Writing - part xx081 Writing a Novel, Protagonist and Life (Secrets)

23 December 2019, Writing - part xx081 Writing a Novel, Protagonist and Life (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 (Secrets)

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 guess the life of the protagonist includes everything.  My perspective is that the life of the protagonist is the revelation of the protagonist.  These are the secrets I reveal to my readers.  And, boy should your protagonist have secrets.

I don’t make a list of my protagonist’s secrets.  What I do is I describe my protagonist, just as I’ve described for you.  The secrets are all there—the question is when to reveal the information.

In other words, you can look at all information about a protagonist as a secret.  The point then becomes when do I reveal that secret or those secrets.  Here’s an example.

Love and interest in a person is usually a secret.  It’s a secret until a person tells the subject of his or her affection.  When does one reveal this secret—this is a great question.  In my novel Lilly: Enchantment and the Computer, Lilly comes to love Dane.  It starts slowly, but Dane is the only man who has shown her appropriate attention.  Almost everything Lilly does is to repel and hide herself.  She chose a long time ago to stop bathing and caring about her appearance.  Dane did care how Lilly looked, but he didn’t lecture her.  She just started liking him and started making herself more attractive to him.  Lilly likes Dane a lot.  She is slowly and quickly falling in love with him.  Dane is a typical guy and has no clue.  When can Lilly tell Dane she loves or just that she likes him?  Let’s look at this from Lilly and Dane’s viewpoints.

Lilly is terrified that Dane might reject her love.  She is young sixteen going on seventeen, and he is a graduate student.  She is super smart, but she believes that’s all she has.  Can you put yourself in Lilly’s shoes?  She is terrified that she is in love.  She is unsure of Dane’s love.  She is afraid of men in general, and she has every reason to be afraid. 

Dane’s situation is not quite are bad, but it is similar to Lilly’s.  Dane honestly isn’t certain what he feels for Lilly.  He is attracted to her, but he isn’t a guy who is super confident or comfortable around girls.  Dane has never been in love, and he isn’t sure anyone has ever been in love with him.  There is also a younger sister who has been looking after his relationships.  She isn’t opposed to Dane having a girlfriend, but she is concerned about who that girlfriend might be.  She isn’t happy with Lilly who is younger than she is and younger than Dane.  She thinks Lilly is using Dane.  Dane feels like everything is out of control.  What might his response be to Lilly if Lilly expresses her love?

The secret of Lilly’s love and Dane’s interest are both secrets in the plot.  This isn’t the telic flaw of the novel, but it is one of the secrets rolled into the climax.  There is an important point for any good novel.  The author should never save up all the secrets or even certain secrets for the climax, but the climax is the best and most important place to reveal all kinds of secrets.  Let me make this as clear as possible.

Take the example of Lilly’s love and Dane’s interest.  This is a very complex issue in the novel—much more complex than I can describe easily here.  Through the novel, the secret becomes more and more obvious—that is, Lilly’s love becomes more and more obvious and Dane’s interest and affection becomes more and more obvious.  In the end, the reader sees exactly where the secret is going.  In the climax, which isn’t about their love at all, Lilly declares her love, but not to Dane.  Dane happens to be captured, so we don’t know his answer until the climax—in the climax, Dane shows his affection by rescuing Lilly. 

Okay, do you see this and where the climax takes us?  If I were to drop all these hints to the love of the protagonist and the protagonist’s helper, and in the climax have them both repudiate their love that would be writing maleficence.  The trick of all writing is to foreshadow and drop bread crumbs for the readers such that in the climax, the readers cheer the results and are excited and encouraged by the results.  You can play games through the entire novel, but in the end, you need to put up or shut up—this is part of the point of the climax itself.   

The point of secrets is to reveal the thoughts of your protagonist and characters through their actions and words.

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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