12 July 2020, Writing - part xx283
Writing a Novel, Plots and Study
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.
|
|
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 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.
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. 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.
We found that a self-discovery telic
flaw or a personal success telic flaw can potentially take a generic plot. We should be able to get an idea for the plot
purely from the protagonist, telic flaw and setting. All of these are interlaced and bring us our
plot.
If you can disconnect the telic flaw
from your plot, to some degree, you can select your plot, however, whatever
plot you choose, you must understand what you are writing about. Thus, we need to choose a plot that is based
on our event horizon and what we understand.
Here is a serious and significant
problem in much of literature. Writers
should usually never think about writing a plot about something they don’t
understand. Thus, in the example of the
logistic based plot I gave yesterday, I would never attempt to write such a
plot unless I understood logistic operations.
This doesn’t necessarily limit our plots so much as it focuses our
writing.
Look at your life skills and
experience and use that as a basis to develop a plot. Many subjects are general enough to develop an
adequate plot, but an adequate plot isn’t the goal. What we really need is something that is
special and unique.
What is your life event
horizon? What is the event life horizon
of your readers? What is the event
horizon of your world? In my opinion,
you have to get everything pretty right in these event horizons. If you write something your readers knows is
way out of bounds, do you think there is any hope of publication or sales? It ain’t gonna happen. If you fudge about stuff in your event
horizon, you might get away with it, but if it’s within the world or reader’s
event horizon, you are going to have problems.
Here’s the rub, unless you are a vampire, there are few people who aren’t
within your event horizon. The more
detailed or real your world and times are, the better you need to handle
it. Thus, I’m not in favor of non-military
writing about the military in any age. I’m
not keen on non-intel people writing about intel subjects or concepts. There are too many people in the world with experiences
or close experiences in these fields. A
major miff will trash you. If you have
knowledge in the field you want to write about, you still need to study. No one is such an expert that they know
everything. So, back to event horizon.
What your culture or world knows is
pretty much the main guide as well as what your readers know. This is their event horizon. Thus, if you put World War II in the wrong
century, people will notice. Most of the
time, people notice big stuff. Change
the world and history all you want, but you are writing fantasy, science
fiction, or speculative fiction. So,
here you go. If you are writing about
anything in history, you need to get the facts right. This requires study.
If you are writing anything set in
the real world, you need to get your studier on. I would also say, that if you intend to write
about very complex or high knowledge or experience level plots, you need to
have direct experience. As I noted, if
you aren’t familiar with the military, you will have problems writing about
Roman Legions or modern Army operations.
If you are experienced in the Army, you might have problems writing
about the Navy or the Air Force. If you
aren’t in banking, you might want to become a banker for a while. If you aren’t in intel, you probably shouldn’t
write about spies in Nero’s Rome or about the CIA. Now, you might be able to study your way out
of the situation for Nero’s Rome, but think about this. There isn’t a lot of history about spies in
that time. You can make it up, but if
you aren’t familiar with modern spies, you likely won’t understand ancient spies. We really see this in the military.
Most military pomp and circumstance,
operations, actions, interactions, organization, oaths, rules, and training,
has its basis in history. Military
people today would likely recognize what his or her predecessor is doing and
why they are doing it. If you understand
military operations today, you will understand military operations in the
past. You might be able to study through
this area, but why not get the experience or find an area that fits your
knowledge and experience.
How much more difficult would it be
to write about a subject that isn’t very well documented or known, like
spying? Now, teaching is a very
difficult issue.
Where soldiers are not much different
from one age to another—the clothing, equipment, names, and armor change, but
the basics of military training and operations don’t change that much—teaching changes
significantly from the ancient world to the modern. Many subjects from household occupations to household
operations change radically through history.
A middleclass wife in Athens would have slaves, mostly female, few metal
items, few options of items to cook food in, and fewer options for
shopping. Today, the world is almost the
opposite. In some professions, the world
has changed radically. These are the
safest to write about through study.
For example, if you wanted to write
about finances during the ancient Greeks, as long as you get to it after the
introduction of money around 500 to 400 BC, you might have some latitude to
write your heart out. The amount of
study is daunting, but hey this would make a great novel. Not many people have written about finances
in the ancient world—not and have gotten it close to correct. I don’t know of anyone who has written about
this time and subject. In any case, it
would help you to understand economics and money to write about economics and
money in the ancient world, classical world, Middle Ages, Renaissance,
Enlightenment, and all. You could
probably fudge your way through, but why would you want to do that?
Here’s my point. Study is really necessary for any writing.
The greater the writing outside your event horizon, the more study you have to
do. You still do have to study for
writing within your event horizon. But,
let’s just take an appraisal of what you know and your experiences. That’s the first point. We are taking what we know and trying to
develop a plot from it. This is the entire
point. If you have a protagonist and a
telic flaw, you can potentially wrap the telic flaw in a plot that fits your knowledge
and experience. This is very powerful.
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
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
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