11 July 2023, Writing - part xxx376 Writing a Novel, Seoirse, more Writing to the Climax
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.
This is where I am with Seoirse. I’ve been writing a chapter a day. That means I’ll likely have a completed novel
in less than a month. That’s what I
usually do when I have an idea and a novel to write. I’m also writing pretty exclusively when I
should be working on a publisher or an agent.
In any case, I love writing a new novel. The scene descriptions and insight I gave you
were all telling and not showing. The
novel is all showing and no telling.
This is important to note and understand. Showing an outline of the scenes is just
telling and an author could use this to write a novel. My point to you is that I don’t outline my
scenes. I write notes at the end to
describe where I’m going and what I want in the scene. Then I write and rewrite and write the scene
again until its as perfect as I want it.
About perfection. I’m
not into perfection and I don’t think you can achieve perfection in any
writing. It depends on what you mean by
perfection. I’ve never read a book
without any punctuation, spelling, or grammar errors. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t aim to get rid
of all errors, but what ever you do, there will always be some error—and, I’m
the least concerned about these kinds of errors. The most important part of the writing is the
storyline, continuity, and the delight of the reader.
I wrote yesterday about delighting the reader. This is the main and major goal in writing,
but there are other points in delivering this kind of experience for your
readers. This is the goal and there are
literally a million ways to get there. A
wise author looks for and develops these ways.
Most specifically, these are the tension and release in a scene. They are also related to the storyline. I really should write about tension and
release, perhaps I’ll go there soon.
The ultimate point of a novel is the resolution of the telic
flaw. The telic flaw it the reason for
the novel. It is the problem the
protagonist must resolve (not necessarily solve) to complete the novel. The resolution of the telic flaw is supposed
to be resolved in the climax of the novel.
I’m not certain what we call a novel where the telic flaw is not
resolved in the climax. There are such
novels, most of the time they will not be published—unless they are
self-published. Anything can be
self-published.
So, in a normal novel (a sellable novel) with the following
outline:
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 entire novel is about the movement of the storyline from
the initial scene to the climax. The
rest of the novel in the falling action and dénouement are just cleanup. So what do we have?
The storyline is the plot(s) of the novel driven by scenes
in the outline I showed above. Novels
are always and only made up of scenes—these scenes drive the storyline from the
beginning to the end. Each scene drives
toward the telic flaw resolution. That’s
where we are going. This produces
delight. We have to tie the scenes into
the storyline, which is the plot(s).
Here we are. Novels
are a grouping of cohesive scenes that resolve the telic flaw of the protagonist. When I write the telic flaw of the
protagonist, I don’t mean a flawed protagonist or a flaw in the
protagonist. It is possible for a
protagonist to be flawed and to have a flaw.
Many times this is the point or the telic flaw of the novel. The telic flaw is not necessarily a flaw of
the protagonist. The telic flaw is the
flaw in the world that the novel must resolve.
It is the problem that must be resolved and not necessarily solved. As I mentioned yesterday, some problems can’t
be solved. For example, the murder of
the protagonist’s parents. You can never
solve this problem. You can resolve this
problem. For example, you can find the
murderer, but you can’t bring the parents back to life.
So, here we are, we have a protagonist and every good
protagonist comes with their own telic flaw to resolve. We need an initial scene and from this scene,
all the other scenes must support the telic flaw resolution, and there we
are. How we produce delight is in the
way these scenes support each other in the resolution of the telic flaw. In addition, part of the delight of the
reader is the revelation of the protagonist.
And, there we are—the revelation of the protagonist must be a revelation
of the resolution of the telic flaw. Every scene must focus and provide support
for this resolution. Any scene that
doesn’t should be cut from the novel.
If you noted in the outline I gave you for this novel, the
scenes tell the story and also drive toward resolving the problem of the
assignment. The novel is about Seoirse,
but is it also about his assignment to support Rose, and that’s the rub. The telic flaw is that Seoirse must support
Rose’s assignment to train the dangerous girls.
Actually, to integrate the dangerous girls into society and their
schools. Rose actually see this
assignment in a much wider perspective.
At the same time, Seoirse is falling in love with Rose and Rose is
falling in love with Seoirse.
The scenes drive toward all these resolutions and in some
ways they are related. Rose may not have
had in mind falling in love at all, but Seoirse is compelling her toward
love. Her real goal and the telic flaw
is how Seoirse supports Rose, but Rose’s completion of her assignment also
drives Seoirse’s assignment.
I know this is complex, but the entire concept of scenes and
the telic flaw resolution is complex.
Suffice to say, we need to write scenes which always support the telic
flaw resolution. Any scene that doesn’t
must be removed from the novel. The
important point is the revelation of the protagonist along with the resolution
of the telic flaw. So you need to
understand the telic flaw, the protagonist, and to some degree the
resolution. I’ll leave a little wriggle
room for the resolution. The reason is
that the resolution to a very complex telic flaw might not be immediately
obvious. It might require some deep
writing and rewriting. The resolution
doesn’t have to be that great, but in a really great novel, the resolution
should look impossible until it is inevitable, and this kind of writing is not
easy. Who said writing was easy?
This is where we are.
Perhaps you haven’t heard any of this.
None of this is taught by the professors and professorets most of whom
have never had anything published professionally except the textbooks you are
required to buy for their classes. So
this is really important knowledge of you want to write novels.
The novel is the revelation of the protagonist. Every novel is written in scenes. The structure of the scene is:
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
Within the scene is tension and release to delight the
reader. Each scene needs to be written
to continue the storyline. The storyline
develops according to the novel outline:
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 storyline is the resolution of the telic flaw. The scenes show this storyline. The scenes all drive the storyline to the
climax. In the climax, the telic flaw
of the novel is resolved. Based on this
outline, we have an initial scene which might be as long as a chapter. The rising action scenes which are the major
portion of the novel which move the storyline to the climax. In a 100,000 word novel, we should have about
20, 5000 word chapters. This means we
might have a dénouement scene for a half a chapter or less. We might have a falling action scene for a
chapter, and we will have a climax scene for about a chapter. This means the normal 100,000 word novel looks
like this.
1. The initial scene
(1 chapter)
2. The rising action
scenes (16 chapters)
3. The climax scene
(1 chapter)
4. The falling action
scene(s) (1 chapter)
5. The dénouement
scene(s) (1 chapter)
The reality is not chapters but scenes. The reason I wanted you to see this is to show
you how to plan a novel. I know, most of
you, especially if you’ve written zero to one novel will be looking at this outline
and thinking how in the world can you fill 16 chapters in a novel. On the other hand, I look at this and wonder
how I can finish a great novel in the allotted space. You really don’t want your novel to get too
long or be too short. And remember, the
entire storyline must drive every scene toward the climax and the telic flaw
resolution. I do need to write a little
about the climax.
Let’s look at the climax.
The climax should resolve the telic flaw. The telic flaw is the problem the protagonist
must resolve. I’ve been through some of
the most important information about the telic flaw. I want to reiterate, you can write a novel
that doesn’t fit in the normal novel outline, but if you do, you most likely
will not get published and no one will read your novels. I’ve not gone through the rare types of
novels that don’t follow this normal outline—let’s just say, you can count
those that are known today on one hand and that’s about all. All published and successful novels always
follow the foundational outline for novels that I provided for you above. If you had a good education, you studied, to
some degree, this outline. If you
notice, the outline has a climax.
The climax is a scene.
It can be as long as a chapter, but the reason I put the scene outline
into chapters is just to give you an idea of the size, shape, and design of a
novel compared to chapter and scene. The
scene is the basis for every novel, but most people don’t know this, and we
don’t usually measure the novel in terms of scenes. Using a 100,000 word novels, there will be 20
5000 word chapters. How many
scenes? If a chapter is from 1 to 3
scenes, that makes about 20 to 60 scenes, but we don’t measure novels in terms
of scenes. Back to the climax.
The climax is the scene where the telic flaw gets
resolved. This is the scene within the
final three chapters and definitely within the final three scenes where the
author resolves the telic flaw through the revelation of the protagonist. The entire novel should be moving toward this
point.
How do you write every scene to the resolution of the telic
flaw? That is a great question. I don’t think it’s a difficult question. I’m going to reiterate a very important point. The novel is a revelation of the
protagonist. A proper protagonist come
with (or develops) their own telic flaw.
That is, not necessarily their personal flaw, but the problem that must
be resolved in the novel.
Sara Crew comes with her own telic flaw—she acts like a
princess. Even when everything is taken
from her, she still acts like a princess.
This is her telic flaw and her personality.
Harry Potty comes with his own telic flaw—he is the “boy who
survived the curse.” This makes him an god-like
messiah who can eventually rid the world of Voldermort. Voldermort is the antagonist, but not really
the telic flaw. How do we know? Harry is invulnerable to him. Eventually, the author figures out her little
conundrum and changes the history of Harry so that his mother’s love saves him,
but for the cogent—that’s too late. The
rest of the novels are great and all about how Harry defeats the Voldermort he
already defeated over and over.
How about Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. Her telic flaw is home. You know the home she ran away from. She is looking for home. That’s an easy one.
Most telic flaws are easy to identify in a novel. The point is that to write every scene toward
the resolution of the telic flaw, we need to focus on the protagonist. Usually, this is not that difficult, and it’s
the norm. In the current novel I’m
writing, the protagonist is Seoirse and the focus is Rose. Sometimes the scenes are all about Seoirse
and sometimes they are about Rose. In
some cases, Seoirse isn’t in a scene, but it’s still about the telic flaw. The telic flaw of this novel is that Seoirse
is in love with Rose and he’s doing everything to win her. That means that every scene needs to show
this drive and this move to resolution.
That doesn’t mean every scene has Seoirse lamenting about
how much he loves Rose. In fact I think
I only have an early scene where Seoirse even contemplates that his chest is
tight when he thinks about her. This isn’t
a romance novel or a silly novel about love—this is a full on novel about two
people who just happen to find their goals and affection are mutual. I’m not going to let it get too cozy too
quickly.
In this regard, the scenes of the novel are about Seoirse
and his work for and with Rose. They are
about Rose achieving her own goals. Rose
has an assignment—to raise up and train five dangerous girls. She has her hands full. Seoirse’s job is to protect, handle, and
support Rose. He is also her
chancellor. This means that the scenes
aren’t necessarily about love, but accomplishing their mutual goals. Even the scenes where Rose appears, but Seoirse
does not supports the end goal of the resolution of the telic flaw. The large question is, how can this telic flaw
be resolved?
For Sara Crew, her telic flaw was to regain her position and
wealth—that allowed her to always act like a princess. For Harry Potty, his telic flaw was that he
is a messiah, he needed to save the world.
For Dorothy, she needed to find and go home. For Seoirse, he needs to convince Rose that
he can stand with her and beside her as an equal—she sure is making that hard.
The scenes support the telic flaw when they focus on the problem
of the protagonist and drive to that resolution. The best example is Dorothy—she wants to go
home. Even if a scene or a set of scenes
are not directly related to this, as long as their purpose is to get home, then
they are important in the larger scheme of the novel.
That’s how we keep every scene focused on the telic flaw resolution.
Next, I’ll look at the storyline and cohesion.
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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