Writing - part xx056 Writing a Novel, Characters and Pathos, Secrets

28 November 2019, Writing - part xx056 Writing a Novel, Characters and Pathos, Secrets

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.

And there are secrets.  If you look at the list of pathos inducing characteristics and events you can see that many of these can be used as secrets.  That is hidden from other characters, hidden from readers, or hidden from the protagonist.  These three characteristics are the nature of secrets—let’s look at them.

First, the most powerful secrets are those that fester.  In this regard and for pathos development, those secrets known to the reader and the protagonist alone are many times the best.  For example, in one of my novels, it is very clear that the protagonist has certain bad habits—these bad habits are introduced to the reader right at the beginning.  The reason for the habits is not as obvious, but the reader is introduced to them.  In a climactic scene (not the climax) the reason for the protagonist’s habits are revealed to another character.  The fact the readers knew all about her issues was a powerful secret that propelled the tension and release in the scene.  Also, the fact that nearly half of the novel was done before everything was revealed made the event even more excruciating.  Secrets known by the reader and the protagonist are very powerful.  These are the things my rule of writing number 4 applies to: don’t show (or tell) everything.

Second, revelation of secrets is powerful and the author can rinse and repeat to some degree.  Revelation of secrets aren’t exactly what you might imagine.  We usually don’t set up a scene where the protagonist suddenly declares their secrets or secret to the world.  Occasionally, this type of scene and revelation will work, but only occasionally.  I’ve used this before, just as I note in the paragraph above.  More often, a better revelation is the slow burn.  Take a secret, for example, the protagonist is living on the street.  Imagine that no one knows this.  The protagonist’s helper or some other character slowly becomes aware that something isn’t right about the protagonist’s claims of where they live.  While the protagonist’s helper is slowly becoming aware, the reader is just a step ahead.  This puts the reader into the position of the festering.  The reader has figured out the protagonist is living in a cardboard box on top of a student dorm, and now they are biting their nails waiting for the protagonist’s helper to figure it out.  This is exactly the situation I presented in Lilly: Enchantment and the Computer. 

This little secret, that Lilly is living out on the streets gets even more traction when figured out by the protagonist’s helper’s parents and then revealed to them.  By this time, Lilly is living with Dane, the protagonist’s helper.  This becomes an even more powerful secret. 

Third, climatic revelations are really fun and powerful.  If you can set these up, do so.  I work entire scenes and entire plot and storylines to give me these kinds of scenes.  This is a tension and release par excellence.  In Blue Rose: Enchantment and the Detective, I developed such a revelation about the protagonist at the hands of the protagonist’s helper.  The revelation was a tit for tat.  She revealed secrets about the protagonist’s helper, and he revealed secrets about her.  Much of the power of this revelation came about because the reader knew some of the secrets but not all.  As we know, a novel is always the revelation of the protagonist.  What makes novels fun is this revelation.  The more climatic and powerful the author can make these revelations, the better.

Forth, climaxes are even more climactic when the author can tie secrets together to produce them.  Literally, in the most powerful and the best climaxes of any novel, the author brings together all the storylines, protagonist revelation, and plot line where they form and reinforce the climax.  I don’t suggest the revelation of secrets, that’s better set in a separate scene where you can milk everything from them.  What I do suggest is tying together the secrets the reader knows with secrets that have been revealed so the climax unfolds with the reader just a step ahead of the plot.  For example, in Aksinya: Enchantment and the Demon, hints have been given through the entire novel that the fish pendant the demon gave Aksinya as his surety has something to do with releasing her from the demon’s curse.  This is put together by the protagonist’s helper as a revelation, but until the climax, no one knows if it will work or how it will work.  The reader should be able to figure out the solution just one slight step ahead of the characters.  This secret revelation effectively ends the novel.

I suspect there is more I can write about secrets and pathos.  I think of secrets as the building blocks of all novels.  Perhaps this is worth looking at.   

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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