06 September 2022, Writing - part xxx069 Writing a Novel, We are Refining the Protagonist, Powering Through, Exercises, about Characters
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.
The crumbs, or some of them are gone.
I’m moving on to characters in the scene setting.
The first thing that might seem astonishing to you is that characters are
part of the scene setting. In reality,
people are just setting elements. They
become creative and plot elements by promotion through the protagonist
characters and plot.
Think of it this way. If I have a
person, let’s say a police sergeant at his desk—that is a person as a setting
element. I can leave the sergeant at
that, but if the protagonist speaks to the police sergeant, I have just
promoted that setting element (person) to a creative element. Usually, such an important creative element
as a person and a police sergeant is a Chekov’s gun—they can’t just remain a
creative element. They must be a part of
the plot and the telic flaw resolution—otherwise, why include them at all. Thus, the protagonist speaking to the police
sergeant gets some piece of information that helps continue the storyline
toward the telic flaw resolution. That’s
the way it works.
Now, about characters or rather people as setting elements—I’m not certain you
can have writer’s block with this either.
Let me tell you why.
Let’s say my scene is a street scene.
If I had no idea what I wanted to do or where I wanted to write the description
of such a scene, I would go to the internet or to books and look through them
for an idea. If I didn’t find exactly
what I wanted, I’d find multiple pictures, and then use all the elements I
wanted from each.
Let’s say I found the perfect picture—here’s just such a one:
All I need to do is describe the scene, and put in the people I want or
need. I can even choose some for my
protagonist to interact with. Just take
a look. You have the lady in blue to the
right. Or how about the lady with the
red hat in the middle. Or perhaps the lady
in the orange and while dress in the street.
If you need a gentleman. The one with
the beard on the right is perfect. Or
the man in the brown coat in the center right.
Or the man escorting the lady in the orange and white dress. There are many other options, and if you don’t
see what you need, just make it up.
You can easily make up a character in this setting, because you have the
setting. A gentleman would be described
just like any of the examples, just put on your own spin. Each of these men or women can be described because
we can see them—their minds and professions or lives are something else. You can make all that up as you need.
For example, if you need a banker, the man on the right seems perfect. If you need a governess, the lady in blue on
the right would be my choice. If you don’t
find someone to your liking, just search for a picture of the person you need,
and describe them.
You can’t have writer’s block when you are writing description. Now, I know what your next question is.
You have your scene set and the potential characters described, you want to
put them in motion and get them talking.
That’s creativity baby. If you
have all the ingredients but stull can’t perform, that’s an entirely different problem. That is the problem of ideas.
I’m leaving up the breadcrumbs from the last part—I have too many
breadcrumbs, but I hope it is all helpful.
Here’s where we are. We need to get
some ideas of what to do with our setting—including characters. This is usually a problem of revelation.
What can we do with the setting including the characters. This is entirely dependent on your novel, but
it is also dependent on the scene and the input to the scene. It is also dependent on the setting. I should put this in bold. It is also dependent on the setting. How can that be? Let’s write about that. This can definitely help with your writer’s
block.
If I have a house or any building in the setting—don’t you want to investigate
it? If you don’t, perhaps your setting
is crap. Sorry to sound crass, but I
develop settings entirely for the purpose of entertainment for my readers.
One of my prepub readers mentioned that entertainment might be a poor word
choice for modern readers. I’m not sure
I want to change my word, entertainment to describe all fiction writing because
all fiction writing must be entertaining to be successful. Period.
Perhaps I need a synonym.
Entertainment can be a diversion or a distraction, or even an amusement. Amusement is worse. My prepub reader told me that the problem
with entertainment is that modern readers might not see tragedy as
entertaining. I’m not so sure. There is really no other word that works as
well as entertainment. Let me repeat.
I chose everything in my settings for entertainment. I want to excite and entertain my
readers. Thus, the description I gave
you for the Victorian house, I intended to provide an entertaining and exciting
venue. I wanted my readers to say with
Rose, “I want to see inside.” That’s the
point—exploration.
This is obvious or should be. If I
give you a really cool house, it should be interesting enough that you want to
explore it. There is one answer to the
question of how the setting determines the revelation or action or narrative in
the novel. How can you have writer’s
block if your characters need to explore the building in the setting.
Now, if the building is boring or not entertaining, oh well. You need some other motivation. The Victorian house I gave you screams to me—come
in and see. That’s just what I did.
The first thing my characters did, it is a cold February day, was to enter
the house. Inside was, the house, which
needs description, and a butler.
All modern houses and not all Victorian houses have butlers, but the people
in this neighborhood mostly all have butlers—especially, in named houses. They are provided by the state for these
special people. Special people is also another
part of this entire situation.
Let’s recap. We have a house, and
Victorian house in the setting. We are
going to enter the house and have a lookyloo.
There is still more house to see and to explore. You might never see it all—that depends on a
lot of things. If you really have writer’s
block, then by all means explore the entire place. Do what you need. The writing is the most important. You can always edit out what you don’t need. Just write.
The next part is more about revelation.
I’ll posit that the setting provides great opportunities for both
revelation and for pushing your storyline forward. We still haven’t used up the 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
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