15 December 2025, Writing - part xxxx263 The Novel, Idea, Initial 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.
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)
There are some other ways of writing a
novel, but I don’t recommend them. The
main reason is that the other methods have not in the past been bestsellers. You do get a few for example in the Roman Fleuve
style or the stream of consciousness style, but those are considered outliers. If you have even encountered a novel in a
different style than the common outline, you are either a book freak like me or
a literati. I’d rather you be a book
freak, the literati think both these experimental styles make a great
novel. I’ll have to say John dos Passos’
USA is a great trilogy about the USA, but it’s not really that well read of a
classic and not a modern bestseller.
James Joyce is a bestseller because the literati keep making his
terrible stream of unconsciousness novels required reading. If anyone other than a book freak reads them,
I’m not sure who it is. I’m certain none
of the literati read James Joyce. In
fact, more people have read Tolkien the most unread read writer in history than
any literati who read Joyce. I’ve read
them all. Tolkien is the best of the
bunch, but Tolkien has his issues. I’ve
written about that, and I’ll likely get into it again. For now, take my advice. If you want to write a novel that people and
you will want to read, follow the outline above. Let’s go over it a little, or a lot.
First let me tell you why I write. I love to read. I’m constantly reading two or more novels and
a stack of nonfiction. The reason is
that I love to read. I’ve been rereading
some novels lately just to recalibrate.
I think I’ll move to Jack Vance for fun and remembering. I’m also reading Guttenberg project
books. I advertise that I read all the
old bestsellers that no one reads anymore.
This is true.
I write to make novels that I want to read
and reread. That’s my only purpose. I’m self-entertaining, although I write for
others to read, my purpose and goal is to write novels that I love to
read. Why is that? I figure that if I love to read the novels,
others will love to read the novels. In
fact, I know I’m succeeding because although I still love my earlier novels and
I reread them, I’ve become a better author over time. My first novel isn’t as well written as my 32nd
novel, and my 33rd novel will be better than that. I must say, some of my middle novels might be
better than some of my later novels, but it may be by degree rather than much
or little. In other words, the
qualification of better is really hard to categorize when the plots, ideas, and
worldviews are different. We become
better writers as we write more and more novels. Everything becomes better because we are
improving our skillset and our skills.
So, this leads directly to the question
why write novels? The reason is always
(or should always be) to entertain. I
can assure you, unless you do entertain and intend to entertain your readers,
you will not sell any of the novels you write.
Novel writing is all about entertainment no matter what the literati
have told you. Writing is just like song
writing, art, or music. Ultimately, if
the viewer or hearer isn’t entertained, they will not buy or look at your art
or music. Yes, I know there are the rare
or not so rare cases of the very terrible art and music that is foisted on the
masses as great, but look at what happens to the art and music sales. I mean specifically, The Painted Word by
Tom Wolf where Wolf describes that abstract pieces did not sell well even when
they were accepted wholesale by the art literati as the modern genre. It was only when pop art made its break into
the art market that sales began to grow again.
He wasn’t criticizing abstract art as a media as much as he was noting
that people want art they can understand and that is entertaining to them. Much of the abstract art doesn’t do
either. If you try to write an abstract
novel, as James Joyce did, your chance of entertaining your audience is very
poor.
I want to start with these definitions as
a premise for writing.
1. Write to entertain
2. Write using the
common outline for a novel
3. Develop a telic flaw,
a protagonist, an antagonist, and plan to resolve the telic flaw.
4. Start with an initial
scene.
5. Develop and define a modern
protagonist: you get a telic flaw, a potential protagonist’s helper, and a
potential initial scene from the development.
6. Write to reveal the
protagonist.
This is what I have developed for you
about creating the idea for a novel. What
I did is I showed you how I developed and wrote a novel when I first started
writing. I would call that the classical
method of writing a novel.
Look, I don’t think many people are
writing much at all about how to write a successful novel. Most people who write or teach about how to
write are not successful writers in the first place. I have six published novels and had two
others on contract when my publisher went out of business. I suspect I would have had almost all my
novels published if my publisher had continued.
I don’t have any bestsellers, but I’m still looking for a new
publisher. This is a difficult problem even
for the best writers, but back to writing.
When I first started writing, I used what
I would call the classical method (as much as there is any classical
method). From all my creative writing
and writing instructors in school and university, the expected development was
for the writer to plan out his or her novel and then outline it and from these
several parts write it. This entire plan
never settled well with me. I saw little
purpose in an outline for a fictional piece.
Why not just conceive it a and write it.
I found that always worked for me.
The entire idea of planning and outlining
for fiction just didn’t suit me or my writing at all. That’s not to say it wouldn’t work, but think
about this. To conceive of a story or a
novel, the author would have to imagine the entire novel or story at once and
design it. I don’t know about you, but
for a 5000 word short, this might be possible, for a 100,000 word novel (or an
even shorter one), this is impossible. I
tried getting around this with the idea of the question. With that, I could develop a plot, but part
of the problem was that novel are not a plot, they are plots. This was a late revelation that I had when I
was blogging about plots. I took the 100
greatest novels of the classics from the BBC and other lists, plus added my
own. I evaluated these novels for their
plots and isolated a list of plots for each novel. What I discovered was that no novel has a
singular plot. In almost direct opposition
to what we were taught for our entire lives by so-called writing experts, no novel
in the history of the world is based on a singular plot. Novels and long fiction always incorporate multiple plots. I also discovered that novels are written and
developed in terms of scenes.
I’m not certain how novels were supposed
to be written. I think almost all
writers write in scenes (at least the successful ones), they just might not
realize that they do. I didn’t realize
this until my tenth novel at least and I wasn’t entirely clear about it then. I discovered this when I began to write about
writing. At that time, and now, I’m
constantly looking at how I write and how to write. My purpose is number one to try to explain
what I’ve learned about writing to you.
Secondarily, I’m trying to improve my own writing. I want to be a better writer and I want my
writing to resonate with my readers and my own ideas of entertainment.
So back to the main point of developing a
novel. When you realize a novel is all
about scenes, you get to the classical outline for a novel:
1. Initial
scene
2. Rising
action scene(s)
3. Climax
scene
4. Falling
action scene(s)
5. Dénouement scene
If you have never seen this outline, your
teachers were idiots. I learned the
basics of this in high school, and had reminders through college. This is the basic outline of every classical
novel except a very few like James Joyce, Jon dos Pasos, and a very few
others. You can research there writing
on your own, although I’ve written about them. You won’t have a bestseller unless you use the
classic outline.
When I discovered or was taught this, I
also realized that you have no need for any outline—the classical outline is
your outline. Now, if you are one of
those who love to outline your fictional writing, more power to you—you can use
the classical outline as a basis for the outline and just fill in the
blanks. That’s easy. What I find even easier is remembering the
outline as I write. I also have other
methods to ensure I get a novel with a reasonable word count. I’ll get into all of this. We are moving forward.
The main point of the classical outline
for any novel is you can use it to more easily write your novel. The novel is broken into easy bits based on scenes,
and all fiction writing is scene based. We
can get into the scenes at some point, but by looking at the novel as a
compilation of scenes, the novel becomes a logical and relatively easy build as
compared to the model I was using at first.
Now, I should point out again, it took me
years of novel writing and at least 10 novels to get to this point. You have it all now. As I mentioned the obvious question in terms
of novel length ideas is how do we get an initial scene? With a great initial scene, you can write a
great novel. So, we need an initial
scene. This might seem as daunting as
the original idea of the plot, theme, or question, but it is not. I’ll show you. Here is my expanded outline for writing 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
Especially notice the second point with it’s
subpoints. I recommend as the first step
developing a theme statement. What is a
theme statement? I give you some
examples of theme statements for the novels I’m writing and plan to write. Let me repeat them here and explain them:
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.
I’m writing on Bookgirl or Book girl. I’ve made a differential in the novel. Bookgirl is a title while Book girl is simply
a description. The point is to have an initial
setting, protagonist, protagonist’s helper or antagonist, and action statement to
begin the initial scene and the novel. A
purest might argue that to even get to a theme statement, you need some idea
for the initial scene or for the novel itself.
I’m not so sure, but that’s why I specify in the outline number one is to
design the initial scene. That doesn’t
mean you need the details or the outline of the initial scene, it just means
you need some kind of idea about starting the novel.
My general idea about starting Bookgirl
was that something would happen to Siobhàn Shaw and Morven McLean that would
cause the action statement of the theme statement. Yes, I had some ideas, but the point was to
design the scene through the development of the details I related above and in
the outline. We needed the details. I presume the details will lead me to an
initial scene—the initial scene will move the novel forward to the telic flaw
resolution. I will provide more
information about this, but the point is that working on these details as well
as your research will result in the development of your work. That’s the point. The writing has moved from some kind of
illusive and undefined concept to one of research and design. This is like a project in science or engineering,
only easier. You don’t know where you
are going, but you are building the template or the outline on which you are
going to write the novel. You are not
technically writing at the moment—or at least I’m not. I like to have my general and not specific ideas
put together before I start to write.
The writing actually fleshes out everything from characters to concepts
and the ideas themselves. When I start
to write, I usually have a picture and an idea in my mind, but I have few
specific ideas about what the characters will do or what they will say. What I should do is give some examples of how
I did this with Bookgirl and where it is going.
I plan to write Eoghan next, and I’ll do
the same with that novel. I do have an
initial scene in mind for it, but I’ve moved a long ways on the development and
the design of that novel. As I wrote,
start with the theme statement. You can’t
go wrong. Let’s get into the theme
statement, next.
In developing an idea or a basis for a
novel, I argue all you need is an initial scene, but the question then is how
do we generate the initial scene? How do
we get to the initial scene? There are
various means. One is that you just
think of a great initial scene. That’s
happened to me, but you need to be researching and developing the ideas in your
brain. You could just dream it into
reality. It could come out of general
ideas for writing. There are many
creative means to get there, but I can give you one way that always gets me to
a great initial scene from which I can write a novel. I will admit that some of the initial scenes
I design don’t result in the greatest novels.
That’s not to say they are bad—I find them entertaining. They might be bestsellers, but who knows in
today’s market. In any case, I can show
you a way to get to an initial scene, and it’s relatively easy in theory. Lots of good writing work in reality. Here's what we do.
First the theme statement. The theme statement includes: the initial
setting, protagonist, protagonist’s helper or antagonist, action statement. If we look back at the outline and plan for
writing a novel, we see it right there.
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
Here’s the real trick—all we need to begin
is a protagonist. That’s it. The reason is that a protagonist gives us an initial
setting and a telic flaw. What? How can that be? I can assure you that any properly developed
protagonist always results in a telic flaw and, of course, an initial
setting. I can show you how, but first
we should look at the development of a protagonist.
1. Define
the initial scene – let’s start with the initial scene. Here’s the scene 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
2. At the same time as the above—fit a
protagonist into the initial scene.
a. Telic flaw
b. Approximate age
c. Approximate social degree
d. Sex
3. Refine the protagonist
a. Physical description
b. Background – history of the
protagonist
i. Birth
ii. Setting
iii. Life
iv. Education
v. Profession
vi. Family
c. Setting – current
i. Life
ii. Setting
iii. Work
d. Name
4. Refine the details of the protagonist
a. Emotional description (never to be
shared directly)
b. Mental description (never to be shared
directly)
c. Likes and dislikes (never to be shared
directly
5. Telic flaw resolution
a. Changes required for the protagonist to resolve the telic
flaw
i. Physical changes
ii. Emotional changes
iii. Mental changes
b. Alliances required for the protagonist
to resolve the telic flaw
c. Enemies required for the protagonist
to resolve the telic flaw
This is not meant to be recursive or
circular. If you have no idea at all for
an initial scene, just skip the part about defining the initial scene. The reason I write this outline and plan this
way is because I usually come up with some type of initial scene idea before I
even begin to develop the protagonist.
The reality is that the protagonist and the initial scene fit
together. They are like different sides
of the same idea. You can start with an
initial scene idea and then build a protagonist or you can start with a
protagonist and fit him or her into an initial scene that comes from the idea
of the protagonist. I suggest, if you
don’t have an idea for an initial scene, just build a protagonist. This is kind of like making a character for a
role playing game and expecting the idea of the character to build an initial scene
and a story for you.
If you notice, step two states “at the
same time as the above.” I presume, from
my experience, that you either start with an idea for an initial scene or you
start with a protagonist. The reality is
that an initial scene must have a protagonist and a protagonist will define an
initial scene. Back to the short list: initial
setting, protagonist, protagonist’s helper or antagonist, and action statement.
Here is the minimum necessary for the protagonist:
a. Telic flaw
b. Approximate age
c. Approximate social degree
d. Sex
You might say, I promised you that a
protagonist comes with their own telic flaw.
Yes, yes they do. Then I write
that your protagonist needs some telic flaw.
If we move on to the physical description, I think you might see what I
mean when I write the protagonist comes with his or her own telic flaw. Here’s a physical description of Eoghan:
Eoghan (Owen) Ragnall Calloway/Stuart
(Stiùbhartach) was a
young man of average stature, height, and build. He was so average you might miss him in the
crowd except he was a man no one could miss.
His bearing wasn’t really different from most other men, but you
couldn’t miss him in any group. His
height wasn’t taller than others, he was average, but for some reason he always
stood out. His face was pleasant and
somewhat nondescript, but it wasn’t nondescript at all. It was striking in the most unstriking
fashion. He just looked regal while
seeming completely normal. Women
couldn’t keep from looking at him, and men all wanted to be his friend. They flocked around him, but never hid him or
overwhelmed him. All the time, he seemed
like the calmest and most reasonable person.
He was the person you wanted to invite for any reason, tea, a meal, a
game, a walk—just being near him was calming and wonderful. Even when words didn’t pass from his lips,
the time was delightful. Men wanted to
hear his voice and women to touch his hand.
His voice was unimpressive and quiet, but filled with promises and
strength. It was as if every word that
came out of his mouth bolstered and strengthened even when he didn’t say
something erudite or when he remarked about the weather. It was uncanny and soothing, never unnerving
or worrisome. Even his name, Eoghan
Ragnall Stuart felt noble while sounding so unnormally normal. If you called him by his Anglicized name Owen
Ragnall Calloway, it still sounded noble but normal. And then his smile was always encompassing,
but unassuming. It had a slightly gloomy
bent as if he took even happiness and jovialness in a sober and thoughtful way
so even the most lame jokes became important and intelligent even when they
weren’t. Eoghan was always the life of
the party, but unfortunately, he didn’t attend many parties at all. He was too busy as a Scottish National Park
Authority Ranger handling small difficulties for the Crown and Stela.
I know I need to parse this for you. I’ll do that, next.
There’s more.
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
No comments:
Post a Comment