25 May 2019, Writing - part x869,
Writing a Novel, Changing World and Truth
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 29th 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.
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Cover
Proposal
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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 30th novel, working
title Red Sonja. I finished my 29th 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
What is truth? Actually, this isn’t a very difficult
question to answer. My personal opinion
is that a person who doesn’t know how to discover the truth is uneducated and
inexperienced. The Greeks developed the
three means to know truth stating back about 500 BC.
Around 500 BC, the Greeks realized
that it might be a good idea to write down human history. The Hebrews had been doing this for a while
before the Greeks, and the Greeks might have gotten their ideas form the
Hebrews, but the Hebrews focus wasn’t on human history or really Hebrew
history. The Hebrew’s focus was on the
revelation of Jehovah (God) in their history.
Some other groups had written about spiritual revelations, but most of
those were not concerned with history.
What the Greeks realized was the means to determine truth in the record
of history.
I’m not asserting that they
accomplished this immediately or that they had a coherent plan to design the
historical-legal method, but the method for knowing truth in history, the
historical-legal method, was the result of their development of recording
history.
The historical-legal method was the
first method developed by the Greeks to know truth. As the name implies, it is used for history
and in legal proceedings. Once I remind
you, you will recognize the background of this method. Here’s how the historical-legal method works.
First, we take a record of history
or in the case of a legal proceeding, we take a witness. The record of history is also called a
witness. There are three types of
witnesses: primary, secondary, and tertiary.
A primary witness is an eyewitness.
Just like a court of law, in history, the primacy of witness places an
eyewitness (primary witness) as the most reliable source. An eyewitness is a witness who actually saw,
heard, smelled, tasted, and/or felt the event or occurrence. In history, just as in a court, a primary
witness is considered the most accurate witness. In a court where I might have more than one
eyewitness, the court (jury and/or judge) must weigh the value, knowledge, and
quality of the witness. You see this all
the time in sports where the judges (umpires) view multiple replays to
determine if a play was legal or not. In
a court of law, the verdict of the judges and jury might determine the fate of
a person. In most cases, only
eyewitnesses are allowed. In history, a
secondary witness is considered inferior to a primary witness, but it is used
and worthwhile. A secondary witness is
the record of an eyewitness taken by another source. For example, Mary Todd Lincoln was an
eyewitness to her husband’s (President Lincoln) death. Mary Todd Lincoln’s self-authored, recorded
(there was no recording machines at the time), or directly quoted account of
the event would be considered a primary source.
On the other hand, if a journalist interviewed Mary Todd outside the
Ford Theater, that journalist’s account would be considered a secondary
witness. In a court of law, a secondary
witness is called a hearsay witness. It
is usually not allowed. A secondary witness
is well accepted in history. However,
the rule of primacy always applies.
The rule of primacy is that an
eyewitness account is always considered more accurate than a secondary account,
and a secondary witness is always considered more accurate than a tertiary
account. Very rarely are primary
accounts ever discounted in history. There
would have to be overwhelming evidence that the primary source was wrong or
mistaken. In almost one hundred percent
of the cases in historical evidence a primary source is always trusted more
than a secondary or tertiary witness. There is much more to this, but you
likely would like to know what a tertiary source is.
A tertiary source is one that is not
primary or secondary. A tertiary source
is a history book, or should I write a book about history. This is why historians and historical fiction
writers don’t use history books to write their histories or historical
fiction. Historians always use primary
and secondary sources if they have them.
They only rely on tertiary sources if there is no other option. In a court of law, only a primary witness is
used to prove the truth of what happened.
And here is the point of everything.
The historical-legal method is used
to prove the truth of events that happened or could happen only once. It is specifically used to prove the truth of
events in history, historical events.
This is how you can prove that certain historical figures lived, events occurred,
and things happened. There is no other
method, and stuff before human literacy or literary evidence becomes impossible
to prove historically. However, in
history, every piece of evidence is a piece of evidence. You can’t discount any account of history
that is declared to be history and asserted to be a primary, secondary, or
tertiary source…unless you have another source of equal measure that directly
contradicts your source.
For example, let’s say Caesar (pick
one) wrote that he crossed the Rhine River on 2 July 60 AD and engaged the
Teutonic forces of Beowulf. During the
battle the Romans were being overcome but Caesar had his personal priest
sacrifice to the goddess Diana and as a result, the rain began and flooded the
positions of Beowulf. Caesar is an
eyewitness (primary source), and none of his account can be debated unless you
have another source of better primacy.
Let’s say after the battle Caesar’s priest interrogated the captured
Beowulf (that’s a secondary source).
Beowulf said his priest predicted they would win the battle and the rain
caught them all by surprise, but he thought the Roman’s training and weapons
were what won the day. As a historian,
you can’t discount Caesar’s account or opinions. That doesn’t mean you have to accept his
worldview. It means, you must accept his
record of the events, about Caesar’s opinions, that something else. He is a primary source. On the other hand, Beowulf’s account is a
secondary source. You might agree with
his opinion more than Caesar’s but as a historian, all you can do is
corroborate the events. If Beowulf in
any way contradicted Caesar, you are required by primacy of witness to accept Caesar’s
account. Further, if the priest’s son
who was not present at the battle wrote an account, his record of his father’s
remembrances would be secondary, but anything else would be tertiary.
The historical-legal method is what
we use today to prove history (non-repeatable events).
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
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
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