Writing - part x264, Novel Form, Information and Tension

27 September 2017, Writing - part x264, Novel Form, Information 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.  Here Sveta uses the available resources at her fingertips to find out about Aleksandr. 

 

This is one excellent method to show the reader about a character.  There are other means to “show” information—primarily conversation and self-expression.  In other words, by using conversation or the dialog of the character.  Do not, in any case, have the character think about themselves—that is telling.  Don’t use the omniscient voice to tell.  Don’t use any other method to tell. 

 

Show use the information.  A letter, a conversation, a dialog, even a soliloquy is better than telling.  I like to use “official” documents to show about a character although my favorite is for the character to talk about themselves in a conversation.           

 

Here is the scene:        

 

        When, Sveta arrived at her office, she had Marya retrieve Aleksandr’s dossier.  It was not immediately available, so Sveta knew someone else was checking on the man.  She hoped it was only due to his appearance at the Chinese event and not due to her explosive exit with him in tow last evening.

        Aleksandr did not show up that day.  Sveta had Marya call and learned that he had started teaching classes—classes she had directed to begin in Chinese.

        “It is September,” Marya pronounced in passing when she dropped off his dossier in the afternoon.

        “Yes, I know.  University classes begin then.”

        Sveta studied his dossier.  She learned perhaps more than she wanted to know.  Aleksandr was born in Moscow in 1921 and his father had been a priest there.  His father and mother were sent to a Gulag on the frontier with China in 1925.  His father had worked at hard labor in the camp until Stalin loosened his grip on the church in 1943.  At that time, Father Diakonov was allowed to organize an Orthodox church in the camp that had become a small town.  The Orthodox Church supported the large congregation for less than a year.  It supported itself within a few months. 

        The details of Aleksandr’s mother’s depression were all there.  The many children she lost in the labor camp were all documented with clerical cruelty.  There were secrets here that Sveta was certain Aleksandr didn’t know and would not want to know.

        Aleksandr’s rise as a star in the camp, later town, and school was documented through transcripts and recommendations.  He applied for the university and was accepted because there were so few candidates who spoke Chinese and were Russian.  The Soviet thought it better to put an Orthodox student into the university than to do without.  Sveta noted his associate professor position was tentative until a more suitable applicant could come forward.  She wondered if she could change that, and then what her MVD records might show.  All of Aleksandr’s records indicated his positions were tentative—he was not a Party Member and unlikely ever to be one.

        The dossier gave a list of his friends at the Gulag and in Moscow.  The list was short, but included a low level operative in the MVD.  Sveta wondered if that could be important.  She also noted the later records included her.  She was listed as his boss, but she found no personal attribution or details.  

        The next morning, Aleksandr arrived at his usual time.  When Sveta called for him, he almost sheepishly entered her office.

        Sveta glanced up from her papers, “Please close the door.”

        He did and sat down at her side chair in his usual place.

        “Sasha,” Sveta began, “I want to apologize for what I said the other night.”

        His eyebrows rose.

        “I need a friend right now.  Not a lover.  Will that be acceptable to you?”

        He sat up straight, “That is fine…it is fine with me.”  He had the wisdom not to smile.  “You didn’t get into trouble—I hope?”

        Sveta could not help laughing.  Her laughter came out in short breathy bursts, “Actually, I did.”  After a moment, she regained her poise, “You may call me Sveta, but never where anyone can hear.  Yes, Sasha?”

        “Yes, Sveta.”

        “Good, Sasha.  It is time to begin the study of Cantonese, and I need you to explain to me about the statement the Chinese representative made the other night.”

        As before, Sveta shared her time between the work at her desk and language study.  She and Marya took Aleksandr to lunch, and he departed, as usual, at two.

        Before he opened her office door to leave, Aleksandr told her, “I have classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  Tuesday and Thursday are blocked by the department for you.”

        “So you have the rest of the day off?”

        “If you call grading papers, preparing lessons, and keeping office hours for desperate students, time off—then yes.”

        He opened the door and exited before Sveta could call out any retort.

 

First, if you haven’t noticed in every scene, there is some joke or funny thing.  This is purposeful.  Usually, this joke is set in the kicker—the last sentence of the scene.  In this scene, Aleksandr reminds Sveta that he is busy too.  The funny is that Sveta can’t think up an appropriate reply.  Thus the joke and the kicker.  Sveta is usually the one who gets the upper hand—here she doesn’t.

 

In this scene, we get the information from the dossier on Aleksandr.  We also get some other information: Aleksandr’s dossier was being examined by someone else and potentially so is Sveta’s.  That is the message of the scene. 

 

A second part of the scene is Sveta’s reconciliation with Aleksandr.  She is very clear.  He isn’t as clear, but she accepts it.  He has not given up the idea of a romantic relationship.  This is an important foreshadowing for the future of the two.  This also adds a complexity to the novel and the relationship.  

   

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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