Writing - part xx278 Writing a Novel, Plots, Telic Flaw more Internal and External

7 July 2020, Writing - part xx278 Writing a Novel, Plots, Telic Flaw more 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:  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.

Here we are.  An external telic flaw is what you find in many kids’, young adult, and noncomplex novels.  The protagonist doesn’t participate in the telic flaw, they still must resolve it.  An internal telic flaw is what you find with most psychological novels—the protagonist’s internal problem must be resolved by the protagonist to resolve the telic flaw. 

I’m not much into purely psychological novels—ones without an external telic flaw, but some people like them.  Ultimately, with a purely internal telic flaw, it’s all in the mind of the protagonist.  That’s not my favorite novel.  It’s not the form of most classics or best sellers.  As I concluded yesterday, most great novels have a protagonist with an internal and external telic flaw.  For example, Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice. 

I write the protagonist has the telic flaw both internal and external.  The protagonist owns the telic flaw both internal and external.  Notice, although the telic flaw isn’t necessarily a flaw in the protagonist—it is a flaw in the world of the novel—the protagonist owns it.  The telic flaw is not two telic flaws, but a single telic flaw.  A novel with more than one telic flaw is problematic.  You can have a very complex telic flaw with many parts, but not more than a single telic flaw. 

The internal and external telic flaws owned by the protagonist are the same telic flaw connected by the world of the novel.  You can see this easily in Pride and Prejudice.  Elizabeth’s pride and prejudice are her internal telic flaw.  Likewise, Elizabeth must resolve the external telic flaw caused by her pride and prejudice.  She is the protagonist.  She owns the internal and external telic flaws.  She must resolve them both.  Notice also that the internal telic flaw led to the external telic flaw and resolution of the internal telic flaw can lead to the resolution of the external telic flaw, but they are separate things.  I really didn’t want to get to examples yet, but here’s another: Johnny Rico.

Johnny Rico from Starship Troopers, has an internal telic flaw—he doesn’t know what to do with his life and he hasn’t developed life skills or desires at all.  That is the internal telic flaw.  This leads him to join the government which leads him to become a Starship Trooper.  The external telic flaw might appear to be the war Johnny suddenly gets caught up in, but that is only the vehicle for the plot (we’ll get to that later).  The external telic flaw are the external successes that Johnny must make to eventually achieve “finding himself.”  I use the term, “finding himself” because this is ultimately what it means to determine what to do with your life.  Johnny Rico becomes a great Starship Trooper and a great leader.  He makes the internal decision through the novel to continue to grow as a man and a leader.  He puts out the external effort to make this goal come to fruition.  The internal and the external telic flaw are the same.  The external telic flaw in this novel is not the war that Johnny Rico must fight.  The war is a means of achieving the telic flaw resolution, but it is a means of moving the plot to resolve the telic flaw.  This is an important point we will get to.

In Pride and Prejudice, it is difficult to see the difference between the plot and the telic flaw as starkly as in Starship Troopers.  In Pride and Prejudice, the plot is indeed a direct vehicle for the resolution of the internal and external telic flaw, but they are directly connected to the plot.  Elizabeth must interact within her culture to resolve the overall problem (internal and external telic flaw) which is the overall focus of the novel.  For Johnny Rico, the great bug war is simply a tapestry on which the telic flaw is write large.  The great bug war becomes a vehicle by which the telic flaws can be resolved, but they aren’t dependent on the war.  It could be any war or any conflict or even barracks life between wars with training forays.  These are two different ways of approaching a novel development in the plot.  One isn’t better than the other.  One is science fiction and the other a real worldview. 

In any case, lest start with the idea of an internal and external telic flaw.  Then let’s provide it a wrapper.  The wrapper is 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  

fiction, theme, plot, story, storyline, character development, scene, setting, conversation, novel, book, writing, information, study, marketing, tension, release, creative, idea, logic