5 April 2021, Writing - part xx550 Writing a Novel, Turning the Telic Flaw into Parallel Plots
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 |
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.
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:
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%
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.
If we have a protagonist, we have a telic flaw. In fact, we should have an internal and an
external telic flaw. We want to take the
telic flaw and turn it into an overall plot and plots.
In looking at the classics and most specifically, the plots
in the classics, it became obvious that every novel contains more than one
plot. In fact, all novels contain many
plots that support the telic flaw resolution.
This was unexpected for me. I
just presumed that each novel just had a plot, but evaluation of plots in a
novel showed us this just wasn’t true.
What is true is there should be only one telic flaw in a novel and the
various plots all work together to resolve the telic flaw. We also saw that there can be an internal and
external telic flaw. These are usually
resolved in the same climax.
I showed and charted the various plots we find in the first
Harry Potty novel. These are listed
below. All of these plot types and plots
result in the resolution of the telic flaw of the first Harry Potty novel.
In Harry Potty you have these plots:
Overall (o)
1.
Redemption (o) – 17i, 7e, 23ei, 8 –
49% - yeap, Harry must change and learn about wizarding or something.
2. Revelation (o) –2e, 64, 1i – 60% - yeap, the whole wizarding
world
3.
Achievement (o) – 16e, 19ei, 4i, 43
– 73% - yeap, Harry must defeat Voldermort.
Achievement (a)
1.
Detective or mystery (a) – 56, 1e –
51% - yeap, Harry has to solve some mysteries
2. Revenge or vengeance (a) –3ie, 3e, 45 – 46% - yeap, presumed
since Voldermort murdered Harry’s parents
3. Zero to hero (a) – 29 – 26% - yeap, Harry is a hero from
supposed zero (not a very good one)
4. Romance (a) –1ie, 41 – 37% - yeap, very slight.
5. Coming of age (a) –1ei, 25 – 23% - yeap, presumed.
6. Discovery (a) – 3ie, 57 – 54% - yeap, all about magic.
7. Self-discovery (a) – 3i, 12 – 13% - yeap, coming of age is
self-discovery
8. Reason (a) – 10, 1ie – 10% - yeap, the end climax is based
in the use of magic, chess thinking, riding a broom, and figuring out what the
philosopher’s stone can do.
9. Knowledge or Skill (a) – 26 – 23% - yeap, that’s magic.
10.
Secrets (a) – 21 – 19% - yeap,
everybody has a secret in the wizard world
Quality (q)
1.
Messiah (q) – 10 – 9% - yeap, Harry
is a messiah.
2.
Betrayal (q) – 1i, 1ie, 46 – 43% -
yeap, Longshanks gets betrayed and that turns the success of Griffindor.
3.
Blood will out or fate (q) –1i, 1e,
26 – 25% - yeap, Harry was born to be the messiah.
4.
Magic (q) – 8 – 7% - yeap, it’s all
about magic.
5.
Camaraderie (q) – 19 – 17% - yeap,
with his friends.
6.
Curse (q) – 4 – 4% - yeap, the mark
and his power over Voldermort.
7.
Mentor (q) – 12 – 11% - kinda, you
get this more in the other novels, but Harry has his mentors throughout.
Setting (s)
1.
War (s) – 20 – 18% - yeap,
Voldermort is at war with the rest of the wizard world.
2. Travel (s) –1e, 62 – 56% - yeap, some travel to Hogswart and
around.
3. Horror (s) – 15 – 13% - kinda, it’s low grade, but supposed
to excite.
4. Children (s) – 24 – 21% - obviously
5. School (s) – 11 – 10% - duh
6. Parallel (s) – 4 – 4% - yeap, with the real world. This is a reflected worldview.
7.
Fantasy world (s) – 5 – 4% - yeap,
there ain’t no real magic out there.
Item (i)
Article (i) – 1e, 46 – 42% - yeap, the broom, the
philosopher’s stone, the mirror
Writing to you from 11,000 feet up in the air on the way to
Florida. I’m the pilot.
Here’s the question for us as authors. If we have a protagonist with his or her
telic flaw (the telic flaw of the novel) can we plot shop to help write and
improve our novel? You’d think the
answer should be a resounding yes. The
actual answer is a resounding meh. Most
of the time, the protagonist and the setting determines large portions of the
plots. This is really important to
understand. Let’s continue on with Harry
Potty looking at the setting plots now.
Setting (s)
1.
War (s) – 20 – 18% - yeap,
Voldermort is at war with the rest of the wizard world.
2.
Travel (s) –1e, 62 – 56% - yeap,
some travel to Hogswart and around.
3.
Horror (s) – 15 – 13% - kinda, it’s
low grade, but supposed to excite.
4.
Children (s) – 24 – 21% - obviously
5.
School (s) – 11 – 10% - duh
6.
Parallel (s) – 4 – 4% - yeap, with
the real world. This is a reflected
worldview.
7.
Fantasy world (s) – 5 – 4% - yeap,
there ain’t no real magic out there.
We might be getting somewhere with setting plots as well. We may be able to choose setting plots for
our novel separately from the protagonist.
Perhaps not, but I think there is again some scope here that the
achievement plots didn’t have. Let’s
look at the parallel plot.
The parallel plot is an up and coming plot. I suspect it has much greater representation
in the classics if you count all the analogy and metaphor plots, but we weren’t
really looking that deeply. The parallel
plot has really become a powerhouse plot in modern literature. The reason, fantasy and science fiction.
If you noticed, the classics weren’t filled with fantasy and
science fiction titles—the future may see more, hopefully many more. The real problem with the parallel plot, if
this is a problem, is that it really ties in well with fantasy and science
fiction. The literature snobs don’t like
fantasy and science fiction much. Not to
say our example is a classic, Harry Potty isn’t. However, Harry Potty is an example of a very
popular bestseller. In fact, calling
Harry Potty very popular doesn’t begin to describe how popular. Harry Potty may be the most read bestseller
of the modern era. We and publishers are
still waiting for the next super bestseller.
That’s why I chose Harry Potty as an example. I’m not really comparing it with the classics
as much as pointing out what makes it popular, and how we can use these ideas
in our own novels. The parallel plot is
especially noteworthy.
What Rowling did was she created a parallel world to the
real one. Her parallel world is a reflected
worldview as well as a parallel world.
This might be done in other ways, but works very uniquely in her
novels. Where it breaks down is that it
isn’t a very good parallel, but the idea is genius. I’m not certain if Rowling gets credit for creating
an entire genre of writing or not. This
genre is called magical realism. I’m not
sure she was the first, but she definitely had the most impact on this specific
genre.
The magical realism genre is a reflected worldview
genre. It is most appropriately placed
in the fantasy pile, but modern genres are growing to meet a growing market of
the new and entertaining. Thus, modern
literature tries to stay out of the classical bins. For example, dystopian. Dystopian would easily fall into the fantasy
or the science fiction bins, but it has its own marketing bin. Dystopian is definitely based in a parallel
plot. Dystopian isn’t necessary a reflected
worldview, it is a created worldview.
So, here we have the reflected worldview of Harry Potty as a
parallel to the real world. Asian
literature has used both the reflected worldview and the parallel plot to much
greater effect than the West. If you really
want to see how much of a mix up you can make with these ideas, check out their
literature, manga, and anime. In any
case, back to Harry Potty.
Harry Potty starts with the real world. It is presumed to exist. The basic reflected worldview is that of
magic. It isn’t a very good or cohesive
reflected worldview, but it is adequate.
The parallel is that this reflected worldview with wizards, witches, and
creatures exist in parallel to the real world.
This world is real (reflected) and only barely if at all perceived by
the real world. This is part of the
problem with this parallel worldview.
For example, Hermione’s parents supposedly know she is a witch, and
Harry’s foster parents know he is a wizard, but the real world seems to have
zero perception of the wizarding world.
That’s number one flaw in the series, but as I noted, it works. This is called the suspension of
disbelief.
The suspension of disbelief is usually best understood as
the ability of a writer to hold the mind of the reader in the reading. It also applies to the ability of the author
to convince the reader of the reality of the world created in the writing. Rowling obviously does this well. The readers don’t notice the inconsistencies
in her parallel worldview. That’s
perfectly okay. If we all could write in
such a fashion to hold the suspension of disbelief and to have such well
accepted and read bestsellers. That’s my
goal too.
In any case, Harry Potty is an excellent example of a novel
with a well done suspension of disbelief in a reflected worldview and a
parallel plot. These elements make the
works compelling and entertaining. We
would all do well using this as an example.
In the end, we can figure out what makes a work have a great
plot, and apply this to our writing.
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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