Writing - part x854, Writing a Novel, Changing World and Common Sense

10 May 2019, Writing - part x854, Writing a Novel, Changing World and Common Sense

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 

Common knowledge allows you to communicate and connect with your readers, common sense normalizes your writing.  What can this mean? 

If I were to tell you that spirits made everything in the world work, and that your fever was the curse of a god, you would think I was a loony.  To be specific, this was the basic view of all humanity in the First Century.  This was common sense and common knowledge.  If you expressed a view that was different from this orthodoxy, not only would your ideas be not read, you would have been considered wrong to the point that you might be executed for your ideas.  Not even Socrates ideas were so far off the norm of the times, and they executed him.

Common sense, the interpretation of common knowledge is a critical aspect of writing.  I know this is a problem for many writers because I’ve read your stuff.  Common sense is lacking in some writer’s basic repertoire.  Like I’ve said, I’ve read it.  I’ve never read it in normally published works, but I have seen it in works that were self-published and mostly those I have reviewed for others.  This is a problem that will prevent you from be published.  How do you solve it?

This is a difficult problem.  If you have a good grasp of common knowledge you usually understand common sense, and you stay clear of common sense problems.  When you don’t is the real issue.

The first means to prevent common sense problems is stick to what you absolutely know.  If you are a scientist, stick with the science the average person knows.  If you are a psychologist stick with what people understand.  If you present a new idea or an idea not available to the average person, you need to defend it greater than you would in a normal paper.  You will need to convince your audience.  In common sense ideas, you don’t need to convince anyone—the point is obvious, just like it was obvious in Greek culture a person with a fever was cursed by Zeus.  Common sense might be characterized as what your mother or grandmother knew.  You might be wrong even then.  If you have science to back it up, you might make headway.  An example, is the idea that cold causes colds.  This idea is absolutely irrational and silly in many levels, but it is common knowledge but not common sense.  You can provide an explanation and defense of this idea if it is a focus of your novel, or you can just go with it.  I would ignore it.  Notice however, it is common knowledge.  I would still ignore it.  Unless your plot depends on the idea (I wouldn’t do that) or the opposite of the idea (I wouldn’t do that either), there is no point in mentioning it.    

Don’t preach.  Here is where I see the greatest common sense problems.  For some reason, many authors can’t remove themselves from the writing.  This is a problem in itself.  You shouldn’t be writing about you, and your cockamamie ideas are not worth writing about.  This is the largest area for most problems in common sense.  You can’t change the world, and the purpose of novels is not to change the world.  The purpose of novels is entertainment.  Preaching isn’t entertainment.  You can’t entertain with preaching.  And here is the greatest problem for many authors, they can’t tell the difference between common sense and their sense.  If you are a scientist writing science fiction, and you present a new idea outside of the average person’s event horizon or knowledge level, you likely have a great chance of convincing them.  The appeal should be through their basic knowledge and new ideas.  On the other hand, a made up or pet idea from a person uneducated in the field sounds just like that, made up, pet, and unsubstantiated ideas will not get traction and will be rejected by your readers.  I’ve seen a lot of preaching.  You don’t want preaching, you want teaching and information.  One way to handle the common sense issue is through irony.

Irony and humor allow you to touch many subjects that are otherwise off limits, common knowledge, or common sense.  There are so many subjects that are off limits due to common sense and common knowledge, this is difficult to write about them—I would likely push your buttons too.  I just stay away from them.  You might say, there has to be some connection in common sense, and you are right.  The problem isn’t usually the connection, but rather the common sense.  Perhaps there is more we need to write about this subject.                     

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