Writing - part x909, Writing a Novel, Changing World and Confiscation

4 July 2019, Writing - part x909, Writing a Novel, Changing World and Confiscation

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 websites 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 modern era with the advent of ubiquitous police and the government control of many aspects of society, it becomes very simple to exert control over an entire society.  Marx expressed this in the Communist Manifesto.  Everyone should be familiar with these procedures.  I’ll add a couple of ideas that Marx never would have thought of. 

The scientific means to control a conquered people or to take over a society from within from the Communist Manifesto:

1.     Abolition of Property in Land and Application of all Rents of Land to Public Purpose.

2.     A Heavy Progressive or Graduated Income Tax.

3.     Abolition of All Rights of Inheritance.

4.     Confiscation of the Property of All Emigrants and Rebels.

5.     Centralization of Credit in the Hands of the State, by Means of a National Bank with State Capital and an Exclusive Monopoly.

6.     Centralization of the Means of Communication and Transport in the Hands of the State.

7.     Extension of Factories and Instruments of Production Owned by the State, the Bringing Into Cultivation of Waste Lands, and the Improvement of the Soil Generally in Accordance with a Common Plan.

8.     Equal Liability of All to Labor. Establishment of Industrial Armies, Especially for Agriculture.

9.     Combination of Agriculture with Manufacturing Industries; Gradual Abolition of the Distinction Between Town and Country by a More Equable Distribution of the Population over the Country.

10.  Free Education for All Children in Public Schools. Abolition of Children's Factory Labor in it's Present Form. Combination of Education with Industrial Production.      

11.  The control of healthcare by government and the abolition of private healthcare.

12.  The abolition of cash money.

13.  The disarmament of the people and the arming of secret police forces under the control of the government.   

I added three other planks.  We see theses being used by modern societies to control the populace.  I think Marx left off the control of arms because he assumed the other mechanisms would allow full control of the people.  Let’s look at and evaluate how governments and societies have used these ten planks to enforce their control and goals on nations.

1. Confiscation of the Property of All Emigrants and Rebels.

Happy Independence Day.  There won’t be many more as long as the nation is continuing to incorporate the planks of the communist manifesto.

Possibly the least used but most domestically abused plank is this one—the confiscation of the property of all emigrant and rebels.  As we’ve seen, the purpose of each of the planks isn’t what they really seem.  For example, the abolition of all rights of inheritance isn’t really about inheritance, it allows the government to take control of private property and assets.  I should remark that this is always progressive until it is not. 

What I mean by this is that people assume a progressive tax only taxes or substantially taxes the wealthy.  The opposite is true.  A progressive tax takes money from the hands of investors, money that would be otherwise used to pay salaries and develop business.  This results in lower income and less business for the non-wealthy (the poor).  A progressive tax ends up taking more form the poor than from the wealthy.  This is the trick of the communist manifesto.

The abolition of inheritance looks progressive on the outside—it takes property usually beginning with the major property holders—the wealthy.  What happens is because of the fifth plank (on banking and banks) government controlled inflation brings all the poor into the monetary level of the previously wealthy.  Progressive programs combined with inflation soon levels everything, but that’s another subject.  How this works with the property of ALL emigrant and rebels is even more fascinating. 

The purpose of this plank is to first prevent emigration and second to prevent rebels.  The emigration should be obvious—who is going to move to a place that will take your property?  Emigrants move to other countries to improve their state not make it worse.  Why prevent emigration?  Emigrants make it very easy to dilute the control and power of the government by bringing in foreign ideas and ideas about free economies.  This is exactly what led to the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 20^th Century.  Emigrants didn’t kill them, the flow of information did.

Marx could never imagine the idea of the internet, radio, or television.  In the Soviet Union, these began bringing images and ideas about the wealth and prosperity of the West, and the people wanted some of that wealth and prosperity.  For many reasons socialism destroys both aggregate wealth and universal prosperity.  The Party members in the Soviet Union (less than 1%) were wealthy, the rest of the people had less than the poor in the West.  They wanted more.  Marx knew a closed communist (socialist) society needed to be protected from ideas—the confiscation of property from all emigrants prevents emigration and thus keeps the society isolated.  On the home front, the threat of confiscation of property keeps the rebels down.

The confiscation of property as part of secret police work or simply police work is a wonderfully autocratic means of the control of people and property.  The USA is and has been using this as a policing technique for a long time, at least fifty years.  In the USA, the trick is drugs.  Many states and until recently, the feds, allowed the confiscation of property related to drug crimes.  This is indirect opposition to the 4^th Amendment to the constitution, but hey in the attempt to control people, who cares—right. 

As I noted, social security is part of this concept of control by confiscation of property.  In this case, it isn’t just rebels, it is everyone.  For social security, if I take your property with the promise of return in the future, I still have your property and control.  It is a means to prevent rebellion.  If I threaten to take your property if you don’t follow the laws, that is the same.  If you notice, both of these are the opposite of what John Locke called legitimate government.

A legitimate government’s only purpose is the protection of private property (life, liberty, and property).  If a government holds the treat of confiscation of property over the heads of the people as a constant reminder of their power, this does help cement control, but it leads to tyranny.  The usual means, in the West, of the control through the threat of confiscation of property isn’t through criminal law, but through regulations—this is where things get sticky.

So, it isn’t against the law to do certain things, but the government regulates people, business, and industry.  If you don’t follow the government regulations, they can take your license or permit for business.  The government isn’t directly confiscating your property, but it is taking your ability to use your property from you.  Kind of a cool means of control.  You see this in aviation all the time.

What right does the government have to regulate aviation—it isn’t in the constitution at all.  If you count generic transportation, but the constitution doesn’t allow the government to control transportation, but only to ease and help transportation.  At this moment, there are a bazillion regulations concerning the use and building of aircraft, the violation of a single one won’t get you put in jail, rather, the government can take away your right to use or produce an aircraft.  No laws or prevention of criminal activity, the prevention of transportation activity through regulation.  This is also a plank in the manifesto—we’ll get to that one too.  All off these fit together in one way or another.

So, we see that the US government has enacted some means to confiscate the property to rebels (criminals) but not yet of emigrants.  This plank is more useful to show how a government can control people and ideas.       

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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