Writing - part x709, Writing a Novel, Fleshing Out Characters, Protagonists Readers Like

16 December 2018, Writing - part x709, Writing a Novel, Fleshing Out Characters, Protagonists Readers Like

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 29^th 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 30^th novel, working title Red Sonja.  I finished my 29^th 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:  Why don’t we go back to the basics and just writing a novel?  I can tell you what I do, and show you how I go about putting a novel together.  We can start with developing an idea then move into the details of the writing. 

You must have a protagonist and an antagonist. You may have a protagonist’s helper.  Then there are other characters.  Let’s talk about characters in general and then specifically. 

I’ve been writing about choosing and developing protagonists who are interesting and entertaining to your readers.  I will continue with this thought, but you might ask, why make my protagonist’s interesting or entertaining at all? 

First, I won’t go through the whole litany again, but novels are all about entertainment.  If your novel isn’t entertaining, it won’t be published, bought, or read.  Published, bought, and read are the goals of every real author, so let’s not fool ourselves, you must develop entertaining protagonists for your entertaining novel, or you will not see any success. 

Second, I advocate that interesting is entertaining.  As long as your protagonist appeals to your readers you will have some hope of entertaining your readers.  Again, you might ask, is this enough?  I’d say yes it is enough.  It is enough that your protagonist interest and therefore, entertain your readers.  A novel is the revelation of the protagonist, as long as the revelation is entertaining, the readers will be entertained.

You might also ask, shouldn’t my readers identify with my protagonist?  This is a very large and old question in writing.  I will state unequivocally that the reader does not need to identify with the protagonist.  You will find in most literature, the protagonists can’t or don’t identify with the readers—they interest or appeal to the readers.  I will go back to the characteristics of the reader and protagonist to state—there are similarities in thought, but not necessarily in being.

Let’s state this definitively.  The reader identifies with the mind of the protagonist, but not necessarily the being of the protagonist.  When I write being, I mean the sex, social station, education, skill set, setting, history, and all.  When I write “mind” I mean that the protagonist thinks about things in a way the reader can accept.  I will also state that when the mind of the protagonist and the mind of the reader gets too far out of sync, the reader will lose the suspension of disbelief and be knocked out of the writing.  For example, Harry Potty gets really whiney in some of those novels.  He gets so whiney, I wonder why he even continues as the protagonist.  I want the writer to put the Granger girl in as a substitute because Harry throws me out of the narrative.  I don’t think like Harry does, and I don’t associate with people who do.  Harry is a bad example.

Here’s a good example, and I think you can find good examples everywhere.  In Starship Jones by Robert Heinlein, Jones is a boy who wants to navigate starships like his father.  Jones has memorized the star tables and his math is impeccable.  Already, you might conclude Jones can’t be a good protagonist: he is a male that gets rid of half the humans on the planet.  He has a photographic memory, there goes most of humanity.  He is good at math, and there goes the rest of the planet.  It doesn’t help that he is in an age of starships plying the universe, no one can identify with that.  Let’s back up a little.  Unless you are talking about a novel that is completely exclusionary of men or women (and even then you will get a mix of readers) the sex of the character usually doesn’t matter.  I would have cast Jones as a female, but I think that would make his pathos more appealing to all readers and not just men or women. 

Jones loves to study and every reader loves characters who like to read and study.  See yesterday’s blog.  Intellectual characters especially striving intellectuals appeal to readers.  The readers don’t identify with his photographic memory, they wished they had it.  Most readers aren’t good at math, but they wish they were and anyone who can appeals to them.  Your average reader believes that through reading and study, they can do anything.  Characters who really can do this appeals to them.  Finally, plying the universe in starships—no one can identify with that, but readers wish they could do that.  If they really had to live in the world of Jones, they might balk, but a reader doesn’t need to identify with the being, but with the mind of the protagonist. 

Here is another issue.  Jones lost his father so he is a partial orphan.  I don’t remember what happened to his mother, in any case, most of us are not orphans, we can’t identify physically, but we can imagine the state of being an orphan and that appeals to us.  This is one of those pathos building points that really appeals to readers.  This is one of the powerful tools writers have.   

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