10 October 2022, Writing - part xxx103 Writing a Novel, History of Novels, Protagonist and Plots
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.
|
|
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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 Romantic
protagonist and the Romantic plot has continued without much change as the
people’s choice since about 1900. It
started a little earlier than that, but these changes take time. We are seeing some change in the
protagonist, and I don’t think it is for the better.
The changes
we see that are being driven by the industry and not necessarily the marketplace
are a redefining of the protagonist along with woke plots.
It should go
without saying that the possibility of the norm or even the most qualified
writer being published in todays market is pretty much a pipe dream. Twenty years ago, this wasn’t true, but the
publishing industry has little need for a strong marketplace—their profits are
generally through production and libraries.
At least that’s how they act.
If you haven’t
noticed, protagonist are becoming woke and untenable. They generally don’t act rationally or in any
reasonable fashion. Even series novels are
being turned into political and social garbage through untenable characters and
plots. This has become the icon of the
modern publishing business. That’s not
to say potential publishers who are looking for great writing aren’t out there,
but much of the widely published fiction is pure drivel. How long this can last is impossible to tell.
In the past,
the marketplace would reject this kind of trash and eventually, we would get
back to where the readers controlled the market. This isn’t happening very fast, a correction
to the marketplace, if it is at all.
Part of the problem is that good authors who would normally stick with
regular publishing are giving up and going to self-publishing. It’s just so easy to do.
In addition,
not ready for prime time authors are doing the same. We have an influx of so many novels of such
dubious quality and the publishers (or many of them) aren’t really looking for
great writing and novels, but ideological novels and protagonists. The self-publishers aren’t very successful,
so they give up before they can even make a real debut. The published don’t get much more than a
flash because people want entertainment and not ideology. We are in a catch twenty-two for publishing
and novels.
Where this
will go, I have no idea. We can only
hope for an entertainment correction. In
any case, I will never teach you how to write an ideological novel—that’s just
too easy. My goal is entertainment. I will keep putting out novels that are entertaining
to me. These are novels I want to read
and like to read.
I’ll keep working
to find a publisher for my entertaining novels.
I develop powerful Romantic characters in a powerful Romantic plot. There is always a market for these kinds of
novels and these kinds of characters.
Eventually, the market must come back to this, or it will be the end of fiction
publishing.
To be even
more specific, where we expect Romantic protagonists to come from the common,
have uncommon skills, which they then develop through hard work to the skills
they can use to resolve the telic flaw, the modern ideological protagonist
might come from the common (or any source), but they are mentally driven by
their ideology and not just to develop skills, but usually, they are worthless
characters who just have skills, but who never really work to develop
them.
One example
is Harry Potty. Now Harry Potty is not
so ideological, but he is a modern protagonist.
He appears to come form the common, but in reality he is an aristocrat and
wealthy. He has skills, but doesn’t
hardly lift a finger to develop them. He
is a messiah like a god or a super hero (the same thing). The world and Harry is fated because he is
who he is and for no other reason. This
is not an ideological protagonist, but a throwback to the Victorian blood will
out protagonist. Is this entertaining? Yes, it is to a degree. So are Victorian novels. The real power in Harry Potty is the reflective
worldview called magical realism, which was and is actually a created worldview,
but the author kind of fooled the general public into thinking it is a
reflected worldview.
I don’t like
Harry Potty as a protagonist. The novels
are not bad, but not good either. They
are entertaining, and they give the impression of a reflected worldview which
is what audiences, readers, and the market really want. If you want to know why they aren’t that
good, think about it this way. They are meant
to entertain young adults and not adults—they are for children. Children are easily entertained by reasonable
writing, but can’t really figure out the details. The devil, so to speak, is in the
details. The other real problem with Harry
Potty is the C.S. Lewis problem. If you address
the reflected worldview, actually the supernatural, which is almost the same
thing, but you don’t touch God, you have pretty much ruined the tenor of your
novel.
In this way,
the novel becomes ideological without even stating it is. Children can’t figure this out, but adults
are supposed to. If you present a
magical and supernatural world, you can’t ignore God—that becomes logically
impossible. The ideology you are
promoting is basically some kind of atheism or nature worship completely separated
from the real or the reflected worldview.
This has been a major problem for many if not most modern novels.
In the real world
of the USA and even in Europe, some reasonably large percentage of the people believe
in God, a reasonably large number go to worship weekly, but a smaller percentage. The social observer should note that a very
large percentage and number are convinced about God, but how often do people in
novels, go to church, synagogue, or other worship centers? How often do they think about god, gods, or
belief, especially in a positive way. I
can guarantee you most people, even atheists, think about God or gods in some
fashion daily and weekly, but why is there very little fiction literature that
conveys this thinking, and why is so much of it negative or anti-God. The reason is ideology. The truly literate know this. The less than truly literate don’t even
understand what I’m writing about. This
is what Time magazine called babes in Libland about twenty years ago—the idea
that reality is shaped through fiction and literature, or even news. Reality is reality. Ideology is ideology. An entire society and culture can have an
entirely different ideology than that presented by the writing and literature
in that society.
That is the
main problem with modern fiction and modern writing. This is a serious problem, and one I tackle
head on with my writing. I represent the
culture and society of my culture and society.
I do this in an entertaining and not ideological way. In other words, I attempt to present an
actual real worldview. In addition, I present
a reflected worldview. That’s something we
need to look at next—the reflected worldview.
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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