Writing - part x898, Writing a Novel, Changing World and Warfare

23 June 2019, Writing - part x898, Writing a Novel, Changing World and Warfare

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

In the beginning were rocks and sticks.  I guess you could start with fists and feet.  Whatever, rocks and sticks are great tools and weapons are just tools.  You can refine these tools for hunting and warfare.  I mentioned about food that the knife, the ability to cut meat, was an amazing innovation.  Cutting meat is also cutting human flesh—thus cutting tools are also weapons.

Hunting and cutting meat for eating are obvious innovations and important human developments.  I think it is very important to recognize that these tools can be used to attack and defend, and there was a lot to defend.  I gave you the timeline for human societal development.  I’ll give it to you again:

1.     Hunter gathers

2.     Herdsmen

3.     Agricultural

But something happened on the way to agriculture.  First, you need to domesticate animals to get to general agriculture, but not everyone went to agriculture, and not everyone needed strong domestication to get to agriculture.  I mentioned before, agriculture was only possible for a society before domestication if they lived in an alluvial plain that occasionally and regularly flooded.  Thus the Nile, the Danube, the Yangzi, and many other rivers became the center of civilizations, and then there was domestication and lots of big animals available.  This was the result of warfare but we will get there.

What happened at first was that some of the herdsmen went to become pillage cultures.  The Hebrews were a typical pillage culture.  Many American Indians were pillage cultures.  The Scythians, Syrians, Mongols, and many Arab groups were pillage cultures. 

Pillage cultures found that when people began to settle, trade, and develop crafts, it was easier to gather a group together to take the goods instead of work to make them themselves.  You needed weapons to accomplish your raiding methods.  You also wanted a means to travel quickly.  This means of making a living encouraged many things—the main thing it did was to begin an arms race.  The herdsmen began to nurture horses and oxen.  Horses at the time were too small and weak to carry a human male.  Oxen were too slow for what the pillagers wanted to achieve.  In addition, horses are herd animals—they can’t be controlled as singular animals without critical innovations.  So, horses were too small and hard to control until someone got the great idea to put two horses together and pull a chariot. 

At first, chariots were used for fast travel (to attack groups of herdsmen and agricultural settlements and take their stuff) and then something happened: the invention of the recurve bow, and the use of chariots for defense as well as attack.  The other herdsmen and the agricultural settlements didn’t like to have their stuff taken.  The pillagers were kinda stupid.  The more sedentary herdsmen and the agricultural groups had much more time and ability to develop technology and crafts which led to better and more weapons.  You can see what happened by looking at the history of the Hebrews. 

The Hebrews were a herdsman and pillage culture.  They didn’t have horses or chariots.  They were assimilated by the Egyptians and became their herdsmen until the Egyptians perceived their lack of full assimilation as a threat.  The Hebrew pillage culture departed from Egypt (let my people go), and they became herdsmen and pillagers for a while but decided they’d rather settle down.  The could settle down in an agricultural society because of large domestic animals and their knowledge borrowed from the Egyptians. 

The reasons the pillage cultures lost out was basically the herdsmen and the farmers had more incentive to protect their property than the pillagers had to take them.  The end state was really the beginning of warfare. 

Getting a bunch of people together to use their fists and feet to fight is one thing.  Getting a bunch of armed charioteers is another.  If you notice, pillagers might have invented the chariot and this type of warfare, but the herdsmen and farmers had more time to develop and perfect it.  The beginning of warfare was most likely attacks by pillagers against herdsmen and farmers.  The herdsmen and farmers won, which didn’t end pillaging, but it provided a means of warfare.       

This means of warfare progressed for a long time as both the primary means of defense and attack.

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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