Writing - part x929, Writing a Novel, Personal Flight

24 July 2019, Writing - part x929, Writing a Novel, Personal Flight

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

Transportation means have changed significantly over time. 

Let’s look at air transportation.  It started as entertainment, and moved quickly to the personal aircraft.  And then came the cattle cars.  Airlines are cattle cars.  The expectation for air travel was just like ground travel.  Ground travel started with the iron horse (locomotive) train.  This was the cattle cars, and people only stayed in them until they could afford their own automobiles. 

The progress was distinctive.  Cattle cars (trains and busses), charter (taxis), and then the private automobile.  Aircraft should have gone rather quickly from cattle cars (airlines), to charter (air taxis), and then to private aircraft.  It was moving very quickly to the private aircraft, but this time the train and bus owners (airlines) had a plan to prevent the people from getting their taxis and private aircraft.  The means was regulations and cost.  The government was happy to accommodate because they want to restrict travel as much as they can.  Travel means freedom, and governments certainly don’t want unbridled freedom.

In 1974 more than 10,000 private and corporate aircraft called general aviation aircraft were delivered to private companies and citizens.  Last year less than 2,000 general aviation aircraft were delivered to private companies and citizens.  In 1974, everyone could charter an aircraft to get almost anywhere there was an airport.  People took airlines to hubs and then from the hubs to outer smaller airports.  The system was wonderful, but the airlines wanted to kill charter and private aviation.

The airlines did it by convincing the government to regulating charter and general aviation to the same degree it did nation and international carriers.  The reason was supposedly to improve safety.  It didn’t and there wasn’t a safety problem.  The problem was that the airlines wanted to destroy charter and private aviation.  The numbers don’t lie, and the lack of convenience in the airlines should be obvious.  A charter can take you anywhere—the airlines have assured through government regulations that the cost will be high.  If you want to go to any airport, you can charter a flight.  You can’t do that with any airline.  With an airline, you have to go through the TSA maze, be two hours early, possibly lose your luggage, and be uncomfortable to get to somewhere kind of close to where you want to go.

In private and charter aviation, you travel in an aircraft that is as safe as any airliner with no TSA, arrive five minutes prior to departure, never lose your baggage, and get to the place you want to go—a rental car comes directly to the aircraft beside your red carpet and you load it and go.  Charter and private aviation are only available to the wealthy and the diligent (pilots). 

You should have your private aircraft, but the airlines are working hard to prevent this.  Eventually, you will have your flying car, but expect the airlines to carefully delay this technological transition.  They will do anything to prevent your freedom to fly.

By the way, the government doesn’t like the idea that you can fly where you want either.  They don’t really want you to drive were you want.  Part of the push for self-driving automobiles is to restrict your transportation.  The government has already introduced ADS-B to the flying community—this tracks the position of every aircraft flying in the USA and eventually the world.  It’s required.  Just think what the government can and will know when it can track every place you go and have been in a car or an airplane.  By the way, military aircraft can turn off the tracking.  

And then there were war machines.   

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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