Writing - part x784, Writing a Novel, Protagonist and Reflective Worldview

1 March 2019, Writing - part x784, Writing a Novel, Protagonist and Reflective Worldview

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:  Deirdre and Sorcha are redirected to French finishing school where they discover difficult mysteries, people, and events. 

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. 

To start a novel, I picture an initial scene.  I may start from a protagonist or just launch into mental development of an initial scene.  I get the idea for an initial scene from all kinds of sources.  To help get the creative juices flowing, let’s look at the initial scene. 

1.     Meeting between the protagonist and the antagonist or the protagonist’s helper

2.     Action point in the plot

3.     Buildup to an exciting scene

4.     Indirect introduction of the protagonist

The protagonist is the novel and the initial scene.  If you look at the four basic types of initial scenes, you see the reflection of the protagonist in each one.  If you noticed my examples yesterday, I expressed the scene idea, but none were completely independent of the protagonist.  Indeed, in most cases, I get an idea with a protagonist.  The protagonist is incomplete, but a sketch to begin with.  You can start with a protagonist, but in my opinion, as we see above, the protagonist is never completely independent from the initial scene.  As the ideas above imply, we can start with the characters, specifically the protagonist, antagonist or protagonist’s helper, and develop an initial scene. 

If we start with a protagonist, we need some kind of guide.  Here is a general guide for developing a modern protagonist.  We’ll look at examples and explain the ideas.

1.        Normal person (not wealthy, noble, or privileged)

2.      Loves to read

3.      Loves to learn

4.     Unique skill(s), power(s) and/or learning

5.      Pathos (poor, homeless, abused, friendless, ill)

6.     Individualistic and independent

7.      Introspective

8.     Leader

9.     Naturally good

10.  Rejection of the urban

11.   Rejection of the modern

12.  Appeal to the imagination

Romanticism and Romantic protagonists typically reject the modern.  This isn’t what it might seem.  Romanticism, because of its love of nature and the natural, saw perfection and enlightenment in the antecedents of culture and society.  Thus, they brought myth and spirituality into their writing. 

Romanticism itself is a rejection of realism.  If you understand this much of Romanticism makes perfect sense.  Romantics wanted to be free of the confines of Victorianism to be able to express ideas and concepts that Victorian realism wouldn’t touch. 

At first, the Romantics had to couch their ideas wholly in metaphor and allegory.  Today, not so much.  In general, the power of the Romantic well exceeds that of Victorian realism.  It allows the writer to express ideas in any detail necessary to the entertainment and the subject.  It also allows the Romantic to be as illogical and irrational in entertainment as he or she can get away with.

I’ve mentioned some of these, but we can revisit them.  The worst offenders are movies.  Intelligent and educated people go to plays.  It’s really difficult to slip the completely illogical and irrational into a play and actually get it produced.  It happens, but not as often if the audience was as stupid as the audience for movies. 

Movies, by nature are Romantic art forms.  Just think of the most popular “super hero” flicks.  These are purely romantic characters.  They are supposed to stand as metaphor for human activity and human capability, but instead, they become gods and messiahs of stupidity.  There is a very fine line between the power of the human unique because of skills, power, or learning, and the god-like being with human petulance.  One is great, and the other is just an irony.  This is the main problem many modern writers don’t fully understand.  Romantic characters are human just with skills, powers, and learning that make them something to look up to—you can’t look up to the messiah or a god, at least, not fictional ones.

Let’s think about this from the Victorian ideal, which, by the way, is also the Romantic ideal.  The Romantics perpetuated the idea that people can develop unique skills and powers—this is okay, but look at their underpinning concept.  They believes that everyone could develop their own unique skills, powers, and learning, through learning.  The Victorians held this idea too, but only for those worthy.  The Romantic protagonist or character came from the common and became unique through building up his or her skills, powers, and learning.  This is the ideal underlying Romantic thought.  To the Romantic mind, the idea of a superhero being born with a spectacular skill, power, or learning would be completely opposite to the cause and ideals of Romanticism.  The Romantic superhero would come from the common stock (like Spiderman) gain a unique power, skill, or learning (like Spiderman) and learn and practice to use that skill or power (like Spiderman).  Spiderman is a truly Romantic superhero.  On the other hand, Superman was born with his power.  He didn’t have to learn to use his powers.  He is just a super being, like a god, and not much different than the fated royalty of the Victorian Era.  Harry Potty is a fated messiah.  He was born with his powers, and is supposed to practice them to learn them, but he really isn’t the best at magic—he is fated to be kinda the best at magic, sorta.  The best at magic is the hard working and studying Hermione.  She is the real Romantic character while Harry is just fated.  Although, Harry Potty is mostly a Romantic novel, it sure shares many of the characteristics of the Victorian.

Perhaps we are entering a new Era.  I kind of hope not.  The Romantics believed that anyone could be special and unique, it was a question of effort and not necessarily skills and powers.  In other words, nurture and not nature.  The Romantics would tell you study is the great equalizer.  The smart kids who don’t study will be easily eclipsed by the average kids who do.  If you think about Sara Crew, Anne of Green Gables, and all those other young men and women from the wonderful childhood and youth novels we read.  They were common.  They were just like us, but they studied and studied hard to achieve their results.  They were surrounded by other children who were just as bright and some brighter, but their success was based on their study and work, not their birth and born acumen.  This is the main point of Romanticism, and this is what I love about Romanticism—Romanticism is the average person, the common person, achieving non-common results through effort.  In the USA we call this the American Dream.  This is the resonating idea behind the Romantics and Romantic literature.                             

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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