Writing - part x923, Writing a Novel, Future War Strategies

18 July 2019, Writing - part x923, Writing a Novel, Future War Strategies

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

It’s become very popular to write using dystopian plots, themes, and settings.  In addition, science fiction plots, themes, and settings have almost become a secret infiltrator in modern novels. 

All kinds of technology can be used in warfare.  All kinds of weapons, sensors, jammers, communications, and software will be used in future warfare and in future societies.  To get to this new technology, you need to be able to extrapolate based on modern science and equipment.

Which came first, the technology or the strategy?  For the author this is a very important question—this has more to do with resolving the telic flaw or in a scene, the tension and release.  In other words, the writer can either extrapolate technology to resolve the telic flaw or release or the writer can create a tactic or strategy to resolve either.  What does this mean?

Let’s say I have a circumstance either telic flaw or a release that requires resolution.  First I should explain again what a telic flaw or a release is.  A telic flaw is the problem that must be resolved in a novel.  The best and easiest example is the detective or crime novel—in this case, the telic flaw is usually the crime.  The crime must be resolved and the criminal brought to justice—or pick either of the two.  In a scene, every scene must have a buildup of tension to a release.  A great example is a battle scene.  In a battle scene, the forces engage and one or the other succeeds at some cost.  The resolution or release is the winning (or loss) of the battle.  In any case, tension and release or the telic flaw resolution is what the author should be an expert at delivering.

In the case of science fiction and the extrapolation of technology, the writer has a wide open road to resolution of the telic flaw or tension and release.  I will note, the wise author can do the same with historical and modern fiction as well.  I’ll just note the use of extrapolated technology for science fiction.

Let’s say my telic flaw resolution requires my protagonist to accomplish some feat of technological significance or from a strategic standpoint, to use some technological fact in a significant manner.  For example, from one of my Chronicles of the Dragon and the Fox science fiction novels, the enemy is bombarding a planet by making bombing runs through the upper atmosphere.  I note in my novels that spaceships always enter warfare in space unpressurized with the crew in pressure suits.  The reason should be obvious, if you are in space combat and take a hull breach, everyone will die due to lack of oxygen and pressurization.  In the planetary bombardment example, the enemy has become complacent and because the planetary forces can’t retaliate, for crew comfort, they are maintaining pressurization during the bombing runs. 

This is set up as a fact of space warfare in the early parts of the novel, thus when the circumstance appears, the protagonist knows exactly what to do as a strategy to defeat the enemy.  The technological extrapolation occurs which is then used as a strategy to allow the unexpected defeat of larger class space vessels.  I’ll mention what happens.  Since the ships are pressurized, the protagonist sacrifices a couple of attack drones to ram the enemy battleships.  This strategy causes the protagonist’s fleet to lose their attack drones, but it also causes significant damage to the battleships.  You should be able to taste the tension and the excitement of such a strategy.  The strategy occurs to our protagonist, but the reader and the other crewmembers don’t fully understand the significance of the circumstance.  The protagonist appears to be flippantly risking the loss of the battle by ramming the ships.  When the results become evident, the protagonist becomes the hero of the day—that’s the point after all.

The latitude of the use of extrapolated technology and strategies and tactics developed from that extrapolated technology should be obvious.  As a writer, you want to use both of these to bring together either a telic flaw resolution or a tension and release for your scenes.  The real power becomes the obvious but not expected nature of the resolutions.                        

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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