Writing - part xx008 Writing a Novel, Outlines

11 October 2019, Writing - part xx008 Writing a Novel, Outlines

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

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.

I don’t write outlines.  I do write scene notes at the bottom of my text.  The reason I don’t outline is the topic of another discussion.  Let’s go for it.

From the beginning of our study of writing, teachers announce, pronounce, and demand we write outlines.  Unfortunately, in most cases, those same teachers don’t really teach you to write an outline.  Those who have been coherently taught how to write an outline, raise your hands.  I’ll bet only one in a hundred do.  The problem with outlines, is first you must be taught how to write them.  Second, they are wonderful for technical writing, but I’ve found them worthless for fiction.  The most important topic for writing fiction is scene development and paragraph development.

Paragraph development is necessary for all writing.  You should have actually been taught this, but I’ve found that most people have no clue about paragraph development.  Most people don’t know how to properly use paragraphs.  Paragraphs are necessary for all writing, so we might go back to the subject again at some time, but scenes are necessary for fiction writing—not outlines.

If you can write a proper scene, you can write strong fiction.  That’s why I provided you a scene outline and, in the past, complete information of scene development.  We’ll do it again.  The question at hand is why not outline? 

First, most people have not been taught how to outline.  If they were taught, they were taught to outline for technical writing.  In my experience most people don’t have a clue about how to make a technical paper outline either, but that’s neither here nor there.  I can teach you how to outline based on scene development, but that won’t do you any good if you don’t already know how to write scenes.  Very simply, scenes have an input and an output.  A scene outline uses this scene input and output to develop an outline.  If you look at the scene 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

This is how you develop a scene outline.  Each scene requires an input and an output.  This is the primary part of the outline.  Thus for a novel.

1.     Initial scene – input, protagonist breaks into a house, output, protagonist is captured by the homeowner

2.     Second scene – input, protagonist is captured by the homeowner, output, homeowner attempts rehabilitation of the protagonist

3.     And so on

This is a sketch of the scene outline from my novel: Essie: Enchantment and the Aos Si.  By outlining the input and output of each scene, you can produce a coherent outline.  If you notice, by using the scene development outline, you can further refine the scene information such that you can write a scene.  This is one method of novel development and scene development.  Let me tell you why it doesn’t work for me.

In the first place, I rarely know exactly where I’m going when I begin to write a novel.  As I’ve written before, this isn’t how I began to write novels.  When I began, I thought I needed to know where everything was going from the beginning.  This resulted in novels, but short novels, novels that were not very complex, lots of writer’s block, and novels that were somewhat predictable.  Hey, they still were published, so they weren’t that bad, but I wanted novels in the 100,000 word range, complex novels with complex ideas, fun novels to write, and I reached for the all prevailing, novels where the expected outcome, the resolution of the telic flaw of the novel, looked impossible, but could be resolved in an unpredictable, but retrospectively expected fashion.  This is the style of the comedy novel.  When I write comedy, I don’t mean funny, but rather in a comedy as opposed to a tragedy, the protagonist resolves the telic flaw.  In a tragedy, the protagonist is overcome by the telic flaw.  This requires me to explain, what is a telic flaw?

The telic flaw of the novel is not a flaw in the protagonist.  The protagonist is indeed affected by the telic flaw, but it isn’t necessarily a problem or flaw in the protagonist.  The telic flaw is simply the problem the protagonist must resolve.  Not necessarily solve, but resolve.  I’ve used the example of the detective novel, so I might as well do so again.

In a detective novel, the telic flaw is usually the crime that must be solved.  In a mystery novel, the mystery is the telic flaw that must be solved.  The mystery and the crime are the telic flaws of the protagonist simply because he or she must solve them.  There is fundamentally no other attachment, however, in complex novels, the telic flaw is usually a problem for the protagonist, not necessarily a flaw in the protagonist, but it is always a problem for the protagonist.  In a simple novel, the protagonist has the job of resolving the telic flaw.  In a complex novel, the telic flaw is bound to the protagonist and that protagonist is the only person capable of resolving the telic flaw.  Let’s put it this way.  Every novel has a telic flaw.  By the way, the idea or term telic flaw comes from Aristotle.  He wrote about the telic flaw, the original problem that must resolved in the play, story, or poem.  A telic flaw means the original and final problem.  That’s getting complex, but you can see it in a mystery novel. 

The mystery is the telic flaw.  It is the initial problem that must be resolved.  At the same time, the telic flaw is the final problem that must be resolved.  Look at it this way.  If I set up a mystery novel with the mystery and I resolve it in the initial scene, it isn’t much of a mystery novel.  Look back at the outline of a classical fiction novel:

1.     Write the initial scene (identify the output: implied setting, implied characters, implied action movement)

2.     Write the next scene(s) to the climax (rising action)

3.     Write the climax scene

4.     Write the falling action scene(s)

5.     Write the dénouement scene

In the discrete parts of a novel, the initial scene defines the telic flaw.  The rising action shows the development of the novel and the buildup to the resolution of the telic flaw.  The climax resolves the telic flaw.  The falling action shows the ramifications of the resolution of the telic flaw.  The dénouement wraps up the novel and the telic flaw.  The novel is a resolution of the telic flaw in every sense.  The novel is also a revelation of the protagonist. 

This is why we state that the telic flaw and the protagonist are joined hip to hip.  The one depends on the other—that is in a complex novel.  In a kids or many young adult novels, the protagonist is supposed to be joined to the telic flaw, but in many cases, it doesn’t matter who resolves it.  In adult novels and especially in modern romantic novels, the protagonist is the only person in the universe who can resolve the telic flaw.

That gets us to the protagonist—and I still didn’t fully explain why I don’t use an outline for fiction.  Here’s a hint—complexity makes the protagonist and the telic flaw one and the same.

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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