Writing - part xx057 Writing a Novel, Characters and Pathos, Secrets as Building Blocks

29 November 2019, Writing - part xx057 Writing a Novel, Characters and Pathos, Secrets as Building Blocks

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 pathos and secrets.

Secrets are the building blocks of novels.  This is true of all novels.  First, all novels are a revelation of the protagonist.  This is the basic feature of all novels.  A revelation presumes there is a secret to be revealed, and this is so.  The protagonist is an unknown until revealed in the novel.  Thus all novels are a revelation of the secrets of the protagonist.  This is true of the plot as well.

The plot of all novels is an unknown at the beginning—it is revealed in the novel.  Perhaps some might think this is an unconventional way of looking at a secret.  It isn’t unconventional, it is entirely a concreate way of looking at a novel.  A novel is a bundle of secrets, the author reveals those secrets thought the novel.  This is why I write that novels are all about secrets.  Then there are conventional secrets.

Usually, we think of secrets as being a mystery or the definition: something that is kept or meant to be kept unknown or unseen by others.  This is usually what we think of as a secret.  Novels are filled with them or they should be filled with them. 

You protagonist should have all kinds of juicy secrets they don’t wish to share with anyone.  You can take the Victorian psychosis protagonist—those who keep secrets because they are embarrassed to let others know.  Or, you can take the Romantic protagonist’s secrets—secret skills, abilities, and characteristics.  Whatever you do, you need to build secrets on secrets—this provides amazing entertainment in your novels.

We see this all the time.  The author keeps information away from the reader.  This is a type of secret, perhaps not the best.  A better secret is the one the reader shares in, but the protagonist is trying to hide.  This is especially powerful when expressed as a pathos.  I’ve mentioned it before.  If your protagonist is homeless and living in a box, the information is greatly pathos building.  If the readers know, but other characters don’t, that is powerfully pathos building and exciting.  When it is revealed, it adds to pathos, but is also exciting and entertaining.  Add all kinds of secrets to this mix, and everyone has secrets.

If you don’t have secrets, you are either dead or not self-aware.  Everyone has secrets.  Every protagonist must have many secrets.  If they don’t, you need to design them differently.  In my novel, Blue Rose: Enchantment and the Detective, the Blue Rose, Azure Rose Wishart has many many secrets.  Through the novel, the readers learn many of them—there are more.  Just by developing a protagonist, you need to be developing secrets. 

I’m not into the Victorian secrets, but I am certainly in favor of the Romantic secret skills and characteristics secrets.  As I wrote, if your protagonist doesn’t have any, make some up.  For me they come naturally from the protagonist.  For example, in the current novel I’m writing, the protagonist has all kinds of secrets she is keeping.  The fact that they are British, banished, and expelled is one of their great secrets.  The fact that they are at their school in France on a mission is another secret.  It is a secret even from them. Until halfway through the novel, they have no idea what their assignment is—they just know they have an assignment.  I use every trick in the book to throw them off the idea they have an assignment, but that is part of the secret too.      

Novels are all about the revelation of secrets.  That’s the point after all, revelation.

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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