9 October 2022, Writing - part xxx102 Writing a Novel, History of Novels, The Future
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.
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. This is the modern style of the novel.
The action
and dialog style is what we mean when we write: show and don’t tell. This refers specifically to action and
dialog. In the narrative style, the writer
uses omniscient voice, a type of narrative view, to tell us about the
characters and the setting.
In action
and dialog style, the author shows us the setting and world thought
description, and the mind of the characters only through dialog and through the
action in the novel. The author does not
tell us about anything but shows us about everything. This is why authors in the modern era are
story showers and not storytellers. Overall,
this is a much better and much more powerful writing style than the narrative
style. Unfortunately, many inexperienced
authors have no clue how to show and not tell.
In fact, one of my prepublication writers was telling me about a blogger
and author who constantly wrote about showing and not telling, but whose
writing is all telling. This is funny
because it makes me wonder how that writer can even get the attention of a
publisher. Perhaps they are confused.
The
publishers certainly are. Many first
person novels are favorites today, but the first person is almost a guarantee
of telling. Even if the first person
novelist tries to weed it out, it is almost impossible not to tell when in the
first person. The protagonist has almost
no other recourse.
The main
reason I use a protagonist’s helper in my novels is to allow the protagonist to
tell their minds through dialog. There
are many means to do this, but the protagonist’s helper is one of the most
powerful. Other great means are friends,
mentors, and just communication, but few of these can become intimate enough to
accomplish the real goal of showing the mind of the protagonist.
In every
case and any case, the action dialog style is the style that will get you
published. It doesn’t matter that you
find a few novels and authors who have had success with a narrative style or
any other style. The most important and
powerful method is using action and dialog to show your story.
Set the
stage, place your characters and stuff on the stage, set the characters in
motion and dialog, that will make a wonderful novel.
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
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