Writing - part x300, Novel Form, more Expectation Management and Tension

2 November 2017, Writing - part x300, Novel Form, more Expectation Management 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.

 

For novel 30:  TBD

 

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.

 

The three types of scenes are serial, parallel, and interlaced.  Parallel and interlaced scenes are a natural setup for a secret or mystery.  Yesterday, I gave you an outline of three concepts that produce a powerful management of expectation for the reader.  The management of expectation really doesn’t require that much planning any proper mystery or secret will do.  The management of expectation comes with the revelation of the secret or the mystery.

 

For example, if you have a character with a secret—the more personally devastating the better—all you have to do is set up the expectation of the revelation of this secret.  The author always knows the secret.  Most of the time the readers know the secret.  The expectation of revelation is a powerful type of “fear” that the author uses and then produces in the revelation of the secret.

 

From my novel (yet unpublished) Deirdre, Sorcha has a grand secret.  She has been illegally and illicitly attending the elite girl’s school for three years, and no one knew it.  Until Deirdre came along.  The beginning is that only Sorcha knows the secret—she is living the secret.  When she meets Deirdre, Deidre, being who she is, discovers the secret.  This is the revelation of the secret to the readers.

 

So, first we have a secret.  Second, we reveal the secret to the readers.  The best way to do this is through a revelation of the secret to another person.  In this case, the protagonist.  In other novels, it might be the protagonist’s helper.  Once the secret is in the hands of the readers, there is a constant fear that the secret will out.  This is now the job of the author to manage.  If the secret is the telic flaw of the novel, then the climax is the point where the secret should be revealed.  In the case of Deirdre, Sorcha is the protagonist’s helper, and the telic flaw is something else. Sorcha’s secret is just another point of the plot and entertainment in the novel.

 

After revealing the secret to the readers, the author then manages the secret in an entertaining manner.  The treat is always, will the secret be revealed.  The author can make this as threatening or not to the characters.  In the case of Sorcha’s secret, it is a big deal to her and her friendship with Deirdre, but not in the scope of the world.  It is still a big deal to Sorcha and thereby to her friend Deirdre.  This is the point of the telic flaw in the novel—Deirdre’s telic flaw.  In any case, in the novel, Sorcha’s secret is revealed in a very unexpected way.  The scene is a huge buildup just to this unexpected revelation.  The reader gets it from the very beginning.  The tension in the scene is between Sorcha and Deirdre, but the point is that Sorcha’s secret will be revealed and no one can stop it. 

 

This is the real power in expectation management—the unstoppable event that will result in some action either good or bad for the or a character.  In the case of Deirdre, the revelation results in many unexpected events.  The expectation, unstoppable, in the scene is the revelation of the secret.  Once the secret is revealed the fear and the expectation changes to what will happen to Sorcha.  Each of these events has their obvious expected outcome, but the results are unexpected because of expectation management. 

 

The means of achieving all of this is through secrets and mysteries.         

   

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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