04 September 2022, Writing - part xxx067 Writing a Novel, We are Refining the Protagonist, Powering Through, Exercises, Stuff
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
I’m leaving the information and outline for writing scenes up because we are
still about writing scenes. All fiction
writing is about scenes. I know your writing
instructors never taught you this, they still took your money. Let me be very clear—fiction writing is all
about scenes. Figure out how to write a
good scene, and you can write a great novel.
We are up to the point where we need to bring out the big guns. If all the other help hasn’t worked or if you
really haven’t been able to break through the creative boundaries—that is, if
you can’t figure out a great protagonist or can’t develop something creative to
write.
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.
The first step is to follow the scene outline. The scene outline starts with the previous
scene output, but I’m going to make it even simpler. Let’s start with the setting.
Why the setting—you don’t need much creativity or imagination to write a
setting. All you need is the time,
place, and stuff. We are going to work
with each one.
To make this even simpler, I’m going to start with the place. The place is pretty simple. I’ve written about using the scene output to
define or specify a place—let’s just start with a place. Pick a really interesting and fun place. Since I just finished describing just such a
place for my novel Rose, I’ve got just such a place. Here is how I got to it.
I needed a place, a house actually, near to Kensington Palace Gardens,
London, known as the "London Cage."
The reason is that in all my novels, the Organization which was MI19
during World War Two was headquartered in the London Cage. I kept it there and expanded it to be the
British language and interrogation agency called “the Organization.” In my novels, this agency handles the
language shares and covert operation support for MI6 mainly, but other British
agencies.
The neighborhood where the leaders live is close to the Kensington Palace
Gardens headquarters. I place all the
houses of these leaders in this neighborhood.
It is a real neighborhood, but not perhaps as exciting or special as I
make it.
In this case, I needed a house for my current head of the Stela branch of the
Organization. This is Leora
Marshall. So I borrowed a house and
described it. That’s all you need to do. I can give you the description of the
house. Here it is:
Rose wanted to ask many questions, but
she wasn’t sure what she could ask or how to start. She didn’t need to worry immediately and
tried to relax. She kept an eye on
Leora, but turned her view to the sights outside. They drove only a short distance to a
neighborhood close to the Brownstone and then to a beautiful house near the
entrance.
By this time, Rose’s nose was stuck to
the large back window of the Bentley.
She forgot that she should be watching out for herself and for
Leora. The house was red brick and marvelously
constructed. Rose pulled Victorian from
her memories. The front was surrounded
by an open wrought iron picket fence, with a red brick gate post on either side
and an opened iron gate like the fence.
The house had a wide covered porch with white wood railing and heavy
ornate posts. At the center, the
entrance was capped by a pitched roof and wide brick stairs reaching up to the
porch and the twin stained glass with oak framed doors. The porch stretched across the entire front
of the house and around the sides. To
the right was a large gazebo with a domed roof.
The rest of the house stretched up from the first floor to a wonderfully
varied second story. At the left, an
octagon tower reached from the second story to a third where windows reached
all around it. Its roof was a tightly
pitched pinnacle that looked like it should have carried a pinion or a
flag. Below were windows too, and to
the far left, another square wall with windows behind the tower. On the right, a square room with a large
window and a pitched roof copied the entrance.
Small windows indicated a third floor above it. Between the tower and this room was a small
window and red bricked wall. At the back
to the right, behind the gazebo, Rose could see another lower roof line. Perhaps it was an outbuilding or another part
of the strangely varied house. She
wanted so much to see the inside.
This isn’t a completed or edited piece of writing. I simply present it to you because this is
how I pictured the house. In fact, I can
show you the house I developed this description from.
I hope this is kind of what you saw in your head from my description. What I did to get here was this. I knew I wanted a Victorian house. I went to the internet and searched for a
Victorian house, and this was the one I found that fit my needs. Therefore, I described it. That’s all.
No writer’s block necessary. I
just described the picture above in words, and added what I wanted. That’s all.
You can do the same. Here is the
exercise, and this will be very valuable for you.
Find a house or any other building that you might be able to use in your
writing. I don’t care what it is. Find some place that is interesting. Copy what I did if you can’t think of
anything else. Just find some place, any
place.
Get a picture and describe it in words.
Take as long or as short a time as you need. You don’t need to overthink it. Editing can come later. The point is to get the description on paper
and potentially apply it to a novel you might write now or in the future. The entire point is to get used to taking
something from the real world and turning it into words. It is impossible to have writer’s block when
you are simply describing what you see in the real world. The trick to master is finding and
describing. We’ll move to the next step
and stage next.
I’m leaving up a trail of crumbs—even more than usual. I left up the place for the setting, and now
we will get to the time of the setting—time and perhaps stuff.
The time is really easy for this scene.
The previous scene and the time of day defined everything, but we should
go through the steps anyway.
That time is it in your novel? This
shouldn’t be that difficult, but it is important. One of the most irritating things modern and
inexperienced authors do is play twenty questions with time. It’s as if they are Victorian
writers—unwilling to tell us the date for some stupid reason. Tell it all.
That means you need to figure it out.
What year is it—your readers want to know.
You can be a little secretive about this, but why? There is nothing to hide and no people to
hide. The moment you mention anything in
history, the time won’t be obvious, but it will be. Make this obvious to your readers. You don’t need to write: it was 1965 and all
was well. Since my third published
novel, Aegypt, I’ve been putting the year and approximate time and place
at the head of my chapters. Like this:
February 2028, London, Great Britain
You can’t miss this date—it’s right there.
The reader and the writer know what February in London, England should
be like—if they don’t, we will show it to them.
This is part of the setting. We
define the time, then we show the time.
This includes the day, weather, temperature, the sunlight, the air
quality—whatever you need to define the place and setting in time.
This is really important, we aren’t giving a weather report, we are
providing a setting for our readers and for the stage of our novel. But you have to do it. Here is a setting stage from Rose
again:
The
day was typically dark and chill with low lying clouds. Their cheeks grew rosy with the exertion of
walking, and their breath rose from their lips like tiny geysers. As they walked to Robyn’s house, Rose asked,
“Did you intentionally wait for Shiggy to leave before you came to the kitchen
door?”
This is set in January in Rousay Island in Scotland. Can you tell?
This is setting part of the time.
I didn’t give you the rest that actually sets the time—in this scene, we
start in the morning and move to the later morning. They girls are going to bike.
Not only do you need to set the place, the buildings and physical elements
in the setting, you need to also set the time.
When I write “time” I mean everything related to time. The weather, the skies, the temperature,
everything. You get to determine what
you want to emphasize—that’s what writers do, but at this point, how can you
have writer’s block? If you have the
place, and now the time (as defined), you have plenty to write. I’ll give you more because we need the stuff
too. Look back at what Rose said—she
couldn’t wait to see the inside. That’s
next.
Still leaving bread crumbs—I’ll clean them up soon. I just don’t want you to miss this means of getting
rid of writer’s block. We are setting
the scene. I’m trying to show you how
easy it is to kill writer’s block with just setting the scene. I’ll move on eventually, but we need to look
at the third and forth component of scene setting—the third and fourth are
really the same—it’s stuff.
Stuff is everything else and the characters.
I guess I should have left in the characters as one of the scene setting
items, but I didn’t want to spook you—yet.
For some reason, writers get all freaked out about characters. I think you should see characters as the main
operators and main power items (creative and plot items) in your scenes. Let’s write about just stuff—everything else
first.
Okay, the stuff here is all the other descriptions and things in those
descriptions. In this case, we can
define that as the things and interior of the Victorian house. Now, for the description of the Victorian
house, I used a picture. If I had an interior,
I might use it, but I didn’t and I don’t care.
I know what houses like this are like on the inside (too many likes). Plus, I want to make the interior something I
can use in the novel. Thus, I made it up
with my imagination. I should probably
show you this. Here it is:
Rose’s head was on a swivel. She followed Leora up the walk and the steps
to the front door. The design in the
stained glass was an art deco girl with unbelievably red hair surrounded by a
storm of ivy.
Leora pushed open the door, and almost
immediately a tall butler entered the foyer.
Leora handed him her coat and gloves.
Rose entered more slowly.
The butler smiled and bowed, “Good afternoon,
Miss…?
Leora laughed, “This is Miss Tash. She will be staying with us for a while. Please make up the tower room for her. The works, Francis.” She turned to Rose, “This is Francis, our
butler. If you need for anything, you have
but to ask him.”
Rose nodded, then remembered her manners,
“Thank you, Francis. I’ve never met a
butler before.” She put out her hand.
Francis touched her hand, “You are
welcome to Ivy House, Miss Tash.”
Rose asked, “Ivy House?”
Francis nodded, “Although it is hard to
tell at the moment, in the spring, summer, and fall, the house is covered with
Ivy.”
“How can it be more beautiful than it is
now?”
Leora laughed, “There are many beautiful
houses around here. Ivy is the special
feature of this one, plus this is a named house.”
“A named house?”
“Since Victoria, I think. It is known on the national registers as Ivy
House.” Leora made a motion to follow. Behind her back, she called, “Oh, Francis,
tell Ms. Trumble I will have a guest for dinner and for the next few days.”
“I have already informed her, ma’am. The tower room is ready. Is this young lady like our friend Ms. Shiggy
Tash? Shall I make any special
allowances?”
“No need, she is a protegee of Ms. Tash,
but not as … hazardous or boisterous.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Rose wasn’t sure what to say. She followed Leora down the foyer into a
large open room with heavy stairs that led to the upper floor. The interior was all ancient oiled oak. The stairs led up to a railed walkway and
hall. The walkway went all around the
second story of the large receiving room, and Rose could spot doors at each
corner and turn. Before the stairs, to
the right lay an open formal parlor and the left a few closed doors. Artwork covered the walls. They looked like old oil paintings to
Rose. Leora led her to the right past
the stairs. A formal dining room sat behind
the parlor and to the left she heard sounds like meal preparation, possibly the
kitchen. They walked further back down a
long hallway whose walls were covered with photographs. In the photos were children of all ages,
Leora, and a man about the same age as Leora.
The man was dressed in military uniforms in many of the
photographs. He was a colonel in the
last. Rose counted four separate
children in many of the photographs.
They seemed to be a testimony to the lives of the people who lived here,
or so Rose guessed. Leora led her into
an informal parlor just behind the dining room.
The door was open and a hearty fire blazed in the large fireplace. The furniture was all age darkened leather,
but the room wasn’t dark at all. Large
framed windows let the last rays of the winter sun blaze through them. Leora turned on the lights anyway. Over the fireplace was the portrait of a very
handsome and regal looking man—the colonel from the photographs. Leora turned around and made a motion for
Rose to sit. A leather loveseat centered
on a low mahogany tea table faced the hearth.
On either side were large thickly upholstered leather chairs.
Rose read the room quickly. Although another door sat behind the chair to
the right of the hearth, it was closed, and by its looks either a closet or an
entrance to a water closet or perhaps a phone closet. She wanted a clear view of the entire room,
but she also didn’t necessarily want to sit directly next to Leora. If Shiggy was any example of the strength and
reflexes of these people, Leora could be deadly at that close of range.
When Rose didn’t sit immediately, Leora
laughed and sat on the left-hand chair.
Rose sighed and sat to the right on the loveseat.
I included some more. I made up the
door—the art deco stained glass door isn’t on the Victorian house picture. I also made up the part about the named
houses. There are indeed named houses in
Britain and other places. The named houses
do have special recognition. The rooms
and interior are all made up.
Here is the point. Just write and
give us a description. You can mess up a
description, but you can’t blame writer’s block. If you can’t make up your interior or stuff,
just get a picture from the internet and copy the description in words. That’s going a bit far, but for Queen
Elizabeth’s office, I did just that, because I needed the Queen’s actual
office. In the case of Ivy House, there
is no such thing as Ivy House, so I can use my imagination to furnish and build
the interior. I do need to follow the exterior
to a degree—that’s a given.
If you are bad at architecture or houses, you need to get a floor plan. For Viera Lodge in Rose, I did have a
floor plan and I followed it perfectly to every piece of furniture in the
place. I did make up the part about the
hearths. I wanted to have four active
hearths in the house—two wood and two gas.
This isn’t as odd as you think. There
are five chimneys on the house. One for
each hearth and one for the heating system.
That’s architectural. I never
said you should be ignorant to write. If
you want to write well, you need to know about these things or be able to study
them to make your writing accurate. This
is true of history too.
So, you can’t have writer’s block while setting any scene. We will get to the characters next. They are also part of scene setting.
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
No comments:
Post a Comment