Writing - part xx277 Writing a Novel, Plots, Telic Flaw Internal and External

6 July 2020, Writing - part xx277 Writing a Novel, Plots, Telic Flaw Internal and External

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 21^st 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:  Happy Birthday America.  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. 

I’ve worked through creativity and the protagonist.  The ultimate point is that if you properly develop your protagonist, you have created your novel.  This moves us on to plots and initial scenes.  As I noted, if you have a protagonist, you have a novel.  The reason is that a protagonist comes with a telic flaw, and a telic flaw provides a plot and theme.  If you have a protagonist, that gives you a telic flaw, a plot, and a theme.  I will also argue this gives you an initial scene as well. 

So, we worked extensively on the protagonist.  I gave you many examples great, bad, and average.  Most of these were from classics, but I also used my own novels and protagonists as examples.  Here’s my plan.

1.     The protagonist comes with a telic flaw – the telic flaw isn’t necessarily a flaw in the protagonist, but rather a flaw in the world of the protagonist that only the Romantic protagonist can resolve.

2.     The telic flaw determines the plot.

3.     The telic flaw determines the theme.

4.     The telic flaw and the protagonist determines the initial scene.

5.     The protagonist and the telic flaw determines the initial setting.

6.     Plot examples from great classic plots.

7.     Plot examples from mediocre classic plots.

8.     Plot examples from my novels.

9.     Creativity and the telic flaw and plots.

10.  Writer’s block as a problem of continuing the plot.

Every great or good protagonist comes with their own telic flaw.  I showed how this worked with my own writing and novels.  Let’s go over it in terms of the plot.

This is all about the telic flaw.  Let’s look at internal, external, and both.  Every protagonist and every novel must come with a telic flaw.  They are the same telic flaw.  That telic flaw can be external, internal or both.

An external telic flaw is what we see in many and mostly noncomplex novels.  Here is an example of an external telic flaw.  The detective protagonist must solve the crime.  The crime is the telic flaw.  Many novels especially kids novels are like this.  The problem is external from the protagonist.  Most kid’s novels are about some problem external to the protagonist: solve the crime, solve the mystery, win the game, pass the test, and get the girl or boy.  Whoops, we are touching on internal telic flaws or both kinds.

For example, pass the test, win the game, and get the girl or boy might require a change in the protagonist.  Solve the crime or mystery type novels usually don’t require the protagonist to change something or fix something to resolve the telic flaw.  Look at all the Nancy Drew or Hardy Boy novels.  Nancy and the Hardy Boys, not to mention all the plethora of novels like this have protagonists who are solving and resolving external telic flaws.  There is really nothing wrong with them, the problem is external to them.  They might need some more education or training, but usually, the smart protagonist is solving the mystery or crime and that resolves the telic flaw.  These are entertaining novels, but usually aren’t very complex or great literature type novels.  You really need to have an internal telic flaw to make a novel very complex and to build the full pathos capability of the protagonist.  What does this mean?

We like Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, the Happy Hollisters, Trixie Beldwin.  These are all entertaining and interesting characters, but we really don’t care about them.  They solve mysteries and crimes.  They have fun vintage teenaged adventures.  We love them for that, but they usually don’t cause us to be drowned in tears from their activities or actions.  Maybe someone gets choked up reading one of these novels, but I don’t know who.  There aren’t a lot of kid’s novels with internal only telic flaws.  A purely internal telic flaw is what most reviewers call a psychological novel.  The telic flaw is all about the change the protagonist must make to resolve the telic flaw.  That telic flaw is purely internal.  Most Victorian Era novels to some degree have a protagonist with an internal and an external telic flaw.  More modern novels have a protagonist with a fully internal telic flaw.  I’m not so sure I’m a fan of novels with purely an internal telic flaw.  I like novels where the protagonist must contend with both an internal issue and an external problem.  Both of these must be connected.  For example, Sara Crew.

Sara Crew is one of my favorite examples of a great protagonist.  Most people have read or are familiar with A Little Princess.  In A Little Princess, Sara Crew’s external telic flaw is that she has lost her mother, her father, her fortune, and she has become an orphaned servant in a boarding school.  If you notice carefully, Sara has absolutely zero power to resolve this external telic flaw.  She is powerless to resolve this problem.  On the other hand, the internal telic flaw for Sara Crew is that she is an honorable, kind, intelligent, and courteous person suddenly brought low.  This is the same telic flaw caused by the same problems, but Sara Crew can resolve this telic flaw.

Sara’s problem is a classic Victorian Era telic flaw.  The external can’t be resolved by the protagonist, but the internal can be.  What Sara has to do to resolve her internal telic flaw is to continue to act like a princess.  Ironically, or obviously if you like, Sara resolves her external telic flaw by holding to the resolution of her internal telic flaw.  In other words, Sara Crew is noticed by those who can resolve her external telic flaw because she holds tightly to resolving her internal telic flaw.  Oliver Twist is nearly exactly the same.  Oliver Twist can’t resolve his external telic flaw—he has been displaced from his family.  He doesn’t even know who they are or how to search for them.  His internal telic flaw is his honor and his birth.  As long as Oliver Twist holds to his character, he, like Sara Crew is noticed because of his birth and internal strength.  It gets better.  How about Elizabeth Bennet?

In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth has an internal telic flaw, her pride and prejudice.  She must correct the problems (external telic flaw) her internal telic flaw has caused.  This is the set up for an excellent novel.  This is how we need to approach any plot from any protagonist.                  

      

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  

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