Writing - part x892, Writing a Novel, Changing World and Perturbed Competition

17 June 2019, Writing - part x892, Writing a Novel, Changing World and Perturbed Competition

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. Money

16. Weapons and warfare

17. Transportation

18. Communication

19. Writing

20. Education

What’s the big deal with money?  Money is also called capital.  People get confused about this all the time, so let me define this for you.  The use of capital for trade instead of proto-money or goods is called capitalism.  That’s all capitalism is.  Capitalism means using capital (money) to purchase goods and services instead of barter.  Let’s talk about markets.

The law of markets is that price is governed by availability and availability governs price. 

The law of competition is that in any market competitive pressures will all cause prices to reduce because availability will always go up—that is unless the government tries to control the market.  A fascist economy is a socialist economy that is controlled by the government through regulations.  A socialist economy is one where the government owns businesses.  A communist economy is where the government owns the means of production.  These three types of economies, fascist, socialist, and communist, are unnatural economies—they require government control to enforce them.  The problem is that no one can control a market.  This is a short way of expressing the law of markets and the law of competition.

As we noted, if the government tries to control a market, it has the opposite effect.  Any attempt to control a market results in a perturbation of the market—a market can’t be controlled.  Control the price of goods and the availability is affected.  Affect the availability of goods and price is affected.  If you try to control both, you will cause market stagnation—this isn’t a good thing, but there is something worse that governments can do: perturbation of competition and lost opportunity.  Effects on competition are dangerous to development, but lost opportunity directly harms people.

One of the most egregious examples of lost opportunity in the USA is Social Security.  Social Security takes approximately 15% (its about 14% but let’s just round it up for effect) of every worker’s paycheck.  The worker pays in 7% and the business pays in 7%, but this is all 14% the worker would otherwise see in their paycheck if there was no Social Security.  This 15% is not invested by the government—it is immediately spent.  Most is spent to pay past Social Security recipients.  If the worker kept that 15%, they might spend it all on themselves and their families.  They might invest all or a part of it.  If you look at the savings of workers in the USA for 401Ks, you will see that most workers maximize their savings at the highest they can and the highest matching of their employers.  In other words, the workers would invest their savings when they are given market incentives to do so.  I would argue based on lost opportunity that most workers would invest no matter what because they understand the importance of early and constant investments.

Here is the harm to the society and to the individual—lost opportunity.  The first lost opportunity is the government took and expended 15% or the income of the nation.  This money could be invested in industry and society.  It could buy tacos at the worst, but still help keep the economy moving.  It could be invested in business and produce great investment value.  In case you might argue that the government giving money to the wealthy aged is a good investment of the 15%, remember 20% of the whole goes to administering the funds, 20% goes to waste, fraud, and abuse, and we are not certain how much is otherwise wasted due to prosecuting, incarcerating, and other social affects due to Social Security.  Less than 60 cents of every dollar goes to the people who “invested” in the Social Security Ponzi scheme. 

Those 15% of every dollar of income could have been used for investment and for development—instead it goes to the wealthy aged.

You might say, but some goes to the poor aged.  Social Security is supposed to be a retirement plan.  The young are poor.  The aged work all their lives and have increasing pay and opportunities.  They have had their life to invest, save, work, and earn.  The youth who bear the burden of Social Security are compelled by force to support their parents, grandparents, and other peoples’ parents and grandparents.  How is this fair or just?  How is this reasonable?  The aged are supposed to provide for the young not the other way around.  By the way, one of the unintended consequence of Social Security are the many young people living with their parents because the parents get benefits that the youth have to pay for.  Silly and irrational isn’t it.

Lost opportunity is a great harm to a society, but lost competition is even worse.          

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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