17 November 2022, Writing - part xxx141 Writing a Novel, A New Romantic Protagonist, Description and Background
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. 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 is the protagonist development list. We are going to use this list to develop a
Romantic protagonist. With the following
outline in mind, we will build a Romantic protagonist. However, I’m going to ignore the first
step. Instead of starting with an
initial scene, I’m just going to design a Romantic protagonist. Then we may apply the outline to them.
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
Here’s what I want to do or how I want to place these on a
protagonist. Let’s clean them up a
little and begin to evaluate a protagonist.
I gave you the basics of a Romanic protagonist. Now, I want to begin to make this protagonist. As you can see from the protagonist development
outline, we need to define the initial scene.
To get to a great initial scene, I need to think about it
and imagine it a little. I also need to research
the setting and the characters. That’s
next.
I’ll show you my steps in researching and developing the
details so I can write an initial scene. These are the steps we looked at before:
a.
Setting – current
i. Life
ii. Setting
iii. Work
We have a place that I like and want to use. Next we need more on the Romantic protagonist
and the protagonist’s helper.
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
I have in mind a physical description, but it isn’t very
special. Our Romantic protagonist will
not be a beauty or an unusual looking person.
I’ll put in something that defines her physically to stand out, but I
plan this book girl to be as common as common can be. That has been her problem from the beginning. She is too common for a person as special as
she is.
Here is the name I devised for the protagonist and then the
protagonist’s helper:
Siobhàn Shaw – the name has a nice mouth feel. The pronunciation
of Siobhàn is “Shivaun” and the anglicization is Judith. I like this for many reasons.
Morven McLean – I didn’t mean for the alliteration in the names
of both the protagonist and the protagonist’s helper, but there it is. The meaning for this name is roughly, a
Scottish place and kingdom plus the son of the servant of John. Thus we have a fixture and a strong connection
to the protagonist even if it is simply a family name.
In addition, doesn’t Morven sound like a girl who is a
little bad, but could be good. I need to
look for nicknames for these two. I’ll
think about it—we need ones for the normies to use to heckle them and their
friends and others to properly address them.
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
With a name I can call the Romantic protagonist Siobhàn and the
protagonist’s helper Morven. I like these
names, but we are by no means finished.
I need a physical description for both and the rest. Let’s try for a good physical description. This is a critical element of the novel.
Siobhàn Shaw was a very tall and slender girl. She didn’t sit or stand, she folded and
unfolded. Normal chairs and furniture
didn’t seem to fit her properly, but no onlooker could really tell why—she wasn’t
basketball tall, and she never sat in an unladylike or informal way. Perhaps it was her approach to sitting and
standing. It made her standout in ways
she never wanted to stand out. Her dark brown
hair was long and always looked a little stringy. She pulled it up into a highly unpopular and
old-fashioned bun, that frizzed at every side.
She didn’t know any other way to put up her hair. Her face was a classic oval, but that did her
no good. It wasn’t long, just slightly
short and she had a high, broad forehead with a widow’s peak that was a little
lopsided to the left. Her eyes were
large but slopped a little down at the outside corners so she always looked a
little sad even when she smiled. Her
smile was made her cheeks go up without any nice dimples, and her chin was round. Well that’s what oval means. She was lucky her brows weren’t like her father’s. They were evident but not connected and well shaped
except they followed the sad droop of her eyes.
That only made her look a little sadder all the time. The only problem was that she was never
really very sad at all. Her lips and her
nose were nicely formed. The nose small
and a little blunt, and her lips wide and pink.
Her complexion was light like a peach and the real redeeming feature was
the constant blush on her cheeks. That also
made her stand out in ways she didn’t wish.
Her clothing was always a little frumpy.
It was hard to fit a girl as tall as she was--too tall, but not tall
enough, and there never was enough money to have anything that was new. The used clothing and charity shops were all
she could afford. Even her school
uniform was used, and didn’t fit her well.
The ones for tall girls were too big to fit her slender frame and the
ones that fit her size were all too short.
Her skirt looked strange and too large, and her blouse a little too
short. At least her skirt, a kilt, was
the Shaw tartan, mostly blue and green with a think red line, it matched the
coat and her sweater. Still, the sleeves
on her dark blue coat were always too short and the coat too large. She disappeared in it, and it bulged in all
the wrong places. Only her emerald green
sweater fit her properly. That’s because
she has an extra large one that had been through the wash one too many times—the
wool had shrunk. She didn’t have many
sewing skills, so she couldn’t do much to fix her clothing. Her shoes always looked a little off because
she had to repair them with book glue and polish them with ink. Then there was the thing that made her always
stand out. Siobhàn Shaw always carried a
book in her hand. A book in one hand and
her official bookbag in the other. The
book is what set her apart. That’s why
they never called her Siobhàn, just book girl.
Always book girl.
This is an initial description. I’m liking it. It will be improved and edited. How about the protagonist’s helper?
Morven McLean was elegant looking. Everything about her was elegant looking. She was perfectly formed—not too tall, not
too short, not too thin, and not too curvy.
She was the perfect physical balance that girl’s desired and boys
followed greedily with their eyes. Her face
was oval, but with that little well-formed chin that made her look, yes,
elegant. Her cheeks rose sweet and gently
high, not too plump, and not to thin with a natural shadow of pink. Her lips were nicely molded around perfectly
white and straight teeth. They were exactly
the correct balance to her nose and her large upward inclined eyes and delicate
brow. Her Scottish hair was the exact
shade of red with brown that made her standout in the way she usually wanted to
stand out. Her brow was not too large
and not too broad. Her hair was
controlled exactly where she placed it and how she placed it. She kept it long and free and brushed into
perfection. Not a lock was out of place
and not a single strand of her hair dared disobey where she put it. Her clothing was what you expected from a
model. Always the haute couture and
always fit to her form so it revealed her to perfection and not to
distraction. Even her uniform looked
good on her from the top of her head to the tip of her toes. She was always happy that her McLean tartan
was mostly red, and made her standout like almost none of the other girls.
a.
Physical description – with a
physical description like the above, we are really embarking on developing a
protagonist, and in this case, a protagonist’s helper. I moved ahead with a name because we already
had enough information about the characters to place them. The background you need for a name are
basically history and setting. With the
setting of Scotland and the history of Scottish girls in the twenty-first
century, we can get a name. I described
the exact process a few days ago. The
real problem I have at the moment is setting the time. I like to set my novels in history. I call them a type of historical novel. Usually, I look for events in time to focus the
novel and the telic flaw. In this case,
I’m not producing that type of telic flaw.
I think a good setting for the novel might be 2016 or so. That would allow me to set births and dates. I made a search of events in Scotland in 2016
and found nothing of real consequence. If
we need internal events, we can make them as part of the fiction, but for
anything else, we might need to move to international events. In any case, I intend this novel to have a
basic internal telic flaw and not necessarily any connected external or
international telic flaw. I might try to
bring a few of my other characters into this novel, but at the moment, I’m considering
it stand alone.
b.
Background – history of the
protagonist
i.
Birth – if we set the novel in 2016,
then the birth of the protagonist would be around 2000. I’m thinking January. The protagonist’s helper could be around the
same year and I’ll leave the date open for the moment. The point is that you don’t need to use or
even place any of this information in your novel at all—only if it becomes relevant
in the context of the novel. For
example, if you want to provide a birthday party or make some point about he
date of birth.
ii.
Setting – We have defined the
setting as Scotland, the city of Perth, the township of Bridge of Earn, and Kilgraston
girl’s school. The other main part of
the setting is the bookstore, which we need to describe and name, and the
parents which we need to describe and name.
Additionally, I expect to use Morven’s home currently and her past
property as a setting. I’m not certain
how I will use this or put this together.
Perhaps when the estate is sold, Siobhàn will buy the specific book I’ve
been alluding to that contains or develops the telic flaw mystery.
iii.
Life – life is interesting and all
we need, at present, is the basics of both girls. It is enough to know that Siobhàn is the book
girl and a scholarship student, and Morven is the ex-rich girl who is now being
bullied.
iv.
Education – they are both in level
11 just before the sixth form. Siobhàn
is over educated and the book girl.
v.
Work – Siobhàn works in her father’s
bookstore. She has nothing else at the
moment. Morven is motivated enough to
want and need to work to make pocket change and to supply her fashion and entertainment. We shall see how this progresses, this is a
future research project.
vi.
Profession – school girls at the
moment.
vii.
Family – This gets complicated. I’m not ready to build this entirely,
yet. We know Siobhàn has a father who
owns the bookstore. He needs a
name. Her mother is dead—we also need a
name and a background for her. Perhaps
some other connections in the past and based on her mother’s skills and
abilities. Morven is a bit different. Her mother and father were wealthy and now
not. We can provide some occupation for
both, this requires research I will do in the future. Perhaps those are the next steps.
c.
Setting – current
i.
Life – life is school and school is
life for kids.
ii.
Setting – we know the setting
Kilgraston.
iii.
Work – we looked at work.
d.
Name – we have names for the
protagonist and the protagonist’s helper.
We have reached the point of writing the initial scene. I’m not sure I want to do that yet—I’m
finishing two other novels. We shall see
where we go.
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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