08 August 2022, Writing - part xxx040 Writing a Novel, We are Refining the Protagonist, Powering Through, Tension and Release
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 becomes inevitable in the climax.
There is much more to this.
I evaluated the plots from the list of 112 classics 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%
So, what is it about writer’s block? Many if not most authors and writers will
complain about writer’s block. When I
was a younger author, I would get writer’s block very often, but I’ve
discovered something very important about writer’s block. Writer’s block is a function of the plot and
not the protagonist. The correction or
resolution of writer’s block comes from centering our writing on the
protagonist instead of the plot. This is
what I’d really like to get into as a topic.
Here is an outline of how we will approach this.
1.
Problems with a plot focus
2. Correcting with a protagonist focus
3. How to figure out a plot with a protagonist focus
4. Writing development
5. Fixing or blowing through problems with writing
6. How to write to prevent writer’s block
7. The Scene Outline
8. Exercises
9. Examples
10.
Conclusions
I could easily write: if you develop a great protagonist,
the writing will come. That’s basically
what I do, but I know that doesn’t work for the inexperienced and the young
writer.
Writing is really exhausting when you are first
starting. The problem, as I see it is
getting into the rhythm of the writing.
When a writer is in the rhythm, the writing seems to come easily, when
they aren’t, who knows what you might get.
When I was a younger writer, I found many times I had no
idea where I was going or what was going on in my writing. Today, I realize the problem was with my
protagonist, and also with my plot development.
Let’s lump those together and call them writing development.
Below, I’ve left up the outline for the protagonist. This is what you need to develop to build a
proper protagonist.
1.
Define the initial scene
2. At the same time as the above—fit a protagonist into the
initial scene. That means the minimum
of:
a.
Telic flaw
b.
Approximate age
c.
Approximate social degree
d.
Sex
3. Refine the protagonist
a.
Physical description
b.
Background – history of the
protagonist
i.
Birth
ii.
Setting
iii.
Life
iv.
Education
v.
Work
vi.
Profession
vii.
Family
c.
Setting – current
i.
Life
ii.
Setting
iii.
Work
d.
Name
4. Refine the details of the protagonist
a.
Emotional description (never to be
shared directly)
b.
Mental description (never to be
shared directly)
c.
Likes and dislikes (never to be
shared directly)
5. Telic flaw resolution
a.
Changes required for the protagonist
to resolve the telic flaw
i.
Physical changes
ii.
Emotional changes
iii.
Mental changes
b.
Alliances required for the
protagonist to resolve the telic flaw
c.
Enemies required for the protagonist
to resolve the telic flaw
d.
Plots required for the protagonist
to resolve the telic flaw
e.
Obstacles that must be overcome for
the protagonist to resolve the telic flaw
Now, if you slavishly follow this outline for the protagonist, it will not
guarantee you a great or even a good protagonist. What it will give you is a protagonist
detailed enough to write about. I’ve
covered the idea of the great protagonist before. I’ll state again, and you should review what
I’ve written, you need a good Romantic protagonist.
The protagonist is developed simultaneously, in my mind with the initial
scene. There are other means to begin
your writing development, but I don’t, and I’ve shown you the pitfalls I’ve
discovered when using other methods or starting places. That doesn’t mean you can’t come at this
writing development from another standpoint.
Here are the four, in order of precedence, means of approaching the initial
scene. I have used all four in published
works. I recommend only the first two. The others can work, but they are not as good
at producing a great initial scene. This
is the first step, in my book, to writing development. As I wrote, it doesn’t matter how you got to
this point, this is where writing development begins. The list:
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
I think the proper organization and approach to the writing
itself is the best solution to writer’s black.
That’s why I spend so much time on the protagonist, scenes, and novel
development. I’m not an outline
writer—that is, I don’t like to write from an outline. You don’t have to be that organized. We aren’t writing technical papers here—we
are writing fiction.
So, the proper organization from my standpoint is the
organization that allows you the greatest latitude to write something really
good. That’s what writing development is
all about. Couple that with the
understanding of how to put together a scene, and you have enough organization
to write a great novel. Add to that the
protagonist, and you have everything.
If you remember, the novel is the revelation of the
protagonist, that’s really all you need—along with the organization.
If you are organized in this fashion, I see potential
success in the future. However, I know
everyone gets to the point where they say, “I can’t get any further.” Yeap, that happened to me why I was a
younger, less experienced writer. It
doesn’t happen anymore. The reason is
this: I fix or blow through problems with writing.
It doesn’t matter what the problem is. In writing, if you know the tricks, you can
always fix or blow through your writing problems. This isn’t a great single sentence description,
but I’ll try to explain just what I mean.
What I will do is look at the writing development and
especially, the scene development. We
will apply that to the protagonist development to get into the writing.
If you are stuck at the beginning, in other words, you
haven’t written anything yet, that is definitely a problem of protagonist
development and the initial scene. I
won’t go back over everything we have explored before, but we will start at the
beginning, and figure out how to solve the problem of writer’s block from the
initial creativity. Let’s use an outline
like this (this is a type of technical paper).
1.
Initial ideas (protagonist, initial
scene, and telic flaw)
2. The scene
3. Review and editing
4. Notes
5. Exercises
6. Ideas
7.
Picking up the pieces
We are moving on from the very beginning. I’m going to assume you have an idea with a
protagonist, an antagonist, a telic flaw, an initial setting, and an initial
scene. This is all you need to start a
novel. I showed you how to get to the
initial scene. I will also help you to
write it. I hope you have made it this
far. Usually, people get an idea for a
book and start writing. The problem
isn’t necessarily at the beginning but rather as the novel unfolds, they lose
the strength of their initial enthusiasm.
The muse is gone. I want to get
the muse moving. To kick it in the
backside and keep the creative and writing process going. That’s how we will get rid of writer’s block. The next stage is the scene.
We need to power through the scene writing process. By this, I mean, we must use the scene
development outline to force the writing to continue—that is a means to get rid
of writer’s block. So, here is the scene development outline repeated:
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
If you are writing the initial scene, you don’t technically
have a scene input. You are totally
dependent on creativity here. That is
what I took so much time with the initial scene, both past and present. You gotta have an initial scene. Most writers don’t have a problem with
this. They might have a lame or bad
initial scene, but they have an initial scene.
That’s why I tried to give careful help on how to get to that
scene. The rest is gravy—kind of.
You can have writer’s block at any time, but if you follow
the scene outline, you should be able to power through especially with a good
initial scene. You don’t have to have a
great initial scene—you just need an initial scene. Further, you don’t have to have it
written—yet. Let’s go through the scene
outline and see how to write the initial as well as all the other scenes in
your novel.
Imagine the output, creative elements, plot, telic flaw resolution
(climax) and develop the tension and release.
With the scene set, we can move along to the actual details of the
scene. I’d like to say we have everything
we need, but we don’t. The scene setting
is easy, the actual scene is difficult.
Just look at all the pieces we have to work out and with.
The output almost always comes form the input. Juice up the scene with the unexpected. Suddenly, we are back to tension and release.
Look carefully at the items in the above sentence. Let me spell this out for us.
1.
Scene setting – setting elements
2.
Output – comes from the input
3.
Creative elements – promoted from the setting elements
4.
Plot – promoted from the creative elements
5.
Telic flaw – basis of everything
6.
Tension and release – the creative nature of the scene
Yes, this is the ultimate problem with writing novels and scenes or even
short stories—you need some creativity and imagination. Creativity and imagination is how we make the
scenes entertaining and exciting. That’s
what fiction is all about and that is what we ultimately need in our scenes.
So, how do we produce great tension and release. I’d argue this comes directly from the
writing of the scene, but that isn’t very fair.
I just throw all my setting elements, the telic flaw, and the output of
the scene, and then I write the scene. I
expect the scene to come out great, or at least be entertaining. The way I do this is through adding in the
unexpected and all kinds of fun stuff.
The best example of this is my example from yesterday. Here is the outline for that scene
development:
1.
Scene input – travel to a holy spring
2.
Scene setting – the five major characters, the
protagonist, and two important characters, the woods south of Saint Malo, the
holy spring.
3.
Output – travel to a holy spring and gather holy water.
4.
Creative elements – all the setting elements are basic creative
elements—add to the setting elements, an ancient cottage, two goddesses who
live there, the holy spring belongs to them.
They are the Breton goddesses of love.
5.
Plot – the creative elements are promoted to plot
elements through character interaction.
Thus, the plot is to travel to the holy spring (travel plot), gather
holy water (acquisition plot), see the cottage (investigation plot), be
captured by the goddesses (captivity plot), speak with the goddesses (dialog),
gain the help of the goddesses (acquisition plot), return to the ecole.
6.
Telic flaw – the resolution of the telic flaw of the
novel will require the help of the goddesses.
This scene sets up their help.
Within the dialog, this becomes a point and an area of discussion.
7.
Tension and release—the tension and release comes from
multiple incidents related to the plots and the interaction of the characters
and the new plot elements. Let’s look at
this.
Okay, the point of the tension and release is to produce an entertaining
scene. In this scene, I interjected some
fun elements with the cottage and the goddesses. The cottage is simply one of the setting
elements that lead to the creative and then plot elements. That’s how this all works. You can do this with any scene in any
novel.
The ultimate point is that we place setting elements into the scene, promote
them to creative elements through the interaction of the characters, and make
them plot element by fitting them into the telic flaw and overall plot of the
novel (input and output of the scene).
You don’t want to just throw any setting element into the scene. For example, it might not make any sense to
throw in a castle to a novel about New York.
Or, then again, it might. That is
just what Riordan kind of did with his young adult novels. He put the different pantheons of the gods
into USA cities. That is a setting element. He had his characters interact with these
setting elements promoting them to creative elements, and then he promoted
those to plot element by tying them into the telic flaw resolution.
A wise author determines the basic and general means to achieve the telic flaw
resolution, them interjects the proper setting elements into the scenes to do
just that.
I write novels in some degree similar to Riordan. My novels are usually not as direct and juvenile
as his, but that’s just my audience. He
writes in a type of reflective worldview.
I do the same. He can interject
all kinds of exciting stuff into his scenes, and so can I.
Even if you are writing in a real worldview, you can interject all kinds of
interesting setting elements. Just look
at most “real” worldview novels. For
example, For Whom the Bells Toll, has a wartime setting in Fascist Spain. That’s pretty entertaining or at least
exciting. Every great novel does
this. The authors write scene by scene
the revelation of the protagonist. They
interject the setting elements to make the novel entertaining and exciting.
This is exactly what we must do. Perhaps
I should look at basic tension and release development again before we move on.
All of this can and will reduce writer’s
block. I do all these things as a matter
of course in my writing. This is just
some of the basics of writing. It’s the
kinds of ideas they never taught me in school.
We will continue to move along in the list of how
of get rid of writer’s block.
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.
F or 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
fiction, theme, plot, story,
storyline, character development, scene, setting, conversation, novel, book,
writing, information, study, marketing, tension, release, creative, idea, logic
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