Writing - part xx509 Writing a Novel, Another Big Talk Example

 23 February 2021, Writing - part xx509 Writing a Novel, Another Big Talk Example

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.  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.

 

For a great plot, the resolution of the telic flaw has to be a surprise to the protagonist and to the reader.  This is both the measure and the goal.  As I noted before, for a great plot, the author needs to make the telic flaw resolution appear to be impossible, but then it happens.  There is much more to this.  Here’s the list of plots I’ve looked at already:

 

Here is the list of classics that everyone should read.  What I want to do is evaluate this list for the plots. 

 

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Dandelion Wine – Ray Bradbury – Best modern novel in English.  

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible – Most important book to understand Western culture.

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9 We The Living – Ayn Rand

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

 

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Dune – Frank Herbert

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare – better to see as plays

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 The Cadwal Chronicles – Jack Vance

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Green Pearl Novels – Jack Vance

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

 

21 Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchel

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 Starship Troopers – Robert Heinlein

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

 

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens 

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma -Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand

37 The Tale of Genji - Murasaki Shikibu

38 The House of Seven Gables - Nathaniel Hawthorne

39 The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne

40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

 

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 Dracula – Bram Stoker

43 Till We Have Faces – C.S. Lewis

44 Le Morte D'Arthur - Thomas Malory

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 Ivanhoe – Sir Walter Scott

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 The Fountainhead – Ayn Rand

 

51 What Katy Did - Sarah Chauncey Woolsey under her pen name Susan Coolidge

52 A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett

53 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 The Jungle Book - Rudyard Kipling

56 Kim - Rudyard Kipling

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 Beowulf – Unknown

60 The Odyssey – Homer

 

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins

64 The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett

65 The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Robinson Caruso – Daniel Defoe

69 The Red Badge of Courage - Stephen Crane

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

 

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Don Quixote - Miguel De Cervantes

73 Heidi – Johanna Spyri

74 Hans Brinker - Mary Mapes Dodge

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Inferno – Dante

77 The Big Sky – Arlo Guthrie

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

 

80 The Black Arrow - Robert Louis Stevenson

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson

83 The Gulag Archipelago - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

84 The Miser – George Eliot

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemmingway

87 Tarzan – Edger Rice Burroughs

88 The Death of Socrates – Plato

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 I, Robot - Isaac Asimov

 

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

93 Huckleberry Fin – Mark Twain

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 Gulliver’s Travels - Jonathan Swift

96 Matilda – Roald Dahl

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

 

101 The Once and Future King – T.H. White

102 The Deerslayer – James Fenimore Cooper

103 The Black Book of Communism – Various

104 Ben Hur – Lew Wallace

105 The Robe – Lloyd C. Douglas

106 The Pilgrim’s Progress – John Bunyan

107 The Histories – Herodotus

108 Lives – Plutarch

109 The Call of the Wild – Jack London

110 Stand on Zanzibar – John Brunner

 

111 The Shockwave Rider – John Brunner

112 The Aeneid – Virgil

 

This is what I did.  I looked at each novel and pulled out the plot types, the telic flaw, plotline, and the theme of the novel.  I didn’t make a list of the themes, but we identified the telic flaw as internal and external and by plot type.  This generally gives the plotline. 

 

We have a list of all the major plots from this list of classics in literature.  The question is what can we do with it?  This is the first step in evaluating our results.  I took a percentage of the results based on the number of classics. 

 

Modern writing is all about the Romantic—both Romantic protagonists and Romantic plots.  This is where we are going and this is the focus of modern entertaining literature. 

 

In the end, we can see there are just a few baseline plots that are characteristics of most classics.  These are the revelation, achievement, and redemption plots.  When I write these are baseline, I mean that they are overall plots that might also have a different plotline or other plots directly supporting them.  Here’s what I mean exactly about each of these plots:

 

Redemption:  the protagonist must make an internal or external change to resolve the telic flaw. This is the major style of most great modern plots.

 

Revelation:  the novel reveals portions of the life, experiences, and ideas of the protagonist in a cohesive and serial fashion from the initial scene to the climax and telic flaw resolution.

 

Achievement:  the novel is characterized by a goal that the protagonist must achieve to resolve the telic flaw. 

 

I evaluated the list of plots and categorized them according to the following scale:

 

Overall (o) – These are the three overall plots we defined above: redemption, achievement, and revelation.

 

Achievement (a) – There are plots that fall under the idea of the achievement plot. 

 

Quality (q) – These are plots based on a personal or character quality.

 

Setting (s) – These are plots based on a setting.

 

Item (i) – These are plots based on an item.

 

All of the plots we looked at fall into one of these five.  Let’s do that:

 

Overall (o)

1.     Redemption (o) – 17i, 7e, 23ei, 8 – 49%

2.     Revelation (o) –2e, 64, 1i – 60%

3.     Achievement (o) – 16e, 19ei, 4i, 43 – 73%

 

Achievement (a)

1.     Detective or mystery (a) – 56, 1e – 51%

2.     Revenge or vengeance (a) –3ie, 3e, 45 – 46%

3.     Zero to hero (a) – 29 – 26%

4.     Romance (a) –1ie, 41 – 37%

5.     Coming of age (a) –1ei, 25 – 23%

6.     Progress of technology (a) – 6 – 5%

7.     Discovery (a) – 3ie, 57 – 54%

8.     Money (a) – 2e, 26 – 25%

9.     Spoiled child (a) – 7 – 6%

10.  Legal (a) – 5 – 4%

11.  Adultery (qa) – 18 – 16%

12.  Self-discovery (a) – 3i, 12 – 13%

13.  Guilt or Crime (a) – 32 – 29%

14.  Proselytizing (a) – 4 – 4%

15.  Reason (a) – 10, 1ie – 10%

16.  Escape (a)  – 1ie, 23 – 21%

17.  Knowledge or Skill (a) – 26 – 23%

18.  Secrets (a) – 21 – 19%

 

Quality (q)

1.     Messiah (q) – 10 – 9%

2.     Adultery (qa) – 18 – 16%

3.     Rejected love (rejection) (q) – 1ei, 21 – 20%

4.     Miscommunication (q) – 8 – 7%

5.     Love triangle (q) – 14 – 12%

6.     Betrayal (q) – 1i, 1ie, 46 – 43%

7.     Blood will out or fate (q) –1i, 1e, 26 – 25%

8.     Psychological (q) –1i, 45 – 41%

9.     Magic (q) – 8 – 7%

10.  Mistaken identity (q) – 18 – 16%

11.  Illness (q) – 1e, 19 – 18%

12.  Anti-hero (q) – 6 – 5%

13.  Immorality (q) – 3i, 8 – 10%

14.  Satire (q) – 10 – 9%

15.  Camaraderie (q) – 19 – 17%

16.  Curse (q) – 4 – 4%

17.  Insanity (q) – 8 – 7%

18.  Mentor (q) – 12 – 11%

 

Setting (s)

1.     End of the World (s) – 3 – 3%

2.     War (s) – 20 – 18%

3.     Anti-war (s) –2 – 2%

4.     Travel (s) –1e, 62 – 56%

5.     Totalitarian (s) – 1e, 8 – 8%

6.     Horror (s) – 15 – 13%

7.     Children (s) – 24 – 21%

8.     Historical (s) – 19 – 17%

9.     School (s) – 11 – 10%

10.  Parallel (s) – 4 – 4%

11.  Allegory (s) – 10 – 9%

12.  Fantasy world (s) – 5 – 4%

13.  Prison (s) – 2 – 2%

 

Item (i)

1.     Article (i) – 1e, 46 – 42%

 

Starting with the protagonist makes novel writing about as easy as it is possible to make novel writing.  As I wrote, if we start with the protagonist, I can’t guarantee you the next bestseller, but I can assure you it will solve four problems common to novelists:

 

1.     What is the plot?

2.     Why is my novel so short?

3.     Why is my novel so simplistic and uncomplicated in terms of plot and theme?

4.     Why do I get writer’s block when I want to write?

 

Not every writer gets writer’s block.  I never get writer’s block.  I get tired of writing.  I sometimes want to change up my writing (write something different). I never run out of something to write.  How could that be?  Doesn’t everyone get writer’s block?  Only in the movies, and I would say only non-professional writers.

 

Here’s some ideas to help you prevent writer’s block.

 

1.     Nothing anyone writes the first time on paper (or ether) is worth reading, publishing, or anything else.

2.     You gotta write to learn to write well.

3.     If you don’t like it, dump it.

4.     If you are in over your head, just stop and regroup.

5.     These are all helpful ideas for getting your stuff together, but why don’t professionals have the problem of writer’s block?

 

Writing paragraphs may be the most powerful way to train up your writing skills.  None of the paragraphs I wrote as a seventh grader are worth reading now, but they sure helped me learn to write.  We are writing about training.

 

Every paragraph looks like this:

1.     Topic sentence

2.     Body based on the topic

3.     Conclusion and transition

 

Every paragraph looks like this except dialog paragraphs.  These are special paragraphs that are designed through the speaker rather than coherent outline. 

 

You must include tone and body language in the dialog, or the conversation will go awry for the reader.  There is more to dialog to make it sound correct to the reader.

 

I’m repeating in synopsis all my previous advice on writing dialog, but dialog is very important and most beginning (and some experienced) writers seem to have problems with it. 

 

So, we saw that dialog follows normal human conversational order, lets the dialog flow, uses contractions, doesn’t use direct address, expresses tone, body language, tags, and action in the dialog.  These are the most straight forward and best way to correct most dialog.  Then you need to study and practice.

 

In this example, the big talk build up comes in multiple scenes.  This may be more common in most novels.  The power of this example is that it comes one after the other, and it is very important to the outcome of the novel, and the knowledge of the reader.  This scene comes from Essie: Enchantment and the Aos Si.  This is the first time we get to see the Aos Si’s actual form.

 

In the morning, Mrs. Lyons and Essie ate breakfast and stepped directly out into the gardens.  Essie carried a couple of picture books, her notebook, and a pencil.  Mrs. Lyons brought the current novel she was reading.  Mrs. Lyons read a story to Essie then set her to work copying letters. 

In the late morning, Mrs. Lyons heard a car pull into her short drive and looked up in surprise.  She noted the car drove all the way up to the front of her house.  Essie looked up too.  The bell sounded loud enough Mrs. Lyons heard it from the garden.  She made an unhappy noise and stood, “Essie, stay here.  I’m going to check the door.  I’m not expecting any visitors today.”

Essie nodded and returned to her writing.

Mrs. Lyons stepped back through the guest parlor door and to the front of the house.  She answered the door to find a rough looking man outside.  A very old Triumph coupe stood in her drive.  The man wore dirty farmer’s clothing, but Mrs. Lyons couldn’t tell if the dirt was honest and new or old and questionable.  Mrs. Lyons asked, “May I help you?”

The man smiled, “I believe you can.  You have one of my animals here—I’ve come to collect it.”

“One of your animals?  Whatever can you mean?”  At that moment, a scream rose from the garden.  It sounded like Essie’s voice, and a cry like none Mrs. Lyons had ever heard from the throat of a human being.  Mrs. Lyons slammed the front door and bolt locked it.  She moved as quickly as she could to her bedroom.  She picked up her cane and then the semi-automatic pistol from under her pillow.  Then she moved to the guest parlor door as fast as her old legs would carry her. 

When she threw open the door a young man held Essie fast by the arms.  He dragged her forward, out of the garden.  At the same time another young man beat her back and legs with a whip.  The men dressed much like the older man who came to Mrs. Lyons’ door. 

Mrs. Lyons yelled, “Let go of that girl, immediately.”  The men laughed at her.  They kept dragging and striking.  With each blow, Essie cried out a horrible scream.  Between each scream, she pronounced something under her breath, but each strike of the whip caused her to writhe and lose her words. 

Mrs. Lyons stepped out of her house and brandished her cane.  She jogged toward the men, and brought her cane down on the one with the whip.  He whirled suddenly and held the whip up as though he meant to strike Mrs. Lyons.  At that moment, the older man stepped around the corner of the house.   The man with the whip suddenly ignored Mrs. Lyons.  He turned immediately back to Essie and struck her again. 

Mrs. Lyons’ face flushed with rage.  She brought the cane down on the man’s back again—once, twice.  The man turned toward her.  The younger man who held Essie’s arms cried, “Don’t stop, for God’s sake don’t let it change.  It’ll cut me to ribbons.”

The man who confronted Mrs. Lyons took a quick glance at the older man and then at Mrs. Lyons.  He turned back toward Essie and struck her again.  Mrs. Lyons hit the man again as solidly as she could, “I told you to stop hitting the girl.”

Essie kept screaming.  Flecks of foam burst between her lips with each blow.  The back of her dress turned red with stripes from the whip.

Mrs. Lyons’ voice rose a notch, “I order you to stop right now.”

The older man, called, “Don’t stop.  If you value your lives, don’t you dare stop now.”

Mrs. Lyons turned to the older man, “Stop it this instant.”

“You don’t understand, Mrs. Lyons…”

“I understand that you are beating my ward…”

“It isn’t human, Mrs. Lyons, and it’s not your ward.  It’s our responsibility.”

Mrs. Lyons glared at the man.  She raised her cane and struck the younger man on the head this time.  The man turned and grabbed Mrs. Lyons’ cane.  He wrenched it out of Mrs. Lyons’s hand and threw it to the side.  Then he turned to strike Essie again.

Mrs. Lyons brought up her pistol, “I told you to stop.  If you strike that girl again, I shall shoot you.”

The older man yelled, “She’s got a gun.”

The man with the whip spun around and grasped the barrel of Mrs. Lyons’ pistol.  Mrs. Lyons fired.  The bullet struck the whip and passed through the man’s palm.  The whip flew through the air.  The struck man leapt back with a cry and a look of absolute surprise on his face.  His hand began to stream blood. 

The older man cried, “Grab the whip and use it—it’s our only hope.”

Mrs. Lyons shot the whip further down the path.  She pointed her pistol at the man who held Essie, “Let the girl go, or I shall put a bullet in your brain.”

The man let go of Essie, and she fell back onto the ground.  Essie writhed a moment.  Whatever words she was trying to speak rushed out of her heart, mind, and mouth.  She gave another scream, but this one sounded completely animal-like.  She shook and writhed again.

The older man yelled, “Get back, all of you.  It’s too late to stop it.  It’s about to change.”

Mrs. Lyons roared, “Don’t move an inch.  I will shoot anyone who harms this girl.”

The older man yelled, “It’s not a girl.  Are you daft?  It’ll kill you as quickly as it’ll kill us.”

Mrs. Lyons moved where she could see the men and still stand near Essie, “All I know is you were causing her enormous pain and suffering.  I will not allow you to continue.”

The older man pointed, “It’s too late for any of that anyway.  Look at it…”

Mrs. Lyons glanced down at her feet.  Essie’s face and body were changing.  Mrs. Lyons heard bone crack and sinew reverberate.  She could barely stand to watch it.  Essie didn’t shrink, but her hair grew to cover her entire body.  Her face and arms and legs deformed and molded to something else entirely.  Her shape changed from a young woman to an animal—a large black animal—a cat.  When the change was complete, Essie twisted out of her clothing and paced warily near Mrs. Lyons.  The cat stared at the men in a way Mrs. Lyons had never seen Essie stare at anything or anyone before. 

The older man called out, “Please, Mrs. Lyons.  Let my sons move out of its way.  It’s in a murderous mood, and it might just attack them now.”

“If she’s in a murderous mood, it is entirely your fault.  If you touch her again, I shall kill you—each of you.”

“I understand, Mrs. Lyons.  It may attack you…have you thought of that?”

“She will not attack me.  You two, move out of her way.  Let her have some space.  Both of you move to my left.”  Mrs. Lyons pointed with the barrel of her pistol.

The two men dove to the side Mrs. Lyons indicated.  Essie, now a large black wild cat, leapt into the place where they once stood.  She turned toward them all and let out a feral scream.  A large patch of white hair marked her breast.  Mrs. Lyons nodded toward the creature, “You go now Essie.  These men can’t harm me.  Go.  Now.”

Essie continued to pace at the edge of the garden.  The creature stared at the men and stole occasional glances at Mrs. Lyons. 

Mrs. Lyons ordered, “Essie, leave now.  These men will not harm me, and I will not let them harm you again.  Go.  Now.”

Essie glanced at Mrs. Lyons.  She gave another wild scream and almost immediately disappeared. 

The older man looked around nervously, “It hasn’t gone.  It’s still watching us.”

Mrs. Lyons nodded and pointed her pistol, “You three together.  If you don’t obey me, I will shoot you again.  I will mark all three of you if necessary.  Now, before the constable arrives, you will tell me everything you know about Essie.”

The younger man wrapped his handkerchief around his hand.

The older man stood with his hands out, “What makes you think the constable is coming here?”

“I’ve already fired twice.  Do I need to shoot a third time in this very small village to ensure the constable hears it?”

The older man put up his hands up a little higher, “Very well.”

“First, who are you?”

“I’m Ellis Morfran.”  The man nodded at the other two, “These are my sons.  The one you shot is Rowan and the one you didn’t is Arthur.”

“Who or what is Essie?”

“It is properly called the Aos Si or the Sith.  Either one is correct.  It is a witch.”

“Essie is a girl.  She is not an it?”

“It is not a she.  It is the Aos Si, the Sith, and it is a witch.  Didn’t you just hear her make that terrible spell, and didn’t you just see her turn?”

“Why did you beat her?”

“That’s the only way to prevent her from turning.  If she turns, she can kill a human quicker than your bullets.  If you beat her, she can’t get the words out complete and she can’t turn.”

“I see.  How did you come about this person?”

“I keep telling you.  It is not a person.  It is a creature, a very dangerous creature.”

“How did you get her?”

“We are the keepers of certain powers here.  One of the courts brought her to us and ordered us to keep her safe.”

“One of the courts?”

Ellis Morfran glanced at his sons and then back, “I know you will not believe such things, and I have no desire at this point to tell you more.  I just need to warn you, the Aos Si is one of the most dangerous creatures on God’s green earth.  Its kills without remorse and without thought.  We act under the authority of the courts and the White Lady, Ceridwen.  If you want to know more you need to speak to her.”

Mrs. Lyons almost dropped her pistol, “Ceridwen?  Of Ceridwen, I have heard.  Do you mean Mrs. Kathrin Calloway?”

Ellis Morfran stared at Mrs. Lyons, “I mean Ceridwen.  What other names or titles she may bear in this age are not material.”

At that moment, the constable’s automobile roared down the lane.  Mrs. Lyons growled, “Mr. Morfran, whatever responsibility you once had, I accept it.  I will take it.”

“You can’t swear as is necessary.”

“I can swear as well as you can, Morfran.”

“My family has deep ties to the courts and to these lands.”

“My namesake is tied to this village and this place.  I do swear by all I hold dear that I will be responsible for this creature the Aos Si…”

“You must say by the One and all.”

“I do swear by the One and all.”  Mrs. Lyons heard a strange crackling around her and her hair stood on end.

Ellis Morfran bowed very regally, “You have no idea the responsibility you have taken on, Mrs. Lyons, but I will accept your pledge, for now.  When the constable lets us go, I will bring you the creature’s things.”

Mrs. Lyons curtsied back.  She didn’t lower her pistol or her eyes.

Constable Wyght jumped out of his automobile.  He didn’t have a pistol, didn’t own one.  Mrs. Lyons pointed with the barrel at the men in front of her, “These men accosted and assaulted me and my grandchild, Essie.”

Constable Wyght grimaced, “That’s a pretty strong charge Mrs. Lyons.  Please lower your pistol.  I know you have the proper registrations to keep one, but firing it produces special ramifications for me.  Especially if you injured someone.”

Ellis Morfran glanced at Mrs. Lyons, “Constable, I am happy to go back to your offices with you and explain the situation entire.  This was all an unfortunate mistake.  Mrs. Lyons was concerned about her granddaughter’s safety.  We were simply trying to help them.”

Constable Wyght didn’t look very convinced, “Really?”

Mrs. Lyons cleared then clicked the safety on her pistol, “Really.  I became a bit overwrought.  Mr. Morfran is right.  We simply suffered a misunderstanding—that is all.” 

“A misunderstanding.  It appears as if a man was injured.”

Mrs. Morfran and Mrs. Lyons both said at the same time between clenched teeth, “No one was intentionally injured—it was all an accident.”

“Then Mr. Morfran and Mrs. Lyons would you both please come to my office, and I shall take your statements.  I must explain the circumstances—especially of a weapon’s firing.  By the way, does this have anything to do with the missing person you reported Mr. Morfran?”

“It does and it does not.”

“What is that supposed to mean.”  Constable Wyght glared, “All of you come to my office—I definitely need your statements.”     

Mrs. Lyons took a long look at the back of her house as the door to the constable’s automobile closed behind her.

This is the scene that the first set of chapters set up in this novel.  This is a revelation scene.  It is the revelation of a great secret—Essie, the Aos Si is actually a large black cat, and she appears to be a Fae girl.  The Morfans were set to capture and keep her allegedly by the White Lady.  The White Lady is another name for Ceridwen.  Ceridwen is the main goddess of the Celtic people and lands.  Mrs. Lyons knows Ceridwen.  She doesn’t know everything about Ceridwen, but she keeps her ears open.

 

This information is important and a great secret in the novel.  It comes from both a misunderstanding and an intentional plan to capture and isolate the Aos Si from her proper place, but this is much later information. 

 

In this scene, we get to see the actual form of the Aos Si.  This should be an entertaining and a surprising scene.  This is not a climax scene, but the reader has been getting bits and pieces of information about Essie from the beginning of the novel.  She eats only meat and milk.  She acts very cat-like.  She has very peculiar characteristics and actions for a human.  She is definitely not a normal human being, but she looks like one and most of the time, acts like one.

 

This is the revelation of a secret, and this is why I write great novels are always the revelation of secrets, great secrets.  Next, we shall see the rest of the build up to the big talk.     

 

In the end, we can figure out what makes a work have a great plot, and apply this to our writing.     

  

Let’s 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  

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