Writing - part x974 Writing a Novel, Other Religions

7 September 2019, Writing - part x974 Writing a Novel, Other Religions

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

Gnosticism is the major religion of the modern secular world.  The way modern people think is based almost exclusively in Gnosticism.  This isn’t a good thing.  Gnosticism is the idea that knowledge is the greatest power in the world, and that through knowledge that humans can become like God or gods. 

We are living in the Gnostic world.  With the invention of the three means to know truth, the first and most important question that the educated asked was, “Can we prove God.”  Philosophy and science (logic and the scientific method) have proven God must exist.

What we know is that using the three means to know truth, one can prove the existence of God, and through the historical-legal method you can prove Jesus the Christ and the events around His life, death, resurrection, and ascension.

When people hear this or realize this, they usually ask, what about other religions?  This is a great question.  I’ve studied it extensively.  Philosophy and science prove there must be a God, but doesn’t tell us much about that God.  Actually, in philosophy and in science, the definition and assumptions about what a God actually is, is part of the proof, but this only provides confirmation of our basic thoughts about a God—it doesn’t answer all the questions the historical-legal method can for us.

This is why you need the historical-legal method to see if there is and to understand any revelation of God in the world.  We know the three tools in the historical-legal method: bibliographical, internal, and external. 

The simple answer is that when you take the historical-legal evidence for religions other than Christianity and Judaism, you aren’t left with anything worthwhile.

If you evaluate other religion’s evidence using the bibliographical tool, you will find, except for the Koran that they are magnitudes worse than the New Testament.  The Koran has a problem in that it isn’t a historically based revelation, it is a book of non-historical information on how you should live your life.  It does have good bibliographical evidence backing it up, but internally and externally, it has significant issues.

Let’s just note that most religious documents in history are akin to the Egyptian Book of the Dead.  The Egyptian Book of the Dead is a book of spells you can use to help you after you are dead.  It has little historical relevance or importance, it represents what people thought about death, gods, and the land of the dead.  Most historical religious documents are nothing like those in the New Testament or the Tanakh (Jewish Old Testament).  I recommend you read as many as you can—I have.  Read the Book of Mormon, the Gitas, the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the documents of Zostronism, the Mithrin documents, Greek religious writing (their plays and poetry), and all.  Compare and contrast them.  I know what you will find.

All the religious documents in history except the Bible are obvious expositions disconnected from history and from much of human understanding.  For example, the Egyptian Book of the Dead, is spells used after you die.  There is no preamble of historical observation where some author states they went to the land of the dead and learned how to use the spells, the spells are just there.  Likewise, the Gitas are unconnected with history.  They are obviously stories that represent the gods’ revelation of ideas to humans.  The interaction is obvious and specific.  They are clearly written in the form of a story and not a history.  For example, in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna is the charioteer of Arjuna an Indian prince.  Krishna expounds on the universe and explains a religion.  It isn’t a historical revelation, it is a treatise on a religion.  On the other hand, the histories of the Tanakh give the appearance of history.  They are not doctrine or theology or religious ideas, they are rather historical documents that relate the history of the Jewish people.  The New Testament documents are similar.

I recommend you review these documents and see for yourself.  Since philosophy and science prove there must be a God, you should be able to see that God in history.  Then what does this have to do with writing?   

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  

fiction, theme, plot, story, storyline, character development, scene, setting, conversation, novel, book, writing, information, study, marketing, tension, release, creative, idea, logic