23 August 2024, Writing - part xxx785 My Novels, Initial Scenes, Sister of Light
Announcement: I
still need a new publisher. However, I’ve taken the step to republish my
previously published novels. I’m starting with Centurion, and
we’ll see from there. Since previously published novels have little
chance of publication in the market (unless they are huge best sellers), I
might as well get those older novels back out. I’m going through Amazon
Publishing, and I’ll pass the information on to you.
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 the third edition of Centurion:
|
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, perhaps I should look
at the form of the novel and the reflected worldview. I’ll start simply
with some advice. Here is the form of the standard novel:
1. The initial scene
2. The rising action scenes
3. The climax scene
4. The falling action
scene(s)
5. The dénouement scene(s)
I went through the steps in writing the initial
scene, and along with that some of the development of the scene. What I didn’t go through is how we imagine
the initial scene.
This is really the key to the novel and the
initial scene itself. This basically
creates the novel. There are a few ways
we can approach the full on development of the initial scene. Let’s look at these and see if we can
generate some ideas and perhaps an initial scene.
I led you through the concept of the initial
scene as the initial meeting of the protagonist and the antagonist or the
protagonist’s helper. I already wrote
this, but to be clear, this implies you have developed an protagonist, an
antagonist, and/or a protagonist’s helper.
I have literally written novels from a
protagonist. The development of a
protagonist lends itself to the development of an initial scene. Perhaps I should run through this exercise
again, but before we go there, let’s look at the other means to create ideas
for the initial scene.
I’ve never tried to develop an initial scene or a
novel based on an antagonist, but I suspect that might be possible too. The problem is that a good antagonist has a
great potential to become a redeemable or redeemed protagonist. The same is true of the protagonist’s helper
although the focus of a novel is a great means of developing an initial scene
and a novel.
I suspect the development of an antagonist is
similar to the development of a protagonist.
I’d go through the same steps, but as I noted, the chance that the
antagonist would become a great protagonist is high. I might try to develop an antagonist as an
exercise. The development of the focus who
turns into a protagonist or a protagonist’s helper is also a very good way to
develop a novel. This is basically what
I did with Aine.
With Aine, I did start with the protagonist
Eoghan, but I could have started with Aine.
In general, this is how I wrote Hestia. The focus of the novel is Hestia, a Greek
goddess. With her as the focus, the
initial scene became the incarnation or invocation of Hestia. I should have brought in the protagonist as
the main part of the initial scene, but having one of the less trained and less
knowledgeable member of the crew as the invoker was just too delicious. That’s the way the scene came about.
I had one of the four members of my archeological
dig just translate and recite an invocation to Hestia at an important
hearth-site. This was fun and funny
because the character had no idea his invocation would work and the
results. He didn’t believe in God or the
gods or the supernatural. The fact he brought
a goddess back into the world from her place in eternity is kind of funny. The result was even funnier. I’ll continue about the initial scene and
ideas for the initial scene, next.
So, here is a short list of ways to develop the
idea for an initial scene:
1. Protagonist
2. Focus
3. Event
4. Setting
5. Other
character (antagonist or protagonist’s helper)
I’m going to look a the initial scenes from each
of my novels to see how I wrote the novel and started the novel. I’ll apply the criteria above and see how it
fits in the context of the writing and the novel.
The Second Mission (399 to 400 BC) - The initial
scene starts with the protagonist being pulled back into the setting, back in
time to 400 BC. The scene was developed
about the event, but the event of the initial scene included the protagonist
and the setting. In addition, the scene
continues with the protagonist meeting the protagonist’s helper.
This is a pretty obvious initial scene that is,
if you write a novel about time travel, the best and obvious initial scene is
of the protagonist or the focus moving through time into the setting of the time.
There are other ways to write this type of novel,
but as I noted, the meeting of the protagonist and the protagonist helper (or
the antagonist) is a great start for this type of novel. I’m not intentionally repeating myself, I’m
just pointing out that for a time travel novel, the most obvious exciting and
entertaining point to start this type of novel is at the time travel. This also provides the opportunity to engage
the setting which is also on the list.
The event and the setting are perfect places to develop the initial
scene. It follows that the protagonist
is the actor engaged in the scene. This
isn’t an afterthought, but a feature of the novel and the initial scene.
I’ll will point this out, the addition to the initial
scene of the protagonist’s helper is a new and different idea that really
brings great excitement to the scene. Right
at the beginning of the novel, you have the revelation of a mystery—that is you
have a time traveler meeting the protagonist and reveling the time and place as
well as some of the details of the times.
In addition, in history, an unprepared time traveler would likely meet a
quick end without proper training and knowledge.
You can see that accidentally, I wrote this early
novel with a great initial scene. I
think it’s a really fun and interesting novel that has some important points about
both history and truth.
Centurion (6 BC to 33 AD) – this is my problem
child for an initial scene, but my most popular published novel. In retrospect, I’m not certain there is a
better way to write this initial scene or to start this novel. Let me explain and let me describe how it starts.
This novel begins with setting and an event. It is the meeting of the mothers of Abenadar,
the protagonist of the novel and of Yeshua, the focus of the novel. They meet at the well in Nazareth. Naomi is the mother of Abenadar and a disgraced
woman because she spent the last ten years as the concubine for a Roman
official. Myrim, the mother of Yeshua,
is a disgraced youth because she is pregnant and the father is unknown, but she
has still been accepted into the household of her husband Yosef. These two women converse together at the well
and strike up a friendship based on their mutual circumstances. The point is to provide Abenadar and Yeshua a
connection in life and childhood. That
connection is a foreshadowing to the future.
According to my list for developing the initial
scene, it covers the last three elements.
It doesn’t include the protagonist, the antagonist, or the protagonist’s
helper. In fact, Abenadar has a couple
of protagonist’s helpers through the novel, but really doesn’t meet the main
protagonist’s helper, Ruth, until halfway through the novel.
This isn’t an unusual novel for the novel about a
person from pre-birth to later life.
This is similar to Oliver Twist, Pip, or David Copperfield. Not so unusual for the past, but not so
common for modern novels.
Here is my recommendation. This type of initial scene can be very useful
and good to use. I’d recommend reading
the novel, you can buy it in all kinds of forms. It’s being republished by me to get it back
in the marketplace. My publisher went
out of business. I do recommend this
type of initial scene for this type of novel, but I do admit, it is an odd
novel in today’s world and very different from many other novels you might
read.
Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon 1917 – 1918
(1920) – Now we are talking. This is one
of my newerish novels, so I figured out how to write a great novel by this
time. This novel begins with an initial
scene that meets my criteria and is filled with energy, entertainment, and
excitement. This initial scene is the
meeting of the protagonist and the antagonist.
The protagonist is Aksinya and the antagonist is the demon, Asmodeus.
The initial setting for the novel is the estate
of Aksinya’s adopted father, a Count. Aksinya
is in the guest house and the specific setting is Russia in 1917 during the Bolshevik
revolution. The event is when Aksinya
calls the demon Asmodeus to save her family from the Bolsheviks, but she is too
late. They are already dead.
This is a great beginning for this type of novel
and for this novel. It follows all the
recommendations I’ve passed to you. As I
wrote, as I became a better and more proficient author, I figured out exactly how
a novel should be constructed. Aksinya
is constructed exactly how I think a great novel should be. I’m still looking for a publisher. I think this would be a potential bestseller,
but it needs a publisher.
Aegypt 1926 – This is one of my first published
novel. It is the first of a series of
seven novels that cascade from Aegypt.
The initial scene is a description of Paul Bolang’s trek back to Fort Saint. My mentor liked this initial scene and
advised I put more and more information about Paul in the writing. In general, this scene is basically a series
of flashbacks to Paul’s life and the most recent battle he led against a local
warlord in Tunisia.
This initial scene is all about the protagonist. It includes the setting, and is an event sequel,
in the language of modern scenecraft. Problems
with this initial scene is that it isn’t the meeting of the protagonist with
the protagonist’s helper or the antagonist.
It isn’t a strong action scene although it does include exciting flashbacks. I had a great mentor, but my mentor was
pretty old school and old school wasn’t as aware of the initial scene as I
think we as modern writers should be.
Part of the problem with this novel is that the
protagonist’s helper and the antagonist are mysteries and secrets at the
beginning of the novel. They can’t be
included in the initial scene because of this, so we are left with providing background
and buildup.
Now that I’m more aware of writing and novels, I should
have begun Aegypt with either the battle Paul Bolang thinks about in the
return to Fort Saint, or perhaps at some other point. However, for this novel, this scene fits well
and works well—it just isn’t as exciting and entertaining as I would like. I could have chosen a better event to bring
in the novel and protagonist. The initial
scene is adequate and does properly convey the novel into the world and
place. As I noted, it includes the
protagonist, the setting, and introduces the situation, the telic flaw of the
novel—the archeological dig, or more precisely, the Egyptian temple foundation
in the middle of Tunisa.
Sister of Light 1926 – 1934 – This novel
starts with the protagonist, Leora Bolang.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t up to my knowledge and understanding of the
initial scene when I wrote it. The novel
was still placed on contract for publishing and was about to be published in a trilogy
and individually when my publisher went bankrupt, so I’d say the scene was
okay.
The scene begins with Paul leaving Leora to get
his orders while she sits at a Paris café and thinks about the past. That sets the scene, the novel, and provides
the events that then move into the novel.
I should have set the initial scene with something else, but this initial
scene, though adequate, isn’t what I would recommend today.
Would I rewrite it? Nah.
Although the scene could be better, it still fits the novel and is a
good beginning. It does give us
excitement and entertainment. It could
be set at a more significant event, but still, it does it’s job, and as I
noted, the novel was on contract—my publisher and the editor found it
compelling enough to accept it and want to publish it. I might independently publish this
novel. We shall see.
Sister of Darkness 1939 – 1945
Shadow of Darkness 1945 – 1953
Shadow of Light 1953 – 1956
Antebellum 1965 (1860 to 1865)
Children of Light and Darkness 1970 – 1971
Warrior of Light 1974 – 1976
Warrior of Darkness 1980 – 1981
Deirdre: Enchantment and the School 1992 - 1993
Cassandra: Enchantment and the Warriors 1993 -
1994
Hestia: Enchantment of the Hearth 2000 - 2001
Essie: Enchantment and the Aos Si 2002 - 2005
Khione: Enchantment and the Fox 2003 - 2004
Blue Rose: Enchantment and the Detective 2008 -
2009
Dana-ana: Enchantment and the Maiden 2009 - 2010
Valeska: Enchantment and the Vampire 2014 - 2015
Lilly: Enchantment and the Computer 2014 - 2015
September 2022 – death of Elizabeth
Sorcha: Enchantment and the Curse 2025 - 2026
2026 death of Mrs. Calloway
Rose: Enchantment and the Flower January to April
2028
Seoirse: Enchantment and the Assignment August to
November 2028
science fiction
Escape from Freedom
The End of Honor
The Fox’s Honor
A Season of Honor
Athelstan Cying
Twilight Lamb
Regia Anglorum
Shadowed Vale
Ddraig Goch – not completed
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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