Writing Ideas - Vampire Novel, part 110, even more how to develop Storyline, Entertaining, Rising Action

29 July 2014, Writing Ideas - Vampire Novel, part 110, even more how to develop Storyline, Entertaining, Rising Action

Announcement: There is action on my new novels.  The publisher renamed the series--they are still working on the name.  I provided suggestions as did one of my prepub readers. Now the individual books will be given single names: Leora, Leila, Russia, Lumiere', China, Sveta, and Klava--at least these are some of the suggestions.  They are also working on a single theme for the covers.  I'll keep you updated.

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 website http://www.ldalford.com/ and select "production schedule," you will be sent to http://www.sisteroflight.com/.

The four plus one basic rules I employ when writing:

1. Don't confuse your readers.
2. Entertain your readers.
3. Ground your readers in the writing.
4. Don't show (or tell) everything.
5. Immerse yourself in the world of your writing.

All novels have five discrete parts:
1.  The initial scene (the beginning)
2.  The rising action
3.  The climax
4.  The falling action
5.  The dénouement

The theme statement of my newest novel, Valeska, is this: An agent of the organization becomes involved with a vampire girl during a mission, she becomes dependent on the agent, and she is redeemed.

Here is my proposed cover for Valeska:

I decided on a white cover style.  You can see more at www.GoddessofDarkness.com.

The plot is developed directly from the theme.  The first steps are fleshing out the characters (not accomplished in the novel, but before writing the novel) and the setting.  The main characters and the setting come directly out of the theme.  The characters are revealed through the storyline that is based on the plot.  Then how do you get to the storyline?

I left up the example for the first scene plot outline from before.  This outline is how I develop a scene in my mind.  Once I have the scene outline, I can write the storyline.  If you note, the plot outline comes directly out of the theme and the storyline comes directly out of the plot outline.  So here is the outline--then how do you write the storyline?

Scene 1 (for this example): Christmas party at Lyons House 19 December 2014, damp night
George and Heidi arrive late
George and Heidi meet Sveta and Daniel
Heidi and Sveta have a confrontation based on contact (tension builder)
Heidi seeks a way to break off the confrontation
Daniel restrains Sveta, Heidi removes George (release)

I wrote the setting from the plot outline.  I have written before that everything comes out of the original development for the novel.  I gave you an example about the Lyons house to show you how the development led to the place setting.  This is critically important information--that is if you really want to write a good novel.  You might imagine that an author just describes some place...and there it is.  I've mentioned before, I develop the places, the characters, everything before I write about them.  I've also mentioned that I like to use real or historical places.  Lyons house is not a real place, but it is a developed place based on history and real houses of it's type.

Characters are the same way.  I went through a very detailed explanation of how I developed the characters for this novel.  Once the character is developed, I can write about them.  The point is the depth of character and the dimensional power of the setting is directly dependent on the development.  The point is to develop first and then you can write meaningful and powerful settings from your plot outline.

More tomorrow.

For more information, you can visit my author site http://www.ldalford.com/, and my individual novel websites:
http://www.aegyptnovel.com/
http://www.centurionnovel.com
http://www.thesecondmission.com/
http://www.theendofhonor.com/
http://www.thefoxshonor.com
http://www.aseasonofhonor.com

Development - Rules of Writing, Characters of Centurion, even more on Scene Outlines

28 August 2012, Development - Rules of Writing, Characters of Centurion, even more on Scene Outlines

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 website http://www.ldalford.com/ and select "production schedule," you will be sent to http://www.sisteroflight.com/.

Here are my rules of writing:

1. Entertain your readers.
2. Don't confuse your readers.
3. Ground your readers in the writing.
4. Don't show (or tell) everything.

All language is symbols. Therefore it shouldn't surprise you that your writing should include higher level symbols. What are higher level symbols? I mentioned before the cross as a symbol. The cross is a higher level symbol--a symbol that doesn't depend on language. Symbols can be ready made or author made symbols. Some symbols are a mix.

Here is the list for the use of storylines. In other words, whose storyline should you chose to follow in the plot:
1. Protagonist - presumed
2. Tension
3. Revelation
4. Antagonist or protagonist's helper

The presumption is that you will write your scenes with the protagonist's storyline as the primary intersection with the plot. At some points you might want to write a scene that does not include the protagonist's storyline. The question is then, when should you consider these different storylines.

You can see that a scene outline produces a beautifully connected narrative. The framework of the storylines and the plot must be sequential and will fit together perfectly. This is the value of using an input and output from one scene to the next. If you use this technique, you can also foreshadow powerfully. In fact, foreshadowing and other related writing techniques are easily and strongly accomplished with a scene outline. This is where the power of using a scene outline for scenes that don't appear to use the same input output sequence.

I've used this example before from my unpublished novel, Dana-ana. In this example, Dana-ana has been abandoned on the streets of London. She has nowhere to turn. So far, in Dana-ana's life there has been some odd and mystical involvement of others but we don't know what exactly is going on around her. The output of the scene before was where Dana-ana is noticed to be gone. Logically, the next scene would be of her or her family out in London. Instead, the next scene begins with a magic user character who was introduced earlier in the novel. He is discussing Dana-ana's state with two other secondary characters. During their discussion, Dana-ana is searching the garbage cans on the other side of the building for food. There is the tie--the tie or input is the previously introduced character and Dana-ana searching for food. The scene shows us what has caused Dana-ana's downfall and what forces have been at work in the background. Also, in the scene, we see the threat to Dana-ana. The output of the scene is a threat against Dana-ana and the other characters in the scene.

The next scene catches up with the output and input from the scene before. Therefore, what I have in the novel Dana-ana is a scene, not entirely disconnected from the scene outline, that changes Point of View (POV) from Dana-ana to these secondary characters. The reason for this is to develop the tension and to reveal something very important to the readers. The important revelation is about the people who are trying to cause Dana-ana's downfall. The tension should be obvious--the reader was not aware of this conspiracy against Dana-ana before. There are more ways and uses of this type of scene transition. I'll write about that tomorrow.

There is much more to writing without confusing your readers. I'll write about that tomorrow. The following is a question asked by one of my readers. I'm going to address this over time: Please elaborate on scene, theme, plot, character development in a new novel creation....ie, the framework, the development, order if operation, the level of detail, guidelines, rule of thumb, tricks, traps and techniques. To what extent do you outline the historic context, culture, mannerism, speech, dress and thought process of the main characters, in a historic novel...in order to maintain integrity, and gradually (help) reveal attributes of a character in the story, or otherwise clarify the plot, scene, transition, tension or resolution?

I'll repeat my published novel websites so you can see more examples: http://www.ldalford.com/, and the individual novel websites: http://www.aegyptnovel.com/, http://www.centurionnovel.com/, http://www.thesecondmission.com/, http://www.theendofhonor.com/, http://www.thefoxshonorhttp://www.aseasonofhonor.com/.

Development - Rules of Writing, History

19 July 2012, Development - Rules of Writing, History

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 website http://www.ldalford.com/ and select "production schedule," you will be sent to http://www.sisteroflight.com/.

Here are my rules of 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.

All language is symbols. Therefore it shouldn't surprise you that your writing should include higher level symbols. What are higher level symbols? I mentioned before the cross as a symbol. The cross is a higher level symbol--a symbol that doesn't depend on language. Symbols can be ready made or author made symbols. Some symbols are a mix.

The idea of storylines, levels, and motivations of characters relates directly back to how much should you understand about your characters, their historical times, and their culture.  The question one of my readers asked was the extent that I outline.  Outline is a good word to describe the preliminary step of character design (or development).  Remember, I've written that the author develops the character before writing the novel and only reveals the characters within the novel--if this isn't clear, read back through this blog.

So, the step of development (design and outline).  I've written before about studying history.  You need an outline of the history of the times and either an outline of what you can prove is true about that time or an innate knowledge of it.  For example, I made a detailed study of the times surrounding the novel Aksinya before I began to write.  I penned a few notes that specifically related to the history of the times and information about the period.  Because I have written a novel before about this period (or close to it 1926), I already had notes and a foundation of information.  As I wrote the novel, whenever I touched on a subject area that I knew was questionable about the "true" history of the times, I carefully researched the area before I continued writing.  I did this with my published 1926 novel, Aegypt.  In fact, one of my publisher's questions related to the use of a lighter in the novel.  I had researched this extensively.  In 1910, the permanent match type lighter was invented and had extensive use through WWI and following until the invention of the Zippo lighter in 1932.  The permanent match is what the saying "Three on a match" refers to.

The primary historical questions for the writing of Aksinya was bathroom and household facilities during the period 1918 to 1919.  In this period, these varied from nothing to full bathrooms with hot and cold running water.  I tried to show this in Aksinya, and this is one of the levels of symbol and understanding in the novel.  As I wrote previously, in developing the history of something as simple as a bathroom, I started with a blank slate and used historical information to fill in the holes and properly describe the historical bathrooms.  If you can imagine that in the country in the times, the highest aristocrat had an outhouse and used chamber pots.  There was not running water and bath water was heated usually in the bathroom with a stove (thus bathroom not water closet).  In the cities, the wealthy were installing hot and cold running water systems (usually heated from the same boiler that heated the new radiant (radiator) heat).  They had toilets for a while, but the bidet was catching on--especially with warm water available.  The details of the subject are excruciating, but that is how a historical fiction writer needs to approach even the most mundane subject about the past.  Culture, tomorrow.
There is much more to writing without confusing your readers. I'll write about that tomorrow. The following is a question asked by one of my readers. I'm going to address this over time: Please elaborate on scene, theme, plot, character development in a new novel creation....ie, the framework, the development, order if operation, the level of detail, guidelines, rule of thumb, tricks, traps and techniques. To what extent do you outline the historic context, culture, mannerism, speech, dress and thought process of the main characters, in a historic novel...in order to maintain integrity, and gradually (help) reveal attributes of a character in the story, or otherwise clarify the plot, scene, transition, tension or resolution?

I'll repeat my published novel websites so you can see more examples: http://www.ldalford.com/, and the individual novel websites: http://www.aegyptnovel.com/, http://www.centurionnovel.com/, http://www.thesecondmission.com/, http://www.theendofhonor.com/, http://www.thefoxshonor.com/, and http://www.aseasonofhonor.com/.