Writing - part x741, Writing a Novel, Power of Settings, Easter

17 January 2019, Writing - part x741, Writing a Novel, Power of Settings, Easter

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.  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 Christmas, I gave you scenes from my writing that were set during Christmas.  I hope this was enlightening and entertaining to you.  I just wanted to entertain you for the Christmas season.  I also wanted to show you how important real events and settings are to novels.

There are three ways to create a setting or a world: real, reflected, and created. 

A real worldview comes directly from the real world.  A reflected worldview comes from a historical and real basis but from a fictional or mythic basis.  A created worldview is developed from a real base, but is either fantasy or futuristic.

I’ve not used Easter as a setting yet in any of my novels.  The reason is that although Easter is acknowledged and celebrated by large numbers in the West as well as all other Christian peoples and nations, it is not very secularized, and the secularization that has been done has not made it very normative.

What I mean by that is unlike Christmas which has become a secular as well as religious celebration that almost everyone gets together for, and unlike Thanksgiving where families routinely get together, Easter is mostly private, religious, and family with little nonfamily interaction.

I’ve written before that I write secular novels with redemptive themes.  I want to be inclusive in my writing of both secular and religious people.  For that reason, I write in such a way that I don’t intentionally offend the religious or the secular.  Not that Easter would offend, but I haven’t had a need for an Easter scene.  Perhaps I will in a future novel.

The other problem which is kind of interesting, my novels tend to start or run through September.  In some cases, they begin after Easter and move through the September time frame.  This leads directly into Thanksgiving and then Christmas.  Many of my novels are set in England or France, the main holiday is Christmas in this time frame.  Most of my novels reach their climax in the season before Easter.  This is kind of an interesting observation about my writing.

Not all of my novels fill this model, but many of them.  In others, Easter and other holidays are just not part of the setting—some of my novels are set in communist nations or other places which are anti-religion. 

I will take back a little—one of my published novels covers Easter very well.  Centurion, the novel about the Centurion who crucified Christ covers the first Easter very extensively.  It isn’t the celebration as much as it is a record of the accounts from the New Testament from a Roman’s point of view. 

Whatever your take or time, when you put together your settings for your novel, take into consideration the holidays.  You don’t need to touch every one, but you need to see if you can use them to develop the plot and scenes.  I’ll cover a few more just to give you some more ideas--like New Years, Halloween, and the Fourth.               

More on this weekends, weeks, months, and why Christmas is an expression of the real world.

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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