8 October 2022, Writing - part xxx101 Writing a Novel, History of Novels, Modern
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: Let me tell
you a little about writing. Writing isn’t
so much a hobby, a career, or a pastime.
Writing is a habit and an obsession.
We who love to write love to write.
If you love
to write, the problem is gaining the skills to write well. We want to write well enough to have others enjoy
our writing. This is important. No one writes just for themselves the idea is
absolutely irrational and silly. I can
prove why.
In the first
place, the purpose of writing is communication—that’s the only purpose. If you want to write for yourself, you need
to invent your own writing and language that no one can and will
understand. It would be better if you
can’t understand it either.
The purpose
for writing is communication. It really
has no other purpose. You can give it another
purpose just as I can use your head as a hammer. A head as a hammer will do little for the
nail, the head, or the accomplishment of the work and the work of writing is
communication.
If you aren’t
using writing to communicate, you are using your head as a hammer—not good. In fact, irrational.
Writing is
literally the communication of ideas in the brain of the writer to the brains
of others. This process begins with speaking,
but speaking is very different than writing.
I hope that’s something you already got out of this discussion.
Most early
writing attempted to be real worldview.
If you notice, however, the idea of what is real has changed quite a bit
since Robinson Caruso.
Robinson
Caruso is indeed considered by many to be
the first compete novel in the English language. That isn’t to say other earlier works were
not complete, but to be a novel, the work should be an entertaining piece of
fiction that is a complete work based on the following outline:
1.
The initial scene
2.
The rising action scenes
3.
The climax scene
4.
The falling action scene(s)
5.
The dénouement
scene(s)
The major
characteristics of Robinson Caruso is that it is written in the first
person, past tense, in a journal style, implying the past. Each of these are very important for looking
at the development of the novel.
By the
Victorian Era, the novel took a different form, that was third person, past
tense, narrative style, implying the present.
Romantic
protagonists and plots became the form of the modern novel about 1900. There have been few changes to this form, but
we are seeing some interesting and problematic changes in the tenor of the protagonist. We’ll look at this eventually, but right now,
I’d like to examine the great change to the style of the modern novel and the
focus of the modern novel.
In general, from
Daniel Defoe to the end of the Victorian Era in around 1900, the novel incorporated
a “real” worldview. Now, as I have noted
what is real has changed a bit even in these about 200 years. However, something amazing was about to
happen around the 1920s—this change was foreshadowed by H.G. Wells and Jules
Vern. Jules Vern is really the father of
this genre that is science fiction.
In the 1920s,
we saw not only the real advent of the science fiction novel as an acceptable
and popular type of novel, but with it, we also saw the advent of fantasy
writing and the created worldview.
However, there was something else happening before this.
Some of the
great parents of this science fiction and fantasy revolution were reflected worldview
writers. The major author I’m writing
about is Bram Stoker, and the other was Mary Shelly. There are others, but not a host of
others. The reflected worldview gained
its greatest nudge and composition with Dracula. Before that Frankenstein made his debut. There are few of these wonderful reflected worldview
novels, but these are the pathfinders. Today, magic realism, which is a total
reflected worldview is sold everywhere, and we see zombie, vampire, fairy,
goddess, gods, all the supernatural encapsulated in normal literature around
the first world. How did this happen and
what does it mean?
First, the science
fiction revolution is most evident as a change in the overall style of the
novel. Notice that in the Victorian Era,
we saw the third person, past tense, narrative style, implying the present. This changed gradually to third person, past
tense, action and dialog style, implying the present. The problem with this style or form is that
as technology began to increase significantly, the action and dialog style
along with the push of technology forced novels into the form of third person,
past tense, action and dialog style, implying the future.
There is
some great change with the action and dialog style we must address, but the
idea of implying the future relates directly to what we think of when we
address science fiction. To see this
effect, just look at Ayn Rand or almost any novel set in no specific time written
in the Twentieth Century. The lack of
time definition and especially the implication of the future is all there. Even novels set within a specific time seem
to push the boundaries of technology and expectations of technology. This is especially evident in movies and
still is. We should examine some of the
very important changes that happened in the Twentieth Century and that still
affect us now.
Most specifically,
we need to look at the action and dialog style as well as the potential changing
of the protagonist, and the development of the reflected worldview.
Writing is the
abstract communication of the mind through symbols.
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.
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.
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
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