20 March 2024, Writing - part xxx629 Writing a Novel to Entertain, Parts of Reality, Logic
Announcement: Delay, my new novels can be seen on the
internet, but my primary publisher has gone out of business—they couldn’t
succeed in the past business and publishing environment. I’ll keep you
informed, but I need a new publisher.
More information can be found at www.ancientlight.com. Check out my novels—I think you’ll
really enjoy them.
Introduction: I wrote the novel Aksinya:
Enchantment and the Daemon. This was my 21st novel and through
this blog, I gave you the entire novel in installments that included commentary
on the writing. In the commentary, in addition to other general information on
writing, I explained, how the novel was constructed, the metaphors and symbols
in it, the writing techniques and tricks I used, and the way I built the
scenes. You can look back through this blog and read the entire novel beginning
with http://www.pilotlion.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-novel-part-3-girl-and-demon.html.
I’m using this novel
as an example of how I produce, market, and eventually (we hope) get a novel
published. I’ll keep you informed along the way.
Today’s Blog: To see the steps in the publication process,
visit my writing websites http://www.sisteroflight.com/.
The four plus one
basic rules I employ when writing:
1. Don’t confuse your readers.
2. Entertain your readers.
3. Ground your readers in the writing.
4. Don’t show (or tell) everything.
4a. Show what can be seen, heard, felt, smelled, and tasted on the stage
of the novel.
5. Immerse yourself in the world of
your writing.
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 31st
novel, working title, Cassandra, potential title Cassandra: Enchantment and the Warriors. The theme statement is: Deirdre and Sorcha
are redirected to French finishing school where they discover difficult
mysteries, people, and events.
I finished writing my 34th
novel (actually my 32nd 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 30th novel,
working title Red Sonja. I finished my 29th novel, working
title Detective. I finished writing number 31, working title Cassandra: Enchantment and the Warrior. I just finished my 32nd novel and
33rd 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.
Let’s keep
writing to entertain ourselves with the knowledge that what will entertain a great
reader, like we are, will entertain other readers. That’s our only hope.
Let’s look
back at entertainment and writing. As I
wrote before, writing is communication.
What we imagine is that we simply communicate words from one person to
another, but the reality, especially in writing, is we are communicating word pictures. Here’s the problem.
I imagine
the world structurally in my mind. This
is where my reality lies and this is where my imagination lies. Until someone invents a mind viewer, you will
never know what is really going on in someone’s mind or thoughts. In fact, the Greeks, as well as most real
philosophers would argue that even then, you will never really know a person’s
thoughts. Thoughts live in the realm of the
unreal world. Let’s look at little at
the Greek worldview—that’s the worldview basis for Western civilization.
In the Greek
and Western worldview, the human being is made up of sarx, psuche, and
pneuma. Things get a little
complicated from here, but in Greek thought, sarx is the flesh—that’s
easy, the physical body. Psuche
is the mind or thoughts. In the Greek
worldview a human can’t stop thinking—if they do, they are just an animal. The psuche is the unconscious breath—there
is no thinking to take an unconscious breath, but in the Greek worldview what
makes a human different from an animal is that humans always think. They think, therefore they are. Then there is pneuma.
Pneuma is the conscious
breath. This is freewill to the Greeks. The unconscious breath is automatic and
thinking—the conscious breath is accomplished through freewill, and action of
the mind. All this is very interesting
to me, and should be important to any thinking person—two-thirds of our being,
according to the Greeks is not found in the real world—although the conscious
and the unconscious breath are physical things, they represent very nonphysical
ideas—thoughts (reasoning) and freewill.
I guess I’ll look at the unreal in the real world, next.
So, what is
real and what is unreal? If you are
familiar with classic philosophy and theology as well as Western Civilization,
you should know, but let me remind you. The
Greeks invented the three ways to know truth.
There is a forth that came out of the legal system, but it’s not
effective in knowing truth as much as defining harm. In any case, the three methods to know truth
are, in order of invention, the historic method, reason or logic (philosophy),
and the scientific method. These were
the bread and butter of knowledge and education until about 1900, but they have
fallen by the wayside, mostly because they are absolutely true. Let’s define them a little.
In the first
place, the historical method is used to prove as well as define things that can’t
be repeated. Historical events and occurrences
cannot be repeated, they are defined by time.
We could write that the historical method is used to prove and define
things that are bound by time—this would be absolutely true. The Greeks notably invented the historical
method to record history. Their purpose
was to record historical events for the future.
Now, even the Greeks, with tongue in cheek, argued the Hebrews actually
started the historical method, however, their purpose was different, and so the
Greeks made the claim in history and it stuck.
The Hebrews
purpose was to record the revelation of their God in the fabric of their world
and history and not to record human history necessarily. That’s one of the main reason the Greeks get
the claim of the invention of the historical method. However, the Greeks honored and venerated the
Hebrews for their very ancient historical writings.
What can you
do with the historical method? In the
first place, the historical method is the only method to prove history. Usually, we write about evidence and the best
evidence is the eyewitness source in history.
There are three levels of historical witness, primary (eyewitness),
secondary (hearsay), and tertiary (anything else).
A primary
witness is one that directly observes something in time and place—then they
record it in some fashion. Usually the
recording in the past has been writing but in the modern world we have videos,
pictures, and other recordings.
A secondary
witness is one that takes the record or account of a primary witness and writes
or records it. This is usually a newspaper
or other account where the secondary writes down the report of the primary
witness. As an example, in the assassination
of Lincon, the written or recorded account of his wife, a primary witness would
be a primary source. The account by a journalist
from an interview of Lincoln’s wife would be a secondary witness.
In the historical
method, a primary witness always trumps any secondary or tertiary witness
unless there is any direct and obvious discrepancies between the accounts. We don’t mean simply things a person decides
not to believe, but rather falsifications based on real data. Even this is difficult to define because
primary source witness is always accorded the benefit of the doubt in the
eyewitness to an account. If you
happened to have a multiple of eyewitnesses and the account of one
significantly differed from the others, you might consider dropping the one,
but this is usually a problem of modern jurisprudence and not history. I guess I’ll get into this, next.
Yes, the
historical method is also called the legal method—it’s used to convict people
in a court of law and to punish them if they are found guilty. It specifically determines guilt in the
judicial system, and it therefore one of the most important parts of law and society. The historical method is also notably used to
prove history.
As I wrote,
in the historical method, we have eyewitness, secondary or hearsay witness, and
tertiary or other witness. Obviously, in
normal jurisprudence only an eyewitness or eyewitness and direct evidence is
allowed. Hearsay (secondary) and
tertiary is never supposed to be allowed in a judicial trail.
In
historical evidence, we can’t be quite as picky. In history, the number of eyewitness accounts
is increasing, but in the past, we only have so many—still plenty, but only so
many. Let’s get to the meat of the
matter. No historian uses tertiary
sources for history. They only use
primary (eyewitness) and secondary sources.
A tertiary source is a history book.
Historians do write all kinds of history books meanwhile making money
off sources that might be questionable—because, you see, history isn’t about
opinions. History is about facts. The facts are wrapped up in the binder called
witness and evidence. Let’s look at
witness and evidence.
We did
already see the three levels of witness: primary (eyewitness), secondary (hearsay),
and tertiary (everything else). Safe to
say, in historical proof, the primary always trumps the secondary which always
trumps the tertiary. That’s the way it
works. This is the prime directive. No tertiary or secondary is ever held above a
primary. No tertiary is ever held about
a secondary. That’s the main and basic
rule. An eyewitness always trumps, and
it really doesn’t matter is the historian agrees with the account or not—the account,
in history is the account in history.
There are a couple of other tests we use to determine historical value and
proof within the three categories of witness.
I’ll look at those, next.
Okay, I
haven’t hit logic yet, but we will get there.
At the moment, I’m looking at some advanced ways to understand the
historical method—you know, the method we use to put people in prison as well
as the means to prove nonrepeatable events.
When we look
at historical evidence, we have two tests we apply. The first is the bibliographical tests. These relate to how well especially historical
records (writings mostly) have been passed down to us in history. We look at when the work was written and the
earliest copy we have—that’s the elapsed time test. You need to know, if you don’t, we have no
original documents from antiquity.
Antiquity is actually dated at around 600 AD. So, we have zero originals with a few
exceptions of historical documents from before 600 AD. 600 AD is the mark because we have a couple
of copies of the Koran that are reputed originals. There are problems with these documents, but
that’s another account. Plus, the Koran
is not history at all—it’s a quartiery document of a person’s opinions about
their god. I brought up a forth witness
I like to call quatriery because with primary you have an eyewitness, with
secondary, you have the account of an eyewitness from a secondary source,
tertiary is history, but everything else—except opinion. Quatriery, is my term for opinion or really
fiction writing. There is no history in
quatriery. For example, the Book of
the Dead, which we have five very different copies from Egyptian tombs are
a quartriery source. Why? They are spells you use after you are
dead. There is zero history in the Book
of the Dead. There are only spells,
written by the living, for dead mummies.
This is a quatriery document.
Now, back to the elapsed time test.
Most historical
documents in antiquity have a lapse of about 1000 years from the original to
the first remaining copy. That’s because
someone took the time to copy the original and then make other copies until our
last and latest copy. I do need to point
out some of the best historical lapse times are found in the New Testament
documents. Less than 100 years elapsed
between the originals and the earliest copies.
Alas, they are still copies.
The second
bibliographical test is the test of the number of extant copies. It’s just statistics to figure out that the
more copies you have, and the shorter the lapse time, the closer the copies you
have will be to the originals. I’ll
point out that for most works in antiquity, the best we have is one copy. Some few have more, like three copies. A few, like the Odyssey, have up to 600
copies. The Odyssey isn’t history,
alas. For the New Testament, we have
24,000 copies, and that’s the best of all historical documents in all of
history—thought you’d like to know. I’ll
look at the other two tests, next.
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
fiction, theme, plot,
story, storyline, character development, scene, setting, conversation, novel,
book, writing, information, study, marketing, tension, release, creative, idea,
logic
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