Writing - part x809, Writing a Novel, Changing World and Logic

26 March 2019, Writing - part x809, Writing a Novel, Changing World and Logic

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 

Perhaps the greatest change in cultures comes with literacy.  Before literacy a people can’t understand forms or complex ideas.  Studies have been accomplished on preliterate cultures and their concept of the world are very interesting.  It might be easier to look back from a literate point of view.

You might have been told that you can’t prove truth—whoever told you that is gravely misinformed.  There are precisely three methods to prove truth in the world.  The ancient Greeks invented the second method to prove truth at some time between 500 BC and 300 BC.  They might have developed it much earlier, but we don’t have much historical data before that—the historical-legal method remember.  The second method is logic.

Logic is the means used to prove things that can’t be proven by observation in the world.  I should probably start with the third method, but I’m going in the assumed historical order. 

The ancient Greeks had a very concrete and geometrically based language.  When I write geometrically based I mean mathematical except mathematics is not the symbolically based language we understand today.  The Greeks understood the world in terms of geometry, and much of their language is based in geometrical terms and understandings.  Logic was very important to them because logic is the method you use to understand and prove mathematical and geometric concepts. 

Mathematical and geometric concepts are not based on observations of real elements in the world.  For example, the concept and reality of pi.  Pi is the measure of the circumference of a unit (diameter = 1) circle.  The ancient Greeks discovered this concept at some time in their history around 500 BC or earlier.  They didn’t understand the concept as we do in terms of a number, but rather in geometric terms.  They still could use pi and geometrically work with it.  The point is that pi is not a concept you can just discover by measuring unit circles.  The third method, which we haven’t discussed yet, doesn’t work to determine mathematical and logical concepts.  The ancient Greeks didn’t come upon pi by accident, they proved pi through logic.

Logic can be used to prove all kinds of things that can’t be observed directly or proven in the world or universe we can measure.  The ancient Greeks were specifically interested in using logic to prove concepts and qualities of the universe and the world that they didn’t have the ability to observe or study directly.  These concepts and qualities were about the gods, the origin of the universe, the heavens, the stars and planets, spirits, powers, forces in the world, thoughts, emotions, free will, and many others.  Today, we recognize that some of these concepts we are able to understand and observe directly, but others still confound us.  Let me use thoughts as an example.

The ancient Greeks were very interested in thoughts.  Their question was how can I prove a person’s thoughts or ideas?  They recognized that it is impossible to really know what a person is thinking.  Even if a person says they are thinking about a certain thing, how can you know they are telling you the truth?  For example, if a person says, “I love you.” How do you know they speak the truth?  The ancient Greeks would say you can’t directly observe the thought, “I love you,” by just looking at a person.  You must observe their actions, words, facial features, interaction, life, and all.  With this evidence, I might be able to develop a logical argument to prove or disprove the statement, “I love you.”  Perhaps this is too complex an example.  How about a simpler one about emotions. 

If I say, “I am happy,” can I prove this using logic?  In fact, the Greeks would say you might be able to by observing your actions, features, as well as your words.  To bring the concept of logic further into the ideas of the ancient Greeks, what about the gods?  Can I prove the gods using logic?  This is the beginning of philosophy.  The Greeks and even we today know that we can prove the existence of God.  This was almost the entire focus of philosophy until Emmanuel Kant stated his yet unchallenged proof of God.  Logic, as the Greeks designed, can be used to prove things that are not obvious or evident in the physical world.  The method in logic is this:

1.     State your definitions

2.     State your assumptions

3.     Present your argument

4.     Make your conclusions

Here’s your example from pure logic.

1.     A, B, and C are rational numbers

2.     Equal (=) means that two numbers are the same

3.     If A=B and B=C then

4.     A=C.

This is a logical mathematical proof.  The reason we can say that it represents things not obvious or evident in the physical world is because in the physical world no two things can ever be equal.  No two oranges, people, things, and all are ever equal in the physical world.  In the world of mathematics, we can have all kinds of symbolic elements that are the same.  Using symbolic math, we can also define stuff in the real world so we can use mathematical reasoning on it.  For example, if I define the set of all apples, then I can add apples together.  I can tell you how many apples I have, but the rigorous logic that actually went into defining this real-world situation should be obvious to you—it was to the Greeks.  If you don’t get what I’m saying, just write out pi for me.

The third method for knowing truth came out of the historical and the logical methods.              

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