21 October 2022, Writing - part xxx114 Writing a Novel, Romantic Protagonist, Travel Plot
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. Writing is the abstract communication of the
mind through symbols. As time goes by,
we as writers gain more and better tools and our readers gain more and better
appreciation for those tools and skills—even if they have no idea what they
are.
We are in
the modern era. In this time, 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. I also showed how the end of literature
created the reflected worldview. We have
three possible worldviews for a novel: the real, the reflected, and the
created. I choose to work in the reflected
worldview.
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.
With that said, where should we go? Should I delve into ideas and creativity
again, or should we just move into the novel again? Should I develop a new protagonist, which, we
know, will result in a new novel. I’ve
got an idea, but it went stale. Let’s
look at the outline for a novel again:
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 initial scene is the most important scene and part of
any novel. To get to the initial scene,
you don’t need a plot, you need a protagonist.
Let’s be very clear.
You can start with a plot, a protagonist, an idea, or an idea for an initial
scene. The easiest and most controlled
method is to start with a protagonist. As
I’ve written over and over, a protagonist must come with a telic flaw. I think it is impossible to have a
protagonist without a telic flaw, but I suppose you could develop a completely lackluster
protagonist without any telic flaw connected to them.
Here is my list for the characteristics of a Romantic protagonist. I am not very happy with most of the lists I
have found. So, I will start with a
classic list from the literature and then translate them to what they really
mean. This is the refined list. Take a look.
1. Some power or ability outside the norm of society that
the character develops to resolve the telic flaw.
2. Set of beliefs (morals and ideals) that are different
than normal culture or society’s.
3. Courageous
4. Power (skills and abilities) and leadership that are
outside of the normal society.
5. Introspective
6. Travel plot
7. Melancholy
8. Overwhelming desire to change and grow—to develop four
and one.
9. Pathos developed because the character does not fit the cultural
mold. From the common.
10. Regret when they can’t follow their own moral compass.
11. Self-criticism when they can’t follow their own moral
compass.
12. Pathos bearing because he or she is estranged from
family or normal society by death, exclusion for some reason, or self-isolation
due to three above.
13. From the common and potentially the rural.
14. Love interest
Here’s what I want to do or how I want to place these on a protagonist:
1. Some power or ability outside the norm of society that
the character develops to resolve the telic flaw.
This may be the most important characteristic of the Romantic
protagonist. The Romantic protagonist
needs some skill or power that they can develop outside of the norm of humanity. This doesn’t make them inhuman, but rather makes
them a normal human with some extraordinary capability that they develop into something
very powerful and special.
This skill can be as simple as intelligence, martial arts, shooting,
weapons use, magic, miracles, chemistry, reasoning skill, or any others. To be the most effective for a Romantic
protagonist, this skill should not be common but the Romantic protagonist
should develop themselves to be the best in the world. Or at least, capable enough to astound others
and differentiate themselves while also being able to resolve the telic flaw due
to their expertise. This is simpler than
it sounds.
Let me give an example.
Form Rose, the novel I’m working on right now. Rose has been turned into the most perfect
aristocrat possible. This was simple for
her due to her personality, but she worked for about a month to develop the
skills required. Luckily, these skills
are really dependent on both high wealth as well as personality or acting
skill. The personality and acting skill
is exactly the skill that makes Rose unique.
Rose also has other skills, but this is the one I’m examining at the
moment.
Rose has a very special skill related to her personality
that she can act with a high level of perfection at almost any endeavor she
wishes. In other words, she can fit in
perfectly or stand out perfectly. This
skill is not necessarily unique in humanity, but for Rose and in the worldview
and setting of the novel, it pretty much is.
In other words, Rose is acting nearly a prefect part of an aristocratic
girl. She can for many reasons, but mainly
nearly unrestricted wealth.
Because of her wealth, or apparent wealth, she can use her
acting skills and personality to create the perfect part.
I will develop this for another character as part of this evaluation
and protagonist development, but I’m not ready to provide one yet. Instead, I’ll give another example.
My character Lilly from Lilly: Enchantment and the Computer,
is a computer hardware and software genius.
She is also a math genius, but that is a direct relation to being a
hardware and software expert. She became
this way because she worked most of her life writing game software and building
game hardware to try to fit in with the kids in school. This is a very deep character, but you can see
that her skills and abilities are very unique, and she has developed them through
extensive effort.
That’s exactly what we are aiming for. I’ll go through the rest of these first before
beginning the development of a new character.
2. Set of beliefs (morals and ideals) that are different
than normal culture or society’s.
Let’s start in on this and we will finish it tomorrow. This doesn’t mean the character is some wacko
or evil or immoral. For example, the
modern world is pretty immoral.
Therefore, a character who is church going or highly moral would be
considered different than the normal culture.
I’m leaving up breadcrumbs on purpose.
In the Victorian Era, the normal protagonist was
church-going, moral, ethical, and even knew which fork to use. The western world has changed. The chance you will find a protagonist who goes
to church, who is moral, ethical, and who can sit at a formal dinner is highly
unlikely. Our society has gone to the
barbarians. Today, the most common protagonist
is amoral, unchurched, usually atheistic or agnostic, and can’t even set a
table much less use the proper utensils during dinner. This means the Romantic protagonist in the modern
world to meet this characteristic would be church-going, moral, ethical, and
well trained socially. This is your new
Romantic protagonist.
I’m all in on this.
We are writing and providing protagonists who are different than the
society and culture. In this regard,
they must be different. Let me tell you
a little about this. When you lived in
the Victorian culture, you felt safe in your culture and a little excitement
with a Romantic protagonist who was a little counter cultural was a great thing—you
loved it.
We are in a modern era.
When all the people around you are not sure about God, unethical to some
degree, immoral to some other degree, and can’t even follow basic human
culture, you are certainly uncomfortable.
I know. I know. You likely say, these people are not
necessarily immoral or unethical. I can
assure you compared to the normal human society 100 years ago, the average
person today is certainly immoral and unethical. That’s what makes a Romantic protagonist so powerful.
When you are confronted with the squishy, a person who knows
their way in the world and can be assured to act in a certain manner is much
more safe and comfortable than one who is not.
Do you need an example? Now every
person might be a potentially bad person, that’s proof text enough to my point,
but let’s presume we have a friend who is not God-fearing and who is known to
be kind of loose around women. Let’s
also presume we have another friend who goes to church every Sunday and prides
themselves on being a virgin. Who would
you trust to drive across the country with your girlfriend or even your
children. As I noted, anyone can turn
out to be a cad, but those who are not known to be cads usually continue in
their good ethics and those who are usually continue in their caddish behavior. That’s the way the world is.
The point is that today, a moral and ethical person or the
perfect Victorian would be a Romantic Protagonist. The reason is that they are counter
cultural. That wouldn’t be true in a
novel set in the 1950s. Therefore, the
worldview of the novel and the event horizon of the novel is a critical factor
in determining the mind and ethics of the Romantic protagonist. We will definitely need to address this when developing
a character.
3. Courageous
This is where we will go next. This is an absolute characteristic and not
like the previous.
I’ve written before about the basics of characters. The reason we like or love a protagonist is basically
because we agree with them. This is a
question of rationalism and the author and not necessarily the protagonist. For example, who could ever like an
aristocratic messiah who is bratty to his friends and enemies? That’s Harry Potty, if you didn’t know. We like Harry Potty not for who he really is,
an aristocratic messiah who is bratty to his friend and enemies, but because
the author presents such a character in a way that mostly children can adore
him.
We really want to love the protagonist, and the main reason
we love them isn’t because we see ourselves in them, but because they act as we
would like to act in a similar situation.
For example, in a terse disagreement with a friend or a not so friend,
sometimes, we would just like to let it go and let it out, but we don’t. That’s not because we aren’t courageous, but
because we know the ramifications socially and culturally—so we keep our mouths
shut. In a novel, this kind of character
is mostly a wimp. The protagonist says
what we wish we could say. That doesn’t
mean the protagonist gets away with it.
There are always social and cultural repercussions for speaking one’s
mind, but the great author makes it all work out—like it usually can’t in real
life.
This reminds me of Victorian and oriental literature where
things can’t and many times aren’t said, but those miscommunications or lack of
communication creates all the social and plot friction in the writing. If you don’t believe me, just read almost any
novel or fiction from the East. Compare
that to Victorian literature. That which
can’t and won’t be said becomes the nexus for many of these works. That’s not a bad thing at all. I think Western authors can gain some real
understanding about creating social and cultural friction through
miscommunication. That means lack of
communication. Many times, it is what
you don’t say as well as what you do say.
Now, back to courage.
The Romantic protagonist accomplishes actions based on the courage to
overcome the society and the culture.
They are counter-cultural. This is
their power as a character. All Romantic
protagonists are counter-cultural to some degree. The point of courage is that they have the
conviction of their beliefs, and they are willing to accomplish them generally
no matter the repercussions.
The points we will get to for the Romantic protagonist is
also regret and self-criticism. This
regret and self-criticism is one of the author’s tools that allows them to
present the Romantic protagonist as a real and not a totally ideal
character. They do make mistakes—they may
not speak up when they should. They will
always act with courage, but they may have reasons to regret their behavior and
their actions.
Let me note one other thing about courage. As I wrote, the point of loving the
protagonist comes form the protagonist not being like the reader, but being
like the reader wants to be. If your
protagonist does something that is unacceptable to the reader, read that as
that the writer or author does not explain or make out as rational and
reasonable to the reader, then the reader’s view of the protagonist will change
in a very negative manner.
Yes, a protagonist can do something wrong, bad, and immoral—if
the writer makes those actions seem rational and reasonable from the standpoint
of the protagonist. But beware. You need to really make it work and seem
rational and reasonable—what the reader would do themselves if they were in a
similar situation. If not, you might as
well kiss your protagonist goodbye.
Placing the protagonist and especially the Romantic protagonist
in a situation where they must make a very difficult and controversial decision
is great writing. Letting them act like
an irrational or unreasonable person will ruin them.
I’ll end with an example of this. Harry Potty goes down fast in my mind when he
isolates himself from his friends and has his teenage angst stage in the middle
novels. I don’t like him then, and it is
obvious that someone got Rowling back on the hard and fast because although she
didn’t ruin her protagonist, I think she did him great damage. Those are the least readable of her books and
mostly because I don’t like who Harry is in them.
You must have your protagonist appear to be rational and
reasonable. This is especially true with
a Romantic protagonist. You would like
your protagonist to be loved or at least liked by your readers. Courage is a very important characteristic
for the Romantic protagonist. It is what
the reader wants to be like.
4. Power (skills and abilities) and leadership that are
outside of the normal society.
We will look at this next.
The important point about this comes from characteristic number one
above. This is the basis of the strength
of the Romantic protagonist as a character.
You can think of this from the normal great leader to much much
more. The much much more is what we want
to look at.
5. Introspective
There is a significant problem with this very important characteristic. Moving from the Victorian Era into that of
the common use of the Romantic protagonist, we see a very important change in
writing. Although the Victorian
characters did think internally about themselves and their actions, they did so
through telling. The author used either
the omniscient narrator or pure telling through some type of narration to tell
us the mind of the protagonist. Then the
Romantic protagonist came along with modern showing.
Showing is so effective that the world of writing uses it as
a measure of effectivity. At the same
time, the Romantic protagonist must be introspective—how can you show the mind
of the protagonist? This is the greatest
problem of this era. Some writers just
give up and tell. You can see this in a
lot of writing. What the author must do
is find a means to express the mind of the protagonist without telling. How can you do this?
The fact that a Romantic protagonist is introspective is an undeniable
fact. The means of expressing this is
more difficult with showing. What you
must do is a mix of showing the actions of the protagonist and though dialog
allowing the protagonist the opportunity to express their mind. This is exactly why I use a protagonist’s
helper in almost all my writing.
The protagonist’s helper is a character that allows the
protagonist to express themselves in a conversational and protected
dialog. You can use other types of
characters, but the protagonist’s helper is the closest to the protagonist, and
gives the best chance of open communication.
So, we need an introspective protagonist, but this also
means we need a protagonist’s helper or some means to let our protagonist speak
their mind. This means we are already
looking at some degree of other characteristics for our Romantic protagonist.
6. Travel plot
Yes, Romantic protagonists have some degree of
wanderlust. I intentionally forced Rose
to travel, but a travel plot of some kind should be a characteristic of the Romantic
protagonist. We’ll look at this
next.
Wanderlust seems like a conflict with the country and common
of the Romantic protagonist. To a degree
it is, but there is a reality of this for the Romantic protagonist. We aren’t talking about the Asian view of the
spiritual search for oneself formed by a physical wandering in the world, but
it’s close.
The Romantic protagonist is a seeker. We can see how the Romantic protagonist is
seeking his or her unique ability or abilities.
Many times these don’t require a travel plot or a wanderlust, but part
of the power of the Romantic protagonist is to take their skills into the world
to actually use them.
The picture of the power of the Romantic protagonist is to
gain their special skills for example in the common and the country. I’ll give a simple example. We have a country person who is fully trained
or training in a specific skill—let’s say horticulture. The Romantic protagonist
is a perfect farmer not just knowing the basics or the advanced skills but
rather the in depth and secret skills of horticulture. The Romantic protagonist wants to take their
skills to a higher level. That usually
means travel and further education or travel and study of some type.
The point and the power of the travel plot is both to push
the Romantic protagonist forward but also to move the plot forward. This is part of the strengths of the Romantic
protagonist.
7. Melancholy
What about melancholy?
Just what does this mean for the protagonist? This is a character trait that we can use to
great effect.
8. Overwhelming desire to change and grow—to develop four
and one.
9. Pathos developed because the character does not fit the cultural
mold. From the common.
10. Regret when they can’t follow their own moral compass.
11. Self-criticism when they can’t follow their own moral
compass.
12. Pathos bearing because he or she is estranged from
family or normal society by death, exclusion for some reason, or self-isolation
due to three above.
13. From the common and potentially the rural.
14. Love interest
We need a Romantic protagonist.
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
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storyline, character development, scene, setting, conversation, novel, book,
writing, information, study, marketing, tension, release, creative, idea, logic
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