Writing - part x491, Developing Skills, Build a Protagonist, more Action

12 May 2018, Writing - part x491, Developing Skills, Build a Protagonist, more Action

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.  I’m just finishing number 30, working title Detective. 

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:  Lady Azure Rose Wishart, the Chancellor of the Fae, supernatural detective, and all around dangerous girl, finds love, solves cases, breaks heads, and plays golf.

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

          

Today:  Many people would like to write, but writing is hard work.  I’ll express again, if you want to be a skilled and potentially a published author, you need to write about one million words.  That equates to about ten 100,000 word novels.  When you look at it this way, it is a daunting goal especially if you haven’t written a single novel. 

To become a good writer, you need two specific skill sets first reading and then writing.  Without these skill sets, I really can’t help you much.  I provide advanced help and information on how to write great fiction. 

Characters are the key to great writing.  Entertainment is the purpose of fiction writing.  The key to entertainment is character revelation, and specifically revelation of the plot and protagonist telic flaw (the same thing).  If we want to be a successful writer, we must aim for great protagonists, and a great protagonist means a great or compelling telic flaw.

In moving to mechanics, you have to start with something.  The something I recommend is the protagonist.  As I noted for you, the protagonist owns the telic flaw and the telic flaw is the catalyst for the plot.  The resolution of the telic flaw is the plot of the novel, so obviously, the best place to start any novel is with the protagonist.  I hate to do this because I usually end up writing a new novel—let’s develop a character.

I happen to have a list of great protagonist characteristics.

1.      Skilled or becoming skilled—they are competent.

2.      Even though these characters are unique and uniquely different, they feel like real people. 

3.      Intellectual. 

4.      Pathos building. 

5.      Action oriented.

Here is a list of updated ideas from yesterday. 

1.      Isolated and protected

2.      Were-creature

3.      Mystical

4.      School girl

5.      Arts

6.      France or Britain

7.      Deirdre and Sorcha

Here is my initial description:

The girl stared intently at them both.  Her large eyes glared with intensity and some agitation.  She looked like she wanted to say something, but she didn’t.  Her face simply sent her severe displeasure and reproach.  She looked young with gently pale cheeks only tinged slightly with rose, and the slight swell of youth in her face, but that was her only manifestation of lack of adulthood.

She was not very tall, but somehow, she looked imposing.  Her face was thin like the rest of her, but her appearance wasn’t emaciated—it looked restrained and strong.  In contrast to her black dress and black bonnet, her hair swept long pale and straight from the crown of her head to a single thick braid at her back.  Her eyes were a piercing light blue that glanced haughtily under thin nearly invisible brows.  Her nose was likewise striking and straight, but not so large to mar her features.  It pointed to her lips and chin—the lips being a thin pale pink and her chin oddly pointed.  All in all, her face was beautiful, but unforgettable—a face that was in no way plain, but left an impression of tightly controlled energy and chilly restraint. 

Her name was Cassandra Lyons, but the nuns and teachers all called her Lady Glamis.  She was some relation of the House and clan of Glamis a Scottish noble family. 

In the list above, I noted characteristics that help build an entertaining character.  What I’ll do is look at these characteristics in Cassandra Lyons.  The fifth is action oriented. 

The question then is how do we write an action oriented character?  Characters such as Jonny Rico from Starship Troopers or Kirth Gersen from the Demon Princes novels are easy to picture in an action oriented plot.  In the development of Cassandra as a character, she doesn’t seem to be set in an action oriented role.

Let me be very specific about this.  Almost any, and I would state unequivocally, every entertaining plot is action oriented.  The author must evaluate each scene to find the setting elements which are turned into creative elements (Chekov’s guns) in it.  This is the means to develop an entertaining and action oriented scene. 

To build an entertaining scene, the author places setting elements within it and then has the characters use those setting elements which turns them into creative elements.  These creative elements are Chekov’s guns.  Just to catch everyone up, a Chekov’s gun is an item that is introduced in a scene (or earlier scene) and then used in the current scene.  It is called a Chekov’s gun because Chekov wrote that when the playwright introduces a gun in scene one, someone must fire it in scene two.  His point is that setting elements that are brought into a scene must become creative elements in that or a future scene.

In a novel, the author has more latitude than the playwright, but placing a significant setting elements leads the reader to some kind of expectation.  The expectation is always action.

This is a very important concept in writing scenes.  I’ve been away from it for a while and perhaps this is where we should head next.  In any case, even when a plot or a scene is not expected to be action oriented, action is the major point of any scene.  If it isn’t then you are likely telling too much. 

In the scene, the action narrative or the dialog (also an action) drives everything in the scene.  If the scene is happening in the mind instead of in action and dialog, dump the scene.  That is telling—authors show and do not tell (or they reduce it as much as possible).  In terms of action and Cassandra, I’ll leave that until tomorrow.       

   

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