Writing - part xx587 Writing a Novel, Plots and Classics, Thomas Hardy

 13 May 2021, Writing - part xx587 Writing a Novel, Plots and Classics, Thomas Hardy

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. 

 

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.

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic plot.

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic plot.

67 Jude the Obscure - 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.

*17 The Cadwal Chronicles – Jack Vance – Romantic protagonist and Romantic plot.

*19 The Green Pearl Novels – Jack Vance –Romantic protagonist and Romantic plot.

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger – No Romantic protagonist or 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.

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic plot.

31 Anna Karenina - 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.

61 Of Mice and Men - 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.

*33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis –Romantic protagonist and Romantic plot.

43 Til We All Have Faces – C.S. Lewis – No Romantic protagonist or 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.

*42 Dracula – Bram Stoker – No Romantic protagonist and a 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.

*63 The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic plot.

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery –Romantic protagonist but no 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.

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.

*56 Kim - Rudyard Kipling – Romantic protagonist and somewhat Romantic plot.

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic plot.

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov – 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.

*97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas – Romantic protagonist and Romantic plot.

66 As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner – 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.

*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.

*82 Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson – Somewhat Romantic protagonist and 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.

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.

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.

 

Let’s do a little comparison between these classic works and evaluate them.  Here is how we will evaluate them:

 

1.      Are they entertaining? 

2.      Would you read it again?

3.      How’s the protagonist?

4.      How’s the plot?

5.      How does it relate to actual human values and life?

6.      Did the author write in a way that makes this work truly unique?

7.      Is this work important to humanity and to the future?

 

The British Broadcasting Corporation obviously felt obligated to include the most awful British novels.  You can tell because they included Ulysses by James Joyce.  This points out why they also included Hardy.  Hardy may be the most pedantic and obtuse author of British extraction.  His writing is anti-Romantic. 

 

If we are going to include any Thomas Hardy in a list of classics, Robinson Caruso as well as the other writing of Defoe must also be included.     

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic plot.

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic plot.

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy – No Romantic protagonist or Romantic plot.

Tess explains that marriage and chastity are no avail to the middleclass.  The novel gives us a woman who is raped and eventually takes her revenge on her rapist.  That’s about all there is.  It is a sad tragedy about people with few rights and no help.  It shows the poor and middle class as feckless and without morals.  Their religion is purposeless and cannot help.  This is a theme in all of Hardy’s writing.

 

Crowd shows us that middleclass values and thrift do not avail the poor.  Gabriel loses everything he worked for all his life in a freak accident.  An accident which though possible is completely unlikely.  Bathsheba, the feckless woman in the novel and it’s somewhat protagonist, rejected Gabriel when he had money.  Now, Gabriel becomes the employee of the wealthy Bathsheba.  Lots of stuff happens, and in the end Bathsheba comes back to Gabriel.  The message of the novel is that the middleclass is fleeting and based solely on inheritance and marriage. 

 

Jude tells us that scholarship for the middleclass is without merit or recompense and that marriage is no better than just sex.  Jude, the protagonist, wishes to become a scholar of merit, but marriage and his own fecklessness lead to failure and a sexual relationship of a very strange and dubious nature.

 

All of Hardy’s novels are filled with deus ex machina.  Most of these don’t make anything better for the characters, only worse.  The fact that Hardy has to use these to destroy the happiness and wealth of his characters should tell you something about the writing and the works themselves.  Hardy is called a realist in the Victorian Era.  I find him to be a pure Victorian writer who did not believe the poor or middleclass were able to take care of themselves or their lives.  His fantasy version of Britain would have resulted in the collapse of the nation and economy if it were true. 

 

We know his novels and his view of the British people is pure fantasy, and presents purely unique failures if they are representative at all.  Therefore, why would anyone want to read about these million to one people.  If they were successful and moral perhaps they would be worth reading about, but they aren’t.  This is my main beef with Hardy and his writing.      

 

Let’s evaluate these novels according to the criteria.

 

1.      Are they entertaining? 

2.      Would you read it again?

3.      How many movies/plays are there of the novel?

4.      How’s the protagonist?

5.      How’s the plot?

6.      How does it relate to actual human values and life?

7.      Did the author write in a way that makes this work truly unique?

8.      Is this work important to humanity and to the future?

 

No, these novels are not entertaining to me.  Perhaps a sadomasochist might find them entertaining, but I don’t.  One deus ex machina per novel in the setup is enough for me.  Anymore than that and the novel is ruined anyway.  Hardy is not fun, entertaining, or elucidating.

 

Read it again?  Only if it was the only thing I could read in prison—then I would write my own much better novel.  There is nothing to get from Hardy.

 

Yes, there are plenty of adaptations of these novels.  I’m not certain that means much.  You don’t here of their patent success, and they are certainly not movies and plays one watches for entertainment.  Not unless you enjoy seeing human failure.  I guess if you like Greek tragedies, you will enjoy Hardy.  I do like Greek tragedies, but Hardy is just too close.

 

The protagonists are the opposite of the kinds of protagonists I like to read about and write about.  They are not Romantic, and they are generally not successful because of their own actions.

 

The plots are pedantic and not Romantic.  They have little action and resolve through death, murder, or execution—literally.

 

These novels do not represent actual humanity.  There are likely people like those written about in Hardy’s novels, but if a majority of people were like his characters, they world would fail.  Humanity would fail.  Is there some value in having negative characterizations in art?  I’m not so sure.  We hope for the best in humanity and we seek it.  To seek the worst in humanity and acclaim it is perhaps too much.

 

Are these novels unique?  Just the description of realism should tell you they are not.  Realism means the literary community see these novels as truly reflective of humanity.  I don’t.  They are not reflective or real at all.  They are contrived and show the worst of humanity.  Again, if you like this, go for it.  It is not what I seek in writing or art.

 

The future.  There is zero future in Hardy.  The expansion of these novels beyond their times is not even possible.  Their reflection of their times is impossible.  At the same time Hardy was writing his novels, the middleclass and poor in Britain were putting a lie to them.  The middleclass expanded.  The poor became the middle class.  In the USA, this was happening at even a greater rate.  The nobility declined and were eventually destroyed by the British tax system, which is highly socialistic.  Hardy would be dismayed, the class he obviously didn’t touch because he believed it would lead the people from their vile living through socialistic rule, was destroyed.  The middleclass prospered, the Poor became the middleclass, and all the values Hardy mocked became the values that eventually freed them from the tyranny of the noble and monarchy.  It’s a beautiful irony.

 

We’ll look at Thomas Hardy next.

 

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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