Writing - part xx063 Writing a Novel, Characters and Pathos, Secrets and Elements

5 December 2019, Writing - part xx063 Writing a Novel, Characters and Pathos, Secrets and Elements

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 also true of the plot.

How do you develop secrets which you plan to reveal in a novel?  In the first place, you really need to think about revelation, secrets, and when you intend to reveal them in the novel.  The revelation of secrets is to readers, individuals, groups, or universal.

In novels all the elements of the novel start as setting elements.  Secrets are the same.  Just as I introduce any other setting element such as a pistol, the setting element takes on a role in the novel. 

Let’s say I introduce a pistol as a setting element, Chekov would say it immediately becomes at least a creative element, it is a Chekov’s Gun.  A Chekov’s Gun is any item I introduce as a setting element and especially a setting element that is out of the ordinary.  Chekov was mainly referring to a play when he expressed his idea, “If a playwright introduces a pistol in the first act, someone must shoot it in the second.” 

Modern books are much like plays in this sense.  We imagine the stage of the novel like the stage of the play.  Like the play, all kinds of items are evident on the stage of the novel.  In a play, the author places items on the stage or introduces items from on and off stage—for example, a character opens a drawer and pulls out a pistol.  In a novel, this is turning a setting element into a creative element.  In a play, the pistol placed prominently on the stage at some place makes it a setting element.  Chekov would say, if you place it on a stage, it is not only a setting element, it must be a creative element.  The expectation is that the characters will touch and use the pistol or other item.  Chekov goes one step further.  Chekov would say, the expectation is that the item must become a plot element or there was no purpose in introducing it in the first place.

An author doesn’t need to be so direct or obvious in a novel.  Plays are intentionally sparse.  No item in a play, especially a play of the type Chekov wrote, is not intended to become a part of the plot.  Novels are just a little different, authors introduce all kinds of setting elements that are not intended necessarily to become creative or setting elements.  The point for the novelist is they can, and when I introduce a fully active and functioning setting element secret, like the protagonist is homeless, I introduce not only a setting element, but a creative element, a plot element, and a Chekov’s Gun all in one.

Let me write about creative elements a little.  When I write a setting, I describe many different setting elements, a chair here, a sofa there, a table here, some books, a pistol on the side table, a lamp, a bookshelf, and all.  These are setting elements.  They provide the background of the narrative setting, and detail the stage of the novel.  There are other setting elements, like the time, data, characters, character clothing, and all.  All the setting elements that describe the stage of the novel are parts of the setting.  The moment they move or are used by the characters, they become creative elements.

I can describe a chair—that’s a setting element.  The moment one of my characters sits in it, it becomes a creative element.  It is an item the author can use to develop tension and release.  Tension is what all good scene writing is about.  Tension produces entertainment and excitement.  As we have learned tension also produces pity and fear—pathos. 

There are many automatic creative elements, for example, characters.  Characters, unless they are dead bodies are always creative elements because they move and create tension in the scenes.  A dead body would almost always be a creative element as well.  The author should use them as creative elements, plot elements, and Chekov’s Guns, otherwise why describe them in a setting?

I guess I might describe the setting of the aftermath of a battle as a field covered with sprawled dead soldiers, the dead soldiers are setting elements and might not become creative elements, but the moment I describe one of those soldiers out of them all, I have created a creative element.  What’s the point?

The author promotes creative elements from setting elements for the purpose of developing tension in a scene.  We already know tension in a scene also can produce pathos.  Secrets are setting elements.  They need to be creative elements, plot elements, and Chekov’s Guns.  I suppose I need to write about plot elements to strike the point home.    

Let’s continue to look at the secret as a plot element, creative element, and Chekov’s Gun.

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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