24 June 2023, Writing - part xxx359 Writing a Novel, Seoirse and more Initial Scene
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 31st novel, working title, Cassandra,
potential title Cassandra: Enchantment
and the Warriors. The theme
statement is: Deirdre and Sorcha are redirected to French finishing school
where they discover difficult mysteries, people, and events.
Here is the cover proposal for Cassandra: Enchantment and the Warriors:
|
|
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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.
I’m now writing Seoirse, and since I retired from my day job,
I’m back to a chapter a day. I could
likely write two chapters a day, but my brain gets tired. I think it’s important to report again on how
to write a novel. Let’s start at the
beginning.
I already developed the protagonist for this novel: Seoirse Séamas
Wishart. That is his name in Gaelic. His common or English name is George James
Wishart. Why the difference. It all has to do with the worldview of my
novels. The worldview is reflected and
therefore the supernatural exists. We
are mainly writing about the common and mythical supernatural in the
world. I’d like to say that whatever the
basis for the usual supernatural in human thought exists in the reflected worldview
of this and my novels. Thus there are
vampires, werewolves, fairies, the Fae courts, dragons, gods, goddesses, and
other mythical creatures. They aren’t the
world. They world of my novels is the world
you see around you. The supernatural aspects
are generally unseen, unknown, and rare.
They exist like the supernatural exists in the world today: generally
unseen, unknown, and rare. That’s the
basis of the world in my novels.
My protagonist, Seoirse, hasn’t changed much from my
original design. What has happened is
that I made him fully alive in the novel.
He starts a little awkwardly, but that’s just his own approach to things. He isn’t awkward as much as he is
cautious. Rose is the problem.
Now, I want to be clear about this, Rose is practically
perfect in every way. The problem isn’t
her perception or personality—although it is.
The problem is a very interesting effect that I have no name for. The problem is the difference between a
protagonist and a character who is no longer a protagonist. What’s that?
In my Lumiere novels, Shadow of Light and Shadow
of Darkness, Lumiere is a quiet, introverted, and observant person. Through the novels, she becomes a powerful
extroverted person who must become extroverted and strong to survive. When the novel is about her, the readers can
see the hows and whys of her actions and responses. They like her character because they can understand
her. When Lumiere becomes a character in
a follow-on novel, my readers asked, what happened to Lumiere?
Actually, nothing happened to Lumiere. She always had a pretty poor and disruptive
personality—readers just didn’t notice it because they understood her. When you see her in the raw—that is from
another’s point of view, Lumiere is just not that nice, forgiving, or pleasant
a person. She can get along well, but
when confronted with issues, she becomes a little nasty. Rose is a little like this.
Rose is a very stable person and personality. The problem is that Rose is a survivor. She is especially perceptive and she is a
little crass. She learned some of this
from her first friend, Robyn. That is
the crassness. Rose has and is a sniper
taunter. She also learned this from
Robyn and perfected it. I think this
makes the novel really fun. Rose is always
keeping the others off balance especially Seoirse, and that’s pretty much her
purpose in the novel.
Yes, Rose has a lot more to do in this novel, but she is the
foil to Seoirse’s calmness, quiet efficiency, perception, and love. Yes, love.
That is one of the really spicy elements in the novel,
love. Love isn’t the entire focus of the
novel, but that’s one of the reasons I put Seoirse in as the protagonist. I wanted love to bloom in this novel, and a
very special kind of love. I think my
readers will like this, and I think my main prepublication reader will enjoy
the love angle in the story. Plus, Rose:
Enchantment and the Flower didn’t have any romantic love in it. It did have some familiar and sisterly love
and a touch of potential romantic love, but no real romance in it. That’s what I wanted to build in Seoirse. In addition, part of the fun for my readers
is that Azure: Enchantment and the Detective was about Seoirse’s mother
and father and their love experience. Seoirse
is really nothing like Azure, but Rose and Azure are in some ways
similar and Seoirse is in some ways similar to his father. Then in many ways, they aren’t at all. The parallels are what makes the story
pop. The very fact that Seoirse is courting
the very dangerous and slightly uncontrollable, Rose, makes his mother and his
father a little fearful and yet a little hopeful. Fearful because of what they know Rose can
do. Hopeful because Rose is turning
their young man into a real man, so to speak.
Ha ha.
I guess I should move on from there.
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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