04 January 2025, Writing - part xxx918 Scene Outline, Novel Outline, Putting Entertainment in the Scene
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)
I went through the scene outline to show you how
to approach writing a scene. I think it
is relatively simple—that doesn’t mean it is easy, but once you know the basics
of writing a scene, with the right elements, you can write a great scene. If you can write a great scene, you can
potentially write an initial scene, the rising action scenes, the climax scene,
a falling action scene, and a dénouement. That
means, if you can write a scene, you can write a novel.
Now, to get to a novel, and to a great scene,
you need a great protagonist. I
recommended a Romantic protagonist. The
reason is the Romantic protagonist is my favorite type and generally, the
favorite of most readers. In fact, I
don’t know of a single reader who doesn’t love a great Romantic protagonist, or
even a close to Romantic protagonist. I
point out Harry Potty who has become one of the most popular protagonists in history
and is very close to a Romantic protagonist.
I think he’d even be more popular if he was a full on Romantic
protagonist. Just a thought.
With a fully developed Romantic protagonist,
writing a scene is pretty easy and writing a novel is relatively easy. In my short form blog, I’m going over the telic
flaw from the protagonist and how it pertains to the novel and how it comes
from the development of the protagonist.
Perhaps this idea of the telic flaw belonging to the protagonist is the
most important factor in novel development.
This is why I write that the first step in writing a novel is the
Romantic protagonist development. I’ll
consider if I should give you the basics and telic flaw from the design of the
protagonist, like I’m doing in my short form blog. I’ll try to expand this idea to help bring
out the concept of the initial scene.
I’ve done this before, but I’ll try to give you something new out of
this, next.
As I wrote before, the telic flaw for the novel
comes from the protagonist. In addition,
the protagonist defines all kinds of things issues and in time, the setting,
the place, and all. As I wrote, the
protagonist defines all these things in the novel. The novel and the telic flaw of the novel
comes directly from the protagonist.
I did it.
In the last month or so, I went through all my novels and showed you how
the protagonist defined the telic flaw of the novel. Now, let me give you a little more on the
telic flaw.
Once we have a telic flaw, and really once we
have a protagonist, the novel can commence.
There are a couple of other items that we need, but both of those come
out of the protagonist and the telic flaw.
I mean specifically the antagonist and the initial setting. Why these are important is that they are the
main and major components of any novel.
You might ask, where is the plot, we’ll get to that.
There is another component of the novel, let’s
say an optional or additional component, and that is the protagonist’s
helper. I need to explain this character
as well as the other components again, but for the moment, just realize the
protagonist’s helper is pretty much the most important character to the
Romantic Protagonist. With that, let’s
begin fleshing out the plot.
Most specifically, the overall plot of a novel
is the resolution of the telic flaw. Let
me burst your bubble a little, there is usually no overall plot in any
novel. You might be able to define
something that looks like an overall plot, but in this blog, I’ve shown and
defined more than once that a novel is a series or set of plots and not a
single or overall plot. All the plots
move together, or they should move together to result in the resolution of the
telic flaw. In a standard novel, the
resolution of the telic flaw occurs in the climax scene. Oh, ah, the climax scene is the resolution of
the telic flaw. This should point out a
very important characteristic of the novel and the scene.
The scene is the basic building block of the
novel. If you look at the outline of a
standard novel, you can see how the scenes create a novel. I’ll repeat it below:
1. The initial scene
2. The rising action scenes
3. The climax scene
4. The falling action scene(s)
5. The dénouement scene(s)
What is important about the outline of the
standard novel is that scenes define and delineate the novel. Let’s be very clear about this, scenes define
the novel. If we realize this, we can
define and develop our novel in a very organized and set way. I’ll get to that.
Let me explain the most important point about the
plot and the novel. We know the telic
flaw must be resolved in the climax of the novel. This means the scenes all support the
resolution of the telic flaw. The
purpose of the novel is the resolution of the telic flaw in the climax. At the same time, the purpose of the novel is
the revelation of the protagonist. We
write a novel in scenes to achieve this.
The novel is a revelation of the protagonist in scenes to resolve the
telic flaw of the novel (and the protagonist) in the climax scene of the
novel. The next question is how do we do
this?
The answer is written in the scenes. The scenes are revelations of the protagonist
that lead to the resolution of the telic flaw in the climax. To do this, each scene must include a plot or
plots. These plots each reveal the
protagonist and both reveal and relate to the telic flaw. If you notice, the telic flaw comes with and
within the protagonist. In other words,
a revelation of the protagonist in the context of the telic flaw should also
reveal the march to the resolution of the telic flaw in the climax. The trick in this is that we must develop a
plot or plots within the scenes that achieve this resolution, and we want to
achieve this in the climax scene of the novel.
It’s all about the protagonist, and the protagonist is connected hip to
thigh with the telic flaw.
How do we pick plots to make this happen? The plots follow directly from the
protagonist and the telic flaw. If we
look at an example of a telic flaw, for example, a detective telic flaw. In this example, the protagonist must resolve
a crime through the novel. We’ll look at
it specifically, next.
The detective telic flaw is the easiest to
explain and understand. Just take this
idea and expand it to any telic flaw no matter how complex or involved.
In the detective telic flaw, the protagonist is
usually the detective. The telic flaw is
a crime. Notice, the protagonist brings
the telic flaw because they are a detective, but the telic flaw is not
necessarily owned or a specific flaw in the protagonist. This is an important idea. The telic flaw is not necessarily a flaw in
the protagonist. It is a flaw in the
world of the novel, which also happens to be a flaw in the world of the
protagonist.
In the detective telic flaw, the antagonist is
usually the criminal. This can vary
based on the way the telic flaw is set up, but for simplicity, let’s take the
protagonist as the detective and the antagonist as the criminal. The purpose of the protagonist in a comedy is
to overcome (resolve) the telic flaw.
The purpose of the antagonist in any type of art, comedy or tragedy is
to prevent the resolution of the telic flaw.
In a tragedy, the telic flaw overcomes the protagonist, but the
antagonist doesn’t necessarily win, they just prevent the protagonist from
succeeding. Now to the plots.
The plots are directly connected to the scenes
which all press toward the resolution of the telic flaw (in a comedy, and I’m
sticking with a comedy, in this example).
The first scene is (should be) the introduction of the protagonist,
antagonist or protagonist’s helper, the initial setting and the telic
flaw. In the case of our example, we
have the protagonist introduced to the telic flaw, the crime that needs to be
solved. This scene can be written in
many different ways.
For example, you can have the crime already
having taken place, and the police chief or however brings in the protagonist
to brief them and offer them the case.
Or, you could show the crime with the protagonist being introduced at
the end of the scene in some fashion. Do
you see what these two simple initial scene ideas do to the plot?
Yes, notice that even though there are many more
other ways to write the initial scene for a detective novel, these two examples
give us completely different plots for the initial scene. In one case, we have a discovery plot where
the chief of police (or wherever) sits down with the protagonist and explains
the problem, the telic flaw. In the
other case, we have the crime, a crime plot, being enacted right before
us. Either scene will achieve the
expected results, but each is different.
In fact, the crime plot can be anything from a murder to a theft or any
other crime. This should indicate how
the plots define the scenes. Further,
although these two plot and scene examples set up the telic flaw for the novel,
they are not indicative of an overall plot for the novel. The overall plot is some type of resolution
of the telic flaw. These initial scene
plots do not even begin the resolution of the telic flaw. They introduce the telic flaw and present it
ready to resolve, but they don’t move us an inch closer to resolution—except
that the protagonist is now on the job.
We need to move further into the novel to begin the plots to resolve
this crime telic flaw. That’s next.
What’s the first step in resolving the crime and
catching the antagonist for the protagonist.
Well that’s a great question. You
can go many different directions, but the usual one is to visit the crime scene
and interview the witnesses. That’s just
one of many approaches. There are
others. Perhaps the protagonist first
goes to the morgue, views the body (if the crime is a murder), and checks with
the forensic expert. Each of these are
different scenes with somewhat similar plots.
Plots are somewhat generic, but I argue and can
prove that each and every scene includes at least one, but many different plots. For example, a scene with witness interviews
is a discovery plot but it might include a betrayal plot or a crime plot, that
is if the witnesses are lying or there is something else nefarious going
on. You might have a witness in the
hospital either injured or just ill—that’s an illness plot.
We imagine that there is an overall plot—in this
case (this example) the overall plot to resolve the crime, but that’s actually
not what is happening. Each scene or
scenes continues plots all which support the overall goal to resolve the telic
flaw. I write it this way because
although I posed the question that the telic flaw is the crime and the
criminal, the actual telic flaw can be more complicated and complex that that. Just look at some examples of great detective
novels, Agatha Christy for example or the great suspense writers of the late
Twentieth Century, and you will see plot on plot and very complex telic flaws
that require very twisty resolutions.
I’m not trying to be confusing, here.
I just want you to see that a novel is a series of scenes which include
their own plots that all lead to the resolution of the telic flaw. If we understand this, I think we can write
much better and more cohesive novels.
I argue that as we write, we develop scenes. Scenes are the building blocks of every
novel. If we look at each scene as
having it’s own plot and plot structure as well as it’s own tension and release
(rising action and climax) then we can write very powerful novels. I’ll try to explain this, next.
We are getting into some very complex and
difficult to easily explain areas. The
reasons should be obvious—the development of a scene can be easily outlined, I
do it above, but the development of the details in the scene are dependent on
the telic flaw, the protagonist, the protagonist’s helper, the antagonist, as
well as the setting. There are some many
variables in any possible and potential scene, that it becomes very difficult
to describe exactly how to design one and introduce plots into the scene. Perhaps the best way to show this is through
an example.
I’ll pick an easy scene from one of my
novels. I’ll chose the Christmas Party
scene from Valeska: Enchantment and the Vampire. To set the scene: George has been invited to
attend his bosses’ Christmas party.
George may invite a friend, so Valeska (a vampire) is coming with him. George works for the Organization which is
aware of Valeska but has no idea that she is a vampire. They do want to know what she is. George’s bosses’ wife is the head of Stela
and a supernatural being on her own. So
we have the setting of a Christmas party.
This is a party plot and scene although I really didn’t identify this
type of plot in my evaluation of plots—it’s definitely a type of plot.
George and Valeska are going to an office
Christmas party. They might not fully
realize, they were invited to check out Valeska and to check out George. This is a full on discovery plot, and the
protagonist and protagonist’s helper are the discovery. There is also a mystery plot, actually three:
who is Valeska (and what), what is George hiding (Valeska), and who exactly is Sveta
(the head of Stella)? Already we have
great plots all around, but there is more.
Valeska looks like a youth. She’s
actually over two hundred, but she stopped growing when she became a vampire at
fifteen. This makes a very tense
confrontation with Sveta, who does not want underaged drinking at her party—you
should be able to see other connotations, all negative based on this
information. This is a children plot
mixed with a crime or immoral plot. How
many plots does it take? As many as
necessary.
The point of each of these plots in this scene is
to drive tension and release in the scene and to move the resolution of the
telic flaw toward the climax. I’ll move
there, next.
The scene is the building block of the
novel. This is a very important idea and
concept. It is important because of
entertainment and excitement in the novel.
The means of building entertainment and excitement in any novel is
through the scene. There is no other way
you can do this. There is no other means
of making your novel fun to read and entertaining. The way you make a scene entertaining is
through the tension and release which is a product of the plots in the
scene.
I could go back to the most basic concepts in
scenes with the setting elements, but I really don’t need to go that far
back. We can start with the plots
themselves. I’ll look back at the
example I brought up. Just start with
the first plot—the party plot.
There is a lot that goes into the development of
this plot. For example, we need an
invitation, a place (setting), the hosts (characters), the reason (Christmas),
the invitees (more characters), buildup, clothing for the party (actually the
dress for the party), food, entertainment, music, and all. Hey this is huge. Just to begin to write a simple scene like
this with a basic plot like this, we need some detailed development and
research. All of this needs to be
planned by the writer. Not all of it
happens on stage of the novel. In other
words, much of the planning might not happen directly in the novel, but like
any real event, the planning and the ideas behind the scene must have been
completed by the author. How much detail
and planning do we need?
This is a great question. Most of the time, unless I need specific
drinks or food, I don’t plan the menus for a party, but I did need to build a
menu for this party because part of the tension and release in the scene was based
on food and drink. I mentioned this
before. Valeska is irritated that she is
seen as a child by the head of Stela.
This leads to a slight tantrum where a little food and drink becomes
involved. Valeska gets her wine and her
food. What I’m telling you is that many
times the author must plan the details to a very high degree and all of that is
due to the tension and release in the scene.
The tension and release is tied directly to the plot. I really need to explain how this is supposed
to work. I’ll try to put this together,
next.
Each scene is in itself like a short story it has
a rising action to a type of climax.
Instead of confusing this with the novel’s rising action to climax, we
call this the tension and release in the scene.
The main reason we use different terms is this.
In the first place, the release or climax of a
scene is nothing like the climax in the novel.
The climax in the novel resolved the telic flaw of the novel. The release in a scene loosens the tension in
the scene, but does not in any way resolve the telic flaw. The release is or can be directly related to
the resolution of the telic flaw in that it can give us a clue, a breadcrumb, a
step, a revelation, or some other development toward the resolution of the
telic flaw, however, the very wise author will ensure this is not obvious or
will make the step obvious but not the movement toward resolution obvious. I need to give an example of this, and I’ll
try to remember to.
Second, the release in a scene may not be
complete, and it may continue into the next or other scenes. This is harder to give a good example about,
but if you consider the design of a scene, the release may be partial for an
idea brought up in the scene and that plot might play across multiple scenes
even as far as the climax. A great
example of this is the battle climax where the scenes depict some detail of
training and development toward the final fighting climax. These details usually tract across multiple
scenes that may come together in the climax.
I need to remember the idea of the battle climax. It is a great example a type of climax that
is easy to explain and understand.
That’s not to say I recommend it for every novel, certainly not, but it
is easy to explain in terms of the climax and the rising action of the novel.
Now to an example of a release that leads to the
climax. In my novel Blue Rose:
Enchantment and the Detective, Azure Rose has an engaging meeting with the
intelligence heads of Stela and the Organization where she is allowed and
directed to focus her investigations in a certain way. The intelligence heads also agree to provide
her information from their intelligence files.
This is a direct step toward the telic flaw resolution in the novel, but
it doesn’t really appear to be. This
release in the scene and in the novel looks more to the reader to be
considerations and aid as well as good will, finally, to Azure than any thing
else. It is a release in the sense of working
together professionally and personally.
This is a great point in the novel, but at the same time, the step of
sharing intelligence and the focus of the investigation will lead directly to
the telic flaw resolution. The
characters, story, and readers have no idea at this point. The resolution still look impossible, but the
build up is to make everything look inevitable when the climax occurs. There is more to tension and release. I should look more deeply at this, next.
The purpose of a novel, any novel is
entertainment—that is the only purpose for any novel. This is an easy point and an easy idea. If a novel isn’t entertaining, it is
kindling. No one will buy it, unless
forced to by some professor or teacher.
I give you the greatest example of a crap piece of writing, Ulysses by
James Joyce. This book is only worth
using to start fires. I’ve read it twice
and wrote more than one essay on it. It
is not fun to read. It is not
entertaining to read. It is not worthwhile
to read. It is a literal piece of written
trash, and writing that mimics something worthwhile only to the stupid and
illuminate. Now, with a bad example,
let’s go to the rest of most writing that is all supposed to be entertaining. If it isn’t entertaining, it won’t sell and
no one will read it.
Just think.
Every day, we look for novels that are not fun to read, not entertaining,
and are obtuse—of course not. We only
read novels that are entertaining to us.
There is some variance in what is entertaining to different people, but
usually we are writing about genre and styles of writing. Ultimately, the writing is entertaining, to
us, or we would not read it. I provide
an example of Romance writing. Although
I’m an advocate of the Romantic style and type of writing, I’m not so keen on
the Romance genre. I don’t have a
problem with it—it’s just not as entertaining to me. And, so we come back to the idea of
entertainment in novels.
The main question we should have is how do we write
a novel or our novel to be entertaining.
Many imagine that just the overall plot and the novel itself will be
entertaining, but I can assure you, that will never be. Even before I fully understood how to write a
proper novel, I understood the basic idea of writing a winning scene. I’ll not write, I understood the idea of
writing an entertaining scene because at that time I was just writing because I
liked the idea of the novel and the ideas I had. I didn’t realize how important the idea of
the scene or of entertainment was. Back
to the main point.
Do you remember, I wrote that the building block
of the novel is the scene? This is an
absolute. The means of writing
entertainment into the novel is through the scene. Every scene must be entertaining in the
context of the novel and on its own.
This is an absolute rule which I need to write about, next.
How do we make a scene entertaining? The simple answer is the tension and release
in the scene. When you develop, design,
and write a scene, you must include tension and release the builds
entertainment in the scene, but how can you do this? The first point is you must develop, design,
and write the scene for tension and release.
This is a critical point of writing a scene for entertainment. The tension and release must come from the
plot and the plot development. In this
regard, we choose plots for a scene (development), then design the scene around
the plot (design), and finally, we write the scene for tension and release.
I know this isn’t an easy concept, but it is a concept
that helps us design the scene. In the
example of the Christmas party scene above.
We start with a party plot. This
plot is then designed for an office Christmas party at the bosses’ house. That is actually plot enough to design a
reasonable tension and release in the scene.
With just a party plot, the entertainment and the tension and release is
simply meeting the bosses and interacting with the setting and the people in
the setting. This might be enough for a
regular or a simple novel. Notice, I
added plots into the mix both for entertainment and to forward the telic flaw.
The first plot I added is the mystery plot about
who is Valeska/Heidi, and what is her relationship to George. This is an obvious plot add that builds
immediate tension and release even if there is no immediate release from the overall
tension of, “who is Heidi?”
Additionally, I added another plot—a mystery and
discovery plot of, “who or what is the head of Stela?” This is answered in this scene therefore with
a complete release.
But, I added another plot into the scene, a
children’s or immaturity plot with Heidi and George. Heidi becomes irritated at George because of
the small incident with his boss and his wife, the head of Stela. George is worried about his job as well as
the problem of Heidi/Valeska. This causes
complex issues between them. This is
resolved in the scene.
Do you see, we have three plots resolved in the
scene, a proper release, but one plot that continues onto the next and future
scenes. I’ll get to this, next.
You can have plots that continue from scene to
scene and in fact across an entire novel.
These are not necessarily the overall plot. What matters in a novel isn’t the plot or
overall plot as much as the telic flaw resolution. This is why I write and write and write about
the telic flaw and the telic flaw resolution.
To be clear, the telic flaw is the problem in the
world of the novel that the protagonist must resolve. The resolution occurs in the climax. Further, the resolution will not be a
singular plot, an overall plot, the resolution will be caused by multiple
scenes each of which include one or more plots with potential tension and
release elements driven by the plots and the scene construction itself.
I showed you in the example I’m using from my own
novel (Valeska: Enchantment and the Vampire) how this works. I identified four plots in this scene. The overall plot is a party plot with the
setting an office Christmas party at the bosses home. This plot is resolved in the scene because it
ends. The release is the end of the
party for Heidi/Valeska and George. They
leave the party separately and meet on the street. This also provides the release for the
tension plot that I called a children’s or immaturity plot between Heidi and
George. They reconcile after the party,
at the end of the scene.
There is additionally a mystery plot in regard to
the wife of George’s boss. She is the
head of Stela in the Organization and supernatural in her own way. This is a secret that is revealed in the
scene to Heidi and to Heidi only. There
is a fourth plot, which is the secret or mystery of “who is Heidi?” This is a plot which is not fully revealed
through the entire novel. This is a
great secret and mystery that is held close through the novel. It is not the telic flaw of the novel and
therefore not resolved. The telic flaw
is not the identity of Heidi/Valeska.
The telic flaw belongs to George and is basically his part in the
redemption of Heidi. This is a much more
complex telic flaw than a single plot can encompass. I’ll specify that in very well developed novels,
the telic flaw can’t be designed around a single plot or any overall plot. If novels were this simple, the world of the
novel would be drivel.
The fact that this fourth plot exists and
continues in spite of the telic flaw resolution of the novel itself should tell
you something. I’ll further expand
this. I have Heidi and George in some of
my other novels. Her secret is an
ongoing one through many novels, and I don’t ever intend to reveal it to Stela
or to the world. This is a great secret,
and the plot is a great one to continue through this and other novels. I’ve moved a little away from my main point
of entertainment in the scene, but we can recover very easily.
The entertainment in the scene comes out of the
plots and the tension and release in the scene.
We choose plots to entertain. If
you notice, I chose four plots of which two were mystery/secret plots. I gave a somewhat full release to one of
them. This was the revelation of a
secret, a mystery plot. Let me get into
secrets and mysteries—they make the most entertaining plots and novels. That’s 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
