Writing - part x253, Novel Form, History and more Tension

16 September 2017, Writing - part x253, Novel Form, History and more Tension

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 your scenes.

 

Here is an example of developing or building tension and release in a scene.  This example is from Shadow of Darkness an Ancient Light novel.  Much of history is lost especially small but important details.  In this scene I take a true historical thing (The Black Book), a true historical person (Vasily Grossman), and a true historical incident (bringing the Black Book to the West) and weave it into my novel.

 

We are not certain how the Black Book got into the hands of publishers in the West.  At the time, even recounting the people and means might have led to the deaths of hundreds.  Stalin, Beria, Kruglov, and Abaumov all wanted to retain a specific story about persecution by the Nazis.  That story didn’t include the Holocaust.      

 

Here is the scene:        

 

        In October, Abakumov began an official persecution of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee because of the Black Book.  The Black Book documented the Holocaust and was at odds with the official Soviet policy that presented Fascist actions as against all Soviet citizens and not just Jews.  This was especially important to Sveta because Vasily Grossman was involved with and a significant contributor to the Black Book.

        At every party Sveta attended, she surreptitiously sought Grossman.  She knew she could not meet him in any other setting.  She finally did have an opportunity to speak to him.  They met, by chance, at an official Cultural Union party at the Moscow Museum.  He spotted her first and stepped up to her.  He spoke to her in French, “Good evening, Svetlana Evgenyevna.”

        Sveta grabbed his arm, “There you are, Vasily Grossman.  I have been looking for you for a long time.  I need to speak to you.”

        “I hope not in the service of the MVD or the MGB.”

        Sveta scowled, “You know I would not.”

        “Everyone else does.”

        Sveta bowed her head, “You know, Vasily Grossman, I would not.”

        “Come Svetlana Evgenyevna, what do you need to tell me?”  He discretely put his fingers to his lips, “Not here.”  Vasily led her through the crowd to the room that contained her portrait, “When I saw this, I wondered.”

        Tears filled Sveta’s eyes, “Why would you wonder, Vasily?  There are things I have little control over.”

        “It is a beautiful portrait.”

        “I don’t care about such things.”  She lowered her voice, “What I care about are those I can save.  I want to warn you about the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee.  There will be actions against it because of the Black Book.”

        “I know.  Some have already started.”

        “I have tried to help moderate some of the actions, but they are outside my directorate.”

        “Your directorate?”

        Sveta flushed, “I control a special directorate.”

        “Stalin’s Little Ptitsa.”

        “Don’t be bitter or make me bitter.  I do what I can.  I help where I can.  I would do anything to help you, Vasily Grossman.”

        “I’m sorry Sveta.  I understand that.  I am bitter.  We are trying to get out the message of what happened to the Jewish people.”

        “I know.  It is all true—everything you wrote in the Black Book.  I know it is true…  I just wanted to warn you, and to set up means to give you warnings in the future.  Zhdanov and Abakumov are moving against Beria.  They will continue their attacks on all the organizations Beria set up that are peripheral to the MVD.”

        Vasily’s eyes widened in shock, “That is more than state knowledge.”

        “Be warned.”

        “I see, and I apologize, Sveta.  What about you?”

        “I am safe, for now.  Stalin oversees my directorate and prevents their interference.”  Her tone softened, “I could help Katya or Fedya if they are interested in language studies.”

        Vasily took a deep breath, “You would do that for me, for them?”

        “Anything.  I have control of many things now.  I will help you through them.”

        “Can you get the Black Book to where it can be published, outside of the Soviet Union?”

        “I have contacts with all the embassies.  I can put you in contact with them as you desire.”

        “I do desire.”

        “Walter Smith does not listen to me as much as Mr. Harriman did, but I think there is a possibility.”

        “Can I trust you with this?”

        “Give me a copy of the document, and I will get it into the American Embassy.  From there…,” she raised her hands.

        Vasily grabbed her fingers, “I don’t care what happens to me, Sveta, but I do care that the Black Book gets out of Russia.”

        “I care very much what happens to you, Vasily Grossman.  Give the book to Father Nikolay.  He will ensure it comes to me.”

        “Thank you, Sveta.  I will.  You need to find your way back to the party.  They will be looking for you.”

        Reluctantly, Sveta pulled her hands out of Vasily’s and walked back to the main exhibit.  She did not see him again that evening.

This scene presents one potential way the Black Book could have left the Soviet Union.  Possible but not probable.  What makes this scene entertaining and historically interesting is the interaction of the characters.  Vasily Grossman is a real person.  Sveta is not.  But I weave their relationship and the history of the times into this scene to ground it in the times and in the people of the times. 

 

The place is real.  Most of the people are real.  I want the reader to experience the world of the Soviet in this time and place.  I want the reader to know what life and the times were like.  This is what I’ve accomplished in my other historically based novels.  The real is all around the reader while the fiction is peripheral to everything.

 

About the tension and release, I chose my characters from the very beginning because of this interaction.  I chose Grossman because of his real history and interaction in the world and the Soviet Union.  I built the novel with the realization that he would touch it in all kinds of places.  This grounds the writing in the history of the times but provides tension and release to drive the scenes.  That is entirely the point.

 

I’ll give you more examples.

 

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