Writing - part x877, Writing a Novel, Changing World and Handling Truth

2 June 2019, Writing - part x877, Writing a Novel, Changing World and Handling 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 s 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 

From the ancient Greeks and propagated through civilization, we have three means to prove truth: the historical-legal method for non-repeatable events, the scientific method for repeatable events, and logic for the non-measurable (like math).

There are many ways to handle truth.  Some work well.  Some don’t work at all.  The Romanitcs were right about using metaphor.  They were also right about the problems with realism. 

The first problem with realism is that it is real.  If an early Romantic Era author or a Victorian Era writer had gone off the rails and presented a realistic view of any of the numerous subjects that were taboo in the Victorian Era, no one would have bought, opened, or read their novel.  You know how this is, and you know how it works.  Today, we call this shadow banning.  Everyone talks a good talk, but certain subjects even today are off limits. 

There are many subjects worth exploring which are difficult if not impossible to broach.  Some are culturally off limits.  Some are not considered polite even in impolite company.  Some are political.  Some are just in bad taste.  Think about it.  Death is a subject that should daunt any author.  Having lots of peons and cannon fodder type bite the dust is one thing—having the protagonist confront death is something else entirely.  Having a protagonist face moral or ethical ruin are likewise unpopular.  Salvation is another difficult subject.  God issues are completely off the table in modern writing.  There are many many subjects that modern society won’t touch.  Sex is one they can’t get enough of, but depression due to sexual abandonment or promiscuity are right out.  What’s the author to do?  There are all these truth issues filled with wonderful potential for writing, but you aren’t supposed to write about them.

So, God is off limits.  What if I project the reflected worldview about God?  Most people feel uncomfortable about God and them, but what if I express God as simply a reflected culture or history.  This isn’t that hard.  The Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican churches provide a properly safe God based reflected worldview that most modern people will not find offensive, uncomfortable, or bombastic. 

What I mean is this.  I can write a modern novel that has a family or families who happen to go to Catholic, Orthodox, Jewish Synagogue, or Anglican Church and it will be considered normal and not unusual.  The fact that I include it in a modern novel might be considered unusual, but most people are familiar with these churches and these groups.  I might be able to add in a family who goes to a little more evangelical church, but that isn’t as safe—I have to cast them in a light that reflects my reader’s expectations.  The point is this, but bringing in a normal reflected social view of a safe church, I can interject God stuff and church stuff into a novel. 

This doesn’t mean I am necessarily writing a novel about church stuff or God stuff—it means, I can bring these ideas into a novel as a normal subject—just as I might bring up going to a French restaurant.  The point isn’t evangelizing or proselytizing in the novel, the point is to bring up normal human activities like church going and God believing.  You might ask, what is the point and purpose? 

The point and purpose is always entertainment.  I wrote, truth based subjects are the most important and therefore the most entertaining.  They are also the most dangerous.  People don’t want to be preached to, but they do want to explore God stuff and to a lesser degree Church stuff.  They want the God stuff because it is one of the untouchable.  If, I as an author, can present them some God stuff in an entertaining and interesting package, that is enlightening and attractive.

Readers are also interested in the Church, Church History, and general Church stuff.  They don’t want to go to church and they definitely don’t want any preaching or teaching about church.  What they want are all the secrets and the imagery of church.  To many if not most church is a symbol of solidarity, human history, and human events.  There are also some negatives in that picture, but those are also valuable in entertainment and entertaining depending on how the author uses and presents them.  There is much more to this.

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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