Writing - part xx050 Writing a Novel, Characters and Pathos, Supernatural

22 November 2019, Writing - part xx050 Writing a Novel, Characters and Pathos, Supernatural

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.

That gets us back to the protagonist—complexity makes the protagonist and the telic flaw one and the same. 

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 design a protagonist around the initial scene.  This is the way I write a novel.  This isn’t the only way to write a novel, but it is the way I have discovered to write well-conceived and powerful novels.  This goes back to the initial scene. 

Above, I gave you four options for developing the initial scene.  Yesterday, I told you to take two off.  Authors have used three and four, but they don’t produce the kinds of exciting initial scenes we want.  Here’s the list again.

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

Let’s plan to put one and two together.  Let’s also focus on the other characteristics of the initial scene.  Notice that first, the initial scene must include the protagonist.  This should be obvious, but let’s go down the list.  I’m looking at background and pathos.

Looking at the classic pathos developing scene from A Little Princess, the emotions of the characters are not very strong, but the reader is significantly affected by the circumstances and situation.  How can this be?  More specifically, what are the characteristics of a scene or of a characters that builds pathos?

A character is pathos building who through no fault of their own is:

1.     hungry

2.     sad

3.     abused

4.     an orphan

5.     penniless

6.     abandoned

7.     cold

8.     injured

9.     falsely convicted or accused

10.  desiring for information

11.  education

12.  to read

13.  a child

14.  a female

15.  beauty

16.  loss of a child

17.  general loss

18.  friendless

19.  alone

20.  afraid

21.  helpless

22.  isolated

The antagonist or less positively, the circumstances of the setting, produces suffering and misfortune in the protagonist and this results in pity and fear in the reader.  This is the formula for the development of pathos in any fictional work.

Overdramatic is hard to do, but perhaps it is possible.  The worst problem in most cases of melodrama is not any of these, but rather deus ex machina.

What we want to do, and what I attempt to do is produce pathos development that both men and women, boys and girls can appreciate because the desires and problems of the protagonist’s may not be their problems, but the readers can imagine the protagonist’s problems as their own.  For this reason, the reflected worldview provides some very powerful ammunition for the author.               

You don’t require reflected worldview to create pathos.  My point with a reflected worldview is that it prevents problems for the author like deus ex machina and allows pathos in situations that otherwise wouldn’t create that circumstance.  It also allows you to write about subjects which would be completely out of place in a real or even a created worldview novel.  How many times can you interject religious ideas into a real or science fiction novel that isn’t a religious novel?  We see this all the time. 

For example, Dr. Strange.  This is a Marvel comic book and a movie.  It is a reflected worldview setting.  Notice, the entire movie is about religion.  It’s wrapped in a reflected worldview wrapper, and that makes it acceptable to the marketplace, but it’s still has a religious based plot, characters, and theme.  Many modern comic book movies wrap themselves in this type of worldview.  All the Marvel movies are about gods and goddesses—that’s what superheroes are.  One thing that is generally absent in these movies is a strong pathos.  You have to kill one or someone special to get any emotion out of the audience.  With millions of minions and normal people dying all over the place, a single death seems inconsequential—the audiences get this irony too.  Too bad the writers didn’t see it.  This is actually bathos.  You could call it rational bathos.  A reader or audience overlooks the dead and dying all around to only see the death of the god or goddess or their friend in a rational way.  Here’s a little secret too.

Reflected worldview is always about God or gods and religion.  This comes from the very important philosophical writings of C.S. Lewis.  In Mere Christianity Lewis notes that the moment a writer brings in a miracle, a godlike character, or a supernatural character, they are expressing the existence of the God.  I’ll give a short explanation.

If there is a miracle in a novel, the question is immediately, where did this miracle come from?  The possibilities are always from within the real world (kosmos) or outside the real world (kosmos).  If from within the real world, it can’t be a miracle—therefore it can’t break the laws of nature (the real world).  Miracles only come from without the real world, and therefore from God.  The same with godlike characters or creatures.

Let’s look at Dracula.  Bram Stoker was familiar with philosophy and with the ideas Lewis would eventually write about.  Dracula is a character and a creature who proves God.  The reason is that a supernatural creature in the real world must either be a god from outside the real world or opposed to God.  The supernatural in the real world proves there must be God.  Even more so that these creatures are affected by symbols of God.  There is more to this and you should read Lewis’s detailed argument for this point.  Let me point out something else of great importance to writers.

One of the greatest problems is lack of self-awareness in writing.  The best example, in my opinion is Harry Potty.  The author introduces us to miracles which she calls magic.  As I noted, miracles, unless you define them differently, must come from outside the world.  If they are part of the fabric of the world, they aren’t miracles at all.  It all comes from how you define magic and the users of magic.  The users in Harry Potter are like superheroes, they are gods and goddesses.  Beings who wield powers that come from outside the real world.  They are supernatural, but we knew that.  Beings in the world who can exercise powers and an existence outside that of the real are supernatural.  They are either servants of God or opposed to God.  The problem with a lack of self-awareness is this little conundrum.  Lewis writes about this.  Bram Stoker wrote about Dracula to point people toward God—that’s why his unexpurgated novel has so much about God in it.  Harry Potty is a novel about supernatural people, beings, and powers, but misses the entire point in bringing these types of characters to life.  The reflected worldview is all about the supernatural which means it is about God or something else.  Lewis notes, you can’t have one without the other, not in mature writing.

The point is this.  The reflected worldview allows the author to delve deeply into subjects which are of great interest to all humans.  The wise author can use this as a pathos generating machine.  The unaware writer just kind of skips over this very powerful tool.  This is still okay since novels are about entertainment, however, adult entertainment is always about asking the questions in reality.  Why am I here?  What is my purpose?  Where will I go? 

These are all about pathos.  Perhaps they are worth writing about.                   

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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