1 May 2021, Writing - part xx576 Writing a Novel, Plots and Classics
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.
For Novel 32: Shiggy
Tash finds a lost girl in the isolated Scottish safe house her organization
gives her for her latest assignment: Rose Craigie has nothing, is alone, and
needs someone or something to rescue and acknowledge her as a human being.
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 is our list of 112 classics. I told you this is a compilation of lists
from various sources. These are all true
classics in most every genre of literature.
What I’m going to do now is look at the list and evaluate if they include
a Romantic protagonist or a Romantic plot.
Second, I’m going to mark those that are true classic novels with an asterisk.
Next, let’s take out the books that aren’t novels.
*1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic
plot.
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien - Romantic protagonist and Romantic
plot.
*3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte - Romantic protagonist and Romantic plot.
*4 Dandelion Wine – Ray Bradbury – Best modern novel in English. - Romantic protagonist
and no Romantic plot.
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee – Not sure if a Romantic protagonist or
Romantic plot.
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic
plot.
*8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic
plot.
*9 We The Living – Ayn Rand –Romantic protagonist but no Romantic plot.
*10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic
plot.
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic
plot.
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy – No Romantic protagonist or
Romantic plot.
*13 Dune – Frank Herbert –Romantic protagonist and Romantic plot.
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier – Somewhat Romantic protagonist and
Romantic plot.
*16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien – Romantic protagonist and Romantic plot.
*17 The Cadwal Chronicles – Jack Vance – Romantic protagonist and Romantic
plot.
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic
plot.
*19 The Green Pearl Novels – Jack Vance –Romantic protagonist and Romantic
plot.
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic plot.
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchel – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic
plot.
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic
plot.
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic plot.
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic plot.
*25 Starship Troopers – Robert Heinlein – Romantic protagonist and Romantic
plot.
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky – No Romantic protagonist or
Romantic plot.
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic
plot.
*29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll – No Romantic protagonist and
somewhat Romantic plot.
*30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame – No Romantic protagonist or
Romantic plot.
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic plot.
*32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic
plot.
*33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis –Romantic protagonist and Romantic plot.
34 Emma -Jane Austen – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic plot.
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic plot.
*36 Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand – Romantic protagonist and Romantic plot.
*37 The Tale of Genji - Murasaki Shikibu – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic plot.
*38 The House of Seven Gables - Nathaniel Hawthorne – No Romantic protagonist
and somewhat Romantic plot.
*39 The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne – Somewhat Romantic protagonist
and Romantic plot.
*40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic plot.
*41 Animal Farm - George Orwell – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic plot.
*42 Dracula – Bram Stoker – No Romantic protagonist and a Romantic plot.
43 Til We All Have Faces – C.S. Lewis – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic
plot.
44 Le Morte D'Arthur - Thomas Malory – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic
plot.
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins – No Romantic protagonist and somewhat
Romantic plot.
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery –Romantic protagonist but no Romantic
plot.
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy – No Romantic protagonist or
Romantic plot.
*48 Ivanhoe – Sir Walter Scott –Romantic protagonist and Romantic plot.
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic
plot.
*50 The Fountainhead – Ayn Rand – Romantic protagonist and Romantic plot.
51 What Katy Did - Sarah Chauncey Woolsey under her pen name Susan Coolidge –
Romantic protagonist and Romantic plot.
*52 A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett – Somewhat Romantic protagonist
and somewhat Romantic plot.
53 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett – No Romantic protagonist
and somewhat Romantic plot.
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic
plot.
*56 Kim - Rudyard Kipling – Romantic protagonist and somewhat Romantic plot.
*57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens – No Romantic protagonist or
Romantic plot.
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic
plot.
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic
plot.
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic plot.
*63 The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic
plot.
64 The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammett – Somewhat Romantic protagonist and
somewhat Romantic plot.
*65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas – Romantic protagonist and
somewhat Romantic plot.
66 As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic
plot.
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic
plot.
*68 Robinson Caruso – Daniel Defoe – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic
plot.
*69 The Red Badge of Courage - Stephen Crane – Somewhat Romantic protagonist
and somewhat Romantic plot.
*70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic plot.
*71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic
plot.
*72 Don Quixote - Miguel De Cervantes – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic
plot.
*73 Heidi – Johanna Spyri – Romantic protagonist and Romantic plot.
*74 Hans Brinker - Mary Mapes Dodge – Romantic protagonist and Romantic
plot.
75Ulysses - James Joyce – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic plot.
77 The Big Sky Country – Arlo Guthrie – Somewhat Romantic protagonist and Romantic
plot.
78 Germinal - Emile Zola – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic plot.
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray – No Romantic protagonist or
Romantic plot.
*80 The Black Arrow - Robert Louis Stevenson – Romantic protagonist and
Romantic plot.
*81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic
plot.
*82 Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson – Somewhat Romantic protagonist
and Romantic plot.
*84 The Miser – George Elliot – Somewhat Romantic protagonist and no Romantic
plot.
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic
plot.
86 For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemmingway – No Romantic protagonist or
Romantic plot.
*87 Tarzan – Edger Rice Burroughs – Romantic protagonist and Romantic plot.
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – short stories
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad – Somewhat Romantic protagonist and no
Romantic plot.
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery – Somewhat Romantic protagonist
and no Romantic plot.
*93 Huckleberry Fin – Mark Twain – Romantic protagonist and Romantic plot.
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams – Romantic protagonist and Romantic plot.
*95 Gulliver’s Travels - Jonathan Swift – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic
plot.
*96 Matilda – Roald Dahl – Romantic protagonist and Romantic plot.
*97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas – Romantic protagonist and Romantic
plot.
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl – Romantic protagonist and Romantic plot.
*100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo – Romantic
protagonist and Romantic plot.
*101 The Once and Future King – T.H. White – Somewhat Romantic protagonist and
Romantic plot.
*102 The Deerslayer – James Fenimore Cooper – Romantic protagonist and Romantic
plot.
104 Ben Hur – Lew Wallace – Romantic protagonist
and Romantic plot.
105 The Robe – Lloyd C. Douglas – Romantic
protagonist and Romantic plot.
106 The Pilgrim’s Progress – John Bunyan – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic
plot.
*109 The Call of the Wild – Jack London – Romantic protagonist and Romantic plot.
*110 Stand on Zanzibar – John Brunner – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic
plot.
*111 The Shockwave Rider – John Brunner – Romantic protagonist and Romantic plot.
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.
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.
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%
I’d like to willow down the list of classics to some true
entertaining classics. We’ll then look
at these in more details.
I know what your next question is: why didn’t all the
so-called classics remain on the true entertaining classics list? Well, let me tell you.
The purpose of fiction is entertainment. I can tell you exactly why I didn’t asterisk every
novel on the classics list. I hope I won’t
make too many of you unhappy. Mainly,
the novels I didn’t keep on the list are not very entertaining. Ulysses by James Joyce may be
the least entertaining novel on the face of the earth. I have read better self-published drivel than
Ulysses.
I also took off The Lord of the Rings. I think this trilogy is reasonably
entertaining, but it is one of the most boring and poorly written pieces of
modern fiction ever. The amount of
telling in the novel is monumental. The
telling turns the movies into pieces of art.
I know more people who say they love these books who never finished the
first fifty pages because they were too bored to read further. The Lord of the Rings is a true
classic because it spawned so much other ancillary stuff from games to movies
to culture. It is a poor example of a
well written modern novel.
I left on The Hobbit because it is much more
entertaining and better written—although there is still way too much telling.
I pulled off some very entertaining novels, not because they
are not great classics, but because they are somewhat less important as literature. What do I mean by that?
Some novels are fundamentally important. For example, A Little Princess and Heidi
may be the most important children’s literature in all English writing. They are primary examples of how to write and
how to write well. There are other
pieces of children’s literature that are very important, but I didn’t give them
an asterisk because I’d rather you and your children read the others
first. That’s the main point.
The novels I left with an asterisk are those that are
fundamentally entertaining. They have
plots that are fun and protagonists who are fun. They might be tragedies or they might have
sad endings, but they are novels that humans need to read and writers need to
understand. In some measure, I applied
the prejudice of choice. For example, I
think Matilda is a nearly perfect example of Romantic protagonist and a
Romantic plot—Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is not. Both novels have Romantic protagonists and
plots, but Matilda is a much more powerful Romantic protagonist. She is almost a perfect Romantic protagonist. Charlie is not. All of this is worth discussing.
So, I’ve applied a prism to the classics. What I should do now is look at these and
perhaps compare them to the other novels that are similar. Maybe that will help us understand more about
what really makes a classic, and what makes an entertaining novel.
In the end, we can figure out what makes a work have a great
plot and theme, 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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