Writing - part xxx552 Writing a Novel, Building a Protagonist, Fitting, Refining the Protagonist, Details, Telic Flaw Resolution, Plots, Satire

03 January 2024, Writing - part xxx552 Writing a Novel, Building a Protagonist, Fitting, Refining the Protagonist, Details, Telic Flaw Resolution, Plots, Satire

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 21^st 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.

6. The initial scene is the most important scene.

 

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 31^st 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.

 

I finished writing my 34^th novel (actually my 32^nd completed novel), Seoirse, potential title Seoirse: Enchantment and the Assignment.  The theme statement is: 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 cover proposal for Seoirse: Enchantment and the Assignment: 

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 30^th novel, working title Red Sonja.  I finished my 29^th novel, working title Detective.  I finished writing number 31, working title Cassandra: Enchantment and the Warrior.  I just finished my 32^nd novel and 33^rd novel: Rose: Enchantment and the Flower, and Seoirse: Enchantment and the Assignment.

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 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.

 

For novel 35: Eoghan, a Scottish National Park Authority Ranger, while handing a supernatural problem in Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park discovers the crypt of Aine and accidentally releases her into the world; Eoghan wants more from the world and Aine desires a new life and perhaps love.

 

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.

 

My main focus, at the moment, is marketing my novels.  That specifically means submissions.  I’m aiming for agents because if I can get an agent, I think that might give me more contacts with publishers plus a let up in the business.  I would like to write another novel, but I’m holding off and editing one of my older novels Shadow of Darkness.  I thought that novel would have fit perfectly with one potential agent who said they were looking for Jewish based and non-Western mythology in fantasy.  That’s exactly what Shadow of Darkness is, but they passed on it.  In any case, I’m looking for an agent who will fall in love with my writing and then promote it to publishers.  That’s the goal.

 

The dependency I’d like to present in a new novel is similar to Valeska but one where the protagonist falls romantically in love with the focus.  The question is the focus. 

 

Now, I’m looking and researching for a being or character who would fit the needs of the book I’m proposing.

 

Don’t modify known settings, people, or history unless you are writing alternate history.  Modify, at will, those things that are not known or recorded in history.  That comes to a very important point about historical fiction, even reflected worldview historical fiction.  That is that history doesn’t record much of the mundane we wish to include in our novels. 

 

If I’m going to develop a protagonist, I need to bring out the protagonist outline.  I’ve got it somewhere in my writing—I just have to find it.

 

I guess I’ll start with the Romantic part of the protagonist.  Then I’ll move to the more specific pieces of the protagonist.  Most precisely, I’m looking at the list of potential characters from my list of characters in my other novels.

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.

I have Áine as the potential focus of the novel.  She’s a Celtic goddess.  This focus isn’t set yet, but I need a protagonist, and I need to develop and design one.  I’m contemplating a son of the Stuarts and the Calloways.  Here’s the information from my notes.

 

Elaina actually Evir Elisabeth Stuart,  Gaelic:  Eamhair Ealasaid Stiùbhartach – The girl: she was blond with grey-blue eyes and a very Nordic or Norman look.  Her long hair was tied in a tight French weave.  She was tall and looked mature—much more mature than Sorcha or Deirdre.

            Old Raleigh bike with a basket and a bell - an old Raleigh welded-steel frame girl’s bicycle

Elaina actually Evir Elisabeth Stuart,  Gaelic:  Eamhair Ealasaid Stiùbhartach  g. Oxford b. 1975 late to Wycombe Abbey a special student of Luna’s was being groomed for work in Stela and the Organization.  He specialty is with the Fae.  They are bound to her because of her nobility and background.  She is not Fae but commands the Fae to some degree. 

                                    m. James (Seumas) Donaidh Calloway b. 1971 

                                                            c. Eoghan (Owen) Ragnall Calloway/Stuart (Stiùbhartach)

                                                            c. Aife (Eva) Eamhair (Evir) Calloway/Stuart (Stiùbhartach)

So, my protagonist Eoghan will have the very special skills of charm and sensitivity to the creatures of the land.  He won’t have any other general powers of glamour. 

2. Set of beliefs (morals and ideals) that are different than normal culture or society’s.

He knows the Fae, the creatures of the land, angels, the God, and the gods and goddesses of the land.  That gives him a moral basis centered on an orthodox belief.  His family goes to church and practices all the strong tenants of Christianity. 

3. Courageous

Still, Eoghan and his sister gained some degree of training their mother and father never expected.  Eoghan is a park ranger with the Scottish National Park authority.  He was taught at their special training in law enforcement and all its attendant training.  The British military taught many of his courses, especially in hand to hand, weapons, and the wilderness.  He knows more than his mother would like, and he is strongly attracted to this life and this training.  He would like to be part of the military and has had overtures.  He is naturally courageous and naturally good.  Then he finds Aine, and she will give him a purpose for his special skills.

4. Power (skills and abilities) and leadership that are outside of the normal society.

Just be aware, it must have to do with the use of their powers of charm and sensitivity in relation to leadership.  That’s the ticket.   

5. Introspective

Eoghan must be an introspective character.  We have a protagonist’s helper to aid him in expressing his mind, but he won’t let out much or as much as Aine wants and that will help drive the novel.  Remember, in writing a novel, secrets are your best friend.   

6. Travel plot

I don’t expect a really powerful travel plot like I provided in Rose and Seoirse, but we need to get Eoghan and Aine into the regular world and into regular society—that’s where the differences and the interactions with people and each other can really play out.  Plus, there is no way after about 1500 or more years in a crypt that Aine wants to remain holed up in a rural or wilderness area.  She’s for society and culture, plus part of the real fun in the novel is for them both to have new and exciting experiences together.  The travel plot makes all this possible.

7. Melancholy

Eoghan is like his mother Elaina and his sister.  They are all touched by their mother’s and family’s depreciation of their aristocracy.  They lost all in the game of promotion and house.  They lost in the game of thrones, so to speak, but they all have charm and sensitivity to the Fae and beings of the land.  That makes them powerful in their own way, but powerless in society.  This is what we will change in Eoghan.  That’s one aspect of the novel’s telic flaw.      

8. Overwhelming desire to change and grow—to develop four and one.

This is the desire that will consume and empower Eoghan.  This is what will drive him and Aine forward in the novel.  He will have special skills, but the reader will realize that it isn’t the skill but the dedication and work behind the skill that leads to Eoghan’s success.    

9. Pathos developed because the character does not fit the cultural mold.  From the common.

I’m sure there are other ways to develop this pathos in the novel.  For Rose and in Seoirse, I used some other methods and means based on Rose’s qualities and skills to develop pathos.  In general, I used dependency and the military situation in Seoirse to build pathos.  This is easy with females, but a little less easy with males.  With females, the pathos becomes situational.  For men, the pathos is dependency based.  I’m planning and building a male protagonist, so these are important considerations.  With Seoirse, I could play off the female development of pathos and the male pathos.  I think this is a great means of designing pathos.  I might be able to do this for Eoghan with Aine too.              

10. Regret when they can’t follow their own moral compass.

In the end, Eoghan might regret some of his actions and the results of his actions.  This creates a situation that provides tension and release.  It also continues the tension and release in what is called a sequel by some writers. 

11. Self-criticism when they can’t follow their own moral compass.

In any case, self-criticism will be a characteristic of Eoghan, and it will drive Aine crazy.  Aine will be from an era where people made decisions based on life and death.  She isn’t used to second guessing.  I can imagine one of their discussions. 

To solve a problem, she says just kill someone or something.  Eoghan says no, and that astounds her.  Perhaps she will need to learn to be self-critiquing.   

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.

I will point out that with many and normal Romantic protagonists, the exclusion and self-isolation is intentional and permanent.  They desire it.  The exclusion and self-isolation caused by being an orphan or a partial orphan are also permanent and tend to develop automatic pathos in the reader for the Romantic protagonist.  I won’t use this for Eoghan. 

13. From the common and potentially the rural.

In any case, we want our Romantic protagonist to be out of the common.  We can work this in many ways, but the ultimate point is to convince the reader that the Romantic protagonist is just like them and not really special at all.

14. Love interest

So, we’ll have a great setup for this novel, this Romantic protagonist, and this protagonist’s helper.  What will really be fun is seeing Aine totally outside her comfort zone for many reasons trying to win over Eoghan.  I need to think on the details, but that’s what I’m thinking.  She’ll try all the wiles she knows and all the wiles she can figure out.

Meanwhile, Eoghan will want her to be mellow and gentle, but that’s not her way.  Can these lovebirds recover from each other?  Can they find love?  Will Aine have her way with Eoghan, or will she chicken out.  We shall see.  That’s what a love interest is all about. 

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 – I already wrote the theme statement for this novel.  Here it is:

 

Eoghan, a Scottish National Park Authority Ranger, while handing a supernatural problem in Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park discovers the crypt of Aine and accidentally releases her into the world; Eoghan wants more from the world and Aine desires a new life and perhaps love.

 

b.     Approximate age – I already wrote that Eoghan is between 19 and 21.  I think I settled on 20.  Here’s the details:                        

m. 2005 James (Seumas) Donaidh Calloway b. 1971 m. at 34 y.  2028 57 y. 

                                                            c. b. 2008 Jan Eoghan (Owen) Ragnall Calloway/Stuart (Stiùbhartach) – 2028, 20 y.

                                                            c. b. 2012 Aife (Eva) Eamhair (Evir) Calloway/Stuart (Stiùbhartach) – 2028, 16 y.

                                                            Aine appears about 16 y.

c.      Approximate social degree

 

      For Eoghan, he will be from an interesting background that allows him some opportunities, but most of them will be due to himself and not his background.  This is why I’d like to get Rose involved.  Rose has wealth and position, and she will know who should be her friends. 

    

d.     Sex - male

3.     Refine the protagonist

a.      Physical description

 

Eoghan (Owen) Ragnall Calloway/Stuart (Stiùbhartach) was a young man of average stature, height, and build.  He was so average you might miss him in the crowd except he was a man no one could miss.  His bearing wasn’t really different from most other men, but you couldn’t miss him in any group.  His height wasn’t taller than others, he was average, but for some reason he always stood out.  His face was pleasant and somewhat nondescript, but it wasn’t nondescript at all.  It was striking in the most unstriking fashion.  He just looked regal while seeming completely normal.  Women couldn’t keep from looking at him, and men all wanted to be his friend.  They flocked around him, but never hid him or overwhelmed him.  All the time, he seemed like the calmest and most reasonable person.  He was the person you wanted to invite for any reason, tea, a meal, a game, a walk—just being near him was calming and wonderful.  Even when words didn’t pass from his lips, the time was delightful.  Men wanted to hear his voice and women to touch his hand.  His voice was unimpressive and quiet, but filled with promises and strength.  It was as if every word that came out of his mouth bolstered and strengthened even when he didn’t say something erudite or when he remarked about the weather.  It was uncanny and soothing, never unnerving or worrisome.  Even his name, Eoghan Ragnall Stuart felt noble while sounding so unnormally normal.  If you called him by his Anglicized name Owen Ronald Calloway, it still sounded noble but normal.  And then his smile was always encompassing, but unassuming.  It had a slightly gloomy bent as if he took even happiness and jovialness in a sober and thoughtful way so even the most lame jokes became important and intelligent even when they weren’t.  Eoghan was always the life of the party, but unfortunately, he didn’t attend many parties at all.  He was too busy as a Scottish National Park Authority Ranger handling small difficulties for the Crown and Stela.

       

b.     Background – history of the protagonist

 

      i.     Birth

m. 2005 James (Seumas) Donaidh Calloway b. 1971 m. at 34 y.  2028 57 y. 

                                                            c. b. 2008 Jan Eoghan (Owen) Ragnall Calloway/Stuart (Stiùbhartach) – 2028, 20 y.

                                                            c. b. 2012 Aife (Eva) Eamhair (Evir) Calloway/Stuart (Stiùbhartach) – 2028, 16 y.

                                                            Aine appears about 16 y.

                                                                                                                        ii.     Setting  

                                         iii.     Life

 

iv.     Education

 

                                            v.     Work

 

                                            vi.     Profession

 

                                            vii.     Family

        

b.     Setting

   i.     Life

                                                ii.     Setting

                                              iii.     Work

c.      Name - Eoghan (Owen) Ragnall (Ronald) Calloway/Stuart (Stiùbhartach)

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 – here’s the theme statement again:

Eoghan, a Scottish National Park Authority Ranger, while handing a supernatural problem in Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park discovers the crypt of Aine and accidentally releases her into the world; Eoghan wants more from the world and Aine desires a new life and perhaps love.

The theme statement includes the telic flaw, and this theme statemen is very blatant.  The telic flaw is this:  Eoghan wants more from the world and Aine desires a new life and perhaps love.

Now, you might say this is pretty amorphous, but it does tell us a lot about Eoghan and Aine.  This drives the novel—the telic flaw is all about Eoghan determining what he wants as well as accommodating Aine in some fashion.  We can immediately see how these two ideas could fit together, and that’s what I want to do with the novel.  I want to use about 100,000 words to have Eoghan discover himself and discover his relationship with Aine.  Sounds simple, doesn’t it.  The main point in any novel is to put together a set of plots that give us a resolution of the telic flaw.  Note, there is a single telic flaw, and it belongs to the protagonist.  The rest is simply a connection to the protagonist. 

I already wrote that I am making Aine the protagonist’s helper.  This is how I love to write novels.  The protagonist’s helper is one of the most important characters in a modern Romantic novel.  That’s because the protagonist must share their inner thoughts, most specifically to be introspective.  You can’t have introspection without either telling or a sounding board.  The protagonist’s helper is a sounding board.  This character allows the Romantic protagonist to have dialog about themselves, and Aine will be the perfect protagonist’s helper.

That’s not to say, Aine won’t cut off information from Eoghan she doesn’t want to hear.  This is a real problem for and with Aine, she is a very direct, honest, and selfish person, but she really wants to please Eoghan.  She will realize her own deficiencies from the beginning, and although she will have constant lapses, she will know when she has stepped on Eoghan’s toes too much.  These events and incidents will drive the plots and the resolution of the telic flaw, Eoghan’s telic flaw.

a.      Changes required for the protagonist to resolve the telic flaw – this is what the protagonist and especially the Romantic protagonist is all about—the change.  This isn’t what you might think it is.  In some overall plots or themes this is obvious.  For example, the kid who wants to be a football player but is a 90 pound weakling.  You know what must happen.  I’ll state it, the kid must change physically and potentially mentally to achieve the goal of becoming a football player.  How about the kid who wants to become a rockstar?  They must learn to be a musician (maybe) first—that’s a change.

 

Most protagonist changes are much more subtle, and they all are redemption plots.  This is basically the definition of the redemption plot.  Even when you throw in the self-discovery or the skills plot, change insinuates some type of redemption in the change.  In fact, change itself defines redemption, and in the most beloved novels, the protagonist is all about self-discovery and change.  That’s the entire point of zero to hero and all. 

 

Just look at Harry Potty.  Harry must discover his magic and then refine it to be able to be the messiah for his friends and world.  This is a total redemption plot with a messiah none the less.  Other adult novels are much more subtle.  In Jack Vance novels, the protagonist must understand the rules of the culture and apply them.  That’s his entire Romantic protagonist development.  In other novels, the sparkly vampires, for example, the protagonist must become a vampire, but again that’s a young adult novel and not very subtle. 

 

In real past Romantic favorites, like Ivanhoe.  Ivanhoe must change his society to achieve his desired goals.  He still gets a Saxon princess.  In Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic Romantic style novels, the protagonist must make incredible discoveries, mostly about mysteries and secrets to eventually achieve the redemption telic flaw resolution.  Think Treasure Island where the protagonist must deal with pirates and others but the ultimate point is about friendships and betrayal.  The Black Arrow gives us a protagonist who must discover just who he is escorting to safety and why he (who is really a she) is so weak and unmanly.  He still falls in love. 

 

Even our favorite, non-Romantic, protagonists make changes, but usually not in the same way.  For example, Sara Crew in A Little Princess, doesn’t change so much as she comes to a realization of the life of the lowly and poor, and she wants to do anything to get out of it.  Again a type of physical redemption, but Victorian protagonists don’t change emotionally or mentally as much as physically.  Sometimes, they have to just apologize.  In any case, the protagonist and the Romantic protagonist must change in some way to achieve the telic flaw resolution.  In adult type and sophisticated novels this change is subtle.  In youth based novels, this isn’t usually very subtle at all.  We’ll look at some potential redemptive changes for Eoghan.    

i.                Physical changes – I could easily state there are no physical changes necessary for Eoghan to resolve the telic flaw, but that would be wrong.  It isn’t just internal changes or physical personal changes, but rather movement, wealth, position, and etc. when we write about physical changes.  Let me repeat the theme statement again:

 

Eoghan, a Scottish National Park Authority Ranger, while handing a supernatural problem in Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park discovers the crypt of Aine and accidentally releases her into the world; Eoghan wants more from the world and Aine desires a new life and perhaps love.

 

                                                                                                                                                To achieve this resolution, Eoghan must get more from the world.  We’ve defined this as achieving his goals in life, to some degree.  We know that Eoghan has latent charm powers which he has been trained to use, mostly through not interacting with people.  He lives his ranger existence mainly away from others.  He is self-isolated mainly because his mother see this as the best way to keep his skills in check.  However, Eoghan will soon be convinced to use his skills.  We’ll get to that, that is mental and emotional changes, but the physical changes are still very important. 

 

Physical changes are what you do with your body and placement once the emotional and mental decisions are made.  The questions we might have are:  where will Eoghan and Aine go?  What will they do?  How will Aine integrate into the world?  What will the result of their romance be?  Is there any hope for their romance?  What will Eoghan achieve?  Where will they live, train, and exist?  What will his work be?  Who will he work for?  All these questions are physically based.  They have to do with what happens in the novel and the realizations the characters make. 

 

At this point, I can’t answer all these questions.  I have my own ideas, and I’m formulating them, but from my experience, it does no good to fully outline and answer every single question, because part of the power in creative writing is to figure out ideas on the wing.  Especially the detailed ones.  It’s enough to know they exist and they are not direct physical changes.  For example, if Eoghan wanted to become a football (soccer) star in Britain, he might need to make some real physical changes.  That’s something entirely different.

                                                ii.     Emotional changes – the emotional changes or mental changes are the ones we mainly expect from modern protagonists and especially Romantic protagonists.  What’s the difference?  Emotional are usually based on feelings while mental are based on reason.  Changes in the emotional outlook, thoughts, beliefs, and perhaps feelings, as well as, the interpretation of those things are mainly what we are writing about.  There are very complex issues and points.

 

                                    I’m mainly writing about human interpretation of ideas and not the ideas themselves.  Those ideas are the mental part while emotions are about how the characters see those ideas.  For example, an idea or a fact is a fact no matter what anyone thinks about it.  Let’s use for example, Eoghan and his mother.  How does he view his mother’s interference in his life?  Before Aine, I’d say he accepts it without much thought.  That’s just what his life and life is all about for him.  After Aine, Eoghan begins to see his mother’s interference and actions as not positive at all.  His reaction will be driven by his mother’s response and actions.  With reflection, we should see Eoghan begin to change and moderate his emotions and thoughts about his mother, or specifically, how he reacts to his mother’s actions. 

 

                                    So, what I expect is that Eoghan begins to resent his mother’s actions and interference that will lead to tension and release in the novel followed by a resolute focus where Eoghan will begin to ignore and accept his mother’s negative views.  We’ll see where this all goes.  This is just one example of the many complex situations about emotions I plan for the novel.

 

                                    Another is about Aine and her feelings about Eoghan.  There is much much more.

 

Aine is the protagonist’s helper and not the protagonist, but I intend to develop her in a very romance based manner.  The problem with Aine is her culture and her past.  She is used to aggressive men who deand what they want even to the point of rape against women they desire.  In fact, this rape concept is also called ancient marriage and was and is practiced by less civilized cultures.  The idea in ancient cultures is marriage is sex and sex is marriage.  When a man had sex with a woman, he took the responsibility for the progeny from that relationship.  He also was responsible for the woman.  This is very patriarchal, but in might makes right, you do have some choices.  Death and slavery is a couple of them.  Most of the time, slavery or concubinage marriage is better than death.  The rape concept of what is considered captive marriage is and was common.  That’s just how the American Indian culture worked.  In any case, that is the type of culture Aine is used to.  She’s in for a great surprise.

 

Eoghan is nothing like the men she is used to.  Eoghan is a man of honor and integrity.  That means in the sense of the modern culture and society.  He rescues Aine because he would rescue anyone, and Aine is unbelievably grateful.  The reason is that she thought all hope was lost.  I want to paint this very strong scene in a very poignant way.  Aine is completely willing to give up everything to Eoghan because he saved her from the crypt.  She would give up her virginity, her freedom, her everything, and from her cultural world, she expects Eoghan to take all.  Only Eoghan would never think of acting in that way to any woman.  Aine is horrified that Eoghan doesn’t want her right then and right in the open.  She’s a little insulted by it.  Already affected deeply and emotionally by his rescue, Aine has a lot to process and think about.  I’m deciding just how deeply I want the conversation to delve about this great problem for Aine.  In fact, this problem that starts as Aine’s will very quickly become Eoghan’s.  That’s one of the very entertaining and fun parts of this novel I’m developing. 

 

Aine is going to have to figure out how to capture not just the mind, but the heart and soul of Eoghan.  Once she learns what in the world this silly love thing is all about.  She will pursue Eoghan with a great fervor, but she has to figure out just what love is all about, in this modern age, and how to make Eoghan love her.  This causes mental changes for Eoghan.

                                              iii.     Mental changes – now we are moving into the norm for the modern novel.  I also want to remind you that the information here are sketches while the novel is the painting.  The point of this information is to define the protagonist and potentially other important characters while defining the scope and movement of the novel.  Mental changes are just he types of changes we in the Twenty-First Century are used to in our thinking about the protagonist.  In fact, physical changes, although the norm for most earlier literature, isn’t really what we think of in most modern literature.

 

For example, in Robinson Caruso, the major point of the novel is a survival and escape plot.  There are mental changes involved, but the main point of the novel is physical and not mental.  If we look at much of Charle Dickens’ novels, we see something similar.  The overall plots are not mental, but physical.  The escape from poverty or from the current circumstances.  Even George Eliot has a similar touch in her novels.  What we can gain from this is a couple of important points.  The first is that physical change in the protagonist can move mountains.  It can really produce a powerful novel and plot.  On the other hand, the Romantic protagonist gives us a type of filter into the mind of the protagonist.  With that filter, we can see the motivations and the reasons for the need of the protagonist to change.  We can’t tell this, we must show it.  The showing it part is always physical.  This leads to the mental.

 

In the case of the novel Aine, I want to show how Eoghan changes mentally by the influence of Aine and the circumstances around their lives.  The great hook in this novel is the emotional and physical disturbance that Aine causes in the world and specifically, in Eoghan’s world.  What changes does Eoghan need to make to achieve?

 

In the first place, Eoghan needs to learn to love Aine.  That means he must learn about loving a woman.  This isn’t as easy or flippant as it might sound.  Yes, we hope love comes naturally to people, but what does that love look like and how does it manifest itself.  We know, based on his character that Eoghan is a solid and decent young man, but he is young and inexperienced.  He just has no idea how to handle Aine and her personality.  I guess I’ll get more into this, next.

 

Aine is the problem.  She isn’t the telic flaw, but she is the focus of this novel.  In other words, she is the focal point that makes everything happen.  This is typical in almost every novel, but I’m not certain there is a name for this focus.  It could be considered the subject of the novel, and I’ve heard this referred to as the cause—that’s where we get the telic flaw concept from. 

 

A telic flaw is by definition (in the Greek sense), the cause and the resolution of the novel.  Telic, in Greek means the intersection of the horizon with a vanishing point.  This is both the beginning (cause) and the end (conclusion), although the Greeks wouldn’t put it exactly that way.  So, Aine is the cause of all that will happen to Eoghan, therefore, she could be called the telic flaw.  However, she isn’t the real problem.  Eoghan’s problems are extra Aine.  In other words, Eoghan has problems outside of Aine, but Aine is the thing, the cause, that will get Eoghan thinking and changing. 

 

For this reason, I’m calling Aine, and this concept in writing, the focus.  She is the reason everything happens, but not the telic flaw that needs resolution.

 

Now, what does this have to do with mental changes?  Aine is and will be a very peculiar person.  She is a being out of time, which is exactly what I aim for in my novels.  Almost all my novels are about ancient people and beings caught up in modern times.  This allows me to compare and expand for my readers the events of the past as well as the people from the past.  I want to do this intentionally as opposed to placing modern people in the past or writing a historical fiction novel.  The point is to enable a comparison between the times, the thoughts, and the people.  That’s what is so delectable about Aine.

 

Aine is no girl from the present.  I’m sure there are girls (women) like Aine in the modern world, but what is so powerful is that Aine represents a culture, the ancient Celtic and Gaelic culture.  This provides me a circumstance of writing about that culture and the ancient times.  Every reference Aine has is a reference from the past.  She has no idea or concept of the present or modern times.  Eoghan will be an enigma for her.  I’ve mentioned this before, and I’ll get into it next.  That is Eoghan as seen by Aine and the changes he must make mentally to resolve the telic flaw.

 

Perhaps the first major or main change in Eoghan is to accept Aine.  Eoghan has never met a girl let alone a person like her.  In his worldview, she is crass, crude, dangerous, violent, emotional, somewhat underhanded, driven to excess, uneducated, unrefined, uninformed, among other negatives.  Some of these just aren’t her fault.  She can’t really help being uneducated by the times—they passed her by.  The problem is to get Eoghan to see the world from her standpoint, and also to see success using her methods and her approaches. 

 

I’m not saying that Aine has better ideas or ways of living, but she does have many positives.  Let’s look at them.  Aine is a survivor.  She is educated in living in the wild and with nothing.  She’s used to having nothing and most of her life has been a real fight for survival and just to eat.  She is a deity, but what does that mean?  She doesn’t need food or sustenance to exist, but she desires it to live and for life.  As a Celtic deity, her desire is to provide and to receive adulation.  She is the sun goddess and represents the growth of the crops.  Most specifically she is “the Celtic sun goddess and goddess of wealth, sovereignty, and summer. In Irish mythology, she is also a fairy queen and goddess of the moon, earth, and nature, and could shapeshift into a red horse.”  These abilities don’t necessarily make her invincible.  They imply and give her powers and responsibilities that she then gives to the Celtic people.  These are also the things she knows and has power over.

 

In the reflected worldviews I use, the gods and goddesses have great powers, but their powers are significantly limited by the constraints of their environment as well as the limits of myth.  Aine can bring wealth, sovereignty, and provide summer, but she can’t make the world perpetual summer, that would destroy nature.  The longer and more power she applies to hold the world in summer, the weaker she gets.  Likewise, she can bestow wealth, but that requires actions to produce wealth.  The more she has to do to bring it about, the more power of the land it takes from her.  She is very like the Fae—they also use the power of nature to use glamour.  Aine controls glamour but also direct miracles. 

The main point of this is that Aine must convince Eoghan of her value and Eoghan must come to terms with Aine’s personality and abilities or lack thereof.  Aine must change and Eoghan must change.  That may be enough said.

b.      Alliances required for the protagonist to resolve the telic flaw – remember, none of this information is ever shared with the reader.  This information might and may be revealed, but only through actions and dialog.  We show alliances, we don’t declare alliances. 

 

Now, you might reach some point in a novel where the characters come to some agreement to work together.  Yes, that is an alliance, they can even call it an alliance, but that should never be declared in the narration or by some omniscient voice of the narrator, or any other such means.  If the author feels like a declaration of alliance needs to be made, then that is expressed in dialog—that’s showing.

 

I’ve done this in many of my novels.  I really haven’t called it an alliance perse, but my characters have made agreements and contracts with each other to support their goals, some mutual and some not so mutual.  Now, back to Aine.

 

The most obvious alliance is between Aine and Eoghan.  This will be carefully and deeply manufactured based on their personalities and likes and dislikes.  The point is to get the very strong willed Aine to agree that she must depend on Eoghan.  I think this will be easy to show and to work since Aine starts entirely and completely dependent on Eoghan. She has nothing in this world, no friends, no acquaintances, no support, no money, nothing.  She starts emotionally and physically dependent on Eoghan.  He’s just a nice guy.  He would never hold anything back from her.  Part of the fun of this novel will be the clash between these two with Aine constantly reminding herself of her own dependency and lack of everything.  Then there are the other characters who will bring great fun into the novel because of their closeness and alliances with Eoghan and then Aine.

 

This is the point, Eoghan naturally brings people into his camp—Aine does not.  I’ll get to those alliances, next.

 

What I want to do is to expand Aine’s world in the novel while bringing Eoghan into the fold of the world and others in the Organization and Stela.  At the beginning of the novel, Eoghan’s only connectiona to the Organization, which I’ve explained, and Stela, which I’ve explained, are his mother and his father.  He is an isolated person.  I’m not sure how I’ll play his earlier friends and acquaintances or if he has any.  What I really want to build up is the relationships with the characters I’ve developed and made in my other latest novels.  These are specifically: Rose (Lady Tash, Princess of the Fae), Seoirse (Lieutenant Wishart), Shiggy (Major Cross), Major Cross (Shiggy’s husband), Luna Bolang (Colonel Bolang), Sorcha (Lieutenant Colonel), Ms. O’Dwyer (Mrs. Marshall), and all.  There are many many more.  The point is to introduce Eoghan and then Aine to these people and bring him out of his shell and into the community of his work and those who work for these groups. 

 

The primary people I’d like Eoghan to meet are Rose and Seiorse, but I’m not sure how I’ll play this out.  The other person I’d like Aine to become acquainted with and friends with is Eoghan’s sister Aife (Eva).  That’s a start.  Eva has desires for much more than she currently has.  She wants more from the world and is something of a mirror to Eoghan.  Aine and Eva will collude together to use Eoghan to get what they want.  Perhaps the best first contact is with, Stela in the Organization.  That would be Mrs. Marshall (Ms. O’Dwyer).

 

Ms. O’Dwyer is the head of Stela.  She is the main connection to all the others.  There may also be some means of connecting Eoghan to the others through the Black Branch and the Red Branch.  The Red Branch is the Celtic training island for men analogous to the Black Branch which is the Celtic training island for men.  The Celts had strange ideas about warrior training.  They believed women warriors should train men and women warriors should train women.  Women were the trainers.  That’s odd in cultures.  What’s fun about this is that Aine is not a warrior of any kind.  Eoghan isn’t a warrior either.  On the other hand, Rose and Seoirse are warriors.  I want to contrast these two couples.  That’s part of the point of the Eoghan and Aine pairing.  These are the alliances I’d like to develop.  They will build on these to eventually resolve the telic flaw.  Then there are enemies, like the antagonist.         

c.      Enemies required for the protagonist to resolve the telic flaw – yes, there should and must be an antagonist.  In modern writing and literature, an indirect antagonist is becoming more and more common.  I’m not sure if this is good or bad.  An indirect antagonist is like a nation, a government, nature, a company, a religion, an idea, a concept, a force of nature, or an organization.  Authors can make these direct antagonist by turning them into a leader, a person in the government, a god, the CEO, a priest or religious leader, a guru (one who sells and leads the idea), a professor (one who sells and leads the concept), a spirit, or a leader.  Notice each of these are personifications of the broader organizations or concepts they represent.  What shall we do with Aine?

 

The problems in Aine relates to Stela and the Organization and their connections to the British government.  These are really the indirect antagonists in the novel.  To personify these antagonists, I should use the leaders and specifically Mrs. Marshall (Ms. O’Dwyer).  Now, Mrs. Marshall isn’t really opposed exactly to Aine or to Eoghan or to their desires and wants.  Eoghan’s mother and father are a bit.  Basically, the system and structure of the organizations in authority here are somewhat opposed to the interests of Eoghan and Aine only because of lack of knowledge and because of fear. 

 

Mrs. Marshall wants to protect Britain from the supernatural.  She will view Aine as a potential threat and Eoghan with Aine as a real threat.  Eoghan has much much more power than Aine in many ways.  This will become clear in the novel.

Eoghan’s mother and father want what’s best for Eoghan and his sister Eva.  Aine will be offering something new and different to them both.  The excitement and new worlds Aine offers are really not from Aine herself only her rogue and uncontrolled nature.  Aine offers freedom and excitement and new ideas.  These will be promoted by Rose and Seoirse and others. 

 

By the way, I also want to show Rose and Lady Wishart’s reconciliation in this novel.  I’d like to have Eoghan and Aine bring them together.  Lady Wishart is a wild child and a wild heart.  She is independent.  Rose is very similar.  In my previous novel, they had a huge falling out, caused by Rose to achieve her goals.  I want to show how Rose was thwarted and how she gained back some of Lady Wishart’s trust.  That same change will show trust to Eoghan and Aine.

 

There is another point about antagonists I’d like to make and express.  It’s the Christmas Carol conundrum.  I’ll get to that, next.

 

A Christmas Carol is an interesting novel.  I’m not sure if it is the first novel that has a positive antagonist, but it’s one of the first.  Just what is a positive antagonist?  In A Christmas Carol, Scrooge, the protagonist is not a nice person.  He requires redemption.  The antagonists (enemies) are the spirits of Christmas past present and future with the overall antagonist being good will, but really God Himself.  It’s a type of allegory.  Now, the point is that the antagonists in A Christmas Carol are all good and not bad at all.  They have no negatives and no ill will about Scrooge—they are all about helping Scrooge reach and resolve the telic flaw.  This is a new idea in literature.

 

In almost all literature prior to this novel, the antagonist, by definition, attempted to prevent the protagonist from achieving the resolution of the telic flaw.  In A Christmas Carol, this is turned on its head.  Yet, everyone knows this is a very effective and entertaining novel.  For this reason alone, I think it might be one of Dickens best novels.  He set the standard.

 

That means you can have an antagonist who is or is not actively opposing the resolution of the telic flaw, but who isn’t really an enemy or directly opposed to the protagonist.  It give the writer a sliding scale of the antagonist.  This also means you can have an antagonist who means well and hopes for the best for the protagonist, but at the same time opposes the resolution of the telic flaw.  This is what I’m likely going to put in Aine.

 

The antagonist(s) are likely the Organization and Stela along with others who believe they are helping Aine and Eoghan.  The end result will be something different than any of them can imagine, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t friends or working together.  The point, for the writer, is the telic flaw resolution.  The antagonist causes opposition or as we see can actually aid in the telic flaw resolution (A Christmas Carol) the point is to develop the storyline and the characters in an entertaining fashion.  That leads us to how we achieve this.  That’s through the tension and release in the scenes and directly through the plots.       

d.     Plots required for the protagonist to resolve the telic flaw – this is where it gets easy and complicated.  First, let me tell you about plots. 

 

We generally think of plots in novels as singular, as in, Harry Potty’s first novel has a plot, but that’s not true at all.  To be able to actually define the singular or overall plot of any novel is nearly impossible.  I write nearly impossible, because I’m sure many have tried and think they achieved some success, but if you look at any novel in all of history, you will find many plots at least as many plots as scenes in the novel. 

 

Now, the idea of scenes isn’t a new one, but it’s one most people and many writers don’t fully comprehend.  Novels are made up of scenes.  Basically, scenes are the final building block of the novel.  A scene incorporates a plot that leads to tension and release within the scene (or it should).  A novel is usually of this form (99% of them):

1.     Initial scene

2.     Rising action

3.     Climax scene

4.     Falling action

5.     Dénouement

 

The novel has many plots involved in the development and expression of the novel.  One means of novel development is to pick plots to put into the novel.  I wrote that a scene has at least one plot, but it can have many plots.  You can stack plots on plots.  In fact, that’s what most really great and classic novels do.  They are plots on top of plots.  There might be an overall plot, like the resolution of a mystery or a crime, but that’s just part of the many plots in the novel.

 

I mentioned mystery or crime specifically because this is one of the easiest telic flaws to understand and describe.  The telic flaw of a mystery or crime novel is the resolution of the mystery or the crime.  How the mystery or crime gets resolved incorporates the many different plots in scenes that all move toward the resolution.

 

For example, the detective (crime) or mystery plot is based on the resolution of the telic flaw or a mystery or a crime.  One of the other plots you will certainly see in such a novel is one or most discovery plots.  Each scene might have a discovery plot that drives it.  The protagonist discovers some clue or clues that help lead to the resolution of the overall plot. 

 

In detective and mystery novels, the reason plot is almost always a part of the scenes.  The protagonist discovers something and makes inductive or deductive conclusions or at least reasons about the discovery.  Reason is a type of plot.  A scene with reason incorporated includes a reason plot.  I think you can see a single scene could easily incorporate both these plots.  In fact, some writers call this scenes and sequels although I just call them all scenes.  A scene, in this view, incorporates a plot that leads to a clue (discovery is just one type), while a sequel is where the protagonist thinks and perhaps makes a new discovery through reason, a mental expression. 

 

I don’t see scenes this way at all.  I write scenes that include the discovery as well as the reasoning al the time.  They aren’t separate events or pieces in my novel.  I do think the scenes and sequels concept is a good way of thinking about writing novels.  It gets the writer into the idea of scenes.  Scenes are where it is.  Next, I’ll list the potential plots form the list of classics, and discuss them.

I evaluated the plots from the list of 112 classics and categorized them according to the following scale:

Overall (o) – These are the three overall plots we defined above: redemption, achievement, and revelation.

Achievement (a) – There are plots that fall under the idea of the achievement plot. 

Quality(q) – These are plots based on a personal or character quality.

Setting(s) – These are plots based on a setting.

Item(i) – These are plots based on an item.

Let’s write about the overall plots a little.  In the first place, a novel is never a single plot, and not even a single overall plot.  You can find some plots sticking out further and stronger than others, but except for the three great overall plots of redemption, revelation, and achievement, you can’t really get any more detailed.  Well, with simple novels, perhaps you can, but most novels are not simple, let’s hope, and few of the classics could be considered simple.  I’ll look at the overall and the other plots in detail, but the critical point for a writer to understand is the scene.

Plots take place in scenes and scenes define the novel.  With about two to three scenes per chapter and about twenty chapters in a full length novel, we can expect about forty to sixty scenes with, let’s say an average of fifty in a novel.  Each scene is defined by a plot with tension and release.  I should go back to the overall makeup of the novel to compare, and to make this relationship of plot to the novel very clear.  Here’s the outline for most classics and about 99% of all novels:

1.      The initial scene

2.     The rising action scenes

3.     The climax scene

4.     The falling action scene(s)

5.     The dénouement scene(s)

This is how we write novels, and it’s all about scenes.  No single plot covers the entire novel.  In other words, there might be an overall plot, for example redemption, revelation, and or achievement, but there is usually no singular plot that defines the entire novel, other than these overall plots.  What you find is that in each scene, there is some plot.  That plot leads to tension and release in the scene and that scene forwards the overall telic flaw resolution in the novel.  Let me take a step back and define the novel itself.

To write a novel, we require a protagonist with a telic flaw, an antagonist, and a setting (at least initial).  The telic flaw is the telic flaw of the novel, it is not necessarily a flaw in the protagonist, but rather the flaw in the world the protagonist must resolve, not solve, but resolve.  Let me give my favorite and the easiest telic flaw to understand—the mystery telic flaw.

We have a mystery that needs to be solved.  In a Romantic novel, the only person in the world who can solve this mystery is the Romantic protagonist.  In the classics or a non-Romantic novel, the protagonist is usually one of the few in the world who might have a chance at resolving the telic flaw.  Usually, the telic flaw is exclusive to the novel and to the protagonist.  There is some connection between the two, but that’s getting into the complexities of the novel itself. 

The reason we say to resolve and not solve is that, for example, the mystery might be a murder.  It is usually impossible to bring back the dead, so the resolution will usually be determining the mystery, catching the criminal (murderer), and resolving the issues around the crime.

Now, if you look through the type of plots, there is no murder plot.  Murder isn’t a plot as much as it’s a crime, immorality, or betrayal.  It can fit into all or any of these, plus others.  The reason for the murder can also be fit into many plots: money, miscommunication, love triangle, vengeance, escape, rejection, and all.  There are many many basic plots that can be the cause the and result of murder. 

So, we expect our protagonist to determine the criminal, bring them in to justice, and resolve the telic flaw.  The question then is how and why.  There must be a how, to the murder and the resolution as well as a why.  The murder could be justified or it could be accidental.  The resolution could be very positive or very negative.  When the protagonist resolves the telic flaw, that is a comedy and when the telic flaw overcomes the protagonist, that is a tragedy. 

In any case, we stack plots in scenes to resolve the ultimate telic flaw of the novel.  In most cases, we only want and allow a single telic flaw in a novel, but many of the short story type novels, like Game of Thrones and The Martian Chronicles have made multiple telic flaws with multiple protagonists popular.  Usually there should be only one telic flaw per protagonist per novel.  That’s not a hard a fast rule, but a good one.  Messing with one telic flaw effectively is enough for most writers, and to tell the truth, short story type novels with more than one protagonist and potentially more than one telic flaw is exhausting to the reader as well as to the writer.  I find Game of Thrones to be unreadable although it fits for a motion picture or television series.  Go figure.

Now, let’s start with the basics: a single protagonist with a telic flaw, an antagonist, and a setting.  The telic flaw is a mystery.  We start with an initial scene, and I guess, I’ll continue from there, next. 

The initial scene introduces the protagonist, the telic flaw, the initial scene, and the antagonist or the protagonist’s helper.  I like to use a protagonist’s helper in my novels because I write Romantic novels with a Romantic protagonist.  Usually, the initial scene is the meeting of the protagonist and the antagonist or the protagonist’s helper.  Notice that in Aine, this is the exact initial scene I’m developing.  There are other ways to develop the initial scene, but none quite as effective. 

If you notice, most initial scenes will have a plot entirely different than the overall plot of the novel.  For example, in a mystery novel, the characters can’t just start looking for the resolution of the mystery, well I guess they can, but usually, you need to introduce the mystery—the telic flaw.  Depending on the type and storyline of the novel, the introduction of the mystery might be through a discovery plot, a travel plot, a money plot, a legal plot, or a mix of any of the plots.  For example, the impoverished protagonist might inherit a house, travel to the house, and discover there is some mystery in the house.  That’s a money, legal, travel, and discovery plot all in the initial scene and we are only introducing and unveiling the mystery. 

Once the protagonist, the antagonist (or the protagonist’s helper), the telic flaw, and the initial setting are introduced, the novel can move apace into the next scene.  These scenes form the rising action.  In the rising action, the expectation is that every scene will support the movement toward the climax and the resolution of the telic flaw, but many of these scenes incorporate different plots in themselves.  I’d say that most of these scenes will incorporate multiple plots to move the novel to the resolution.  For example, the next scene might include travel to the city to research in the library and the protagonist might meet his or her girlfriend or boyfriend.  The plots for the scene are then travel, discovery, and romance.  There might be more.  Then the author might just pick some plots to increase the excitement in the novel.  The librarian might be secretly trying to solve the mystery too.  That gives a potential betrayal plot as will as a possible vengeance plot.  In one scene the protagonist might be injured or get sick—that gives an illness plot in a scene or more than one scene.  The librarian might break into the house to find more clues—that’s a crime plot.

Here's the point, every scene includes a plot, many times multiple plots, all of these plots combining to move the rising action to the climax and the telic flaw (mystery, in this case) resolution. 

Novels are not about a single plot or even a single overall plot—they are a bundle of plots held together by scenes—the scenes incorporating plot(s) that all lead to the climax and resolution of the telic flaw.  For this reason alone, we can look at the list of plots and choose them to incorporate, or not, into the novel we intend to write.  That’s just what I want to do with Aine.

I looked at each novel and pulled out the plot types, the telic flaw, plotline, and the theme of the novel.  I didn’t make a list of the themes, but we identified the telic flaw as internal and external and by plot type.  This generally gives the plotline. 

Overall (o) – as I wrote, when we converse about plots in a novel, we generally mean an overall plot, but in reality, novels usually don’t have an overall plot, not in the sense we usually mean.  We want to find some physical plot that defines the novel, but I really challenge you to do that.  In reviewing the classics, I found no such singular overall plot, but rather many plots in every novel.  I did find three general overall plots in every novel with subplots of these that then form the novel itself. 

These overall plots are very interesting.  They do define the novel, and they are historically defined and show an evolution with novel design.  That is, we find early novels with the overall achievement plot followed by the revelation plot and finally most modern novels with some degree of a redemption plot.  That’s not to say there are no early examples of a redemption plot, but the history of novels and of writing fiction, in general, follows an evolution of ideas and writing skills and styles.  It shouldn’t be surprising that Robinson Caruso is all about achievement (escape from an island) while Harry Potty is all about redemption (from the evil Voldermort and his evil wizards)--and Harry Potty is just one hack example.

Now, about overall plots.  These are definitely something we should evaluate and choose for our novel.  Many times the specifics of the telic flaw and it’s resolution will define the overall plot.  For example, stuck on an island or solve a crime or solve a mystery.  These types of novels almost always devolve into achievement plots, although they can rise to a more details and internal plot. 

When I write detailed and internal, I don’t mean that as a pejorative.  You find great novels that are all about achievement, but the really great and indeed the modern classics are all about redemption as well as achievement.  Whoops, I wrote it.  Almost all novels start with an achievement premise and telic flaw, but the overall telic flaw usually becomes one of redemption.  I’ll get into the idea of redemption when we address it next.  It may not be exactly what you are thinking.   

1.     Redemption (o) – 17i, 7e, 23ei, 8 – 49% - I should start with achievement as a plot, but I’ll go for the best, but latest first—redemption.  Redemption means to be redeemed from something—this might sound overly simple and repetitive, but the point is that many might imagine redemption is about the soul or spirit, in the sense of being religiously redeemed.  Religious redemption isn’t necessarily what redemption means—that is only one type of redemption.  A person can be redeemed from their abusive lifestyle or from sickness or from poverty.  The most important part of redemption, however, is that the person, the protagonist changes mentally.  That’s the point of redemption of any type.

You can have a redemption plot where the protagonist finds his or her place with God in a spiritual sense, but usually, and in most literature, that’s not what we are writing about.  We are writing about the change of heart and mind of the protagonist that propels them out of whatever bad place they happen to be.  This is why redemption is such a powerful and popular plot type, and especially an overall plot type.  The redemption plot is really the bread and butter of overall plots.  In fact, we pretty much expect these types of plots. 

It isn’t enough that Harry Potty overcome his enemies in whatever version of the seven novels about him, what really matters is how he has changed inside that allows him to overcome his doubts, fears, and problems so he can be redeemed by the end.  Now, Harry Potty is obviously an overall redemption plot, especially the first novel.  The others are all redemption to some degree or other.  They just aren’t as powerful as they should be, even as redemption plots.  What we really want in a novel is an full on redemption of the protagonist.  That’s what I plan in Aine.

Eoghan needs to find himself.  He really isn’t from an abusive background.  His parents are kind but controlling—that’s still not enough reason for redemption.  What Eoghan needs is to find what he really wants and to achieve it.  What I’m going to build is that Eoghan needs Aine and Aine needs Eoghan.  I want to put them together in a romance and helping relationship where they are both changed for the better.  Aine integrates into the modern world and Eoghan finds his place.  He will have to change mentally, emotionally, and intellectually to be achieve this—that’s a type of redemption.

2.     Revelation (o) –2e, 64, 1i – 60% - the revelation plot broadly precedes the redemption plot in history.  In this type of plot, the novel reveals usually a character but many times some other aspect in the world.  Because the protagonist is the focus of the novel, the revelation must be part of the protagonist and the telic flaw, but you can see the revelation can be a mystery or a crime the protagonist must solve. 

Revelation plots are still very popular and successful, but the revelation plot turns easily into a redemption plot.  Revelation very quickly turns to a need to be redeemed plot or the redemption premise becomes part of the redemption.  I’ll point out A Christmas Carol as an example  That’s a revelation plot with a redemption premise.  Another example is the Harry Potty books.  They are all redemption plots wrapped around revelation plots.

This is perhaps the best modern type of novel—it keeps the level of excitement high through revelations and the overall plot balanced with the redemption plot and the end or telic flaw.

That’s not to say you won’t find many purely revelation novels or redemption novels without a high degree of revelation, but revelation is a very powerful type of plot and overall plot.

What we can see already is that the overall plots are mixed up with each other in the same way the other plots are all mixed up with each other.

I intend the revelation plot to be a very large part of Aine.  From the first moment of the novel, the world of the supernatural and of the Scottish National Park system as well as certain aspects of British intelligence system.  That’s what my novels are all about.  Did I have to mention Eoghan’s and Eva’s family.  All these and more are revelation targets in the novel.     

3.     Achievement (o) – 16e, 19ei, 4i, 43 – 73% - notice all the classic with an achievement plot.  That’s because achievement was one of the first overall plots.  It fits very well into the scheme of the novel, but it was pretty quickly eclipsed by the revelation and the redemption plots because those are much more important once people get out of a starvation culture.  The achievement of certain overall goals still make a great overall plot, but once people have food in their bellies, a job, and purpose or at least entertainment, they become more interested in the whys rather than the whats.  When they have achieved, they are more interested in the reveling and the redeeming. 

This is also why young adult and children’s novels are usually about achievement rather than revelation and redemption.  Perhaps we should explain about achievement. 

Achievement, as a plot, is about achieving some goal.  Robinson Caruso is considered the first novel in the English language—it’s overall plot is all about rescue and survival.  Rescue and survival are obviously achievements.  There are some touches of revelation in the novel, but not many any there is no redemption.  Robinson Caruso didn’t need to change at all to achieve his goals—he needed to survive.

Then we get into the true Romantic Era with Sir Walter Scott.  One of his greatest works is Ivanhoe.  Ivanhoe is about achievement—the achievement of peace and success for the Saxons in Norman French England.  There are also touches of revelation, but achievement is the goal and the main point of the novel. 

That brings us into the Victorian Era and let’s pick one of those dead male writers academia shears to hate like Jane Austin, George Elliot, or maybe the Bronte sisters.  Oh, they are female authors in their own right and the crowns of the Victorian Era.  We should pick at least a male, like Dickens.  Look at Oliver Twist, for example, there is a novel about achievement with a huge touch of revelation.  The Moonstone is the first detective novel, and all about revelation.  Don’t forget Dracula, also all about revelation.  Then back to Jane and Pride and Prejudice, that is a novel almost entirely taken up with revelation with the final act the revelation of the affections of the antagonist for the protagonist.  The end is an achievement, matrimony, but everything else is all about revelation.  That then brings us up to the modern Romantic Era—the Modern Era for writing.  That’s the Era of redemption.  I won’t go over it again.

Back to achievement.  The achievement plot is the basis for all other plots.  Readers expect some achievement basis that then has a revelation and redemption component. So, what will be the achievement basis for Aine?

I think I’ll start with the idea of Eoghan becoming integrated into the Organization and the Stela part of the intelligence structure.  He has skills they could use as well as leadership skills from his mother.  Eva can also tag along with this basic achievement.  Aine herself wants to integrate and she wants the love of Eoghan.  That’s a great achievement.  

Achievement (a)

1.     Detective or mystery (a) – 56, 1e – 51%

2.     Revenge or vengeance (a) –3ie, 3e, 45 – 46%

3.     Zero to hero (a) – 29 – 26%

4.     Romance (a) –1ie, 41 – 37%

5.     Coming of age (a) –1ei, 25 – 23%

6.     Progress of technology (a) – 6 – 5%

7.     Discovery (a) – 3ie, 57 – 54%

8.     Money (a) – 2e, 26 – 25%

9.     Spoiled child (a) – 7 – 6%

10.  Legal (a) – 5 – 4%

11.  Adultery (qa) – 18 – 16%

12.  Self-discovery (a) – 3i, 12 – 13%

13.  Guilt or Crime (a) – 32 – 29%

14.  Proselytizing (a) – 4 – 4%

15.  Reason (a) – 10, 1ie – 10%

16.  Escape (a)  – 1ie, 23 – 21%

17.  Knowledge or Skill (a) – 26 – 23%

18.  Secrets (a) – 21 – 19%     

Quality (q) – the quality plots relate to a quality of the protagonist (or a character) usually intrinsic to them.  They can be developed plots or ideas, but even then, they become qualities of the protagonist. 

The quality plots can provide some very powerful and interesting plots.  Some are over used, but many aren’t used nearly enough.  Many require more than a single scene to develop properly, but some can be applied by scene.  You might think that’s odd for a quality, but quality plots, like achievement plots, can be in varying degrees.

I’ll get into the nitty gritty details for Aine, but I do intend to bring in some of the quality plots.  I will have some or most of them run through the scenes and the entire novel.  There are some quality plots I will not use, but I’ll explain why, and there are some quality plots I’ll definitely use in a lower degree. 

I really like upbeat novels.  I don’t like the kind of novel that drives my readers into hopeless despair.  At the worst, I like to drive my protagonist to the depths with breaths of hope among the worst.  I like to like and love my protagonists.  I want them to be fun and entertaining.  I want them to be the type of people I want to be around.  I don’t necessarily want to be like them, but I want to enjoy them.  I want their successes to resonate and their hardships to be tough but not debilitating.  I like a lot of emotion from my readers and not necessarily my characters.  I want them to indeed feel the burn, but with a depth of person and character that drives the novel to a strong and happy conclusion—even if the results aren’t completely happy.  In fact, I like a slightly mixed ending where the telic flaw is resolved but the end is slightly bittersweet.  To me that is the best and produces the most pathos in my readers.  Let’s look at how the quality plots might do this.   

1.     Messiah (q) – 10 – 9% - the messiah plot is the second most overused plot in writing.  The most overused and trite plot is the end of the world plot, but the messiah plot is a close second.  This is the plot of all the Harry Potty novels as well as all the DC and Marvel movies and comic books.  When you bring in a god or a goddess, you are usually brining in a messiah plot, however, you can write a novel with gods and goddesses that has nothing to do with a messiah plot.  How do I know—that’s mainly the kind of novel I write.  I have gods and goddesses, but no messiahs.  You might ask how is that possible?

Let me write to you.  My gods and goddesses are all based on the mythical beings from history.  They are not invincible, omniscient, all powerful, or all knowing.  I write in a reflected worldview, so my gods and goddesses are those of the old and ancient world.  They have powers, but not usually the powers you think—or perhaps exactly the powers you imagine. 

Let’s take Hestia, for example.  Hestia is the great goddess of the hearth and a titian.  She holds power over everything related to the hearth: how food tastes, names, children, childbirth, sleep, and the hearth itself.  I don’t know what you think, but these are pretty esoteric and non-lethal powers.  I guess she could really mess up your food and drink, but that would be anti-hearth.  In other words, if Hestia used her powers to curse, she would not be a goddess.  Gods and goddesses don’t curse humans, they bless humans.  By the way, Hestia is not a goddess of salvation or heaven, so she can’t be a messiah.  I guess any god or goddess might create a messiah, but what, to save the hearth?  How about Aine.

Aine is a goddess.  She is specifically the Celtic goddess of sun goddess and goddess of wealth, sovereignty, and summer. In Irish mythology, she is also a fairy queen and goddess of the moon, earth, and nature, and could shapeshift into a red horse.  Now, what might a goddess of the sun really do?  If she doesn’t control weather, then sun spots or the motion in the sky?  Hold on bucko.  Since we know the sun is controlled in its way by nature, Aine would have little power over the sun itself, she might be able to bend the light or heat a little, but not much else—the same about the moon.  Plus, because Aine is the goddess of the sun and moon, she can’t curse with them.  She was made to bless.  She might be able to affect human’s emotions and wellbeing.  Since Aine is the goddess of wealth and sovereignty, she could help bring wealth and power to those who trust in her.  We know she can take sovereignty and perhaps take wealth.  That’s not so much a curse as a power in itself. 

Some of the other powers are real powers, for example, over, the earth and nature.  These would be very possible.  I suspect Aine would not curse the earth or nature, but rather use her power, when necessary to bless. 

If you haven’t figured it out already, these gods and goddesses of myth are relatively limited in their power and the scope of their power.  I posit, in my novels, that they can exert power in their realms, but limited by their scope and the trust of their followers.  By the way, no salvation, no messiah.  However, back to the messiah plot, you could have a worldly messiah, like Paul Atradies in Dune or Harry Potty or the Marvel and DC heroes.  All of these are worldly messiahs who can’t save you or anyone else.  Pretty lame. 

In any case, I don’t use the messiah plot, and I don’t intend to in Aine, although Aine could actually make Eoghan into a worldly messiah.  I might throw that in as a tension building scene plot.  Aine tries and Eoghan gets totally pissed.  Ha ha.

2.     Adultery (qa) – 18 – 16% - I’m not a fan of the full-on adultery plot, but that’s not to say this is not a useful plot when used in moderation.  What is moderation?  We’ll get to that.

The full-on adultery plot is Anna Karenina.  This is where the protagonist takes on the quality of an adulterer, and that’s that.  You should be familiar with Anna Karenina just because of history and the audacity of Tolstoy in writing a novel about the truth of the Russian aristocracy and their degeneracy.  In fact, while Tolstoy was himself an advocate of the Russian and all monarchies, for some reason he shows us a side of them that foments action against them.  At the same time, you can guess that Tolstoy hated the commoner and attributed much worse to them than the horrific adultery of Anna that destroyed her family, her life, and her aristocratic connections.  In any case, I don’t see adultery as a positive plot unless you intend to write a tragedy as is Anna Karenina.  Now, over to Aine.

You can write a moderated adultery plot because adultery is ultimately about romantic betrayal, and a little romantic betrayal can work very nicely into a novel with romance involved.  Aine will be not all about romance, but about the romance of Aine and Eoghan. 

We have a lot of potential ways to set up a little romantic betrayal.  My favorite way is with a little miscommunication and misconception.  Jealousy is a great pathos developer, especially when the readers know the principles are true to each other.  If you notice, jealousy is not a plot.  Emotions are pathos and not plots.  Jealousy is the result of many types of plot, but not a plot on it’s own.  Using a little romantic betrayal or limited adultery can produce a great pathos developing plot without any full-on adultery.  How can this work?

Eoghan is inexperienced with women and people in general.  Aine is very careful around men, but she is used to working with and convincing men to do as she desires.  I already told you a great secret plot in Aine—Aine is completely head over heals about Eoghan because her released her and because of his actions toward her afterwards.  This will be very clear to the readers, that is that Aine loves Eoghan.  Eoghan won’t be as clear about this—the readers and Aine will.  However, Aine is a flibidy-gibbet and a flirt.  She isn’t as beautiful as most modern women, but she makes up for that with her influence and activity.  This will irritate Eoghan.  At the same time, Eoghan will be gaining skills in using his ability to influence others.  His influence with women will irritate Aine.  We will have a little jealousy on both sides.  That’s the point, it will be a little misunderstood actions by both Aine and Eoghan that needs their communication to work out the problems.  I think this will be a very fun plot in the novel.       

3.     Rejected love (rejection) (q) – 1ei, 21 – 20% - I think you can see how all these plots work.  They are indeed individual plots, but the cause is itself or can be itself another plot.  This is especially true when we are talking about complex or plots in moderation—what does that mean?

Look at the rejected love plot.  You can have rejected love in the simplest sense, that is the family decides their daughter or son should marry a certain person.  They are forced into an engagement, but the daughter or son rejects the love of the person who is chosen for them.  Or conversely, the daughter or son falls in love with the choice and the choice rejects them.  That is the simplest and most straightforward rejected love.  You can see where it comes from and even the when it was most popular.  However, there are many reasons and potentially other plots that can cause rejected love.  We’ll look at them in detail, and they give rise to other types of plots as well as rejected love. 

Just below this type of plot is miscommunication, love triangle, betrayal, blood will out (fate), psychological, mistaken identity, illness, immorality, curse, and insanity.  Any of these plots can result in rejected love.  All of them are potentials for either full-on rejected love or just a smaller dose of rejected love.  That’s exactly what I’d like to use in Aine.

I suspect miscommunication is the best other plot to use in setting up Aine and Eoghan for some degree of rejected love.  I wrote already that Aine will see Eoghan as her savior and fall deeply in love with him, but because of her culture and thoughts, she will be unable to tell him just how much and how she loves him.  She comes from a culture that leaves all the wooing in the hands of the man and Eoghan will be oblivious.  He has no idea how to woo or that Aine wants to be wooed.  She won’t be able to communicate it to him—so he’ll have to learn from his sister and others about what he needs to do.  The rejected love won’t be rejected love at all—it will all be a misunderstanding, and that’s fun to read and to write.

4.                     Miscommunication (q) – 8 – 7% - this is one of the best plots ever.  It was well used in the Victorian Era when people routinely didn’t communicate well and wouldn’t communicate about certain subjects at all.  It lost some of its punch and use as Western culture became more open and more willing to talk about the embarrassing stuff.  However, people and societies still have real hangups about certain types of communications, and some modern societies, especially Asian ones, have real Victorian type hangups about many subjects.  The miscommunication plot is a mainstay in the East and a great plot in their literature.  It really does have a place in our writing.

Some of the main hangup subjects in the West are about love, desire, appearance, religion, personal beliefs, politics, there are a host of others.  These are the touchstone subjects that miscommunication can occur very easily.  I’ll give you an example.  No matter how much we want to play the game about an open society and dialog, the ability to express love is a function of either real love or sexual pandering.  The person who can just whip out, “I love you,” to any and all is usually looking for sex and not expressing love, and we know that.  Love is one of those difficult subjects because we know it still has gravity and responsibility attached to it. 

In Aine, we can have this love issue, but there is another couple that can really be used to great aplomb one is appearance and the other is the supernatural.  You can’t just come out to others and introduce your friend as a goddess.  Even with the “in the know” crowd that little statement can cause real problems.  If it is believed, it’s a game buster.  If it isn’t believed, it’s a psychological issue.  In addition, Aine who was beautiful by the standards of her society is not nearly as beautiful by the standards of our modern society.  She’s very skinny, with very Irish angular features, her hair is flaming red, she’s crass, crude, and not educated at all by our standards.  She is not a very attractive person, but she is a goddess.  Who’s going to tell the goddess she doesn’t match up? 

Within these ideas and issues, that of love and appearance, we have all the seeds of miscommunication we could ever use.  I already wrote that Aine is in love with Eoghan, but there is no way she can express this directly to him.  She expects the man to be forward and lead the way in love—that’s her culture.  She will make every possible overture to Eoghan, but he won’t be able to understand her or her needs.  This will make many of the entertaining plots even more entertaining. 

To recap, I’ll use the miscommunication plot to drive the romance and the Aine issues especially about her appearance and skills (education0.  This should make a great plot developer as a direct characteristic of the focus and protagonist’s helper.   

5.                     Love triangle (q) – 14 – 12% - if you notice, there is a basic romance plot.  It’s an achievement plot, but then there are all kinds of plots based in romance about what we might call mis-romance or the perils of romance.  We see multiple adultery types of plots, that’s romantic betrayal.  We have rejected love and now love triangle.  Each of these plots are basically how love can go wrong, and in all cases, we can moderate the plots to meet the needs and the focus of our novel.  Love triangle is just like that.

The classic love triangle plot comes out of the Victorian Era and is akin to a classic rejected love plot.  If you remember, in classic rejected love, we have a person who is being forced to marry in some way or another.  That classic plot doesn’t require another love interest, that’s where love triangle comes into play.  In the classic plot, we have a person who must make a decision about love.  On the one side is usually the wealthy or aristocratic, on the other is the poor artist (or whatever).  You know how that will work out.  Usually the girl chooses the poor artist.  If it’s a guy, the choice is between the rich and aristocratic and the poor sweet girl from the sticks.  In the Victorian Era, it’s a wonder that the poor and common ever got a break—that would really have to wait until the modern era and the Romantic protagonist.  Most of the true Victorian love triangles end with the wealthy and prosperous man (or woman) getting the protagonist love interest—blood will out, and the other wealthy and less aristocratic (in mind and soul) gets left at the altar.  Let’s see how we might use this to great effect in Aine.

I’m not a huge fan of romance as a genre, so I don’t usually delve in the full-on mis-romance type plots.  These are usually the fare of a romance writer or the genre.  What I like to do is tease these plots in a minimalist way.  I usually like to use miscommunication and misunderstandings as a plot to drive these.  I don’t see a full-on love triangle in Aine, but what I see is conflict based on culture and expectations.  Aine, as I wrote has fallen in love with Eoghan.  Eoghan is clueless.  Still Aine expects Eoghan to take the lead in love, but how can he if he doesn’t know?  The situation will be exacerbated by Aine’s propensity to flirt and Eoghan’s lack of expression.  The setup is there for misunderstandings and miscommunications between all the main players.  I’m not sure if I’ll actually bring in a third wheel, but there is always that possibility.  Aine will see every attention of Eoghan to any woman with jealousy.  Eoghan will be perturbed by any attention Aine gives to another guy.  Oh well—they’ll work it out in the end.   

6.                     Betrayal (q) – 1i, 1ie, 46 – 43% - this is a very popular plot in the classics.  Human betrayal, like romantic betrayal (adultery) seems to be a prevalent story.  I really don’t like full-on betrayal.  I do like the appearance of betrayal followed by reconciliation.  I don’t like the modern betrayal for moral reasons, and I certainly don’t like the intentional betrayal of your friends because you just can’t figure yourself out.  We see that in Harry Potty, and I think those are the worst novels in the pack—you know, the ones where Harry is having his adolescent breakdown and everyone else is suffering because of it.  I’d rather him act like a Romantic protagonist and help his friend through their adolescent temper tantrums.  In any case, betrayal is a great and popular plot, and it can be accomplished in many many ways.  As I noted, I’m not a fan of the full out betrayal.

The problem for me on a full-out betrayal is that I’ve invested in the protagonist and other characters to make them what they are.  An antagonist is one thing, a betrayer is something else.  That’s not to say that a betrayer or betrayal isn’t a great plot—it’s just the characters that I don’t want to discard.

For example, if the protagonist is the betrayer, you have a real problem with your readers.  Will the love and development of your protagonist turn to hate and destroy the suspension of disbelief.  That’s a real problem if the protagonist betrays.  On the other hand, if some character close to the protagonist and his or her friends betrays them, what will that look like and what will it do to the falling action and eventually the climax.

I’d say this, if you want a full-on betrayal, do it in the very beginning before we can fall in love with the characters.  I did this for The End of Honor.  The initial scene is the betrayal of John Mark and Lyral Neuterra.  It’s pretty sad and disturbing, but the novel was published and it had some good reviews.  I also have a pretty powerful betrayal in The Fox’s Honor.  That works out well since the readers aren’t that familiar with Tamar Fallkeep’s brother.  Now, what about Aine?

I’ll say the full-on betrayal is out, but there are some small places for a minimalist betrayal.  As I noted, Eoghan’s parents are pretty controlling, and they are overly protective of Eoghan and Eva.  In addition, the Organization and Stela aren’t going to sit still while a Celtic goddess is running around without some supervision.  There are all kinds of small betrayals I can work in the novel, and I think that will work well.  A little betrayal can bring great entertainment and excitement into a novel, too much can really burn it up—not in a positive manner.     

7.     Blood will out or fate (q) –1i, 1e, 26 – 25% - fate is the most prevalent plot in ancient literature and it’s kin, fate, the most used plot before the end of the Victorian era and the beginning of the modern Romantic period.  Fate is pretty simple, it comes out of animism and Pantheonic paganism and is simply based on the idea that the gods and spirits within living and moving things cause human calamity based solely on fate.  The major characters in the classical epics are fated.  There is no self determination or free-will.  The protagonists of their tales are fated and that’s why everything bad and good happens to them.  Just read any of the ancient classics and see what I mean from Oedipus to Antigon, they were fated to their fates, and they couldn’t do anything about it.  It took Christianity and the concept of free-will as well as self determination from Christianity to break out of the classical view—unfortunately, for a while, we got the right of kings.

What does right of kings have to do with anything?  Well, the ideas of animism and Pantheonic paganism die slowly, and the Victorian, as well as earlier Christian Eras took on an interesting idea based on the aristocracy, that is blood will out.  Blood will out is the same as fate except those, of the blood (aristocracy) are fated to succeed no matter their other skills, knowledge, of abilities.  Of course, that’s not the way the Victorians would have put it—they would simply state that blood will out.  What they meant by that is that fate, the gods and goodness will always choose the aristocratic over anyone else.  In the Victorian Era, this morphed into including the wealthy as well as the aristocratic.  Therefore, almost every non-Romantic novel you read in the Victorian Era contains a blood will out plot.  Just look at Oliver Twist or Great Expectations.  Oliver was assured, by his blood, of success even though he was a silly piker with zero skills, on the other hand Pip was guaranteed no success simply because of his background and poverty.  Contrast this with the later modern Romantic novels that just started their foothold in the Victorian Era like Treasure Island or Kidnapped (to a degree) or almost all of Edgar Rice Burroughs non-Tarzan novels.  You see in them the common person as a protagonist achieving fame, wealth, and glory in spite of their background.  The Romantic is the opposite of the blood will out or fate plots.

Although these are classic plots, you rarely find them in modern literature, except in a modern revival, like Harry Potty.  That is a messiah plot and Harry is a fated aristocrat who takes his due, but he’s from the British society that can’t seem to let go of blood will out.  Now, what about Aine?  I’ll address that next.

Yes, blood will out and fate are pretty much failed plots, but they populate all the novels we love, especially the Victorian novels, but they are coming back.  You should see these types of plots stuck in some modern British novels because the Brits still love their aristocracy, and Americans still love their celebrities, and the modern world is really into fate and blood will out, since many don’t believe in the American Dream anymore which is the idea that really launched the modern Romantic Era.  So, what about Aine?

This is what I want to do with blood will out or fate in Aine.  Aine comes from this type of society.  If you remember, I wrote animism and Pantheonic Paganism promote the fate plot, while the right of kings promotes blood will out.  Aine is from a culture that is based in Pantheonic Paganism as well as the right of kings.  Her worldview is all about this.  Now, fate isn’t as much a characteristic of the Celtic culture, not as the Greek culture, and Aine won’t be driven by fate as much as right of kings.  Eoghan’s great family secret (that really isn’t a secret) is their direct relation as a cadet family to the Throne.  His family is in the direct bloodline, and more than most, they share the blood with the skills of the aristocracy.  These skills and abilities, mostly charm, from the past are those that endear people to them.  How much is real power and how much their personalities and actions?  Who knows?  The point is that his mother, in my other novels, we depicted as having these special powers although she did everything to hide them.  Further, there is a line of fate levied on Eoghan’s family that negatively affects them as well.  That is their cadet branch status—always the bridesmaid never the bride. 

All of these characteristics will make Aine unhappy, once she finds out about them.  Here is one of those wonderful secrets, about the protagonist, that must be revealed in small degrees—the powers, lineage, and background of Eoghan’s family.  Aine will slowly discover this secret, and once it’s out, I see her actively trying to make her “boyfriend” the king of England.  Eoghan doesn’t want that, and there is no hope for him to become the king, but Aine will be obsessed with the idea—that’s one of her cultural ideas.  Plus, Aine might be able to do it—remember, she is the goddess of wealth and sovereignty.  Part of the fun of this novel will be to see how Aine and Eoghan deals with her propensities and ideas.  Will there be a blood will out plot in the novel, not really, but I’ll use the idea in the concept of the right of kings to bring in some historical ideas as well as entertainment.   

8.     Psychological (q) –1i, 45 – 41% - this is the oldest and the newest plot in use in literature.  You find this as a primary plot in The Tale of Genji which is the oldest novel in the world.  It plays on the edges of literature until the Twentieth Century, and then it takes the world by storm and we can’t get away from it.  In fact, some of the Harry Potty novels touch on the psychological with a touch of a psychological plot—not too much, but too much.  That’s the Harry Potty anxiety that makes us hate the messiah wizard for a while.  Oh well.  The psychological plot doesn’t have to be depressing, ugly, or terrible, in fact, showing the mind of the protagonist makes almost every modern Romantic novel somewhat psychological.  Did you notice that?  If you show us the mind of the protagonist, you are touching and moving into the psychological.  We’ve just become so used to this that we miss the psychological portion of it. 

Now, how can we use the psychological in a modern novel?  I’d say that when we have a Romantic protagonist, with the proper use of showing the mind of the protagonist, we are already in a psychological plot.  The point is to make certain we don’t miss this point.  I did this in both Rose and Seoirse.  In these novels, Rose and Seoirse are as a protagonist and a protagonist’s helper.  With that, we can see the inner workings of their minds, but there is more.  The situations I set up are also psychologically based, not in the sense of a negative or unhinged situation, but rather to bolster the strength of the characters by encouraging them mentally.  How might we use this idea in Aine?

Aine has her own problems and so does Eoghan.  Aine is culturally displaced, but she is otherwise a balanced person who just looks unbalanced in the modern world—that’s a psychological plot.  In addition, Eoghan is a normative person, but displaced in his own way from his own society and culture.  This is the telic flaw of the novel, Eoghan’s lack of connections to his own society.  This is also a psychological plot.  I intend the overall plot to be the overall redemption plot, the redemption won’t be from their psychological issues, but rather the psychological will have a play in the plots. 

As I wrote, Aine has her special problems because she is culturally displaced.  Eoghan has his problems because he is culturally isolated.  The psychological plot will be more one of one integrated into the other plots and part of the Romantic protagonist himself.    

9.     Magic (q) – 8 – 7% - the magic plot or magic realism has taken the world by storm—whether it makes its way into the classics is yet to be seen.  I’d like to break it in as a reflected worldview because that is the way it’s played out as a plot in the classics.  Think Dracula.  That novel is a completely reflected worldview, and it still touches us today.  There aren’t a lot of classics that use magic and a reflected worldview, but there are a few—that means it has legs, and it is popular.  The fact that fantasy has been pretty much completely displaced by the idea called magic realism shows that it is at least a fad.  I think it has much more power and potential because it really gives people what they want—a slice of the world that may or may not be real, but sure feels good to imagine it could be real.  That’s what Harry Potty does.  It does excite the imagination on a very basic level, who wouldn’t want to live in the magical wizarding world. 

Now, what about Aine.  Aine is all about myth and the supernatural.  The idea of magic is in it, but I use the term glamour.  Glamour is the miracles of the gods, God, and the Fae.  This is part of the reflected worldview I use in my novels.  Aine is a goddess and the Celtic sun goddess and goddess of wealth, sovereignty, and summer. In Irish mythology, she is also a fairy queen and goddess of the moon, earth, and nature, and could shapeshift into a red horse.  She uses miracles based on her abilities and areas of abilities.  What this does I the sense of the novel is strictly control the power that Aine can wield.  This is part of mythology and the historical use of the reflected worldview in novels.  In other words, although the God is considered all powerful and omnipotent, the gods and goddesses of mythology are not—they are only able to do what they are empowered to do.  Their power(s) comes from history and myth.  They are limited by their myths and historical basis.  This automatically brings amazing plots, I call magic plots into the novel. 

The point is that a goddess must have unique and powerful abilities, but those amazing abilities aren’t all powerful, they are limited by the being and their reputed capabilities.  The fact that Aine is found in a crypt where she was entombed a couple of thousand years ago means she has some unique capabilities, or perhaps she has capabilities of all bound gods and goddesses.  That usually means some degree of immortality and youth. 

Much of these powers will be very specific and unique to Aine.  That is the fun part and entertaining part of the plot.  Gods and goddesses have no desire to tell anyone what limits they have to their powers, but their powers are extremely limited, at least in myth and a reflected worldview.  Part of the problems involved in the novel will be that Eoghan and others expect Aine to be able to use her skills to do all kinds of things, but she won’t be able to.  She won’t have the powers that everyone thinks.  This will build the really fun magic plot, and that’s how I will develop it.     

10.  Mistaken identity (q) – 18 – 16% - this is a great plot that can drive a novel or just a scene.  The mistaken identity plot can work on a grand level like The Man in the Iron Mask or The Lady in White, or it can be applied for entertainment and tension and release in a scene.  I suspect I’ll use this type of plot in Aine right from the beginning. 

Aine is a dangerous person and Eoghan will realize that right away.  He is not completely in tune with Stela, but he knows the purpose of Stela is to protect Britain from the supernatural.  His job is just that—fixing issues with the supernatural for Stela.  Aine is a threat.  She might not be much of a threat, but any rogue or wild goddess from the past is a threat. 

The gods and goddesses of the land are a kind of cliché anyway.  They have all known each other since the creation and the event.  They work together or they are ostracized because they oppose the others.  This makes Aine’s situation even more precarious.  Because Aine was a Fae Queen (Fairy Queen), the situation is potentially better or worse.  Better because some of the Fae might protect Aine, but worse because the other members of the Fae courts will be jealous of a new Fae Queen.  All of these problems will cause issues for Aine and Eoghan.  So, where do we get mistaken identity in this?

One of the side plots or types of plots in mistaken identity is the active attempt to hide the identity of a character—that’s what Aine will be.  In other words, Aine’s existence will start as a secret, and that’s how Eoghan and Aine will want to keep it, but thing and events will get in their way.  Eventually, I should likely have a big and unfortunate reveal.  Something like a party or an event where Aine and Eoghan will be, and her power or her person or both will be revealed to the nation or at least to those who will know her.  That kind of scene is really fun and instrumental in brining out real tension and release.  It has to also fit into the telic flaw resolution. 

I'm not sure how to write this or how to work it into the storyline, but a mistaken identity as a secret that is revealed at just the wrong time is a real crowd pleaser for a plot.  I can imagine parts of it, but no the whole.  Since the novel is planned to be set in 2028, I’m not sure what event in Britain might make for a great reveal.  I’ll have to do some research.

11.  Illness (q) – 1e, 19 – 18% - this is a great plot, and it can be used in many degrees.  You can go all out with an overall illness plot like in What Kati Did, or you can use it for tension and release as a short time plot.  For example, you can have a character or the protagonist get a sickness like a cold and run the scene that way. 

We are all familiar with the illness plot, but for some reason they aren’t used nearly as much as in the past.  The Asian world uses this as a minimal plot, which I think makes it very effective.  Just like rain never falls in some novels, people don’t ever get sick in others.  At any one slice in time, you know someone of your acquaintance will be ill to one degree or another, novels should reflect this reality in some way.  I’ll admit, I haven’t used it as much as I should, but then, the illness plot can’t get into the way of the telic flaw resolution, and that’s usually the most important consideration.

So, how might I use this plot in Aine?  I’m thinking that Aine could be affected by the modern world in more than one way.  I had a sudden idea that for tension and release in a scene, that any attention Eoghan might show a woman could set Aine off.  For example, when Eoghan greets and hugs his sister, that sets Aine off—then we have the great reveal that Eva is Eoghan’s sister.  That was a side note about a jealousy and romance.  Now, about illness. 

Aine has a stomach of iron from her past and from her state as a goddess.  Aine’s problem isn’t food, but lack of it.  I’m not sure how I’ll play that.  So, Aine, the focus of the novel, can’t get sick in the normal sense, however, the humans around her can. 

Eoghan has an iron stomach too.  I should make Eva the one who has a little less strong constitution, but that might be a little too normal.  Perhaps a little virus action with Eoghan rather than another character.  That might let Aine show her nursing skills and put him under her control for a short time.  He might like it.  In any case, a little illness plot can be a real scene builder, and also move toward the telic flaw resolution. 

12.  Anti-hero (q) – 6 – 5% - this isn’t a very popular plot in the classics which generally means it’s not a very popular plot for readers.  That’s not always true of plots, but some are really not reader-bait at all and the anti-hero plot has some real problems.

I’m not at all against the use of the bad-boy or bad-girl plot, but that’s not what an anti-hero plot is about.  We are writing about a quality plot.  The quality is one for the protagonist.  It is technically possible to apply this plot to another character, but let’s look at the pitfalls of using it with the protagonist for a moment.

If the protagonist is an anti-hero, then they can’t be a Romantic protagonist.  That should steer the author clear of this plot right away.  No Romantic, no sales—that is if you can get a publisher to pick it up.  The Romantic type protagonist is the most popular protagonist for a reason.  The literatei like non-Romantic protagonists and anti-heroes, but readers generally hate them.  I should likely define the anti-hero for you.  Here’s one:

An antihero (sometimes spelled as anti-hero) or antiheroine is a main character in a story who may lack conventional heroic qualities and attributes, such as idealism, courage, and morality. Although antiheroes may sometimes perform actions that most of the audience considers morally correct, their reasons for doing so may not align with the audience's morality. An antihero typically exhibits one of the "Dark triad" personality traits, which include narcissism, psychopathy, and machiavellianism.     

Now, I don’t know about you, but I hate protagonists who are not ideals, are cowards, are immoral.  I’m not a fan of psychopaths, narcissists, or those who are totally self-interested.  These are not heroes to me, and that’s why they are anti-heroes.  The real problem you have with an anti-hero is philosophically, there is absolutely no way for a reader to love or even like them—not unless you are writing for psychopaths.  Then, the question is can we moderate the anti-hero to make some kind of worthwhile plot.  I think it’s possible, but I wouldn’t use the protagonist.  In Aine, I think Aine, herself could provide some comedy relief with a little anti-heroinism. 

Aine has her problems, but along with them she is inherently proud.  There is no way she wants to admit that she is in any way less than anyone else in the modern age, but she is.  She can’t speak the language, she isn’t educated, she can’t read, she has many survival skills, but she is also pampered and used to her own culture and ideals.  In addition, some of her norms are immoral as well as unethical.  She is a good person from her own culture, and she needs to learn the culture she’s been thrust into.  I plan to use this as part of the plot.  I’d not call this an anti-hero plot—that presumes the protagonist, but rather perhaps a bad-girl plot.  It’s not in the list of plots.  I’m sure we’ll find the classics equivalent—we may have already touched on it.  Aine is pretty much a bad-girl in terms of this culture along with a pampered princess, but she’s a goddess.  I’ve used the bad-girl plot and characteristic more than once in my novels.  I’ve also used the good-girl motif more than once.  The fun part will be that Aine is the protagonist’s helper and not just anyone.  That should lend some real fun entertainment to the entire situation. We’ll see how Eoghan handles his bad-girl pampered princess who is in love with him—he’ll be clueless.

13.  Immorality (q) – 3i, 8 – 10% - I could just write that this is one of the plots I don’t routinely use, and I’ll have to say, I’m philosophically opposed to the full on immorality plot, and that’s basically what this category in the classics represents.  The immorality plot is usually aligned with an anti-hero protagonist, and like the anti-hero, you can play this in degrees.  Immorality is also a cultural issue, and with Aine, we are teed up for a full on cultural issue.

I already mentioned that Aine’s culture is different, and we know that her culture branded and found her guilty of immorality for protecting herself from rape.  That’s one of the myths associated with Aine, that she bit off the ear of a king to protect herself, and that resulted in the loss of the king’s crown.  In addition, this is also one of the reasons Aine, the goddess, is considered a goddess over sovereignty.  There are still cultural issues and cultural questions of morality that we can plumb in Aine.  In other words, with Aine, we don’t have to dig very deep to get to a low level of immorality caused by cultural differences.  That’s from the perspective of the modern to the ancient.  On the other hand, Aine’s view of the modern world’s morality will also be a question.  To Aine and her cultural foundation, many of the views and mores of the modern world are immoral.  This puts me in a position in writing that I love to be—showing the differences between a modern and an ancient culture, and I mean showing.  If you are telling these things, you might as well write a paper on the subject.  However, novels aren’t about telling, they are about showing.  We want to show the cultures and not tell about them.

That’s where Aine comes in.  With Aine I can show you her actions.  I can also show you, to a degree, her mind through dialog with Eoghan.  You have to realize, Aine’s culture and Eoghan’s personality will make communication a little difficult.  They can’t speak directly to one another about many subjects, mostly about love and their relationship—that leaves a lot of room for a miscommunication plot as well as other plots and plot issues.  These provide a mix of plots to build the entertainment in the novel.  Neither Aine nor Eoghan are immoral, and I don’t intend them to act immorally in any fashion, but by acting in their normal culture, they will in some ways appear to be not as moral to each other as they should be, and this will affect the reader more than the characters.  I’ll see how this plays out.

14.  Satire (q) – 10 – 9% - for this kind of plot, we need to define it first.  Here’s a definition of satire:

The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.

Now, in writing, satire can definitely be overall or simply scene or situationally directed.  I do hope that all your writing is filled with some degree of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule—that is in the lives, actions, and dialog of your protagonist and other characters.  The use of these are really what makes conversation and scenes entertaining.  Let’s get into that a little. 

Listen to some good dialog between friend and you will hear humor (or attempted humor), irony (usually with a little eye rolling), exaggeration (sometimes admitted, but many times not), and ridicule.  In most cases, these are not necessarily used in the dialog to expose or criticize the speakers or third parties’ stupidity or vices, but then again sometimes they are.  Many times in real dialog, these incidents of satire do, in gentle or not so gentle ways, attack a speaker or a third party.  This is considered good conversation.  When the satire falls flat, that is usually considered a social faux pas or at least some kind of statement in bad taste.  On the other hand, a well placed satirical statement in a real conversation is usually considered a great feat of wit.  It may be celebrated with a toast or a punch.  Do you get what I’m writing to you here?  If you haven’t experienced this degree of conversation in real life, as a writer, you need to get out more.  Now, about plots and writing.

Satire isn’t just about plots.  It becomes an issue of plots when we, as authors, base a scene or event on a question of satire, or when we write a well placed bit of satire in our dialog that drives the plot is some way.  I wanted to write unexpected way, because satire is usually one of the main elements an author uses to build tension without much release until there is a release.  In many cases, the release is pretty interesting.  I was going to write ugly, but most of the time, these releases from satire might be filled with pathos and response, and many times the results are ugly, but the use of satire usually makes the very ugly less strident or even more humorous.  That’s what I find in my writing, and that’s why satire is so useful and powerful.

I should likely give you some more on the use of satire and especially in Aine.  The main point about satire is that I’m not sure you can write a good or entertaining novel without it, but plots based on satire are something else entirely.  You can immediately see that by the number of classics, 9%, with satire plots, while almost every classic is filled to the brim with some degree of satire in the dialog.  We shall see.  

15.  Camaraderie (q) – 19 – 17%

16.  Curse (q) – 4 – 4%

17.  Insanity (q) – 8 – 7%

18.  Mentor (q) – 12 – 11%

Setting (s)

1.     End of the World (s) – 3 – 3%

2.     War (s) – 20 – 18%

3.     Anti-war (s) –2 – 2%

4.     Travel (s) –1e, 62 – 56%

5.     Totalitarian (s) – 1e, 8 – 8%

6.     Horror (s) – 15 – 13%

7.     Children (s) – 24 – 21%

8.     Historical (s) – 19 – 17%

9.     School (s) – 11 – 10%

10.  Parallel (s) – 4 – 4%

11.  Allegory (s) – 10 – 9%

12.  Fantasy world (s) – 5 – 4%

13.  Prison (s) – 2 – 2%

Item (i)

1.     Article (i) – 1e, 46 – 42%

Tomorrow, I’ll start with these plots and evaluate how and which I’ll use in this new novel Aine.

e.      Obstacles that must be overcome for the protagonist to resolve the telic flaw

 

     

e.      Obstacles that must be overcome for the protagonist to resolve the telic flaw

 

I want to write another book based on Rose and Seoirse, and the topic will be the raising of Ceridwen—at least that’s my plan.  Before I get to that, I want to write another novel about dependency as a theme.  We shall see.

 

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  

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