30 September 2018, Writing
- part x632, Developing Skills, How to Suspend Disbelief, Pathos, Imagination,
and Entertaining Characters
Announcement: Delay, my new novels can be seen on the internet, but my primary
publisher has gone out of business—they couldn’t succeed in the past business
and publishing environment. I'll keep you informed, but I need a new publisher. 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 29th novel, working title, Detective, potential
title Blue Rose: Enchantment and the Detective. The theme statement is: 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 cover proposal for Blue
Rose: Enchantment and the Detective.
|
|
Cover
Proposal
|
The most important scene in any
novel is the initial scene, but eventually, you have to move to the rising
action. I am continuing to write on my 30th novel, working
title Red Sonja. I finished my 29th novel, working
title Detective. I’m planning to start on number 31, working
title Shifter.
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 30: 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 31: TBD
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: Suspension of
disbelief is the characteristic of writing that pulls the reader into the world
of the novel in such a way that the reader would rather face the world of the
novel rather than the real world—at least while reading. If this occurs while not reading, it is
potentially a mental problem. To achieve
the suspension of disbelief your writing has to meet some basic criteria and contain
some strong inspiration. If you want to
call the inspiration creativity, that works too. Here is a list of the basic criteria to hope
to achieve some degree of suspension of disbelief.
1.
Reasonably written in standard
English
2.
No glaring logical fallacies
3.
Reasoned worldview
4.
Creative and interesting topic
5.
A Plot
6.
Entertaining
7.
POV
Everything is about entertainment. The purpose for all published novels is
entertainment. Other than this is the
only point of fiction literature, one of the main reasons is that entertainment
can fill a lot of holes as well as result in the suspension of disbelief.
The factors that do lend themselves
to entertaining are these:
1.
Characters
2.
Plot
3.
Setting
4.
Topics
5.
Writing
6.
Use of figures of speech (vocabulary
and language).
How to develop entertaining
protagonists? I can’t leave the
discussion of entertaining protagonists without mentioning the romantic
character. I assert that we are still in
the Romantic Era for writing, but whether we are or aren’t, the romantic
character is the favored character of most readers. If your protagonist is a romantic character
or has romantic characteristics, this will improve the chance your readers will
find them entertaining.
So, what does a romantic character
look like? I happen to have a short
list. This isn’t a perfect list, but it
gets the basic idea. I’ll find examples
as well.
1. The common man,
innocence of humans, and childhood (children)
2. Focus on strong
senses, emotions, and feelings
3. Awe of nature
4. Celebration of the
individual and individualism
5. Importance of
imagination
The purpose of imagination is entertainment. The execution of imagination provides much
more than that, and the catharsis for the reader both in terms of frustration
and relief at the verdicts are the goal.
That is the depth of entertainment--pathos.
Here’s the point. It isn’t
enough to simply have an imaginative idea, you have to do something with
it. In a novel, the development of the
idea in tension and release—the scenes, and in the overall catharsis—the climax,
are the use of imagination to develop the plot.
Overall, the Greeks called this type of development pathos, and related
that this is what produced entertainment in the novel.
This is why a great love story or romance novel draws out the
final conclusion of love to the point that it does. This is why the twists and turns in a strong
novel. This is why the solution looks
impossible, but the author provides a resolution in the climax that astounds
the reader. That is the point—to astound
the reader, not just in the climax, but at every tension and release in the
novel. Some tension and release elements
are more powerful than others, like the climax of the novel. The climax and resolution of the telic flaw
of the entire novel should be earthshaking and mind blowing. This is the entire point of the novel, after all. On the other hand, the author should seek
tension and release in every scene and mini-climaxes through the rising action
that gradually develop and revel the climax.
The simplest example is the detective novel. In a detective novel, the telic flaw is the
crime, and the climax is the resolution of the crime. The scenes reveal elements that gradually
lead the detective to the climax and resolution of the crime. These scenes can’t be lackluster. Each one needs to be a tension and release
based on the revealed new clue or idea that brings the detective closer to the ultimate
resolution. The author’s skill in
developing these overlapping resolutions in the tension and release of each
scene are indicators of the power of the novelist. Each has to fit together like a puzzle piece,
but not a puzzle piece the reader must search for in a box, but rather a singular
box tied up with a bow and handed to the reader by the protagonist, setting,
scene, plot, and other characters. The
reader receives each piece of the puzzle like a present in the revelation of
the scene. The author goes further and
puts all the pieces together for the reader.
In the climax of the novel, especially a detective novel, the
author hands the reader the puzzle and all the pieces suddenly fit together and
the unsolvable suddenly becomes resolved.
The reader should experience a catharsis of emotion as the resolution
becomes obvious. This catharsis is
called pathos. The most powerful
catharsis and experience of pathos should be in the climax, but each tension
and release in every scene should give a miniature catharsis of pathos.
Just to remind you—pathos is the proper emotional reaction to an
experience while bathos is the improper emotional reaction. Just keep in mind, everything comes out of
the imagination of the author to the imagination of the reader—this is ultimately
what we as authors are aiming to achieve.
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
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
