30 December 2018, Writing
- part x723, Writing a Novel, Fleshing Out Characters, The Sixth Day of
Christmas
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
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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: 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. Readers
like characters who they can intellectually identify with. These are the characters who appeal to
them. If there is no intellectual
connection, there is usually no connection.
We saw this by the many characters whom readers can’t share any or many
characteristics, but the characters still appeal.
For
the Christmas Season, I guess I’m giving you scenes from my novels. Merry and Happy Christmas. Hope you enjoy. This is a Christmas scene from Deirdre: Enchantment and the School. I don’t think I’ve ever given this to you.
The next day began proper preparations
for Christmas at Rosewood. Mr. Calloway
left for work, while Seumas, Stewart, Flora, and Lachlann under the supervision
of Mrs. Lamport, their cook, began to put up Christmas decorations. No one bothered Deirdre or Sorcha. After breakfast, Mrs. Calloway asked, “Sorcha
and Deirdre, would you like to help decorate the house?”
Deirdre rubbed her nose, “I was kind
of hoping we would be included.”
Mrs. Calloway turned her head
slightly and gave them a rueful glance, “Why don’t you both go see how you can
assist Mrs. Lamport.”
The boys put up the tree and brought
the larger decorations and boxes of decorations from the attic. Deirdre and Sorcha found themselves along
with Flora trimming the tree. Stewart
and Seumas had already strung the lights.
The ladies began putting on the ornaments. Flora was mostly quiet until Mrs. Lamport
left to start lunch. Flora grumbled, “I
really can’t fathom how you could get a boyfriend before me.”
Deirdre ignored her.
Flora hung a white sparkly star on
the tree, “I really want to meet this young man.”
Sorcha put in, “He’s very nice.”
“Is he, now?” Flora eyed Deirdre, “How far have you gotten
with this young man?”
Sorcha grinned, “She kissed his cheek
when he asked her to the Annual Ball.”
Flora was hoping for more than that,
“Pity she didn’t bungle it and give him a full lip lock.”
Deirdre was smiling.
Flora chewed her lip, “Just don’t let
it go too far. Father doesn’t say much
about Sveta’s wooing, but I know that was a disaster. No scandal, but a disaster. We don’t need another disaster or a scandal.”
Deirdre glanced at her from the sides
of her eyes, “Why a disaster? They
married. I like Danny very much.”
“Because Sveta was fourteen at the
beginning and sixteen when they married.”
Deirdre flipped her hand, “She was
already in Oxford at the time, and graduated in short order.”
Sorcha mouthed, wow, then spoke it,
“Wow. I’d like to meet your sister,
Sveta. I didn’t think anyone could be
that smart.”
Flora hung another ornament, “She
wasn’t much smarter than the rest of us—except for D. D’s the slowest of us all. Mother has just put all of us on a short
leash and made us move more slowly with increased study.”
Sorcha answered, “I don’t think
Deirdre’s slow. Her French and Gaelic
are wonderful.”
Flora got in her face, her eyes wide,
“Do you speak Gaelic?”
Sorcha stuttered, “A bit.”
Deirdre hung some tinsel on the tree,
“She speaks it as well as we do.”
Flora stepped back and cupped her
chin, “Very interesting. You need to
read her in a little D.”
Deirdre sighed, “I hadn’t even
thought about that.”
Sorcha moved closer to her, “About
what?”
Deirdre smiled, “Since you are most
likely going to be an important member of our family, I need to let you in on
some things.”
Sorcha stared at her.
Flora stared at her, “What do you
mean a member of our family?”
“Mother told the Queen that Sorcha is
now her ward.”
Flora looked Sorcha up and down,
“What’s so special about her?”
Deirdre gave a great smile, “She’s my
dear friend.”
Flora rolled her eyes, “I’ll tell
her. Listen Sorcha. In this family, we do languages. The basics for us are English, French, and
Gaelic. We don’t tell anyone else this. If they know this about you because you are
studying a language with them…”
Sorcha asked, “You mean like Deirdre
and French at school.”
“Yes, exactly like that. If they know you are studying a language, in
school, for example, then you may share that with others. Most of the time, we don’t let anyone know
our language skills. Since you are
somewhat of a part of this family, don’t tell anyone the languages we might
speak. If you hear someone speaking a
language other than English or French around here keep it under wraps—don’t
tell anyone about it.”
“Why?”
Flora frowned, “The short answer is
to protect yourself and others. The long
answer, well, I’m not sure how much I should tell you beyond that.”
Deirdre winked at Sorcha, “You don’t
need to tell her much else. I’m sure
mother or father will give her the low down when that’s necessary.”
Flora glared at Deirdre, “You, just
make sure she doesn’t compromise us.”
Mrs. Lamport called in a mother’s
voice loud enough to be heard up on the second floor, “All my little and big
lambs. Tis time for dinner.”
The house was large, but the
gentlemen must have been expecting the call, they came rushing down the
stairs. Lachlann led his brothers by a
good ten feet. Deirdre and Sorcha
sauntered to the dining room. Flora
almost caught them. The boys were
impatient, but they had to wait for their mother anyway.
Deirdre and Sorcha again sat across
from the boys. Flora and Luna joined
them. Mrs. Calloway entered from the
sunroom and sat in her usual place. The
moment Mrs. Calloway sat, she intoned a prayer.
They all crossed themselves, and Mrs. Lamport began serving the dinner
of soup, salad, cold roast, and bread.
When everyone was served, Mrs.
Calloway gained their attention, “Everyone.
I have an important announcement to make. Your father and I have agreed to accept Ms.
Weir as our ward. This means she will
have equal privilege in our household.
You will not put upon her and you will all treat her with kindness.”
Flora quipped, “Does that mean we may
verbally abuse her?”
Mrs. Calloway’s brow rose, “Deirdre
may defend her friend and new sister as she thinks fit.”
Flora rolled her eyes, “That’s a bit
of a downer.”
Stewart asked, “Are we trading her
for D? If so, I’m in.”
Mrs. Calloway laughed, “I may trade
her for you if you don’t bring back a first next semester.”
Stewart grimaced and looked back at
his own plate.
Lachlann leaned on his elbow, “If
she’s a sister now does that mean I can’t ask her to the Annual Ball next
year?”
Seumas, Stewart, Luna, Flora, Sorcha,
Deirdre and Mrs. Calloway stared at him.
Seumas remarked, “Well, I will say
for a squirt, he has good taste.”
Deirdre wrinkled her nose, “You’ll
have to ask her yourself. I suspect you
will be competing with Mr. Fletcher and perhaps a few others.”
Sorcha smiled very pleasantly, “I’ll
take your invitation into consideration, but I may be previously occupied at
the time.”
Deirdre smirked, “Perhaps you could
take Flora. She doesn’t have any
prospects at the moment.”
Flora gave Deirdre a look of total
hurt and anger. Then she laughed, “All
right. All right, you win. That was very well played. If I don’t find anyone, Lachlann might have
to be my escort.”
Lachlann started to say something,
but Flora held up her hand, “Right, Lachlann, don’t say it. You’ll need to ask one of the Wycombe
girls—I’m not officially in the running.”
Lachlann mumbled, “I wouldn’t take
you anyway.”
Dinner progressed without any other
hiccups. At the end, the girls and Luna
returned to the tree. A ring on the bell
announced a guest, and a few minutes later Herbert brought in a large older man
dressed in a suit with a priest’s collar.
The man was tall and broad. He
looked more like a construction worker than a churchman.
Herbert announced, “Father Malloy to
visit Ms. Deirdre Calloway.”
Everyone raised their hand in
greeting, “Hello Father Malloy.”
Deirdre ran over. She tugged Sorcha with her, “Father Malloy. This is my very good friend, Ms. Sorcha
Weir.”
Sorcha put out her hand and Father
Malloy took it in his large maw, “You must be the young woman, Seasaìdh was
talking about. She was very happy and
very sad about you.”
Sorcha cocked her head, “Happy and
sad?”
“You should speak to her about
it. She was very happy and very
sad. I’m not exactly sure why, but she
had nothing but nice things to say about you.”
“I’m pleased.”
Father Malloy finally let go of her
hand, “I’m glad to also meet you, but I didn’t come just for that… Deirdre,” he purred.
“Yes, Father?”
He handed a folio of music to her,
“Dear Deirdre, we’re presenting part one of the Messiah before Christmas. When I heard from your mother that you were
home for the holidays, I knew you would save us.”
“Save you?”
“I know you might be a little put
out, but my primary soprano, Mrs. Gooding, can’t make it. She just received another offer for a
professional performance on the same afternoon as our performance.” He grimaced, “At a rate I couldn’t match.”
Deirdre held the folio between two
fingers as if she didn’t want to even touch it, “What do you want from me?”
Father Malloy put his hands together,
“I know you really don’t like it much anymore, but you’ve done it before for
our church. Would you please, and I’m
begging you, please, sing the soprano parts.
You don’t need to do the choruses if you don’t want to, but I have
absolutely no one of your quality to sing the solos. I’ll even provide tickets for your friends
and pay you the amount I was going to remunerate Mrs. Gooding. I’d pay more, but I can’t afford it. She was giving me a very good rate.”
Flora sneered, “Father, you are
negotiating against yourself. Don’t keep
heaping on.”
“Right. Please, Deirdre.”
Deirdre looked everywhere except at
the priest, “I didn’t intend to do anything like this.”
Sorcha smiled, “I didn’t know you
could sing that well Deirdre.”
Deirdre gave her a look.
Flora pounced, “She doesn’t want
anyone to know. She could be a
diva. She could be singing on a professional
stage. She won’t, and our poor priest
has to come begging her to provide a little light to our community at
Christmas.”
Luna griped, “That’s enough
Flora. Deirdre’s not to be badgered
about this—that was part of the agreement.”
Sorcha looked confused,
“Agreement. Badgered. If you can sing that well, Deirdre, I think
you should do it.”
Deirdre put her head down, “If I do
sing, you won’t think I’m a wimp or anything.
Will you?”
Flora grinned like a jack-o-lantern,
“That’s the rub, they all said she was a wimp and a pansy when she sang. That always set her off.”
Deirdre closed her fist, “You’re
about to set me off, Flora Calloway.”
Flora put her hands up, “The truce,
remember?”
Father Malloy took Deirdre’s hands,
“I would never ask you except that I don’t have anyone else to ask. If you don’t come to my rescue, I’ll have to
cut the performance short or cancel it altogether. I might be able to pull a little bit more
from the offering box to pay you. It’s
supposed to go to the widow and orphan’s relief fund.”
Deirdre put her face in her hands,
“You don’t need to take money from the relief fund--I’ll sing it.”
“Ah.
Thank God. Thank you
Deirdre.” He pulled her into his huge
arms and gave her an enormous hug, “You’ve saved us again this Christmas.” Father Malloy let her go, “Now I need to greet
your mother and thank her too. You’ll
find the practice schedule in the music.
There’s only two to go, but I know you have the music down cold.” He gave a nod to Sorcha, “Nice to meet you
Ms. Weir.”
Then he was gone, along with Herbert.
Sorcha couldn’t keep herself from
exclaiming, “What a remarkable experience.”
Flora cautiously chose her words,
“Let me see. I’ll bet D didn’t tell you
all the things she is really good at.”
Luna snapped her fingers, “Flora—shut
it.”
Sorcha glanced at Deirdre. She already had a thousand questions.
After supper, Deirdre and Sorcha went
up to their room, actually Deirdre’s old room.
Sorcha roamed around it admiring the hand-painted oils and
watercolors. She examined the floral
works of art on Deirdre’s shelves.
Finally, she came back to the bed where Deirdre was studying the musical
score. Sorcha sat right beside her,
“Spill it. Spill every bit of it.”
Deirdre glanced up in annoyance,
“It’s embarrassing to me.”
“What’s embarrassing?”
Deirdre shrugged.
“I spilled my guts to you in front of
the Queen, your mother, and Luna. It’s
your turn for me. If you don’t tell me,
I’ll ask Flora.”
Deirdre snarled, “Don’t ask Flora
anything. You can’t trust a word that
comes out of her mouth.”
“Then you tell me. I’ll let you know how much I’ve already
guessed. First, I thought these were
professional paintings. They are, but
you did them—didn’t you. You painted
every one of them.”
Deirdre hung her head, “Yes.”
“Second, you sing like a
professional. The people at our table
during the formal were looking at you because your voice is so perfect and
strong.”
“Yes.”
“Third, you must be a dancer
too. You painted so many dancers and
singers.”
“Yes.”
Sorcha grabbed the sides of Deirdre’s
face, “What is the big deal you stupid toff.
You are so gifted, but you act like your skills are nothing. I wish I was so gifted.”
Deirdre threw down the folio, “It
might seem like a gift to you. I thought
it was a gift too. It felt like a gift
until every kid and all my siblings started making fun of me about it. I’m sure it was jealousy, but they acted like
artistic skills would be useless to someone in our family.”
Sorcha retorted, “Why in your
family?”
Deirdre looked away, “It’s what we
do.”
“What do you do, Miss artist?”
“I can’t say. Mother might tell you sometime. Let’s just say, I’d like to use my skills in
the family business. You can see what
those mostly are: languages, administration…plus add to that: fighting, shooting, fencing, and sneaking. There isn’t much room for singing, dancing,
and artist.”
Sorcha looked at Deirdre from under
her brows, “What if you needed a sneaky singer?”
“Yeah, mother and father told me
that. When you are a little younger,
completely unsure about yourself, without a single friend, and every kid around
you tells you the opposite…”
Sorcha’s face smoothed, “I see also,
why you didn’t have any friends.”
Deirdre picked up the folio, “Yeah,
you get it. When you are accomplishing
singing, dancing, and art work at a certain level, there are no children around
you at all. My brothers and my sisters
are somewhat normal. They can speak and
work with all kinds of people their age and older. What happens when you get pitched into a
world only made up of adults? You either
bow to the inevitable, or you rebel. I
rebelled, and that’s how I arrived at Wycombe.”
“I thought you beat up a bunch of
kids.”
“I did. I beat the living snot out of them—more than
once and including my brothers and sister.
That’s why my brothers and my sister are cautious around me. Something about the strength and skills of a
dancer makes you a great fighter.”
Sorcha took Deidre’s hands in hers,
“I’m glad you’re singing this Christmas.
I want to hear it, and I want to see what you can do with it.”
Deirdre let out a tentative smile.
This
is a fun novel that I hope is published soon.
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
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