23 June 2021, Writing - part xx628 Writing a Novel, Plots and Classics, William Makepeace Thackeray
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.
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 loves pretentious Victorian
authors. Unfortunately, they can’t tell
the difference between good and poor Victorian authors. I argue that with Thackeray, we get an
especially poor and pretentious writer.
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray – No Romantic protagonist or
Romantic plot.
Vanity Fair is
framed between puppet shows. It’s last
etching is a couple of girls with their box of dolls. The writing was Thackeray’s and the pictures
as well. This should give us pause.
The novel is a true Victorian soap opera before there were
even Russian soap operas. It’s
protagonist is Becky Sharp with a co-defendant of Emmy Sedley. Becky’s failing and telic flaw is that she is
a common person and impoverished who wishes to gain wealth and position. Yes, this is a fate will out novel of the
highest degree.
In the modern world, the Romantic protagonist and plot sees
the common person achieving their goals of position and wealth through
education, intelligence, and cunning. Not
so in the Victorian Era. In this time,
the common and impoverished were unfit to succeed. Thackeray shows us this very well in Vanity
Fair. Becky is conniving and certain
to fail. Meanwhile, Emmy, who starts out
wealthy even when impoverished is certain to succeed. And so she does.
Vanity Fair
was written to encourage the dying nobility and wealthy that the common and
poor middle class could never succeed in overcoming them and their class based
society. This is what I really hate
about the Victorians and their entire Era.
Let’s evaluate this novel 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?
I find Vanity Fair as exciting and entertaining as I
would an intentional trial of a person caught trying to become wealthy through
hard work. This is the antithesis of the
idea of hard work results in success and the American Dream. I find this type of novel abhorrent. If you enjoy it, the more power to you. Vanity Fair represents the opposite of
human success and replaces it with class and birth.
I’ve read Vanity Fair once, and that was once
enough. The other Victorians weren’t as
nasty about class and the class based society as Thackeray. By the way, Thackeray wasn’t ironic or satiric. Thackeray was pandering to his perceived audience. That’s a great approach for an author, but he
missed the entire point. While the rag
pickers were buying and reading penny novels, he was telling them they could
never succeed.
There are a number of adaptations of Vanity Fair. I guess it still appeals to the classed and nobility. Don’t worry, no one will make a really
popular movie of it.
Becky Sharp is well named.
She is sharp and conniving. She
uses her position to constantly try to achieve position and wealth. This was the greatest sin to the blood will
out Victorians. Of course she would and
could never succeed—she was so common.
The Romantic protagonist would achieve success because of their
skills. Thackeray made sure Becky could
never achieve her goals. In addition,
Thackeray made Becky a hateful character especially compared to Emmy.
Vanity Fair has
the typical Victorian plot. It has nothing
to do with the impossible or real resolution.
It’s purpose is to show how the uppity commoner, Becky an and should
never even attempt to be like Emmy. In
fact, the climax of the novel is where Becky ruins Emmy’s view of her beloved,
seduces and likely kills her brother for money, and returns to England with
Emmy’s brother’s money, but with zero position.
Vanity Fair
provides some type of human values. I’m
not certain which, but they must be some kind.
These are not the types of human values I want to engender in my
children or others. Class and nobility
have nothing to do with real human success or goodness.
Vanity Fair
is not unique in any way. It is a poor
example of typical Victorian writing.
What makes it worse than most is its pretension to be a truthful account
of humanity. If you ever wondered why
the nobility were so often pilloried and executed as societies changed,
Thackeray reminds us why. No other
Victorian Era novel is quite so bad.
There are many Russian novels that grind the nobility in the face of the
people, but not so many British ones.
Vanity Fair is
called a Victorian domestic plot novel.
It does perhaps represent the history and people of the time, but it is,
alas, not the future at all. Dickens was
common enough to not lift up the nobility at the expense of the common. You find blood will out in almost all the
Victorian novels of the time, but the writers were either wise or cautious
enough not to denounce the regular people while lifting up the higher classes. Yes, there is a modicum of deference, but
deference to the upper class isn’t grinding your brothers and sisters into the
dirt. This is why I dislike
Thackeray. I recommend almost any of the
other Victorians over his novels.
We’ll look at Robert Louis Stevenson 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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