Writing - part xx632 Writing a Novel, Plots and Classics, Edger Rice Burroughs

 27 June 2021, Writing - part xx632 Writing a Novel, Plots and Classics, Edger Rice Burroughs

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.

*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?

 

If you remember, The British Broadcasting Corporation generally doesn’t acknowledge American authors and especially doesn’t like entertaining authors of any generation, it shouldn’t surprise you that they ignored the most important, and at the time, unique author of the early Twentieth Century.

 

While the rest of the writing world was pursuing realism (which wasn’t) and naturalism (which wasn’t, and then cubism (which didn’t work at all in writing), Edgar Rice Burroughs was giving us a new kind of Romantic protagonist.  We find this new type of protagonist first in Tarzan.   

*87 Tarzan – Edger Rice Burroughs – Romantic protagonist and Romantic plot.

Tarzan is one of the most magnificent novels written.  It is the format for almost every modern bestseller.  It is the novel that cast the world from the corsets of the Victorian Era to the modern Romantic protagonists.  There were touches of these types of Romantic protagonists in authors like Robert Louis Stevenson, but they never went far enough.  There were touches of this type of protagonist in the Victorians who enforced their will on the world and nature.

 

The novel Tarzan is about a child of nobility who was born in the jungle following a shipwreck of his parents.  His parents are killed by the jungle and Tarzan is raised by the Great Grey Apes.  Yes, Tarzan was not born of the common, but that doesn’t matter.  Tarzan stands in place of the average person born of civilized humans but raised in nature.  This makes him about the most perfect Romantic protagonist in literature.

 

Tarzan overcomes the jungle because of his training, cunning, and intelligence.  He likewise overcomes the civilized world through the same training, cunning, and intelligence.  Everything Tarzan achieves is due to his own hard work and diligence.  He teaches himself to read, he learns to beat the jungle and asserts himself over the denizens of the jungle, and he asserts himself over the civilized world.  Again, this makes him the perfect Romantic protagonist.

 

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?

 

Tarzan is almost the definition of entertainment.  This is a novel that shows us an entertaining plot and characters with every turn of every page.  It is a fun novel, an entertaining novel, and the real beginning of the science fiction revolution we were destined to see in the Twentieth Century.  Earlier science fiction, notably Jules Verne gave us science fiction based on technology and science.  Edgar Rice Burroughs provided us with science fiction based on a protagonist.  The setting and the plot of Tarzan is fundamentally not science fiction, but what nudges the novel toward science fiction is the use of elements like the Great Grey Apes, unrealized creatures, societies and cultures, and other hidden human societies.  We see these elements grow and nurtured in other ERB novels and series, but Tarzan was the beginning.

 

If you haven’t read Tarzan you have missed one of the most entertaining and important novels of the Twentieth Century.  This is a novel that young people should all read.  I read Tarzan when I was in sixth grade.  It excited my mind and reading like few other novels ever did.  If I had known about Heinlein at the time, I might have had a similar experience.  In fact, when I read my first Heinlein novel, Farmer in the Sky, I saw how powerful an entertaining novels could really be.  I’ve read Tarzan more times that I can remember.  I should read it again.  I’ve read every Tarzan novel and likely every novel ERB wrote.  Although many so-called poohbahs of literature pooh pooh the importance of novels like Tarzan, this is the bestseller.  This is the future of modern novels.  This is the type of series that brings back readers over and over.  

 

Tarzan is literally the most adapted and early adapted novel in history.  The ultimate problem is that it is also the worst adapted novel in history.  The entire point of Tarzan is to show how the man Tarzan is completely at home in the jungle, Forth Avenue, and in the House of Lords.  Most movies get the jungle part right, but not the most important element, his civilization.  The overall point of Tarzan is that he is the ultimate human.  He overcomes the jungle and the blacktop jungle with equal ease.  He is the ultimate Romantic protagonist.

 

There is no doubt, Tarzan is the protagonist, and Tarzan is a Romantic protagonist.  He fits every criteria in the list.  What is more important is his skills.  Tarzan is skilled as a human being.  He is literally, the perfect human being.  If you notice, Tarzan also fits many of the features of the type of protagonist readers love.

 

What ERB perfected in his novels was the Romantic plot.  We see many examples that approach this type of plot, but ultimately, ERB gives an impossible telic flaw that is nearly perfectly resolved in every case.  He does this over and over.  At the same time, his novels are not redundant.  There is some formulaic quality in the writing, but I attribute that to the many novels he wrote and the invention of this new Romantic plot.

 

Just as Dandelion Wine projects human values in a society changing from the rural to the urban and no technology to technology, Tarzan moves from the cringing Victorian commoner to the brave free humans of the Twentieth Century.  These are not new human values, but these are aristocratic values that in the Victorian and before were only available to the nobility.  This is the real human and the real humans who overcame the old aristocracy to bring us the new free human.

 

I’ve already mentioned, ERB made us a unique and powerful new protagonist and plot injected into a new type of novel.  You can call Tarzan science fiction, but it isn’t your classical science fiction.  You can call it a type of fantasy, but it isn’t fantasy.  Tarzan gave us an entirely new way of looking at literature.  It appealed to the common person and lifted the common person to new heights.  It was the novel that literally moved the world from stilted and ancient aristocracy to new and vibrant humanity. 

 

Tarzan is the future.  Almost all modern bestsellers and favorite entertaining novels all follow the model of Tarzan.  Realism is dead.  Naturalism is dead.  Modern Romantic is the living means of writing and reading novels.  ERB did it first.  This is why this novel is so important.  I should have included some other novels by ERB, but I wanted to highlight his best.  This is a true classic everyone should read.

 

We’ll look at Joseph Conrad 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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