Writing - part x896, Writing a Novel, Changing World and View of Wealth

21 June 2019, Writing - part x896, Writing a Novel, Changing World and View of Wealth

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.

Back to the idea of the Enlightenment and Victorian view of the world.  As I noted, wealth and companies have somehow gotten a bad rap in the modern era, but wealth and companies are what have given us technology, entertainment, and freedom.  Governments can’t provide any of this because it is based in markets.

You might ask, what about discovery developments such as those on the earth in earlier centuries and those in the modern era in space.  Indeed, government development especially for military operations and discovery has added to technology, but look at computers and both the military and government space exploration.  The government space exploration and military didn’t push computers into miniaturization, exponential development, and new products—it followed these trends in society. 

You can easily ask the question, how many computer or developmental innovations came out of the Soviet Union or Communist China?  You would be right in saying none.  Even military technology must abide by the laws of the markets, and the military is a tiny factor in markets and in development.  Even the Nazis had serious deficiencies in their military development due to the lack of wealth and a wealth based market to drive it.  The USA in WWII had a strong market based development cycle that led to a vibrant military production and design.  If you have a million cars on the road, development of innovative military vehicles is a piece of cake compared with a small transportation market.

Now, why back to the Victorian and Enlightenment?  The Enlightenment and Victorian Era saw wealth as corporations not as evil necessities but as the result of a vibrant market and society.  The Enlightenment especially saw governments as the problem to both.  In the USA, the entire Constitution was written to restrict the rights and powers of government, not the other way around. 

Before the USA Constitution, people viewed governments as basically unrestricted and in charge of placing restrictions and laws on people.  The Enlightenment saw governments as the problem and laws were designed to prevent the interference of government.  John Locke was more insistent.

John Locke saw government interacting with business as a significant problem.  The rights of property could never be safe without a constrained government.  This is exactly why the USA Constitution restricts government and not the people.  More than that, government by its nature and powers has the ability to take life, liberty, and property.  Individuals no matter how wealthy and corporations never have this right unless conferred by governments.  If you remember the privateers of the Age of Sail, you will see what I’m talking about. John Locke saw the collusion of government with business as a significant problem for freedom.  Indeed this is true.

In the modern era, we should worry more about governments and their power than corporations and their perceived power.  Corporations and the wealthy have no more rights than any others unless the government provides them avenues that are not available to the rest of us. 

In my novel Escape from Freedom, I present just such an environment and government that has absolute power in the name of the people.  Governments that control business, own businesses, or control monopolies are the most dangerous, because governments don’t have to answer to anyone but themselves.  Better a natural monopoly that must face a competitive market and government scrutiny than any government owned business or controlled business.  If you notice, government threatens business all the time with sanctions and control, by government.  I can’t imagine a greater disaster—government administrators who can barely provide public services such as licensing and registrations in charge of complex production, development, or sales.  The result would be… the Soviet Union and Communist China.      

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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