12 October 2017, Writing - part
x279, 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 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 tension and release in a scene.
This example is from Shadow of
Darkness an Ancient Light novel. We are moving toward the climax of the novel
and of the revelation of the protagonist.
Sveta has fled with Aleksandr and reunited with Oba. She is using her tablet for the first time in
a long time. She has remembered how to
use it. The tablet can heal, but only
injuries that are not already completely healed.
This is the continued revelation of
Sveta, the protagonist. I have written
many times that good novels are always the revelation of the protagonist. The entire novel is the revelation of the
protagonist. This is always important to
keep in mind while writing.
Here is the scene:
In the room, the first evidence of Sveta’s actions in the
tablet was the sound of tinkling metal near her body. Pieces of metal fell to the concrete floor
from her bare legs and small lumps appeared in the sleeve of her right arm. Aleksandr and Oba observed this in near
silence. Afterwards, they watched her
for hours. Aleksandr snoozed. There was nothing else to do. Oba had nothing else for them to eat. At times, Sveta’s face would fill with joy. Her arms would move a little. After many hours, she suddenly took a deep
breath and opened her eyes.
Sveta stood. Small
pieces of metal fell to the ground. She
happily shook out her sleeve. Metal
flew. She laughed as she tugged at her
dress and pieces fell to the ground.
Then her face changed, she looked at her right leg in distress. The calf was still half gone. She took a step. She still limped. She put her hands over her face, “It didn’t
heal everything. It couldn’t heal
everything.” She moaned, her voice was
still the croak she was so used to. I
was too late. I should have taken up the
tablet long before now.
Her face changed again, “That is no matter. I know what to do now.” Her lips curled into a smile, “I know what I
must do.”
Oba stood, “Dear mistress.
Would you also heal me?”
“I’m sorry, Oba. I had
forgotten. It has been such a long
time. I know you have been in
pain.” She raised her hands, “I no
longer feel that pain.”
Sveta returned to her place before the tablet, “Kneel before
me Oba.” He did. Sveta placed her hands on either side of his
head, one at his lips and the other at the back of his head. Sveta asked Oba, “Oba, Do you wish me
to assist your ka?”
“Yes, mistress.”
Sveta made a strange intricate sign in
front of Oba’s lips. She touched the
tablet.
Aleksandr saw Sveta, still before the tablet,
fall again into a trance. Oba also
didn’t move. Aleksandr thought he saw a
silver illumination at Sveta’s hands. Aleksandr
slowly approached them both. He stepped
behind Sveta. The tablet was covered
with Egyptian hieroglyphic symbols. In
the right corner was an achingly beautiful face—even from his distance, Aleksandr
could tell it was a rendering of Sveta’s wonderful features.
He reached down and touched the bits of metal at her
feet. They were small twisted pieces of
shrapnel. Could they have come out of
her body? As he stood there in thought,
he heard soft thumps come from near Oba.
While Aleksandr stared, a piece of lead, like a grey slug, forced its
way out of his body near his neck then another at his head. The chunks of lead fell to the floor with
heavy thuds. Aleksandr had not noticed
the bullet holes before. They were old
and ugly, but bloodless. As the pieces
of lead came out, the holes sealed themselves over. Oba’s dark skin looked strangely pale, but
whole. With each part that healed, Oba
gave an unconscious sigh. After a while
Oba’s eyes popped open, then Sveta’s.
Oba fell to his face, “Thank you dear lady. Thank you mistress. You healed me. The pain is finally gone. Dear lady, thank you.”
Sveta rubbed her face with the back of her hand, “Get up,
Oba. You are embarrassing me. I don’t wish to be bowed to.”
Aleksandr stared at them both, “Where those bullets that fell
out of his body?”
Oba stood and shook his pants and sleeves. Many lead bullets large and small came out of
the legs and cuffs.
“How can you be alive and have so many bullet wounds.”
Oba and Sveta said nothing.
Aleksandr stared intently at them. Finally Sveta answered, “Oba tried to block
the bullets of the Russians and the Germans from hitting me in Berlin
“Yes, mistress. That
is my duty. You see Aleksandr,” Oba
slaughtered his name, “You see, it is as I told you, she saved me, and she
healed me.”
Aleksandr put his hands over his eyes, “Sveta, was that
shrapnel that came out of your body?”
Sveta made a face, “It was the metal the doctor could not get
out. It always hurt me. When the tablet healed me, it came out. The tablet couldn’t heal my leg or my lungs. Or they might have already been fully healed,
just the tablet could not completely repair them.” Her face fell, “I told you, you wouldn’t like
me when you found out who I really am.”
Aleksandr moved a little further away from her, “This is just
a lot to deal with all at once.”
“You don’t need to deal with anything. I know what you want to say to me. You want to scream and yell at me—freak. You want to run to Father Nikolay and
cry—devil and demon. You want to go to
Mother Anna and tell her that I was a fiend inside her convent and among her
sisters.” Sveta wagged her finger at
him, “I told you clearly that night who and what I was. I told you, you wouldn’t like it.” She stared at her feet, “I don’t like
it. Now you have seen for yourself, and
you are revolted.”
“I didn’t believe you before.”
“I assure you, Sasha.
I didn’t change.”
Aleksandr swallowed hard, “What are you going to do now?”
She laughed, “Right now.
I’m starving. I would love to eat
a meal at a very good restaurant, but it’s too dangerous for me to be
seen. Oba.”
“Yes, mistress.”
“Please, get us some food and drink. See if you also can find tea, milk, and
sugar. Do you need money?”
“I never need money, mistress.”
“Perhaps you should start carrying some.”
“Will you be safe with this mortal man?”
“Safe enough. He will
not harm me.”
Oba took a quick look out the door and moved almost more
swiftly than Aleksandr could see. In a
blink he was gone.
Both
action and dialog in this scene reveals information about the past and about
Sveta. Most of the novel has been about
historical revelation with flashbacks to Sveta’s trials and captivity in
Berlin. I didn’t show you those scenes
because I didn’t think they were entirely pertinent to the idea of tension
development. At this point in the novel,
the flashbacks and the sequential history come once again together. This is the result.
This
scene and the ones just before show the reconciliation of Sveta’s past with
Sveta’s present. She is desperate to show
this to Aleksandr because she wants him to understand about her. Her hopes are obvious. Aleksandr’s response to her is obvious.
The
importance from a tension and release standpoint is the tension developed in
the previous scenes is not fully released.
The tension is still building. We
are not sure of Aleksandr’s thoughts, and I, as a good author, will not tell
you—not from his thoughts. Likewise, we
are not fully certain of Sveta’s thoughts, and again, I’m not going to tell
you. These secrets, as I like to refer
to them, will not be reconciled by telling, but by showing.
There
is also a huge foreshadowing in this portion of the novel. I will point it out when it comes to
fruition.
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
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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