Writing - part x859, Writing a Novel, Changing World and Fiction Trade Space

15 May 2019, Writing - part x859, Writing a Novel, Changing World and Fiction Trade Space

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? 

In writing, the author must define the real, reflected, and the created.  If you notice, this fits directly into the different worldviews or settings.  The real is completely real in setting or worldview.  The reflected is real however, it includes concepts that are not necessarily real but some or many humans agree with either historically, ideologically, religiously, or theoretically agree or know about them.  For example, myths, imaginary creatures like dragons, vampires, and fairies, gods and goddesses, and all.  Created means invented or extrapolated—basically science fiction.  The real is the known and the knowable.  The fiction trade space is the unknown and the unknowable. 

The fiction author creates fiction in the fictional trade space.  The fictional trade space is the unknown and the unknowable.  If the author wanders out of the fiction trade space, they are writing alternate history or science fiction. 

Now, in the past, authors set their novels in the real and didn’t specify the place, time, or people.  Some historians say and actually make a living off of determining the where, when, and who of these authors.  In general, the conclusions are that many if not most of these earlier authors chose real places and then worked within the fictional trade space.  For example, Bram Stoker chose a Scottish Castle ruin for the setting of Dracula.  In reality, Bram Stoker combined the Scottish ruins with what he knew about Transylvania.  In the past, many if not most authors could not travel or obtain detailed information concerning all their settings.  If the settings were in the village next door, the author could easily place a novel.  On the other hand, if the settings were half a world or even a country away, the author and the readers might not know the difference.

Bram Stoker could write in the fictional trade space provided by the obscurity and lack of reader familiarity with Transylvania.  Today, you won’t get away with it quite as easy as that.  If Bram Stoker were writing Dracula today, I think he would select an obscure set of castle ruins or just a castle that met his needs in Transylvania.  He would do just as I would.  He would choose places and villages based on the needs of his setting and novel.  I would use actual places and make it as real as possible for my readers.  Bram Stoker likely wouldn’t go into this detail because that wasn’t a characteristic of his writing.  And notice, the fictional trade space was larger in the past because of lack of information.  It was also larger because authors in this time liked to keep the fictional trade space as large as possible, and they didn’t write about the normal or certain subjects that were culturally and socially off limits.

You know the Victorians wouldn’t and didn’t touch certain subjects.  They didn’t like to write about foods except when they touched the plot.  They considered food, domestic affairs, bathroom habits, bathrooms in general, clothing, details of underclothing, details of the wear of clothing, and many other subjects to be boorish and unacceptable.  This is all the kinds of information and details readers really want to know.  On the other hand, the Victorians loved to write about feelings and impressions, but they weren’t feelings and impressions about real life, but about the focus of the plot.  This is exactly different from the Romantic and modern views of writing and the world.

So, you can open up your fictional trade space as wide as the Victorians, or you can begin to assert realism by bringing in the Romantic’s view of the world and settings.  This is what I do.  I love to bring the real into all of my writing.  In fact, if I need a restaurant in a science fiction novel, I might pick one from the real world.  I always love to place real restaurants in my real and reflective novels.  Now, if I am going to write a negative or use a negative in reference to a place, I usually bring the place directly into the fictional trade space.  For example, for the magical pubs where my bad and evil mages work and gather, I pick a real place in the world, but I apply a completely different name and descriptions.  I definitely don’t use real people--there is no need.  Plus, except for the very well-known or documented, there is no reason to bring in real human beings.

For example, if you need a restaurant or a pub, just look one up in the area you need.  If you take a real place, you have an existing description, a menu, a wine list, potential servers, and even interior information.  This allows you to realistically depict an eating experience including food and drink.  If you play this kind of setting well, you can develop tension and release as well as creative elements for your novel.  For example, if a character can’t find a wine that suits their taste, then another character might make a decision for them.  Or, you can show food choices and provide general information about your characters.  This can also propel tension and release. 

The real in a novel can be very useful to improve the fictional trade space.               

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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