Writing - part x828, Writing a Novel, Changing World and Social Construction

14 April 2019, Writing - part x828, Writing a Novel, Changing World and Social Construction

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 

Since I moved to equality, I think we can safely and correctly move to the next point on the list, social construction.  Social construction is the way a society is organized.  Examples are a patriarchy, a matriarchy, a monarchy, feudalism, an oligarchy, and all.  Historically, it is important to realize that social construction is not a result of a group of people sitting around a campfire and deciding they want to be in power.  Social constructs are the result of not positions of power, but rather means to make human society possible.

As I wrote yesterday, the patriarchy of the ancient world had nothing to do with intentional oppression and everything to do with human protection.  In might makes right, the strong must standup and protect others or human society cannot exist.  This is a critical idea to understand.  Human protection is based on social construction, and equality can’t exist in a low technology system.  You must invent certain social concepts to be able to achieve any modern social construction. 

The first invention is law.  Without law, it is impossible to have equality of any kind.  In fact, an absolute truth about law is that law is never a moral or ethical concept.  You can make a law to allow any degree of human atrocity.  You can build a system of laws to harm or oppress any group of people.  For example, the laws of the Nazis oppressed and murdered Jews and other groups.  Law permitting and regulating slavery oppressed and harmed slaves from the white slaves of the namesake “Slavs” to the black slaves of the Age of Enlightenment.  Law outside of a moral and ethical framework, is just a set of rules that demand human compliance.  Laws lead to the next invention, government.

The purpose of governments is to protect private property.  Usually, laws are the means of protection while governments are the enforcers of protection.  You can see immediately, a moral law is developed and used by government to protect private property.  To be clear, the most private of private property is life and then liberty.  The original writers of the US Constitution wanted to write “life, liberty, and private property,” they wrote “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  The federalist papers tell us that “pursuit of happiness,” means the freedom to use private property—they assumed that simply the right to private property wasn’t enough.  The use of private property: ownership, purchase, sale, use, and etc. were the most important points of natural rights and law.

There it is, a moral government and a moral law is one that protects private property.  To repeat, I can write all kinds of laws that are immoral, destructive, and cruel.  I can have governments that are immoral, destructive, and horrific.  What makes a government or a law moral is that it protects private property (life, liberty, the use of private property).

The third invention is the ability of every government and every individual to defend their own property.  Most specifically, the power of the individual to protect their own life, liberty, and property, is the last invention.  This invention is specifically hand weapons.

We see social constructs that came directly out of these three inventions.  To allow equality, all three need to be in balance.  The third invention is the most powerful, but without the assumption of equality in law, the assumption of government’s responsibility, and the ability to protect both individually, there can’t be any equality.  Power and human protection defines social construction.  This is the point.

Ancient cultures were patriarchal because of the distribution of human power, not political power, not legal power, but physical human power.  They changed because law, government, and personal protection were invented and allowed each group to assert equal power.  What is the importance of this for a writer?

First, this is the real world.  Writers need to understand how society and societies are constructed and the basis for them.  Second, if you understand the social construct of your own society and the basis for it, you should be able to reflect it properly in your writing.  Third, if you understand the basis for social construction, you can protect yourself from those who would take your power and property.  Although social constructs are not designed by groups of people, people can write laws, they can influence or develop governments, and they can take away your ability to assert your power.  Law can leave you without life, liberty, or property.  Government can take all three.  Law and government can attempt to reduce your power to physical strength or strength less than they can wield—they can take or restrict your weapons.  Social constructs are dependent on law, government, and the ability to wield power.        

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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