Writing - part x832, Writing a Novel, Changing World, more Writing, and Culture

18 April 2019, Writing - part x832, Writing a Novel, Changing World, more Writing, and Culture

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 

Culture is the basis of customs, arts, religion, social fabric, language, dialect, reasoning, myths, and ideas of a particular group of people.  Culture is based on three very important ideas.  First, what the people in the culture think about themselves.  Second, what the people in a culture actually do.  Third, what other cultures or people observe about the culture in question.  All of this is important to writing.

You can write a novel from three potential cultural viewpoints: exclusionary, clash, and inclusionary. 

Exclusionary is the mode of most novels.  For example, the Victorian Era concept of writing about the Victorian culture from the standpoint of the Victorian culture and concepts of concern about the Victorian culture.  You can see many examples of this type of writing—it’s still popular today.

Clash is very common—some get it right and many get it wrong.  Harry Potty is an example of clash of cultures.  The clash however, isn’t what you might want or think—it’s between the good and the bad wizards.  A more powerful and entertaining culture clash in Harry Potty would be between the muggles and the magicians, but that wasn’t to be so.  The Sparkly Vampires are a culture clash between the good and the bad vampires.  Again simplistic and less entertaining.  The Hungry Games was also a culture clash between the good and bad, but there was a little more of some inclusion—the problem is that everyone was bad and the little good didn’t look very good at all.  So much for that.

Inclusionary isn’t really what you think.  In inclusionary, there is still clash of cultures, but the clash is mainly between the protagonist and their own culture.  You see some of this coming out just a little in some Victorian novels.  Dickens wanted to write in this mode—Oliver Twist is one example as is David Copperfield.  David is likely a better example.  In Oliver Twist and David Copperfield, Dickens attempted to build an inclusionary cultural view of British society…and failed.  The poor were still to be looked down on.  Their faults and problems were moral in nature and not cultural.  Or the cultural problems were truly cultural—all the poor needed was to accept the nobility of high society, and they would be saved.  This is and was a classical motif and theme in Victorian writing.  I’ve read some Victorian writing that didn’t follow this theme and motif, it exists, but isn’t in the major classics. 

Inclusionary had to wait for the Romantic protagonist.  The Romantic protagonist was an individual who acted in some ways counter culturally.  This clash between the culture of the protagonist and the protagonist is what propels many novels moving out of the Victorian Era into the Romantic Era of literature.  If you note, the Romantic protagonist requires that the protagonist be in a conflict with his or her culture.  This means the author must provide an inclusionary cultural view that is at least a realistic cultural view.  No more whitewash on the culture as the Victorians did, but a view of the culture with all its faults and positives exposed.

A powerful inclusionary novel extends to more than one culture.  The point isn’t cultural equivalency, but cultural realism.  I view the French, British, Scottish, German, American varieties, Italian, and all from an inclusionary standpoint contrasting and comparing their good and bad points, but not assuming one is necessarily better than the other.  If in comparing, the reader comes to that conclusion, that is not the author’s fault or problem.  In a true inclusionary cultural view, not all cultures are good or bad, but all cultures are cultures to be understood and operated within.

For example, my yet unpublished novel, Children of Light and Darkness begins with the very British Kathrin and James in the nation that used to be called Burma.  The Burmese culture is projected not as bad or good, but different from the British culture of Kathrin and James.  James is an agent and Kathrin an operative—their job is to understand and work within the culture to achieve their goals.  This is inclusionary cultural writing.  The clash in cultures is indeed between what Kathrin and James must do against their own cultural views and mores to integrate and operate within the Burmese culture.  Remember inclusionary, clash, and exclusionary.

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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