Writing - part x864, Writing a Novel, Changing World and more Reflected Cultures in Fiction

20 May 2019, Writing - part x864, Writing a Novel, Changing World and more Reflected Cultures in Fiction

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 

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. 

I love to write using a reflected worldview.  A reflected worldview allows you to expand the fictional trade space significantly.  For example, the reflected worldview generally deals with elements in the world that can’t usually be seen or that can only be seen by certain people.  So, if you wish to interject magic, fairies, dragons, other fae creatures, other mythological characters or creatures, you can express a real worldview filled with these creatures that are outside of the rest of the real world.

Magic and sorcery are very interesting reflected cultural aspects in fiction.  You can approach magic in many ways.  I see it as a negative in my fiction.  The reason comes from my personal worldview and the worldview of the novels I write.  I don’t write anti-magic novels, but in my novels, I use reflected worldviews based on historically based myth.  Myths in most cultures and societies has seen magic as a negative.  The reason is that magic philosophically comes from within the world and not from outside the world. 

I’m writing about real philosophy here.  I am a reasoned writer.  I can’t write as many can with my mind disconnected from the real world and reason.  In fiction, you can make magic anything from good to evil.  You can have magic work from all kinds of means.  For example, you can have magic be a function of a special human or inhuman skills or powers.  You can have magic be a power of the world or of faith in the world.  You can have magic come from outside the world (creation)—this makes magic logically a miracle.  It really depends on how you define magic.  Magic from outside creation is from God or gods.  This produces another logical issue—the creation issue.

If you go with a gods myth—that is gods within the world, you have a problem of who created them.  This is an argument that Socrates brought up in Crito.  If you assume the God, then the problem of creation is already handled.  The definition of the God is that He created all.  This should also show the logical problem with magic vs. miracles.  Miracles can come from gods or God, but if from God, they come from outside the world.  If from created gods, they come from within the world.  Miracles from within the world are magic by definition.  You might as, whose definition?

In The Golden Bough, by Frazer, magic is defined and qualified.  Frazer’s purpose was to show the myth of magic and religion.  Everyone who wants to write about magic should definitely read this book.  P.E.I. Bonewitz takes The Golden Bough and directly applies it to magic.  He doesn’t really add much to Frazer’s argument, but he helps focus the ideas of magic in terms of modern and ancient thought. 

In any case, the author must define and understand the underpinnings of the magic system or the reflected system in their writing.  These basics create the reflected culture that the author must also develop.  For example, let’s look at Harry Potty.  Harry Potty is a very poorly constructed magic system.  The assumption is that if you have the power, you can use the power.  This is not an everyman Romantic theme.  In any case, the rules of magic and the magic system defines the reflected culture of Harry Potty.  The magic world restricts wizards and witches from using magic until they have passed their OWLS tests.  There are certain spells that are illegal.  If you’ve read the books, you know the rules, or not.  The rules and the culture changes from novel to novel.  The magic of Harry Potty is completely uncontrolled and can’t really be restricted.  It’s like every child being handed a hand grenade and told to be careful with it.  We aren’t really sure what or how the magic works.  The words of the magic must be said correctly and with the proper hand signals or it won’t work, but then we have characters speaking in dialects and accepts, but still properly using the spells.  It is all confusing and unreasonable, but it makes a cute story.

Here is the point.  If you use magic or other mystical forces in your novels, I suggest using a true reflected and not a created worldview.  Your culture should then be based on some degree of reason.          

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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