
“A month, Father Nikolay. Have you seen her injuries—of course you
haven’t. Mother Marya tells me Svetlana
has extensive damage to her right arm and her right and left legs. She is missing much of her right calf—Marya
is astonished she can walk at all. Her
throat and lungs were obviously damaged.
Marya… This child was convalescing for that month and yet she learned
Russian. Do you see what you are
saying?”
“Don’t you believe it? Can’t you accept it?”
“Of course I believe and accept it. The point is how important this is to
us. Here is a tool…” Mother Anna held up her hand, “We must speak
of this later Father Nikolay.” She knelt
again beside Sveta, “Listen to me very carefully, Svetlana. You have a gift. The gift of tongues, if you like.”
“Like at Pentecost.”
“Yes, like in the Acts, child. You can understand and communicate as I have
never heard another person. You speak
flawless Russian as though you were born in Moscow
“They know I work in a Jewish
bookstore.”
“But they may not know why—there are
always rumors.” Mother Anna smiled
broadly, “Not everyone needs to know every skill God has blessed us with. Do you understand, Svetlana?”
Sveta nodded.
“Don’t be ashamed. I have no reason to punish you and every
reason to reward you. You will be a
great blessing to us.”
“And, I may still read?”
“Yes, child, of course you may still
read—my joy will be to hear you read as often as possible.”
“Thank you, Mother Abbess.”
“Now go and have lunch with the
sisters. When they ask you about our
meeting, you may tell them, I praised your Greek. Mother Larisa and Inna will want you to speak
and read Greek to them—you may. Yes?”
“Yes.”
Mother Anna helped Sveta to her feet and
led her to the door. At the door, she
kissed Sveta’s forehead, then closed the door after her.
As Sveta started down the hall, she
heard the low drone of conversation start up again in the abbess’ office.
I
think this is an absolutely engaging and fun scene. This, to me, is entertainment. If you notice, the most important thing in
the entire scene to Sveta is that she will be allowed to continue to read in
the daily cycle of readings. She isn’t
stupid—she just is focused on something else.
The Mother Abbess and Father Nikolay are interested in how they can use
Sveta’s skills. Sveta doesn’t fully
comprehend that she has any important skills.
This
is not really an emotional scene. Sveta
does display some emotion at the beginning.
It isn’t throw-away, but it is intended to shock Sveta more than the
reader. The power in this scene is
deduction and the pulling together of ideas from the very beginning of the
novel. Vasily and Efim noticed Sveta’s
uncanny ability to learn Russian, but that is fully reflected here—not at the
beginning where it happened, but over a hundred pages later. This is the development of tension through
many pages and scenes to finally find a culmination here. How much entertainment value is this? I didn’t give you all the intermittent scenes. I did give you many of the important scenes. I didn’t show you the many scenes at Dov
Cohan’s bookstore where Sveta reads Hebrew and Aramaic every day.
If
you understand the power of this culmination of thought, ideas, and action, you
will get the potential you have in a novel for developing scenes. The more connected. The more developed. The more foreshadowed the ideas, the more
powerful the release of tension in the novel—and not even the climax. I think this is very important. This is a skill I would like to express and pass
on to other writers—the ability to drive a topic to a multi-scene tension and release
that is an important revelation in a novel.
This is difficult to display easily—this scene captures the idea
perfectly.
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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