5 December 2022, Writing - part xxx159 Writing a Novel, A New Romantic Protagonist, Editing Sentences, Run-ons
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 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’m not ready to write a new novel yet, and I’m too busy to
put the extra time to write an initial scene.
I’ll repeat. I just
finished up Rose, and I want to finish up Cassandra. I’m moving in that direction. For now, I’ll focus on the finishing steps of
Rose, and then the marketing development steps. This might get tedious, but I’ll try to keep
it meaningful and helpful.
I am into heavy editing for Rose, and I’d like to
finish with Cassandra. I’m using Cassandra
as an example for my other blog, so I really do need to catch it up before I
run out of material. In any case, I was
going over the basics of real editing.
I’ll repeat myself.
If you have a problem with basic grammar, spelling, and punctuation, you
might not have the required level of education to write effectively. If this is true, you need to get more
education and of the correct types.
True editing is about language, ideas, and reason. It’s not just about grammar, spelling, and
punctuation. We’ve moved well away from
spelling, punctuation, and grammar. I’m
looking at sentences.
Yes, sentences are much more difficult than words. Look at words. I just need to ensure they are spelled
correctly, are the correct word, are not repeated, and sound right. Sound right is something we haven’t looked at
yet—we shall. That is an advance editing
technique.
Sentences are something else entirely. When we look at sentences, we need to look at
word order, word use, grammar, which includes, punctuation, correct verbs,
correct number, correct tense, and all.
We have touched on these with the word list.
Word editing is simple compared to sentence editing, but
sentence editing may be the most important for cohesiveness, clarity, and understanding. We really haven’t gotten into logic and
reasoning much. I’ve centered our
original editing on the words, and showed you how editing words can be used to
help edit sentences. I’m standing by the, but you must get to the more important
parts of sentence editing. Those are
specifically, run-ons, and if we have time, word order in the sentence.
Run-ons are those sentences your teachers always tried to
beat out of you. For some reason creative
people when they start writing have this problem with run-ons. The biggest problem for most inexperienced
writers is that they can’t properly write a sentence and they have a problem
with ending a sentence. They also have a
problem with writing paragraphs. Let’s
look at sentence construction and see the basics. That will help.
In the first place, to have a complete sentence, all I need
is a verb.
Run!
Walk.
Speak!
Preach.
The periods indicate a non-command. The exclamation points indicate a command, in
English. You could also write some of
these as a question, they would need a question mark. This is the smallest complete sentence you
can have. The other very small sentences
are interjections and exclamations.
Interjections in English are wonderful and very useful in
fiction. Exclamations are a little
different than commands. I love foreign language
interjections and exclamations because they are actually defined and listed in
other languages—especially French.
You can find lists of interjections in English. Below is one from: A List of
Interjections and Exclamations in English (thoughtco.com)
1.
Ah: Ah, I don't know if that's true.
2. Aha: Aha! I
figured it out!
3. Ahem: Ahem,
could you boys stop talking so we could get on with class, please?
4. Alas: Alas,
it was not to be.
5. Amen: Amen,
hallelujah, amen!
6. Aw: Aw, do we
have to?
7. Awesome: You two
are dating? Awesome!
8. Aww: Aww,
that's so cute!
9. Bada-bing (bada-bing,
bada-bing, bada-boom): "You've gotta get up close like this
and—bada-BING!—you blow their brains all over your nice Ivy League suit."
(From "The Godfather," 1972)
10. Bah: Bah,
humbug!
11. Baloney: Oh,
baloney. I don't believe that.
12. Big deal: Big deal.
Who cares?
13. Bingo: Bingo! Right
on target!
14. Boo: Boo!
Scared you!
15. Boo-hoo: That makes
me sad. Boo-hoo.
16. Booyah (boo-yah):
Yeah, I aced this test. Booyah!
17. Boy (boy
oh boy): Oh boy. Oh boy, oh boy. That's heavy, man.
18. Bravo: Bravo!
That was fantastic!
19. Brilliant: Brilliant,
luv, absolutely brilliant! (British English.)
20.
Brrr: Brr! Minus 30 degrees? Yuk.
21. Bull: Bull. It's
not 30 below zero, not really.
22.Bye (bye-bye):
Bye! See you later!
23.Cheers: Cheers,
mate! You're welcome. (British English); Cheers! Raise a toast! (American
English.)
24.
Come on (c'mon): Come on. Hurry up.
25. Cool: Oh, wow,
that is so cool!
26.
Cowabunga: "Cowabunga, dude." ("Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles")
27. Dang: Dang it!
Where'd I put that?
28.
Darn (darn it): Darn it! I can't find the other
one either!
29.
Dear me: Oh, dear me. What are we going to do?
30.
Duck: Duck! No, really! Get down!
31. Duh: Well, duh. I can't believe you didn't
know that.
32.Eh: Eh? What?
33. Enjoy: Enjoy! I
hope you like it!
34.Excellent:
"Party time, excellent!" ("Wayne's World")
35. Fabulous: Fabulous!
That's just wonderful!
36.Fantastic: Fantastic!
I just love it!
37. Fiddledeedee (fiddle-dee-dee):
"Fiddle-dee-dee! War, war, war; this war talk's spoiling all the fun at
every party this spring. I get so bored I could scream." ("Gone With
the Wind")
38.
Finally: Finally! I never thought that'd be done.
39.For heaven's sake(s): "Oh,
for heaven's sake, don't you know your Bible?" ("Little House on the
Prairie")
40.
Fore: Fore! (Look out! in golf)
41. Foul: Foul! In
baseball, the ball went out of bounds, otherwise an infraction.
42.
Freeze: Freeze! Stop right there!
43.Gee (gee
whiz, gee willikers): Well gee whiz, Pa, why do I have to do that?
44.
Giddyap (giddyup): Giddyup, Silver! Go, horse, go!
45. Golly (good
golly, golly gee willikers): Golly, that sure was tasty.
46.
Goodbye (good-bye): Goodbye, see you again soon!
47. Good grief: "Good
grief, Charlie Brown." ("Peanuts")
48.
Good heavens: Good heavens! How did that happen?
49.
Gosh: “Whatever I feel like I wanna do, gosh!” ("Napoleon Dynamite")
50.
Great: Great! I'm so excited you'll come along!
51. Great balls of fire:
"Goodness gracious, great balls of fire!" ("Great Balls of
Fire," Jerry Lee Lewis)
52. Ha: Ha-ha!
That's funny!
53. Hallelujah: Glory be
to God, hallelujah!
54. Heavens (heavens
above, heavens to Betsy): Oh, heavens! How could you think that?
55. Heigh-ho: Heigh-ho
neighbor! How are you?
56. Hello: Hello! How
are things with you?
57. Help: Help! I
need somebody ("Help!" The Beatles)
58.
Hey (hey there): Hey! Look over
there!
59. Hi (hiya):
Hi! What's up?
60.
Hip, hip, hooray: We won! On the count of three,
everyone: Hip, hip hooray! Hip, hip, hooray!
61. Hmm (hrm):
Hmm. Let me think about that for a bit.
62.
Ho-ho-ho: Ho-ho-ho, Merry Christmas!
63.Holy mackerel (holy
cow, holy moly, holy Moses, holy smokes): Holy mackerel! I can't believe it!
64.
Ho-hum: Ho-hum, how boring.
65. Hooray (hurrah,
hurray): Hooray! That's awesome!
66.
Howdy (howdy do): Howdy, pardner.
67. Huh: Huh. I
have no idea.
68.
Ick: Ick! How gross!
69.
Indeed: Indeed! I'll bet you didn't know that!
70.
Jeez: Jeez, do we really have to go through this
now?
71. Kaboom: Kaboom! It
blew up!
72. Kapow: And Batman
hit the evildoer, kapow!
73. Lordy (lordy,
lordy): Oh lordy, lordy, look who's 40!
74. Mama mia: Mama mia,
let me go. ("Bohemian Rhapsody," Queen)
75. Man: Man,
that's unbelievable.
76. Marvelous: Marvelous!
Oh, honey, that's just wonderful.
77. My: "My!
I never once thought of it, Huck!" ("The Adventures of Tom
Sawyer")
78. My goodness (my
heavens, my stars, my word): My goodness, isn't that just grand?
79. Nah: Nah, it'll
never work.
80.
No problem: Thank you. No problem.
81. No way (no
way José): No way! I can't believe it.
82.
Nope: Nope. I can't do that.
83.
Nuts: Nuts! I wish I didn't have to.
84.
Oh (oh boy, oh dear, oh my, oh my gosh, oh my goodness, oh
no, oh well): Oh! That's shocking!
85.
OK (okay): OK, sounds great. Thank you.
86.
Ouch: Ouch! That hurt!
87. Ow: Ow! That
stung!
88.
Please: Would you help me, please?
89.
Poof: Poof! She just disappeared.
90.
Shh: Shh! Quiet in the library!
91. Super: Super!
That's fantastic!
92.
Swell: Swell! How great!
93.Welcome: Welcome!
Come in!; (You're) Welcome!
94.
Well: Well, I just don't know about that.
95. Whoop-de-doo: Well
whoop-de-doo. (sarcasm) I so don't care.
96.
Woo-hoo: Woo-hoo! That's fantastic!
97. Wow: Wow! I
love it!
98.
Yabba dabba doo: "Yabba dabba doo!"
("The Flinstones")
99.
Yadda, yadda, yadda: "Well, we were engaged to be
married, uh, we bought the wedding invitations, and, uh, yada, yada, yada, I'm
still single." ("Seinfeld")
100.
Yippee: Yippie! That's exciting!
101.
Yummy: Yummy! I love chocolate cake!
The problem with this list is that it is in no way
complete. There are likely five hundred
or more interjections in English, and I have never discovered a good complete
list. French, on the other hand
recognizes interjections as a necessary feature of the language. Interjections in English are considered a feature
of fiction that just happen in speech.
They are not. Interjections are important
parts of the language. They are usually
not found in technical writing, but that are a feature of proper and common
speech that are reflected in dialog, which means that’s where they appear in
writing—fiction and dialog.
Interjections are important as parts of longer sentences,
but many of them, if not most of them can stand alone as a sentence. Does this mean interjections are a verb? Not at all—interjections are a compete
thought. These are the shortest grammatical
sentences in English. You can also write
incomplete sentences legally in grammatical English. I’ll look at these next.
I’m going to continue with run-ons and sentence order. We are turning sentence editing into logical
or reasoned editing, and well as touching on paragraph or multi-sentence
editing. I am explaining about the
basics of sentences, so we can edit them better.
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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