16 April 2021, Writing - part xx561 Writing a Novel, More Developing the Protagonist Using 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.
|
|
|
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%
This time,
let’s start with the plots that we found define the protagonist, and then
determine a telic flaw from that. We
will develop a protagonist and a telic flaw from archetype plots.
I’ve never tried this before but is sounds interesting. Perhaps I’ll determine a protagonist with a
telic flaw I want to write about.
We started with the overall plots. Began to develop a classic Romantic
protagonist. Then I applied the overall
plots to the character. Here’s the
result.
The Romantic protagonist comes from the common man (person
okay). Literary critic Northrop Frye
noted that the Romantic hero is often "placed outside the structure of
civilization and therefore represents the force of physical nature, amoral or
ruthless, yet with a sense of power, and often leadership, that society has
impoverished itself by rejecting". He
or she is also introspective, displays the triumph of the individual, melancholic,
wanderlust, misanthropic, alienated, and isolated.
All these characteristics are common to the Romantic protagonist,
but not all required or all inclusive. Let’s
take these and begin building a protagonist from the plots.
Let’s put together a Romantic protagonist and then apply the
overall plots. I’ll build a great Romantic
protagonist. I may or might not use this
protagonist in the future, but let’s just take a look at making a really good
one.
Here is our protagonist so far.
I’m thinking a girl who is in her teens. If you look at my protagonists about half are
male and half are female. I have written
about this before, but females make the best pathos developing
protagonists. Readers of both sexes and
all persuasions can’t help feeling sorry for them especially if they are
presented in an environment of suffering or poverty. This is just what I want for my example. I’m going to start with an impoverished female
teen who is orphaned and has been abandoned.
Outside of the structure of civilization. This protagonist has been raised by her
father in upper Scotland. She has been
culturally and socially isolated because her mother was fae and her father was
a common man. Her father was a handsome
workman with zero connections and from an isolated Scottish background himself. He lived with his father and mother in an old
house at the outskirts of a village in the Scottish Highlands. He was enamored of a garden fairy, and she
had a child. The garden fairy hung around
until the garden outside the house fell into disrepair. The disrepair was because the mother and
father who took care of it died and the workman would not or could not take
care of it. The garden fairy hung around
long enough to train her daughter in fae glamour (the power of the fae), so our
protagonist is not without power, but she doesn’t understand how she can use it
very well. The workman father has kept his
daughter a secret from the village and the people. You have a person who is outside of the structure
of civilization. Her workman father dies
before the novel, and she has been living alone in the house and decrepit
garden. She is an orphan. Let’s say the workman died of a broken heart,
alcohol poisoning, and exposure. His
daughter has been surviving through stealing food, rummaging in the garbage,
offerings left by the superstitious people of the village. We’ll build more into this.
Force of physical nature.
The force of physical nature is the garden fae and the child of the
garden fae. This is a supernatural idea,
but still represents the wild and untamed world of the Scottish Highlands. In addition, we have the inclusion of Fae glamour. I use this idea in my books to separate the
idea of angelic or post angelic power which is a type of miracle form magic.
Amoral or ruthless. Our
protagonist must go to certain lengths to be able to continue to live. She is unlike the civilized person who would
just lay down and die. She has skills
that allow her to survive in the wild and without much help. We also are moving in the plots and the telic
flaw quite unintentionally. We need to
begin to write about what we will do with our protagonist. We are already seeing the development of the
telic flaw. If she is abandoned,
uneducated, orphaned, hungry, and living in an abandoned house, we are already
seeing the development of the telic flaw.
I noted that the workman kept his daughter a secret form the village people. When he dies, the property goes to the
state. We can say he had none or perhaps
few relatives. Perhaps we should add in
a London or lower English relative. This
would be a great add. The house has
become the property of this London or lower English dwelling person. The girl is living secretly in the
house. No one knows who she is or that
she is there. However, the house has a
reputation for being haunted. This
started with the fae in the garden and progressed to the workman after the
death of his parents. The story in the
village is that he died from a haunting and fear. The girl just wants a roof over her head and
nothing more, but time and the world are cast against her. Then it happens…
Sense of power and leadership. Our little half-fae girl does indeed have
some independence and leadership. Let’s
say she has the fae of the valley and highlands under her thumb. She keeps up the pretense that the house is
haunted to prevent it form being rented or sold. This is her power until this happens…
Society has impoverished itself by rejecting him or
her. Indeed, this girl has skills and
abilities that would be of great use to herself and others if they could be
trained, used, and harnessed.
Introspective means intellectual. Here is a small move from the norm. The house is large and Elizabethan with many
rooms and multiple stories. It has an
extensive library. The workman’s parents
were well educated. His father was a
builder and his mother was a teacher.
They were both studious, but their son was not. Our girl protagonist has been reading the
books since she was a child. Her father
was selling the books over time. The girl
has hidden the library so she can’t lose more books. At the same time, the protagonist has not had
a normal or a complete education.
Triumph of the individual.
Our protagonist needs some help to triumph, but once she gets training for
her skills and abilities, there is hope.
The telic flaw is the achievement or accomplishment.
Melancholic. Yeah, this
protagonist is deeply melancholic. She
has had little help and has been constantly abandoned through her life. She imagines there is no real hope for her.
Wanderlust. Here we
will make some slight difference or change from the list. This protagonist is tightly attached to her
place, the house and garden. Still she
will be willing to move around for the reason of success and change. We shall see how this will work.
Misanthropic. Yes,
she doesn’t trust people. This is a
pressing idea from her background. She
must be redeemed form this lack of trust and dislike for people. There, we are moving toward plots. That’s actually what we will look at next.
Alienated and isolated.
Our protagonist is alienated and isolated. She is alone and abandoned in an abandoned
house on the outskirts of a Scottish village.
Above is our protagonist, and we see the development of some
of the setting. Now, we need to take
this Romantic protagonist and apply the overall plots. Just which of these plots shall we add to our
protagonist?
I already said I want to include a redemption plot. Redeemed from what? We have a young person who is isolated and
alienated in an abandoned house and an isolated village. The obvious redemption is from this life and
from her isolation and alienation.
This is a redemption plot and a telic flaw for the
novel. There can be more to this telic
flaw. Fro example, I’d like to add that
in the redemption, our protagonist needs to achieve some type of success. Did you read that “achieve some type of
success?” This is an achievement plot.
The question then is what should be the achievement? I have an idea, but that idea plays more into
a plotline. Now, a plotline is okay at
this point. We have a protagonist. We have a redemption plot. We have a telic flaw. We are just starting to apply plots to the protagonist. The first is achievement. We don’t have to solve the problem at this
point that is we don’t need a plotline, but let’s see if we can put an
achievement plot to the protagonist.
Let me mention this.
We will have a revelation plot for our protagonist. You know more now about the protagonist than
the reader until reading the novel. The
point is to write the plot to reveal the protagonist.
There is lots of latitude here for our protagonist and for
this novel. I have an idea for how we
will reveal this protagonist—that is I have an idea for a plotline based on the
telic flaw and the protagonist.
Before we begin to introduce the other plots into the
plotline, we need to look at the plotline.
This basically means we need to actually envision how the overall novel
will begin and progress. I have an idea
for this. With the protagonist, we can
begin to contemplate just such a development.
Here’s my idea.
I’ve written over and over that the best initial scene is
the meeting of the protagonist and the antagonist or the protagonist’s helper. For this novel, let’s choose a protagonist’s
helper. Our Romantic protagonist has a problem. She is alienated and isolated. Many of those features which make her a
perfect Romantic protagonist also make her a perfect candidate for
redemption. However, like many protagonists,
at first, she doesn’t feel like she needs to change. So, here is a great setup.
I’ll just pop out my list of potential characters, and pull
out the redeemed Shiggy. Shiggy can play
a part for many reasons. The redeemed
Shiggy is working for “The Organization” in the Stella branch. She is on assignment into Scotland for some
intelligence purpose. We need not
develop this too much at first. The important
point is that she is on assignment. The
location of her assignment can be within driving distance of the place of her
lodging.
If you remember, I mentioned that the abandoned house our
girl is living in is owned by someone in London or in lower England. Why not a connection who is willing to allow
the use of the house. They have no idea
the house will be used by British intelligence as a safe house for Shiggy, but
that’s how we will play it. Every novel
is allowed a coincidence to begin the plotline.
Shiggy has been assigned a yet unresearched intelligence job
and has been allowed the use of the girl’s house. This is perfect because the villagers think
the house is haunted. The girl is
literally and figuratively haunting the house.
Because she has the power of glamour, she is perfectly capable of really
acting like a haunting.
This is the environment Shiggy is coming into. Now, we have a setup for the initial
scene. The secret of the girl is a
wonderful secret and one we don’t want to reveal too quickly or too
haphazardly. Here is what I’d like the initial
scene to look like.
First, I’d like to have Shiggy come to the house and explore
it. During her explorations. She sees potential evidence of the girl, but it seems like the haunting
the real estate person in the village told her about. The only point is that Shiggy knows there is no
such thing as a ghost or a haunting.
Shiggy does know all about the Fae and Fae glamour. It’s all in my novel Sorcha: Enchantment
and the Curse. Unfortunately, this
novel is not published yet.
The girl is eventually cornered and found by Shiggy. That’s when parts of her story begin to come
out. Shiggy sees potential and the novel
progresses along this plotline. This is
a very interesting plotline to me because this girl is in some ways the opposite
of Shiggy.
Even though Shiggy is also a fully Romantic protagonist, she
is a different personality than this girl.
I hate to keep writing, this girl.
The next step is to flesh out the details of the character. After that, we can begin to chart the initial
scene in more detail as well as apply plots to the overall plotline.
I know I’m leaving a trail of breadcrumbs. Sorry about that. The information is just too important at this
point to take down. As I already wrote,
we designed a Romantic protagonist and provided a telic flaw as well as a
setting. I’ll get back to all of this,
but let’s further develop the protagonist.
What’s her name and what does she look like?
First, a name. That
requires, in my mind development of her parents and relations. This is how I’m going to do it. First, I researched a place in north Scotland. That place is Viera Lodge in the Orkney
Islands. This is a real place and I have
pictures and diagrams of the building.
It is reputed ot be haunted, but we can make that stuff up. It is currently unoccupied and on the
market. The last people who I can
determine lived in the house were Mary Craigie and her husband Paterson, but
they died in the early Twentieth Century.
I can’t determine who owns the property, but let’s assume some relation
of this family. The names don’t matter
than much and can be put into play when necessary. I’ll use the name Craigie for the girl and
for her family. We can always make up
some relational background within the village and Parish.
I’ve also researched the girl’s background based on her birth
from a garden Fae and a man. The garden
Fae can be Desert Rose. I chose this Fae
because the desert rose is a poisonous flower.
I’ve used this imagery before in my novels with a Seelie Fae (good Fae)
who has some negative background. The desert
rose is poisonous but not just the flower.
The entire plant is deadly poisonous and puts out poison when
touched. This will fit our character
perfectly. Her name is Rose
Craigie. Just saying this name is
interesting and the antecedents are very interesting. Her father can be James Sinclair. Her mother Desert Rose. Her grand mother and father might as well be
Ann and Hugh Sinclair. Although her
father did raise her for a while, her mother gave her the name. So our girl could be Rose Sinclair or Rose Craigie. I’m setting this up as a secret and a mystery
in the novel. It will be used as a red
herring to draw attention from the facts and confuse the protagonist’s
helper. Setting up secrets is always a
very good idea.
Now we know her name and her familial relations, what does
she look like? The desert rose is
delicate but very strong. I mentioned it
is poison. I didn’t say it is
tough. When touched it puts out its
poison. Thus let’s describe the mother of
our protagonist. She is delicate and
notably small for a modern world woman.
This is a characteristic means I use to describe the Fae. They are akin to the humans who lived in the
far past thus smaller than the norm.
They tend to be beautiful and striking.
Desert Rose would likely be red headed and slender. Her skin would be very pale.
James Sinclair would be also slender and tall. He was remarkable and handsome or a Fae
wouldn’t never have paid him attention.
Although James, in our novel is weak and not very motivated, he has
potential characteristics that attracted desert rose to him. Let’s say his hair was bright red. This will accentuate the color of Rose Craigie’s
hair.
Here’s what we have.
Rose Craigie has flaming red hair.
Perhaps the reddest hair seen on any Scottish Lass. She was as slender as a willow or perhaps a
garden flower. Thin and tall with the
look of a wild flower. If you could see
her eyes hidden in her blazing red hair, you would see them as green as a tabby
cat, but she kept her head down and her eyes covered as much as possible by her
hair. And if you could see her face,
what a pleasure you would behold. A thin
but noble nose and cheeks touched with rose.
Lips fine and red as if they had been recently pinched all set perfectly
and delicately in a heart-shaped face.
She looked like fine porcelain—the face of a doll in a human frame. Achingly beautiful, wonderfully made.
We’ve already started writing. You don’t want to know how much research I
did to develop this small bit of information for our protagonist, but this is
the way we develop a protagonist. By the
way, I didn’t start from a real person although a did start with real people as
her relations. Tomorrow, we will look at
the setting and the plots.
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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