18 May 2023, Writing - part xxx322 Writing a Novel, Cassandra, Market Focus
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.
For novel 33, Book girl: Siobhàn Shaw is Morven McLean’s savior—they
are both attending Kilgraston School in Scotland when Morven loses everything,
her wealth, position, and friends, and Siobhàn Shaw is the only one left to
befriend and help her discover the one thing that might save Morven’s family
and existence.
For novel 34: Seoirse
is assigned to be Rose’s protector and helper at Monmouth while Rose deals with
five goddesses and schoolwork; unfortunately Seoirse has fallen in love with
Rose.
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.
At this point I want to finish editing Casandra:
Enchantment and the Warriors and produce the marketing materials. I intend to show you the marketing materials
before I’m willing to begin writing Seoirse.
I also need to work harder at getting a publisher—basically submitting manuscripts
to potential publishers and agents.
Here is my list of basic marketing materials:
Title of Work:
Cassandra: Enchantment and
the Warriors
Author(s) Name:
L. D. Alford
Type: Either Screenplay or Book
Book
Length: Either # of words for books, or #
of pages for screenplays
110,000 words
Keywords and Market Focus:
Fiction, mystery, intelligence, adventure, supernatural,
Fae, fairy, France, Saint Malo, boarding school, finishing, secrets, hidden, Dagda,
vampire, druid, magic, sorcery, demon; will fascinate anyone interested in mystery,
intelligence operations, and the Fae—will appeal particularly to those who
enjoy mystery and suspense magic realism novels.
The market focus is entirely for a potential publisher,
however, if you notice, it can influence a potential reader as well. That is, if you have this on an internet site
for example. Let’s look at the market
focus.
In the first place, publishers are in publishing for
the money and no other reason. That’s
not to say they don’t love books and want to publish entertaining books, but
publishers are like pilots, doctors, teachers, and any other profession or
business. They might love what they do,
but if you don’t make bank, you will not be in business for long. Their first concern is the market.
If your novel doesn’t match their market, or your
work won’t appeal to their market, you don’t have a chance. Now, it is possible that a publisher will
pick up a novel outside of their normal market, but that’s just odd and
rare. Unless they are trying to open up
their market or expend their readers, a publisher usually sticks to their
market. I’ve seen this over and over in the
business, and I’m really not an expert on the publishing part only on the
writing part.
We’ll write about some of these market issues when
we get to genre. In any case, your
market focus needs to match the market focus of your potential publisher. Now, usually this information is not usually
provided or asked for by a publisher, but it can be good information in a cover
letter. If a publisher asked for it
specifically, then you have it. Let me
write about what I have above.
“Will appeal particularly to those who enjoy mystery
and suspense magic realism novels.” This
might need some shaping because, “suspense” is considered a nonstarter with
some. I’m not certain why suspense as a genre and as a market is considered dead,
but there it is. It’s what I’ve heard
for modern publishing. It’s just like
literature. No one publishes and reads literature today—don’t even put it in a
cover letter, market focus, or as a genre.
No one publishes it and publishers will tell you it is a turnoff in
their markets. I understand the literature
part, but suspense would seen to still be viable among readers.
Magic realism is really the name for fantasy
today. No one is publishing fantasy—they
are publishing magic realism. I’ll get
to this in genre, but this is one of those fad names or focus items that the
publishing world is interested in. Mystery
is still viable, but there are caveats.
I’ll get to these when we look at genre.
All in all, the market focus gives you the opportunity to state in a
sentence and not just a few words or a word who you think the novel will appeal
to. As I wrote, some publishers will ask
for this information. In some cases,
this will fit well in a cover letter.
If I didn’t write before, the marketing materials is
a means for you to develop all the information you need for a cover letter and
to appeal to a potential publisher. It
also provides marketing material for you to populate a website and to appeal to
potential readers. It is all the information
I’ve discovered that I need on my works.
This will allow you to write a cover letter plus all
the other material you might need for almost any potential publisher. That’s the point after all, to get your works
published.
Genre:
Proposed Cover:
Author
Bio: Approximately 120 words
Synopsis: Approximately 1000 Words
Synopsis: Approximately 500 Words
Synopsis: Approximately 200 Words
Concept
of the Work: Approximately 250 Words
Registration:
WGA, ISBN, or Library of Congress, Write the number.
Other
Information: If you have more work, a
website, anything interesting and professional, especially any awards or
recognition.
Reviewer’s
quotes.
1. No more than 3 sentences about the content of
your manuscript.
2. One sentence about successful works similar
to yours.
3. No more than 2 sentences about yourself. (use
3rd person)
4. No more than 2 sentences that include
“other,” i.e. any reasons, relationships, or other factors that might make your
work more attractive.
The plan is to fill in these marketing materials. I already put in the title, author’s name,
and the type. I’ll opine on these
next.
I put together this list from internet sources, information
sources, publisher requests for information, and other ideas from agents. The point is to fill out this information and
with it, you should be able to produce your submission letters and provide the
information a publisher requires. This
isn’t the end-all, but it does prepare you for most information requests from
your publisher.
In addition, this provides you with all the information you
will likely want to populate a website with.
You can actually take this verbatim and fill a website for your
novel. I’d recommend being a little more
creative in your website development, but with the information above, you can
provide a potential reader or publisher with everything they need to give your
novel a first blush look.
Is a website helpful—who knows. When you have a published work, I think it
can be. In the interim, I’m not
sure. It’s hard today to tell how many
visitors you’ve had and the success of the website in advertising. This is especially true if you don’t have any
works to sell. It’s also true if you
don’t have any sales. If you are
self-published on Amazon or are advertised on Amazon, you can easily see your
sales. That’s not as true with your own
website.
I’m of the opinion that you should own your own website for
every novel. I’ll get into this as we
move along on the marketing materials.
The first point is to have a plan and to develop your
marketing materials. The plan is listed
above. I’ll get to the details next.
I’m still editing Cassandra and I’ll cover some of
this before I get to the marketing materials.
I’ll repeat. I just
finished up Rose, and I want to finish up Cassandra. I’m moving in that direction.
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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