12 February 2023, Writing - part xxx227 Writing a Novel, A New Male Romantic Protagonist, Setting
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 30th novel, working title, Rose,
potential title Rose: Enchantment and the
Flower. The theme statement is: 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 cover proposal for Rose:
Enchantment and the Flower.
|
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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. Writing number 31, working title Shifter. I just finished 32nd novel, Rose.
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.
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
I’ll repeat. I just
finished up Rose, and I want to finish up Cassandra. I’m moving in that direction.
This is where I’m going.
I need to finish up Cassandra, and that’s what I’m going to do. That might take a month or so. At the same time, I want to write a follow-on
to Rose. Basically, I want to
finish up Rose, and resolve the overall telic flaw introduced in the first
novel. To do this, I need a new
protagonist. I could use Rose, and I was
thinking about this, but my readers suggested I should keep the number of male
and female protagonists about equal. Not
sure why, but I did get a great idea for an initial scene and for a
protagonist. I’ve been developing this protagonist
for my short form blog, but I can move some of that development here and make
some comments on it.
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.
1.
Define the initial scene
I already defined the
initial scene. Rose has a tea party with
the problem children that result in a goddess brawl where others are injured
and Rose herself is harmed to a degree.
The protagonist is an observer on the sidelines (I need to figure this
out). She runs away and is found by the
protagonist. I’ve got the basic initial
scene figured out, but I haven’t written it yet.
That’s an outline of
the initial scene, but the real scene that interests and intrigues me is the
scene a little after that. I picture, in
my mind, that Rose runs away and is running the trains. She is just riding the British trains. The problem is that she lost her clothing in
the incident, so she is riding the trains in the nude.
There is some defining
goodness in this—she is covering herself in glamour. Therefore, Rose isn’t technically naked—only the
sensitive or the Fae should be able to see her, and the Fae don’t ride the
trains. The fun part about this scene is
that the male protagonist has been given the job to find Rose. He is sensitive to both her, and he can see
her.
This leads to the delicious
scene where Rose meets with the protagonist.
This is the meeting of the protagonist and the protagonist’s
helper. Perfect for an initial scene. The buildup to this scene will just be part
of the overall novel.
I can picture this
scene and the result of this scene. This
will define the initial relationship of Rose and the male protagonist. This will bring them into contact and a never
unconnectable link of physical recognition and mental anguish. Rose will be unable to lose her attachment to
him, and he will not want to.
His reasons will be
more than physical, but you might imagine his feelings and her recognition from
the physical connection. Rose is too
much of a lady to acknowledge any of it, while the male protagonist is too much
of a gentleman to allow his physical view of Rose to cloud his judgement or
negatively affect his actions. But, we shall
see how this encounter affects all of them and both of them.
2.
At the same time as the above—fit a
protagonist into the initial scene.
I already began to wrote how this protagonist
will fit into the initial scene. I need
to actually bring it about in the scene, but I haven’t written the initial
scene, yet.
I plan to have this character observing
and watching Rose from the sidelines. He
will have tabs on the girls, and know them all.
His job and skills will allow him to keep an eye on them. I plan to let Rose catch a few glimpses in
the runup to the incident. Perhaps
through the windows or something. I need
to work out all those details. In the
end, he sees the defining incident that causes Rose so many mental and physical
issues. Then there is the telic flaw of
this protagonist.
That
means the minimum of:
a.
Telic flaw - I’ll fit in a telic
flaw. The telic flaw belongs to the
protagonist. This protagonist’s telic
flaw is that he has an assignment to look after Rose. Just how he can do this is not clear. He should not have any skills greater than
Rose, but he should have some background that places him in both the sights of
Stela and The Organization. I haven’t
worked this out yet. Basically, the
telic flaw will be his responsibility to protect Rose. This will turn out to be a romance plot and telic
flaw. The young man will pursue Rose. I might have to work on the telic flaw a
little. It will become clearer with the
development of the protagonist.
b.
Approximate age - 16 to 17
c.
Approximate social degree - middle class to
wealthy and aristocratic. I need to pin
this down. I want to look through my characters
to find one who might fit. This is what
I wrote at first, but I’ve refined this character better since then. He is the child of aristocracy, but not
exactly what you might think. His
parents have an unusual way of interacting as both aristocrats and in the
overall society. They don’t want to
produce wealthy ner-do-wells. They want
to produce smart and capable children.
Their children might put on a few airs, but they are basically hard
working and well developed as people.
They also aren’t as wealthy and aristocratic as you might think
either. I’ll get into more details in
the description and setting elements as I round out this protagonist.
d.
Sex - Male
3. Refine the protagonist – Here is the first cut of the physical description
of the protagonist. It might need a
little refinement.
a.
Physical description - Seoirse was tall and
slender. His face was thin and serious
with freckles over his finely shaped nose.
His lips fit nicely into his well-formed face, but they looked overly
serious too, until he smiled. Then his
lips and face and cheeks exploded in mirth.
His smile could make you smile, and you didn’t notice the dimples in his
cheeks and chin, until he smiled. That’s
when everything lit up and became apparent.
His hair was light blond with faint brown highlights, and his eyes were
a dull grey, until he smiled and then you wondered what color they really
were. Because, when he had on his
serious look, he looked like someone you should listen and obey--handsome,
elegant, upright, and becoming. When he
smiled, you wondered exactly what kind of fun and mischief you could get into
together. He was just that kind of boy.
Here we are with the most important
part of the protagonist—the physical description. Why is that?
This is what the reader should see first. We never should tell anything about the protagonist. We need to show the protagonist. This is what the protagonist looks like. Everything else is what we show about the
protagonist. If you are telling, you are
not writing properly. You will likely
never get a novel published. Not to say
you can get away with a little telling, but if you strive for none, and get in
a little, that’s good. If you are
telling over and over, you will not have anything worth reading.
There is a lot packed in this short
paragraph that describes the protagonist, Seoirse. I haven’t given you his whole name, yet. He is Seoirse, and that’s good enough for
now. We will get into his name in a
little. I have everything developed for
him, and I’ll give it to you with this kind of commentary. As I wrote, the physical description is what
you really need to start with for any character. It begins the development of the character. Everything in the physical description plays
into who, where, when, and what about the person. That’s what we will move toward next.
b.
Background – history of the
protagonist. Here is more about
this character. I guess I should also
reveal that his father is related directly to Ceridwen, the great goddess of
the Celtic and Gaelic people. He has no
real powers himself, but he can see the Fae and knows all about the
supernatural. His mother is the Keeper
of the Book of the Fae. She has no
powers or abilities other than wisdom, the ability to interact and see the Fae,
and the powers of the book. This will
place Seoirse in a pathos position because Rose has great power, but he does
not. If I have him helping and saving
Rose using the little skills and abilities he has, that will endear her to him.
There is much more about his life and
background that I will need to develop, but not necessarily here or all at
once. I like to say an author doesn’t
develop a character in the revelation of the novel as much as the author
reveals the character or the protagonist.
I’m not into this idea about a changing or growing protagonist. Yes, the protagonist must make some kind of
change to resolve the telic flaw, but that doesn’t mean we start with a
reprobate and reform him or her. We can
start with a nice guy whose understanding of the world and his or her place in
it happens to change a bit. The protagonist’s
background is static, but our knowledge (the author’s knowledge) of the protagonist
grows with time and writing. That’s just
what happens when we write—the end result is the fully developed character, but
it can be fully developed at the beginning or the end. It doesn’t mean the protagonist changes all
that much.
i. Birth – January 2012 – that makes him 17 at the beginning of this
novel.
ii. Setting – Monmouth in Wales which is in the United Kingdom. This is a follow-on novel to Rose.
iii. Life – I’m working on this.
He was born to the Wishart family which is an aristocratic family from
my novel, Azure. He lived in the
estate at Briarashe. His mother is…I
guess that should wait to the family part.
iv. Education – Greycoat, Eton, and wants to go to Cranwell to become a
flying officer like his father.
v. Work – Student being trained in intelligence for the British
government.
vi. Profession – He is aware that he is being trained to
work for the Organization and potentially for Stela. Greycoat is a language focused private
school. Eton is a premilitary school for
boys. Cranwell is the British Air Force
military university. I have made
Monmouth a special place in my novels for the education of certain girls who
are in need of special help and supervision.
I started this with Essie: Enchantment and the Aos Si. I continued this with Rose and added a
bit to it. I also used Wycombe Abby as a
place for this type of training, but moved it to Monmouth for both political
and based on my own novels reasons. The
problem children were all originally in Wycombe, but moved to Monmouth because
they needed more help. Also, Wycombe
lost an important teacher’s supporting asset in another of my novels. I plan to make up with that in Monmouth, but
I haven’t added in that or the travel plans to go to the Isle of Shadows.
vii. Family – His mother is Azure Wishart who was the protagonist of
another of my novels. She is the Keeper
of the Book of the Fae and adjudicates for the Gaelic and Celtic Fae mostly in
Britain. His father is Lachlann
Calloway, but took the name Wishart to allow the continuation of the Wishart
line. He is a British Flying officer
with strong connections through his family with the Organization and
Stela. Perhaps a great tension
development in the novel might be with a trial of peerage—that is that some
pretender to the Wishart line might try to take over the name and the estate.
c.
Setting – We
are up to the initial setting. This is
the setting for the protagonist. It
should also be the setting for the initial scene. We have our protagonist, and you might be
able to figure out the setting. It’s
Monmouth Haberdasher’s School for Boys and for Girls in Monmouth Wales. This is the setting where I left Rose in the
last novel. Rose will be the
protagonist’s helper or antagonist in this novel. I haven’t chosen yet, but we’ll eventually
define this.
I love to use real world settings and
places, real world events, and real world people when possible. The only elements that are made up are those
which expand the work into the reflected worldview as well as those that expand
into places and ideas that are usually unknowns. Mostly, both the reflected worldview and the
covert are unknowns because they are outside the purview of normal observation
and knowledge. This makes them perfect
for fiction because who is to say if they really exist or not?
Therefore, I studied and chose Monmouth
as my setting when I researched it for another novel Essie: Enchantment and
the Aos Si. I just continued to use
it as a place where the British government had special training and teachers
for special students. Those special
students happen to be part of the reflected worldview, but that’s what makes
this so fun, entertaining, and interesting.
Plus, who’s to say this isn’t real or not?
My protagonist, Seoirse, is part of the
reflected worldview and the British intelligence organization I projected from
MI19. By the way, in some measure my
Organization should exist in British Intelligence—just say’n.
The point is to give a setting that brings
Seoirse and Rose together. We know where
Rose was heading. We don’t know much
about Seoirse, yet.
viii.
Life – Our character, Seoirse,
was directed to move from Eton to Monmouth to help keep an eye on Rose. He is going to school in Monmouth, but I may
show that he is just acclimating himself in the school and the school
body. I think I’ll have Rose help
him. That should be fun.
ix. Setting – I already stated that the setting is specifically the
Monmouth Haberdasher’s School for Boys.
x. Work – Seoirse’s work is for intelligence, but he is also learning
and a student. This is interesting in
itself. I’ve had many characters who are
learning to work in British intelligence, but few working fully with
intelligence. This shows how important
and trustworthy Seoirse is. He is
somewhat unique, but likely not completely unique. Next we’ll get to the name.
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 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
Let’s use this list, again, to design a new
protagonist. That’s exactly what I’m
going to do.
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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