12 May 2024, Writing - part xxx682 Writing a Novel to Entertain, Back to the Future
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 two
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.
So, where do
we get great ideas to write about. We
need entertaining ideas, or we need ideas we can turn into entertainment. Just look at Shakespeare, he has some really
revolutionary ideas which he turns into entertainment, and he has some really
old ideas which he still turns into entertainment. Some rake made the comment that there are
only so many plots, and that artists just reuse the old ones in a newer
framework. That may be true, but I don’t
agree with it at all. I’ve read novels
that were unique, and I’ve written novels that were unique. New plots and new ideas are always possible,
but one point that is correct, the new comes from the old.
The new
ideas come from the old ideas. The new
plots come from the old plots. You could
also write that new characters come from old characters, but there is much more
going on with characters. We’ll look at
that. At the moment, let’s contemplate
new ideas coming from old ideas.
This
statement is completely true and indicative of reality. It’s also why there can really be new ideas
and new plots, and new concepts in writing.
Ideas are evolutionary.
Did you get
that? Ideas are evolutionary. I have an interesting example that explains
the concept of ideas as well as imagination.
Let’s see if it fits. Not that
long ago, a scientist had an idea—could he reproduce a simple appliance from
base materials? You’d think that would
be easy, especially with our knowledge and technology. This scientist decided to make a toaster from
basic materials. He worked diligently on
this project for a year. His conclusions
were that it is impossible to reproduce certain steps in the development of
products to make a toaster. The main
problems were refining the metals and making the plastic type materials
required for electricity. There were so
many holes in the stream of knowledge from the past, that each required a leap
of information that just didn’t exist anymore.
I hope some other scientist tries this project again sometime, but it’s
likely a one off. There might be a
possibility of developing an appliance from scratch. I think it might be possible. Now, how does this fit into ideas.
Modern plots
and ideas for plots are like the appliance.
They have been through thousands of years of development to give us
those novels and ideas in current use.
Luckily, we can read many of them, but also many old plots seem strange
or even antiquated to our minds. The
classic, fate plot in Greek and other ancient literature finds its way into an
occasional novel in the modern era, but very few. Likewise, the classic “blood will out” plot
finds its way into the modern occasionally, it’s deep in Harry Potty, but it’s
still rare. All the plots we have come
from the past and are made new by their use, and then authors create new type
of plots and plots. The magic realism
plot is an old new idea. It comes out of
fantasy, but it’s still quite new. There
is much more to this. I’ll continue,
next.
I’m of a
mind that there really are new ideas available to be discovered. Just like in science and engineering. I experienced one very memorable meeting with
DARPA when I was designing low speed aircraft for them. One of their people stated, “There’s nothing
new to invent in low speed aerodynamics.”
I beg to differ. In fact, was the
guy even listening to my presentation. I
was presenting an entirely new and pretty revolutionary idea to improve low
speed aircraft in general. It was literally
a new idea in aerodynamics. In any case,
writing and plots are the same.
Yes, there
may or may not be any new plots to be developed, but even a basic plot like a
romance plot can have infinite variations based on the characters, setup,
setting, and circumstances. This is what
I mean when I state the theme is a statement rather than a word or idea. The theme or plot might be love, but there is
much more to a theme than a word, and that move us to theme.
I’m not sure
the idea of a theme in the classic sense is very worthwhile. I mean what does a single word theme really
mean? Sure you can have a theme of
betrayal or love, but that’s simply a description and not a plot or any really
worthwhile reflection of any novel. This
is why I advocate for a theme statement.
Some call this a plot statement, but I state, what’s the
difference?
The classic
joke about novels is that you are writing the great American novel. This begs the question on all fronts. What is a great American plot, or a great
American theme, or a great American anything.
I’ll tell you a secret about what the great American novel really was.
Oh, I should
go for that, next. I’ll give you a
hint—it had to do with the invention of the modern Romantic protagonist.
The great
American novel is a trope in American and likely the world’s thoughts. It indicates a very special kind of novel,
but just what is it? The great American
novel is an idea that found it’s place in the late Victorian Era—that is the
end of the Nineteen and the beginning of the Twentieth Century. The world was changing greatly. It was the time of the common man as opposed
to the aristocracy.
From the
beginning of the middle class, wealth was becoming less of a phenomena of the
aristocrats and more a phenomena of business.
The industrial era made this even more true. In most societies, you had old wealth and new
wealth. In the USA, few started with
much and what they had and owned generally came from the sweat of their
brows. Something else made the New World
and especially the USA different than most of the rest of the world. That was the ownership of property. In the past, all the property was owned by
the royalty and granted to the common person.
All the goods produced belonged to the monarch and not the person on the
property. In the USA, it was much
different than this.
In the USA,
the person owned the property and whatever it produced. The government took their tax, but, in
general, what the property owner produced belonged to them, and this created
great wealth. The new wealthy in America
were the farmers, cattlemen, shop owners, and factory owners. This groups grew larger and larger into a
bursting middle class. The ownership of
property is what caused this great transfer of wealth from the aristocratic to
the common. The Old World only began
seeing this type of rise of the common person when the old aristocratic
structures were ended and people could own property. The ownership of property is the key to
wealth and prosperity, and in America, the American dream was taking
shape. The common person was becoming
wealthy through hard work and diligence—that is the American dream, by the
way. The tribal record of this success
was the great American novel. Such
novels celebrated the success of the common person in America, and these novels
found a strong foothold in the Old World.
Along with
this great American novel came the Romantic protagonist. I’ll get to that, next.
The
protagonists of the Victorian Era and earlier were generally the well to do or
the aristocratic. This was a feature
because most of the reading public were wealthy or aristocratic and the authors
were simply reflecting their audience.
No one wanted to read about the poor or common achieving because in most
cultures that was impossible—except in the USA.
In the USA,
the common person was achieving and making inroads into the world, plus many
readers were poor, but educated well enough to read. What was happening in the USA and the rest of
the first world was that many of the poor finally had enough food to match the
wealthy and aristocratic. Their
intellects were equal if not better and they were driven to succeed. They began doing so. As the number of readers from the common increased
as well as the authors and the success of these people increased, the market
for books changed from the wealthy and the aristocratic to the common. This caused the protagonists and the plots to
change.
Before this
time, the late Victorian Era, many if not most of the protagonists were the
wealth and aristocratic. Just look at
our Sara Crew for an example. Most of
Dickens works show a similar type of protagonist and plot. In fact, the basic plot of most of these works
is “blood will out.” In the blood will
out plot, the protagonist might have been born from a wealthy or aristocratic
family but raised in a common situation.
Eventually, their skills and abilities show them to be from wealth or
the aristocracy, therefore blood will out.
The inherent quality of their birth right makes them successful. Just look at Oliver Twist for an
example. In other Dickens novels, the
opposite of blood will out shows itself with the failure of the protagonist to
succeed as in Bleak House.
This change
in audiences and in the authors showed itself in plot where instead of being
the antagonist, the common and poor became the protagonists. The wealthy and aristocratic became the
antagonists and foils of their common protagonists. This essentially became the Romantic
protagonist. I’ll explain more, next.
One of the
major characteristics of the Romantic protagonist is that they come from the
common. They are not from wealth or the
aristocracy. Their special skills don’t
come from wealth or from aristocracy—they come from hard work even if they are
somewhat innate. For example, the Romantic
protagonist might be very intelligent, but many intelligent people don’t reach
their maximum potential or even some degree of that potential. The Romantic protagonist is the student who
works every hour of every day on their knowledge and enhancing their intelligence. They spend more time than any normal person
to perfect and gain their special skill.
This is directly analogous to the concept of the American dream.
The idea of
the American dream is that any person can be successful with hard work and
dedication. The Romantic protagonist is propelled
by hard work and determination. They
achieve their success through hard work and dedication. This is exactly what the American dream and
the great American novel are all about—the common person achieving success because
of hard work and determination. This is
the idea that pushed writing out of the Victorian Era and out of the idea of
blood will out.
It's actually
interesting that we seem to be moving back into an era in writing where individuals
are fated rather than in control of themselves and their environment. The idea of being fated is a very old and
ancient world idea that comes out of animism and Pantheonic paganism. It really isn’t a modern world idea. It should be surprising that modern people
would fall into this ancient trope unless they had the mind of the ancients. Perhaps I should look at this, next.
There is
more to the Romantic protagonist than coming from the common, and in fact, you
can have a Romantic protagonist who is not from the common—if you do, you usually
must bring them to the common (in some way) for a good zero to hero plot. As I noted, there are other characteristics
of the Romantic protagonist, most notably, a Romantic protagonist always has
developed some skill to the highest or greatest human capability, and this
skill is what makes them able to resolve the telic flaw.
If you think
about it, this is the concept of the American dream generalized. The concept of the American dream is that the
protagonist develops some skill to the point of achievement. For example, Henery Ford with the development
of managerial and factory skills that allow him to create an empire of
automobiles. Or the Rockefellers able to
turn properties into productive industry and so on. The original Romantic characters were like
this because that fit the idea of the common to the American dream, but the
Romantic protagonist transformed and the skills became more elaborate and
personal especially as this type of character hit science fiction.
The Romantic
protagonist made whole types of literature and genres possible.
Now, I wrote
that I’d like to look at the trend of modern literature back to the fated plot
and blood will out. The opposite of the
American dream is the idea of fate and aristocracy. This is indeed an old world idea mostly based
on paganism and right of kings. No one should
even suppose this type of thought in the modern world. However, if you want to know the truth,
Christianity is what moved human thought away from fate and a further extension
of Christianity, self rule, away from the right of kings. It was all Christianity’s fault.
In a post
Christian world, we should not be amazed that people are returning to fate and
right of kings. Almost every other
religion and system of government (other than a republic) is based on the idea
of fate and right of rule. The right of
rule part isn’t just an aristocracy anymore but rather wealth, knowledge,
intelligence, or success based. You can
see this with the religion of celebrity.
Celebrities aren’t really that smart, some aren’t that good looking,
they are charismatic and sometimes good in their own way, but would anyone want
them to rule? A whole host of fans certainly
have made many celebrities their little g gods.
They are ruled in one way or another.
The same is true of other celebrities and many imagine these are fated
to rule or fated to have wealth and power.
The opposite is true—fate has nothing to do with it. Sometimes being in the right place at the
right time is part of the formula for success, but in general, the very wealthy
or very powerful gained their power and wealth through the wise use of their
resources and connections. This is true
on every level and almost anyone can achieve the same result or similar results—plus
there are many ways to achieve. The very
wealthy or powerful usually discovered some new capability, skill, device, or
idea that sold well in the marketplace of ideas.
I give you
Bill Gates. If you have read Outliers,
you know that Bill was able to develop his programing skills at a very important
time in computer invention and development.
He designed Microsoft for the IBM machines and sold millions of copies
of his operating system. Apple was
similar. Bill was bright, but not a
graduate of college when he achieved his success. As Gladwell wrote in Outliers, Bill
was at the right place at the right time and worked very hard to design the perfect
product for the market. There was luck,
but no fate involved. Anyone
theoretically could have achieved what Bill did if they were wiling to take the
risks he took. That’s pretty much the
key to success. I’ll look at this, next.
I’m a bit
concerned with the acceptance of modern readers of failure or at least the return
to the weak protagonist with a fate or blood will out plot. Especially bad is the blood will out plot
injected in a fated worldview. The
reason this is a problem is because it produces terrible and uninteresting
writing.
Most people
in my generation love the Romantic protagonists of the classics and of modern
writing. They grew up with Robert Louis
Stevenson and the Victorians which primed them for the true Romantics of
science fiction and fantasy. They read
the so called modern classics and pretty much ignored them, but binged on Harry
Potty.
Just so you
know, Harry Potty isn’t really a Romantic protagonist, he’s close, but is
definitely a blood will out and fated protagonist. Which shows you can have a little success and
reasonable writing with this modern protagonist. I just don’t recommend them, and I don’t like
them.
Let me
circle back to the American dream. This
is very important because it is the art and literature that propelled the
American society into greatness. You see
foreign copiers of this very dream. For
example, C.S. Forester wrote about Hornblower, the British equivalent of the American
Dream (there are many more examples).
Hornblower is likely a character who couldn’t and didn’t exist in the
Britian of the times. It was highly unlikely
that a common born son would enter the British navy as a midshipman and work to
the level of Captain and Admiral. This
was indeed the American dream projected on the Napoleonic Era. If it wasn’t true, it should be true. Hard work and the development of one’s skills
to the peak level should naturally result in success and great success. As I’ve noted, this is the American dream.
This tall
has followed with almost every billionaire and millionaire in America and the
free world. If you look at the third
world and at the man despotisms and non-republics, you will find that only those
in high political positions and from the wealthy families are themselves wealthy. In China, only CCP (Communist Chinese Party)
membership will result in wealthy and power.
On the other hand, just a purview of the wealthy in Forbes will show you
the egalitarian power of the first world.
Yes, there are inheritors of wealth on the list of the most wealthy, but
Bill Gates, Rowling, Goldberg, and on and on all started from the common, from
the humble middle and lower class, and now are billionaires beyond the
imagining of many. It isn’t really
beyond imagining—it’s what happens when human capital meets with ideas and hard
work. All of these people worked very
hard with their great skills, and some great idea, and turned it into wealth. These are jus the top tier. I know many wealthy people who achieved
similar results, just not in the billion range.
They aren’t as well known, but they were successful and they achieved
through hard work and the development of their skills. That’s not to say that everyone succeeds or
that everyone will succeed. There are
many who pour their lives into work that they will never be successful in. I’ll explain, 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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