4 April 2020, Writing - part xx184
Writing a Novel, Protagonists from Classics:
Bilbo Baggins
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 29th 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.
|
|
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Cover
Proposal
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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 30th novel, working
title Red Sonja. I finished my 29th 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
Ideas. We need ideas. Ideas allow us to figure out the protagonist
and the telic flaw. Ideas don’t come
fully armed from the mind of Zeus. We
need to cultivate ideas.
1.
Read novels.
2.
Fill your mind with good
stuff—basically the stuff you want to write about.
3.
Figure out what will build ideas in
your mind and what will kill ideas in your mind.
4.
Study.
5.
Teach.
6.
Make the catharsis.
7.
Write.
The development of ideas is based on
study and research, but it is also based on creativity. Creativity is the extrapolation of older
ideas to form new ones or to present old ideas in a new form. It is a reflection of something new created
with ties to the history, science, and logic (the intellect). Creativity requires consuming, thinking, and
producing.
If we have filled our mind with all
kinds of information and ideas, we are ready to become creative. Creativity means the extrapolation of older
ideas to form new ones or to present old ideas in a new form. Literally, we are seeing the world in a new
way, or actually, we are seeing some part of the world in a new way.
So, modern characters must look like
the reader’s impression of the protagonist.
This is an interesting problem as culture and society change as does the
impression of the readers.
I’ve been presenting the means to
develop protagonists and characters your readers will enjoy—precisely those
that will entertain your readers. Mainly,
the ideas I’ve proposed are these: seeking knowledge, readers, decisions the
reader would make, pathos building, and overall, entertaining.
If we agree, any breech between the
protagonist and the reader is not desirable, we can move forward.
Below is that list of classics. Let’s look at it from the standpoint of
protagonist’s I/we love. Perhaps after I
look at these from the standpoint of the protagonists I love, we can look at
the opposite too.
1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen – I love this novel,
but I can’t say I loved the protagonist or any character in it. They are all too Victorian and too filled
with themselves and their imagined slights and worlds.
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien – Does anyone really love any of these characters. I don’t.
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte – I do love the young Jane and the older Jane is likable. We can look at this one.
4 Dandelion Wine – Ray Bradbury – Best modern novel in English. I evaluated this protagonist.
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee – I don’t find this protagonist to be lovable or likable. I’ll skip.
6 The Bible – Most important book to understand Western culture. There is no single book or protagonist and this isn’t a novel.
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte – I did enjoy the protagonist’s helper, but can anyone love this protagonist?
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell. I like this novel, but the protagonist is not lovable or likable and barely rememberable.
9 We The Living – Ayn Rand. This is an unforgettable protagonist. Definitely, we should look at this one.
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens. There are no lovable characters in this novel.
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott – Jo isn’t my favorite protagonist. The other characters are somewhat lovable.
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy. None of Hardy’s protagonists are lovable.
13 Dune – Frank Herbert. Paul is a lovable and unforgettable character in the first novel. The author does pretty much destroy him as a protagonist at the end of the novel.
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare – better to see as plays. This is a set of plays with many protagonists. Many are unforgettable and lovable.
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier. The protagonist is not lovable in this novel.
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien. Bilbo Baggins is indeed a lovable and unforgettable character in this novel.
17 The Cadwal Chronicles – Jack Vance. I evaluated this protagonist.
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger. Nope, this is not a lovable human or protagonist.
19 The Green Pearl Novels – Jack Vance. Yes, the protagonists in these novels are indeed lovable, and not so unforgettable. It’s worth looking at.
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot. I don’t consider this protagonist to be lovable or unforgettable. Eliot’s protagonists are generally too real to make great protagonists. Her human interaction and complex and realistic plots make her novels great.
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchel. They are unforgettable, but not lovable or even likable.
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald. I’m not sure any protagonists by Fitzgerald are likable at all.
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens. Dickens is best knowns for whiny kids and adults, not really unforgettable protagonists unless you consider Scrooge and Mr. Pickwick.
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy – I’m not so sure this is a great novel in English. Yeah, no.
25 Starship Troopers – Robert Heinlein. I covered this novel and its protagonist. It is one of the best for great protagonists.
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Not unless you like criminals.
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck – In Dubious Battle may be better. I can’t love or even like Steinbeck’s protagonist’s. I don’t think Steinbeck liked his protagonists.
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll. Yes, Alice is unforgettable and lovable.
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame. Ratty is too chatty, Mole is too quiet, Mr. Toad is crazy, and Mr. Badger is scary. Kids aren’t sure who the protagonist really is and if they like them.
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy – Not so sure about this one, but it’s worth a read. Tolstoy’s characters are devious and scary. If you like this, then perhaps, but they aren’t that memorable or lovable to me.
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens. Alright, David is memorable and lovable to a degree. He’s definitely less whiny than Oliver.
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis. I’ll skip this because although you have a hard time forgetting these characters, they aren’t very lovable. That’s part of the point of the writing.
34 Emma -Jane Austen. I can’t remember Emma although I’ve read this novel more than once. I’ll skip it.
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen. Jane’s characters are just not that memorable or lovable to me. They are typical Victorian.
36 Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand. Who really is the protagonist in this million word novel? I love the novel, and the characters are unforgettable, but there are many. I’ll skip it.
37 The Tale of Genji - Murasaki Shikibu. This is a wonderful novel and the first ever written. The protagonist is not a very good, honorable, or lovable person.
38 The House of Seven Gables - Nathaniel Hawthorne. The protagonist is forgettable, but this is a great novel.
39 The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne. This is perhaps one of the most unforgettable characters of the novels from this age. Perhaps the most unforgettable, but only somewhat likable. Still, we should look at Hester.
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne. Pooh Bear or Christopher Robin? Pooh Bear is lovable and unforgettable.
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell. George doesn’t write many protagonists anyone could like.
42 Dracula – Bram Stoker – First Gothic horror novel. Great novel, but the monster isn’t really the protagonist. Perhaps this novel is worth looking at anyway.
43 Til We All Have Faces – C.S. Lewis – two for one—you get Cupid and Psyche at the same time. The characters aren’t very lovable or unforgettable.
44 Le Morte D'Arthur - Thomas Malory – chief basis for Arthurian Legend and chivalry. I can’t handle Arthur or his friends. I love the novels.
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins. Collins writes wonderful novels, but his Victorian characters are not very memorable.
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery. Yeah Anne is unforgettable and lovable at the beginning.
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy. I already wrote about Hardy.
48 Ivanhoe – Sir Walter Scott – perhaps the most important historical novel about England. Ivanhoe is unforgettable, and lovable, but he is almost a flat plate around whom the other characters interact.
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding. No one could like one of Golding’s characters. His books are wonderful.
50 The Fountainhead – Ayn Rand. Howard Roark is unforgettable, but really not that lovable.
51 What Katy Did - Sarah Chauncey Woolsey under her pen name Susan Coolidge. A lovable character, but flat.
52 A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett. Sara is unforgettable and lovable. We covered her.
53 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett. The protagonist is unforgettable and becomes lovable.
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen. Nah, for the same reasons above.
55 The Jungle Book - Rudyard Kipling. Mowgli seems like a side character compared to the animals.
56 Kim - Rudyard Kipling. Kim is unforgettable and lovable. Classic Romantic character.
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens. Nope.
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley. Huxley’s characters are forgettable and unlovable.
59 Beowulf – Unknown. Beowulf is an unforgettable and lovable character.
60 The Odyssey – Homer. Oh yeah, no one can forget Ulysses. He isn’t that lovable, but he is Greek
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck. I wrote that Steinbeck doesn’t like his own characters, how can we?
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov. No one could like this character.
63 The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins – first detective story in English. The Moonstone has the same protagonist problems of other novels in its time. The protagonist is hard to determine and to like.
64 The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett – first noir detective novel. Great novel, but the protagonist is intentionally not likable.
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas. The Count fades into obscurity. The Three Musketeer’s D’Artagnan
66 As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner. Nope.
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy. Nope.
68 Robinson Caruso – Daniel Defoe – First novel in English. Yeah, Robinson is an unforgettable and lovable character.
69 The Red Badge of Courage - Stephen Crane. Nope, you can’t love a coward.
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville. Nope.
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens. Perhaps. I find Oliver flat, but he is worth looing at.
72 Don Quixote - Miguel De Cervantes. Yeah, unforgettable and lovable for the wrong reasons.
73 Heidi – Johanna Spyri. Definitely unforgettable and lovable. I should have included her in the original list.
74 Hans Brinker - Mary Mapes Dodge. Definitely unforgettable and lovable.
75 Ulysses - James Joyce – really not worth the read and not really a classic, but you might as well know what a bad novel is. Nope.
76 The Inferno – Dante. Nope.
77 The Big Sky Country – Arlo Guthrie. Guthrie is a great author and his characters are unforgettable, but not for good reasons.
78 Germinal - Emile Zola. Yeah, nope.
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray. Thackeray’s characters are intentionally not likable.
80 The Black Arrow - Robert Louis Stevenson. Definitely unforgettable protagonist’s helper. Perhaps this is worth looking at.
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens. Scrooge is definitely unforgettable and lovable. He is worth looking at.
82 Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson. Not so lovable or memorable.
83 The Gulag Archipelago - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. It’s hard to love Solzhenitsyn’s protagonists or characters.
84 The Miser – George Elliot. Silas Mariner is definitely an unforgettable protagonist and protagonist’s helper.
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert. Nope.
86 For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemmingway. Hemmingway’s protagonist’s helper is memorable, but few of his characters are lovable.
87 Tarzan – Edger Rice Burroughs. Oh yeah, tarzan is unforgettable and lovable.
88 The Death of Socrates – Plato. Unforgettable, and likable, but frustrating and not a novel.
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Most readers like the protagonist’s helper, Dr. Watson better than Sherlock. Perhaps this might be worth looking at.
90 I, Robot - Isaac Asimov. Asimov’s technology and protagonists are not memorable.
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad. Nope.
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery. The Prince is flat, but the writer or aviator in the stories is very interesting and lovable.
93 Huckleberry Fin – Mark Twain. Yeah, you can’t forget and you have to love Twain’s protagnists.
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams. Nope, it’s rabbits.
95 Gulliver’s Travels - Jonathan Swift. Swift’s protagonists were for satire and irony not love or memory.
96 Matilda – Roald Dahl. Perfect.
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas. Yeap, one of the most balanced novels with more than one major character in orbit around a wonderful protagonist.
98 The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer. More than one protagonist.
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl. Charlie is pretty forgettable.
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo. Nope. Great Romantic novel but a poor Romantic protagonist.
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien – Does anyone really love any of these characters. I don’t.
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte – I do love the young Jane and the older Jane is likable. We can look at this one.
4 Dandelion Wine – Ray Bradbury – Best modern novel in English. I evaluated this protagonist.
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee – I don’t find this protagonist to be lovable or likable. I’ll skip.
6 The Bible – Most important book to understand Western culture. There is no single book or protagonist and this isn’t a novel.
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte – I did enjoy the protagonist’s helper, but can anyone love this protagonist?
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell. I like this novel, but the protagonist is not lovable or likable and barely rememberable.
9 We The Living – Ayn Rand. This is an unforgettable protagonist. Definitely, we should look at this one.
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens. There are no lovable characters in this novel.
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott – Jo isn’t my favorite protagonist. The other characters are somewhat lovable.
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy. None of Hardy’s protagonists are lovable.
13 Dune – Frank Herbert. Paul is a lovable and unforgettable character in the first novel. The author does pretty much destroy him as a protagonist at the end of the novel.
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare – better to see as plays. This is a set of plays with many protagonists. Many are unforgettable and lovable.
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier. The protagonist is not lovable in this novel.
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien. Bilbo Baggins is indeed a lovable and unforgettable character in this novel.
17 The Cadwal Chronicles – Jack Vance. I evaluated this protagonist.
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger. Nope, this is not a lovable human or protagonist.
19 The Green Pearl Novels – Jack Vance. Yes, the protagonists in these novels are indeed lovable, and not so unforgettable. It’s worth looking at.
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot. I don’t consider this protagonist to be lovable or unforgettable. Eliot’s protagonists are generally too real to make great protagonists. Her human interaction and complex and realistic plots make her novels great.
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchel. They are unforgettable, but not lovable or even likable.
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald. I’m not sure any protagonists by Fitzgerald are likable at all.
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens. Dickens is best knowns for whiny kids and adults, not really unforgettable protagonists unless you consider Scrooge and Mr. Pickwick.
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy – I’m not so sure this is a great novel in English. Yeah, no.
25 Starship Troopers – Robert Heinlein. I covered this novel and its protagonist. It is one of the best for great protagonists.
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Not unless you like criminals.
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck – In Dubious Battle may be better. I can’t love or even like Steinbeck’s protagonist’s. I don’t think Steinbeck liked his protagonists.
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll. Yes, Alice is unforgettable and lovable.
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame. Ratty is too chatty, Mole is too quiet, Mr. Toad is crazy, and Mr. Badger is scary. Kids aren’t sure who the protagonist really is and if they like them.
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy – Not so sure about this one, but it’s worth a read. Tolstoy’s characters are devious and scary. If you like this, then perhaps, but they aren’t that memorable or lovable to me.
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens. Alright, David is memorable and lovable to a degree. He’s definitely less whiny than Oliver.
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis. I’ll skip this because although you have a hard time forgetting these characters, they aren’t very lovable. That’s part of the point of the writing.
34 Emma -Jane Austen. I can’t remember Emma although I’ve read this novel more than once. I’ll skip it.
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen. Jane’s characters are just not that memorable or lovable to me. They are typical Victorian.
36 Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand. Who really is the protagonist in this million word novel? I love the novel, and the characters are unforgettable, but there are many. I’ll skip it.
37 The Tale of Genji - Murasaki Shikibu. This is a wonderful novel and the first ever written. The protagonist is not a very good, honorable, or lovable person.
38 The House of Seven Gables - Nathaniel Hawthorne. The protagonist is forgettable, but this is a great novel.
39 The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne. This is perhaps one of the most unforgettable characters of the novels from this age. Perhaps the most unforgettable, but only somewhat likable. Still, we should look at Hester.
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne. Pooh Bear or Christopher Robin? Pooh Bear is lovable and unforgettable.
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell. George doesn’t write many protagonists anyone could like.
42 Dracula – Bram Stoker – First Gothic horror novel. Great novel, but the monster isn’t really the protagonist. Perhaps this novel is worth looking at anyway.
43 Til We All Have Faces – C.S. Lewis – two for one—you get Cupid and Psyche at the same time. The characters aren’t very lovable or unforgettable.
44 Le Morte D'Arthur - Thomas Malory – chief basis for Arthurian Legend and chivalry. I can’t handle Arthur or his friends. I love the novels.
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins. Collins writes wonderful novels, but his Victorian characters are not very memorable.
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery. Yeah Anne is unforgettable and lovable at the beginning.
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy. I already wrote about Hardy.
48 Ivanhoe – Sir Walter Scott – perhaps the most important historical novel about England. Ivanhoe is unforgettable, and lovable, but he is almost a flat plate around whom the other characters interact.
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding. No one could like one of Golding’s characters. His books are wonderful.
50 The Fountainhead – Ayn Rand. Howard Roark is unforgettable, but really not that lovable.
51 What Katy Did - Sarah Chauncey Woolsey under her pen name Susan Coolidge. A lovable character, but flat.
52 A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett. Sara is unforgettable and lovable. We covered her.
53 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett. The protagonist is unforgettable and becomes lovable.
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen. Nah, for the same reasons above.
55 The Jungle Book - Rudyard Kipling. Mowgli seems like a side character compared to the animals.
56 Kim - Rudyard Kipling. Kim is unforgettable and lovable. Classic Romantic character.
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens. Nope.
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley. Huxley’s characters are forgettable and unlovable.
59 Beowulf – Unknown. Beowulf is an unforgettable and lovable character.
60 The Odyssey – Homer. Oh yeah, no one can forget Ulysses. He isn’t that lovable, but he is Greek
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck. I wrote that Steinbeck doesn’t like his own characters, how can we?
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov. No one could like this character.
63 The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins – first detective story in English. The Moonstone has the same protagonist problems of other novels in its time. The protagonist is hard to determine and to like.
64 The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett – first noir detective novel. Great novel, but the protagonist is intentionally not likable.
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas. The Count fades into obscurity. The Three Musketeer’s D’Artagnan
66 As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner. Nope.
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy. Nope.
68 Robinson Caruso – Daniel Defoe – First novel in English. Yeah, Robinson is an unforgettable and lovable character.
69 The Red Badge of Courage - Stephen Crane. Nope, you can’t love a coward.
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville. Nope.
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens. Perhaps. I find Oliver flat, but he is worth looing at.
72 Don Quixote - Miguel De Cervantes. Yeah, unforgettable and lovable for the wrong reasons.
73 Heidi – Johanna Spyri. Definitely unforgettable and lovable. I should have included her in the original list.
74 Hans Brinker - Mary Mapes Dodge. Definitely unforgettable and lovable.
75 Ulysses - James Joyce – really not worth the read and not really a classic, but you might as well know what a bad novel is. Nope.
76 The Inferno – Dante. Nope.
77 The Big Sky Country – Arlo Guthrie. Guthrie is a great author and his characters are unforgettable, but not for good reasons.
78 Germinal - Emile Zola. Yeah, nope.
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray. Thackeray’s characters are intentionally not likable.
80 The Black Arrow - Robert Louis Stevenson. Definitely unforgettable protagonist’s helper. Perhaps this is worth looking at.
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens. Scrooge is definitely unforgettable and lovable. He is worth looking at.
82 Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson. Not so lovable or memorable.
83 The Gulag Archipelago - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. It’s hard to love Solzhenitsyn’s protagonists or characters.
84 The Miser – George Elliot. Silas Mariner is definitely an unforgettable protagonist and protagonist’s helper.
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert. Nope.
86 For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemmingway. Hemmingway’s protagonist’s helper is memorable, but few of his characters are lovable.
87 Tarzan – Edger Rice Burroughs. Oh yeah, tarzan is unforgettable and lovable.
88 The Death of Socrates – Plato. Unforgettable, and likable, but frustrating and not a novel.
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Most readers like the protagonist’s helper, Dr. Watson better than Sherlock. Perhaps this might be worth looking at.
90 I, Robot - Isaac Asimov. Asimov’s technology and protagonists are not memorable.
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad. Nope.
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery. The Prince is flat, but the writer or aviator in the stories is very interesting and lovable.
93 Huckleberry Fin – Mark Twain. Yeah, you can’t forget and you have to love Twain’s protagnists.
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams. Nope, it’s rabbits.
95 Gulliver’s Travels - Jonathan Swift. Swift’s protagonists were for satire and irony not love or memory.
96 Matilda – Roald Dahl. Perfect.
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas. Yeap, one of the most balanced novels with more than one major character in orbit around a wonderful protagonist.
98 The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer. More than one protagonist.
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl. Charlie is pretty forgettable.
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo. Nope. Great Romantic novel but a poor Romantic protagonist.
101 The Once and Future King – T.H.
White. The first novel presents an
acceptable Arthur.
102 The Deerslayer – James Fenimore
Cooper. Who can forget Natty Bumpo?
103 The Black Book of Communism – Various.
Not a novel.
104 Ben Hur – Lew Wallace. Forgettable protagonist, but worth looking
at.
105 The Robe – Lloyd C. Douglas.
Also forgettable.
106 The Pilgrim’s Progress – John Bunyan.
A very flat protagonist, but it is an allegory.
107 The Histories – Herodotus. Not a
novel.
108 Lives – Plutarch. Not a novel.
109 The Call of the Wild – Jack
London. Perhaps the most unforgettable
animal protagonist.
110 Stand on Zanzibar – John Brunner.
Not a very memorable protagonist and definitely not lovable.
111 The Shockwave Rider – John Brunner – prediction of the computer virus
and inspiration for it. Kinda not
memorable. Definitely not lovable.
112. The Aeneid – Virgil. Nah. Forgettable.
I gleaned the protagonists that are
memorable and lovable to me from the list of classics. What I’ll do is look at them individually.
Bilbo Baggins is the hobbit who is
the protagonist of The Hobbit. Bilbo begins the novel with a pipe in his
hand and not a book, but that is most likely because hobbits don’t have that
many books. We know Bilbo is an
intellectual hobbit, and we know he eventually writes a book about his
adventures, “There and Back Again,” which is functionally, The Hobbit. In any case,
Bilbo Baggins is a Romantic protagonist although cut in a British mold and with
British moss as well as hair on his toes.
We need to have a little talk about
Tolkien first. Tolkien is a wonderful
storyteller, but he is a poor novelist.
He may have realized this, or he may not, but please do not use Tolkien
in any sense for the form or style of your novel.
As The Hobbit shows, from the very first word on the very first page,
we have the omniscient voice telling us all about hobbits, Bilbo Baggins, and
the world of Middle Earth. There is
pages of telling and then finally some showing, but the telling continues to
the end of the novel. Tolkien is a
perfect example for great characters, plots, and themes, but not for modern
novel writing. The novelist in the
modern era is a shower and not a teller.
You don’t have to believe me, but showing will always help your novels
as opposed to telling, and omniscient voice is right out.
Now, as long as we understand this
little problem with Tolkien, we can continue with the very wonderful character
of Bilbo Baggins.
There are some characteristics of Bilbo
Baggins that I don’t prefer, but he does ultimately make decisions the reader
agrees with. The problem is that he has
to be convinced. The reader sees from
the beginning what the ultimate decision should be. We realize the ambivalence, but we also know
the story can’t move forward without Bilbo Baggins making the obvious
decision. This works alright in The Hobbit, but becomes a serious problem
in The Lord of the Rings.
Fortunately, in thinking about Bilbo
Baggins, I don’t remember his ambivalence, I only remember his intellectual and
erudite thinking. This is also downplayed
to some degree in the novel. Bilbo
Baggins thinking saves the day in The
Hobbit, in The Lord of the Rings,
it leads to near catastrophe.
I’ve written before, the reader
feels at ease and appreciates the protagonist best when he or she agrees with
his or her decisions. Ambivalent
decisions and decision making are not necessarily failings, but the failure to
make appropriate and rational decisions are.
In my opinion, they degrade the power and strength of the
protagonist. They ultimately make the reader
unhappy with the protagonist and renders the plight of the protagonist as
naught.
Look, a reader wants the protagonist
to succeed because he or she likes the protagonist. You don’t want naughty, nasty, unlikable, or
bad people to succeed. You don’t care a
wit about them. You really do care about
Bilbo Baggins. You care much less about
the dwarves in The Hobbit. They are dwarves and their attitudes and
actions are many times unpleasant. Bilbo
Baggins does not ever act in a completely unpleasant manner. Even when he comes close, his ultimate
activities are positives in the mind of the reader. In fact, the reader wonders just why Bilbo
Baggins has any remorse at all about most of his behavior. The unhappy behavior is when Bilbo Baggins
dithers about an obvious action. We, as
readers, want action and decisions that are like the riddles Bilbo Baggins
answers for Golum. Of course the answer
to the riddle is intellectual and rational.
This is pleasing.
All in all, I like and remember Bilbo
Baggins as a protagonist. He isn’t a
perfect or a great Romantic protagonist, but he isn’t too bad.
The point is that we need to keep
our readers content and pleased with our characters while presenting the
revelation of the protagonist and the plot.
The beginning of creativity is study
and effort. We can use this to
extrapolate to creativity. In addition,
we need to look at recording ideas and working with ideas.
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
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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