31 October 2019, Writing - part
xx028 Writing a Novel, Background
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 29th 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
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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 30th novel, working
title Red Sonja. I finished my 29th 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
Perhaps I should go back and look
again at the initial scene—maybe, I’ll cover that again as part of looking at
the rising action. The reason is that
I’m writing a rising action in a novel right now.
That gets us back to the
protagonist—complexity makes the protagonist and the telic flaw one and the
same.
I wrote that I don’t use outlines,
and I told you I would tell you what I use instead of an outline, but I forgot
to tell you. So let’s look at that
today. This is all related to the
protagonist and the telic flaw.
The novel is a revelation of the
protagonist. The telic flaw is connected
directly to the protagonist. The plot is
the revelation of the telic flaw. This
connects the protagonist to the plot and the telic flaw. The point is that to plan a novel, I simply
need to plan the revelation of the protagonist.
To accomplish this, you need to develop a protagonist.
When I write you develop your
protagonist, you write notes about:
1.
Name
2.
Background
3.
Education
4.
Appearance
5.
Work
6.
Wealth
7.
Skills
8.
Mind
9.
Likes
10. Dislikes
11. Opinions
12. Honor
13. Life
14. Thoughts
15. Telic flaw
I think you can already see just how
important the background of a character and especially the protagonist is. Even before you think of a name, the
background is the critical factor for any character.
As you can see from the Aksinya
example I gave yesterday, the genealogy of the character should be not just
important but a critical attribute. For
Aksinya it is everything. In fact, I
didn’t give you half of all the development of Aksinya.
She was born at Tsarskoye Selo near
Saint Petersburg March 15th 1900. This
is important because it is the birthplace of almost every legitimate prince and
princess of the Romanov and Russian Imperial line. She had no formal education until she
attended the Catholic girl’s school Sacré Coeur in Austria, but she was
educated by her governess and nurses—just as most wealthy and noble children
were educated in the time. She knew
Latin, Greek, German, French, and Russian, and she was especially proficient in
Latin.
Latin was her expertise because
Aksinya accomplished her sorcery in Latin and imprecise language and actions in
sorcery spell danger, injury, and death.
The reason for Aksinya’s interest in sorcery came out her belief that
she was not beautiful—and this is a recurring theme in the novel.
Much of the motivation for Aksinya’s
actions is that she doesn’t see any beauty in herself. She desires to surround herself with
beautiful things and people because she sees the lack in herself. This is one of the things the Daemon Asmodeus
uses to tempt her. It is the sin of
luxuria (similar to lust and called lust in modern English) that drives Aksinya’s
desires and motivations.
A pretty simple background? Not at all—as you can see, this is a very
complex background and rooted in history.
Every piece of Aksinya and her life can be traced back to historical
reality. Only she herself is a fictional
person and princess although a person and princess who might possibly have
lived in her time. That’s entirely the
point.
Aksinya was developed to fulfill a
role—the role designed in the novel for her and only for her. As I noted above and I’ve written many times
before. I designed Aksinya, the
protagonist of my novel of the same name based on the initial scene.
This is truly a subject that
encompasses everything about the protagonist—we’ll address this next.
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
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
