Writing - part x801, Writing a Novel, Changing World, Love

18 March 2019, Writing - part x801, Writing a Novel, Changing World, Love

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. 

Let’s look at a subject that is really ignored in the modern era.  I’m not certain how much this can help your current writing.  I would argue that theoretically, this subject can really help those who write historical and futuristic fiction.  It depends on how your write your historical and futuristic fiction.  There are two ways to write historical fiction—let’s look at this.

The first and most common way to write historical fiction is to write a novel that projects modern ideas and history as historical ideas and history.  In other words to present modern ideas and historical ideas as the same.  I think this is perhaps the most egregious and perverse means of presenting a false view of history.  The author is either completely ignorant of the past, is intentionally attempting to education people in a false view of history, or both.  The real historical world is very different both culturally and socially from our current world.  The true author attempts to convey this in historical writing.

The second and less common means of historical writing is to actually incorporate the past into a novel to convey the actual way people thought and acted in the past.  This approach actually goes back into time to give a complete view of the way the people thought and acted.  To this end, let’s look at how the world changed and how people thought in the past.  This is more of a historical look at the world for the purpose of understanding how the world worked in the past and how people thought and acted.  We’ll use historical information to see what concerned affected their lives. Here is a list of potential issues.  We’ll look at them in detail:

1.   Vocabulary

2.   Ideas

3.   Social construction

4.   Culture

5.   Politics

6.   History

7.   Language

8.   Common knowledge

9.   Common sense

10. Reflected culture

11. Reflected history

12. Reflected society

13. Truth

14. Food

15. Weapons

16. Transportation

17. Communication

18. Writing 

The first subject I want to look at is vocabulary.  Vocabulary has changed enormously in every language, but there is much more to this subject than simply using different words for things.  The first is that in any culture, words are loaded with significance.  This is especially true with time and changes in culture and society. 

We transitioned from sacrifice to love.  I noted that love as a verb when applied by our ancestors in English was much different from the word love we toss around in modern times.  The Anglo-Saxons and the Norman French were not so far apart in their thoughts about love—the problem is that their love is definitely not our love. 

The Anglo-Saxons and the Norman French both saw the shield brother concept as the highest form of love.  When Christianity hit them, their views changed pretty radically.  The idea that a deity could love and protect like a shield brother was a new idea.  This idea of love between the man and God was not just new, it was revolutionizing.  Further, the idea that God could love women and slaves in the same way He loved a shield brother rocked these societies.  Before Christianity, the Anglo-Saxons and the Norman French focused their society on men and especially warriors.  Women had places of authority, but because they could not accept the same level of authority as men as shield brothers, they could not and were not considered equal or even human.  Christianity changed all that.

The idea that God could love a man, woman, child, or slave and the person could reflect that love back to the deity transformed the idea of human worth in these societies.  I’ll also point out that Christianity had this effect on ever society it infiltrated.  If God could love a woman, then a man could love a woman.  In ancient Greek, a man could only love a woman in pathos (fated lust, sex), eros (romantically), and pragma (acceptance through time).  Christianity said that a man or a woman could agape (love of the gods) both God and each other.  It also specified that men and women were equals and could interact as shield brothers had that is phileo (brotherly love).  These ideas likely took time to sink in and to change these societies, but they quickly, within one to less than three generations.  We see the effects historically in Anglo-Saxon and Norman French Epics. 

Almost overnight, the world of the shield brothers became a society where courtly love became the norm.  Courtly love is a significant concept that radically transformed all the cultures of medieval Europe.  The Anglo-Saxons and the Norman French had already accepted these new ideas introduced through Christianity when in 1066, William the Bastard united these two cultures by defeating Edward at the Battle of Hastings.  This caused more problems than you can imagine, but the cultures were both significantly similar and significantly different.  They were so similar, that although the Norman French tried to keep their language, society, and culture separate from the Anglo-Saxons, it was impossible.  Intermarriage, interrelationships, and oddly integration of the languages occurred quickly, so quickly that by about 1195, the societies were significantly integrated and yet the Norman French were the bad guys and they never intended that.  Look at Ivanhoe as an example of how the turning point of these cultures became the English culture we know. 

Back to love.  Love in this culture was the expression of courtly love.  Courtly love was supposed to be the Godly love between a man and a woman like the love of God.  We know this only went so far because for the human man and woman, courtly love also integrated into romance, marriage, and eventually sex.  Courtly love gave women great power in relationships—power that women had never had.  They were a figure of general desire the equal of the respect that warriors possessed during the period of Anglo-Saxon and Norman French shield brothers.  Their respect was based on their beauty, skills as a woman, position, and respectability.  Men competed for this courtly love and women bestowed their love on men who met or exceeded their expectations especially on the battlefield. 

So, in English culture, we have love moving from a concept of warriors and respect to the idea of men and women and respect.  It was a concept that brought these diverse groups into a powerful alignment—a new social alignment.                           

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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