Writing - part x259, Novel Form, Tales and Tension

22 September 2017, Writing - part x259, Novel Form, Tales and 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.  Aleksandr speaks privately with one of his friends—he happens to bring up Sveta..

 

This is similar to my example of a late redescription of a character.  In this case, we get a statement of the rumors and information that are going around the MVD about Sveta.  I find this kind of scene refreshing and amusing.  I want to know about the protagonist from another viewpoint—this certainly provides that.  You don’t always need these types of scenes, but if you have the opportunity, provide them.  Your readers will think you—they will enjoy the revelation and the information.  These are tales.

 

There is more to this too—this scene will color Aleksandr’s view of Sveta.  He is becoming more and more interested in her.  It also displays his basic goodness and manliness.       

 

Here is the scene:        

 

        Aleksandr had few friends yet in Moscow, but he had a very good friend who worked at a low level in the MVD, Nikita Maksimovich Panin, named unfortunately after a Russian noble, but fortunately a Russian noble who assassinated a king.  They occasionally went drinking together, but they had not had enough money to go to a bar until Aleksandr started Sveta’s language studies.  They met in one of bars near the university not long after Sveta began to write Chinese characters.

        After they both stared at a couple of empty vodka glasses and a full one before them, Aleksandr built enough courage or foolishness to ask, “Tell me, Nikita, what you can about this woman, Svetlana Evgenyevna.”

        “Girl, you mean, Sasha.”

        “How can you call her a girl, she is beautiful.  She looks like a woman.”

        “She is seventeen or sixteen—something like that.  And she is not Svetlana Evgenyevna.  She is properly addressed as the People’s Prodigy or Stalin’s Little Ptitsa.”

        “Stalin’s Little Ptitsa.  Do you think she tells Stalin everything?” Aleksandr laughed.

        “That is the rumor, my friend.  Stalin invites her to his office in the Kremlin, and she escorts him at every function.”

        “That’s because she is his translator,” Aleksandr drew out the word.

        “Sasha, don’t be a fool, the girl is dangerous.”

        “Why does she speak with such a strange voice?”

        “You’ll also note, she walks funny too.  You’d walk funny too.  I understand the Germans held her as a sex slave for years—in Berlin.  She was only for the high and mighty.”

        “That wouldn’t give her a raspy voice or a limp.”

        “It could.”

        “No matter how putrid are your thoughts, Nikita.  It wouldn’t affect her that way.”

        “Okay, Sasha, I heard she was injured during the siege of Berlin.  She was hit by…,” he paused for effect, “a Panzerfaust.”

        “I’m surprised she is alive.  Her language ability is fantastic.”

        “I’ll let you make that determination.  I think she is an idiot savant.”

        “She is not an idiot savant.”

        “She hardly speaks.  She always has that nun with her.”

        “A nun?”

        “Yes, her secretary, Marya is a nun from the convent.”  He spat, “Didn’t you know, Stalin’s Little Ptitsa is a nun?  After all that use, no one else would want her.  She wouldn’t be of use except as a whore.”

        “You are kidding, aren’t you, Nikita?”

        “I am not kidding at all.  These things are well known in the MVD.”

        “Rumors?”

        “Not rumors.  Why does it matter to you?  Are you falling in love with Stalin’s Little Ptitsa?  Stalin’s Little, well used, Ptitsa?  She would care more for her dead god than for you.”

        “I’m not falling in love with anyone.  I just wanted to know about her.”

        “There, you know all about her.  Let’s find some university coeds to discuss communism.”

        Nikita didn’t last long enough to discuss communism with anyone.  Aleksandr helped him back to his apartment and then went home to his flat near the university.

You can see the MVD’s information in a nutshell—that is the fun of this kind of scene.  Nikita obviously has some information that is correct--the rest is his conjecture.  The reader knows this—the entertaining part is to state explicitly the mindset of those in the MVD and the Party about it.  Nikita has some of the information, but he is guessing or has received other people’s impressions about Sveta. 

 

I want this information to sway Aleksandr’s thoughts.  I want this information to sway my reader’s thoughts.  What do you think will be the result?  I think Aleksandr will be attracted even more to Sveta.  That is his personality.  We will find out more about Aleksandr’s father, mother, and upbringing.  Aleksandr’s mother has mental health issues.  Sveta has mental health issues.  We will see that Sveta and Aleksandr’s mother are very similar in their despair and needs.  The information that Nikita shares even if true will only bring Aleksandr closer to Sveta.  To him, she is a person in need to great help—and so she is.

 

Much of Nikita’s reflection is true, but not quite in the way Nikita thinks.  Sveta did indeed lose her innocence in Berlin.  She saw the minds and hearts of very evil people and was forced to experience much of that evil herself.  She was tortured and held captive.  Sveta has great needs-needs that Aleksandr might be able to help her with.  The question is—will Sveta allow Aleksandr to help her?   

 

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  

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