A New Novel, Part 8 More Temptation

If you haven't figured this out, I am slowly feeding you the first cut of this novel, Daemon (working title).  I'm doing it on a whim because in the future, the writing will improve, and it likely won't be published for a few years anyway.  I thought it would be a great project to actually show you how I write a novel.  This way you will get an inside view to how one author actually writes a novel and you will get to see my creative process at close range.  If this isn't interesting to you, the writing should be.  I aim for fun and exciting novels.  I do hope you will enjoy these postings for one or the other reason.  You also get a free read.  I plan for a 100K word novel, so you will have a lot to sink your teeth into.  Right now, I have the whole novel blocked out in scenes in my mind and my little notebook.  My notes are what I write to.  When I am thinking about the novel, I jot down the ideas for the scenes and pithy pieces of conversation between the characters.  These notes provide a broad outline for the writing of the novel.  I don't detail every bit of every scene, and I don't specify every scene, I just have broad notes to guide the writing.  Many transition scenes must be added into the novel to move to the appropriate large and important scenes, but that doesn't make the transition scenes of any less importance or entertainment value.

To catch you up a little, Aksinya called and contracted the demon Asmodeus.  She did it to save her family from the Bolsheviks during the Russian Revolution.  She was too late and her family was murdered.  She was injured through her interaction with the demon and is demoralized by her failure.  The demon has become her domestic for the moment and drew her a bath.  She has problems walking now because her legs were injured.

Aksinya went to the bath. By the way, the date is November 1918 and the place is a Russian country estate.  They do not have indoor plumbing.  They do have tubs and baths.

The tub was high and filled with hot water. She gazed longingly at it and made her way to the side. She felt it to make certain it wasn’t too hot and with the staff climbed over the side and into the water. This was marvelous. For a moment, she felt better than she had in what seemed a long long time. That’s when hunger began to gnaw at her. She was so upset and uncomfortable before she hadn’t noticed it. Now her hunger took her, and like she usually did when she was uncomfortable, she sought something to take her attention away.


Aksinya examined her body. She was undeveloped. That was so obvious in the bath. Her legs and thighs were still bruised, but they were healing. The black and blue marks on her skin were turning an ugly brown. They were going away. She moved her legs. In the warm water they moved more easily than before. She touched herself. They were still painful, but it was less than before. She moved her hands up her torso. Her breasts were nothing like her mother’s or her sister’s. She lingered there for a moment then moved them more quickly before those thoughts came again and touched her face. It wasn’t beautiful. The demon was right. She wasn’t even pretty. Her mother said in time she would gain a degree of beauty, but Aksinya knew that was pity. She was afraid to look at herself after she had given most of her hair to the demon. It was short now and fell to her ears. It was likely ugly as her face now. It had been her only redeeming characteristic before she cut it off. Now she could feel the uneven ends, and she wondered if it would ever grow out again—she had given it to the demon, after all. Finally, she called out, “Asmodeus.”
His voice came from just outside the door, “Yes, countess.”
“Why do you call me that?”
“Because it is true. Your family is dead, you are the countess now.”
“I don’t like you to call me that.”
“Then I shall continue to use it.”
She gritted her teeth, “Why did my legs become so injured when you took me here?”
“I thought I explained that to you before.”
“I didn’t understand it then. Give the a better explanation.”
“Any explanation or the truth?”
“Tell me the truth you horrible creature.”
Asmodeus laughed, “When you took my hand, you reached out to me. I carried you through stone and earth and then we traveled through the cosmos to arrive at the front of your house. Since you didn’t trust your body and soul to me, your body endured that travel. What did you think would happen if you went through stone and earth and the cosmos?”
“But when you carried me, I wasn’t injured.”
“You trusted your body and soul to me—you have aligned yourself to a demon. Your soul was harmed, but not your body. I can protect your body, but I can’t protect your soul. You will heal—that is the way with humans.”
Aksinya thought a bit more.
Asmodeus voice boomed from behind the door again, “You are hungry. You will not heal or survive long without sustenance.”
“I can’t prepare food for myself. I can barely get around my own room.”
“Then I must prepare it for you. I did not agree to become your domestic. We must fix this situation before we continue too far.”
Aksinya laughed at him, “How do you propose to do that demon?”
“I must find you a servant to take care of your needs. Obviously, you don’t want me to have to dress and undress you. You are as vain as any woman. I grow weary with taking care of these human needs.”
Aksinya laughed again, “For now get me some food and place it in my room.”
Asmodeus growled, but Aksinya heard him move in her room.
In a while, the bath became cool. Aksinya let the water out and picked up her staff. She levered herself out of the deep tub and stood shakily on the cold floor. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and turned her head. She looked pale and her face was pinched. It showed her pain and looked haggard. Her hair was as ugly as everything else.
She toweled herself off as well as she could and wrapped it tightly around her body. Then she unlocked the door and peeked into her room. The demon had not returned yet. She took another nightgown from her wardrobe. This was her winter gown. It was wool. She put it on and though scratchy after the smooth cotton of her other one, she felt much better and finally clean.
She got back into bed and laid the staff next to her.
Asmodeus came through the door with a service in his hands. He put the tray in front of her on the bed. It held a hot pot of tea. He poured it for her and lifted the covers from the dishes. The smell of the food overwhelmed her senses. He had made her an omelet and bread. Everything was fresh. She prayed and crossed herself.
The demon made a depreciating sound, “To bless that which was made with a curse is perhaps the act of a fool.”
Aksinya ignored his comment and began to eat.
She ate almost everything he brought her. Then she settled back on her pillows, “Thank you demon. I feel much better.”
“You needn’t thank me, you gave up part of the virtue of your soul and your life to gain that repast.”
“I understand that, but I needed to eat.”
“These human needs…”
“Don’t you eat?”
“Never. I have no need. I have no human needs and no human desires. My only desire comes from our contract and from my desire to do evil.”
“It is not evil to prepare good food or to take care of my needs.”
“It is evil for you to use your soul and life to get them.”
She looked over her cup, “Perhaps.”
“Now,” Asmodeus sneered, “since your human needs are assuaged, it is time to plan. What do you intend to do?”
“I only thought to save my family. Now, I don’t know what to do. You tell me, you can’t or will not help me fight the Bolsheviks. You tell me, you won’t help me fight this revolution…”
“I like revolutions. The evil it brings to the world is pleasant to me.”
“I have no other plans.”
“You must survive. Whether you accomplish the desires of your heart are beyond my understanding or care, but for our contract, you must survive.”
“The desires of my heart…I had but one desire and that is dust and ashes.”
“Then perhaps you will meet my desires.”
Aksinya’s lip curled up, “Your desires are the least of my concern.”
“But your desires are mine. Especially those that are evil and that continue to abrade your soul.”
Aksinya glowered at him, “What would that be?”
“I wish you to continue with your study of sorcery. That is certainly evil.”
“I have no purpose for it anymore.”
“You put years of study into it, and you are very adept. The fact you called and contracted me are the evidence of that.”
“I did not intend to give it up.”
“I thought so. It already has marked your soul. Such things become like the lustful desires you already know, they are difficult to purge from your heart and mind once they are experienced.”
“Shut up! You may know my mind, but you needn’t say such embarrassing things.”
“It is like all human desires. It is what makes you human,” his lip curled up over his fangs. “Humans are so disgusting.”
Aksinya sipped her tea and ignored him.

So you can see the point of the demon's temptation.  He wishes to encourage her use of sorcery, of magic.  He sees this as a simple means to tempt her.  We shall see that this is his primary means to get her to sin.  If you remember, demons lie, you will be able to gain an understanding of how the demon works his own magic of temptation.  His other powers of persuasion will become evident later.  You may have already noted them.  He is playing good cop/bad cop for here right now.  He provides her needs while encouraging her to his own ends.  Note his desire to plan for her future.  He wishes to plan for the purpose of increasing the evil she will do.  This is very important.  Another point of interest is the purpose of evil.  The demon specifically told her that the evil of the revolution was pleasant to him.  The impression is that there is enough evil to go around in Russia right now.  The demon sees more purpose in Aksinya moving from the evil of Russia to another venue.  Will will soon see where and what that new venue is.

Inspiration

Inspiration!  Just how do you get it, and what about "good" inspiration.  If you want to be inspired--write.  That's it.  Inspiration is enveloped in the process or writing.  I see writing as cathartic.  You fill up your brain with good things and out comes great writing.  This means you can't write well unless you are steeped in good stuff.  Your mind needs to be filled with positive and powerful words, music, images, and energy so when you get in front of a piece of paper, what flows onto the paper is rich and luscious.  Let's put it this way, if you spend your time reading Dick and Jane, you will write Dick and Jane.  If you spend your time reading Hawthorn and Dickens, you will write Hawthorn and Dickens.  We haven't begun to speak about your individual voice as an author.  So I want to fill up my mind with powerful stuff that then becomes powerful words on a page.  So what were those initial words about "just write?"  I was speaking about inspiration.  If you wait around for inspiration to hit you in the head, and then you write, you'll never write anything (or very little).  I find inspiration comes from the experience of writing.  Since I write in scenes, I do try to imagine the scenes as a focus to the writing and that provides much of the inspiration.  You might ask, where did the original inspiration for the overall novel or writing come from?  Generally, it comes out of the process of writing.  In other words, I imagine a scene I would like to write, I write to develop the scene, and that provides the inspiration.  Sometimes the scene I write has nothing to do with anything else in the future (like a novel), sometimes it does.  Sometimes the scene develops into a short story.  The point is, I don't wait around for inspiration, I just start writing and see what comes.  If you need some guidance in your writing, use a text book or figure some template.  Write about descriptive scenes or simply describe the room you are in right now.  If you can't get anything going from any of that--then writing may not be your thing.  Or just wait for some inspiration.

Sequence of and in Scenes, How I Start part 7

Sequence within and of scenes is an interesting question.  What I mean by sequence is the time based formation of the action and of the scenes.  This applies to time within the context of the novel as well as your writing.  Let's take them separately.  First, time sequence in and of scenes.  You could experiment with non-sequential based time flow in a scene, but I don't do that.  I do like to use scenes in some novels to go back into the past (potentially into the future), but I like to keep these separated as scenes.  You don't have to, but one of my main concerns in writing is to not confuse my readers.  As an aside, here are two of my main rules of writing: entertain your readers and don't confuse them.  Scenes where the time or time sequence moves around will confuse your readers, so unless you really know what you are doing--don't  Likewise, you can take the reader to the past or future with a scene.  You can have overlapping time between scenes, but use caution.  This is where clear description is necessary.  You have to ground your readers in the scene.  Put that down as a basic rule too: ground your reader in each scene.  For example, I do like to intersperse scenes that take the reader out of the main storyline into another storyline that parallels the plot.  In Dana-ana, http://www.goddessnovel.com/, this means following the action of other characters for a scene and then jumping back to the original storyline.  Everything still supports the plot and the theme, it is just showing the reader new information from a different point of view (POV, point of view, is a whole other topic).  As long as you don't confuse your reader, these segues are great for them.  They build a level of excitement and at the same time make your readers long to get back to the main storyline.  Here's an example:

[end of scene with Macintyres (Dana's adopted family) after she left--Dana is the she]“She left of her own free will. I don’t think she’s coming back.”



[Beginning of the next scene--double break to set it off.  The first step is the setting]
Mata Hainsworth [already introduced in the novel earlier] leaned against the wall at the back of the Wellington Hotel. The fog was thick that evening. At his side stood two other men dressed in suits. One of them also carried a pouch at his side. He was short and had foxy features. The man with the pouch glanced around the corner of the building, “So Dana-ana made a blood vow to this boy.”

Mata laughed, “Yes she did. I heard every word. It seems her young man was already half convinced to dump her. My little confession just pushed him over the top.”

“She took it hard.”

“She’s in love, the little slut. It’s just as we hoped, she cast her blood when he released her and swore a blood oath.”

“So all we need to do now is tempt her little master to an accident, and she’ll do a death dance.”

The other man in the suit spoke up. He was very tall and broad shouldered. He seemed almost too large to be a normal person. His face and every other part of him that showed outside his clothing was very hairy, “You know it’s not as easy as that, Ailean. There are precautions we must take. Plus we need to lure them to a place she was restricted from—one of her ancient places of power. We must insure no interference from Ceridwen or the rest of the courts.”

“You are a spoilsport, Mahon.”

He held his nose and growled. The growl sounded distinctively animal-like, “And you two both stink so much of magic, you’re lucky I stick around to help you. I want to gag right now.”

“We all serve the same master, Mahon. You don’t have to get snotty.”

“Where is the girl anyway?”

Mata replied, “She’s searching for food in the bin on the other side of the building. That’s why I had us meet here.”

“Good, I don’t want her to ever detect us. She’ll smell you two a mile away. We have to prevent any interference from Ceridwen. She swore to protect Dana-ana’s life. Dana-ana must give up her life willingly, otherwise, Ceridwen becomes involved.”

Ailean nodded, “That’s been the plan all along. Tell us something we don’t know.”

Mahon stared at him and lifted a thick lip, “If our master allowed me, I’d crush you puny human.”

Ailean started to sweat, “Well he hasn’t, so tell us what the plans are.”

“We are arranging a conflagration. We only want to target Dana-ana through the boy. That’s the difficult part. The details are still being attended to.”

“Will there be a place for magic?”

“Yes, very much. It will be a necessary part of the planning.”

“Good. When we get our revenge, Dana-ana needs to know just who pulled the trigger. That’s what will make it sweet. She must die slowly, very slowly. It would be best if while she did, the stink of magic would gag her, and she would drown in her own vomit.”

“Our master would like that very much. Perhaps it can be arranged.”

“It might be pleasant for her to be ravished just prior to the event.”

“You ask for too much, Mata. If she were ravished, that would surely bring Ceridwen and Dana-ana’s sisters down on our heads. You do not want that, I assure you.”

“Perhaps we could get the boy to do it. Ailaen’s skill is seduction magic.”

“That might be useful, but don’t plan too much. We are just putting the details together now. The most important part was her blood oath.”

“You figure out how to get them alone together, and we’ll ensure the boy rapes her.”

“I’ll warn you only once. Whatever you do, do not let it cause a failure of our plans. Our master wants her dead. That will roil the courts and Ceridwen. You want revenge. All our goals align with her death. If she doesn’t die, no one will be happy, especially our master.”
[End of scene-double break]

[Return to the main plot line]
On Wednesday, as Gwen left the hotel, she caught a glimpse of Dana. She grabbed her mother’s arm, “Mom, Dana’s following us.”

The above is an example of somewhat parallel storyline scenes.  The the scene is separate and gives the reader a glimpse of what is happening outside of the knowledge of the major characters.  This is a very effective method to build tension and excitement.  Note the beginning of both scenes, the main one I show you and the beginning of the next, firmly ground the reader right away.  A single sentence or paragraph is all that is necessary, but it is necessary.
 
Now the second part, about writing your scenes non-sequentially.  Sometimes you might be tempted to write one of the most exciting scenes that you envisioned in your scene outline before you get to it in your writing.  In other words as you are writing your novel, you might want to write some of the more exciting parts of it first and get to the rest later.  That might work for some, but I advise you--don't do it.  Don't do it for two reasons.  First, if certain scenes aren't exciting to you, they won't be exciting to your readers.  Second, I've found that the few times I've done this, I had to completely dump or revise the whole chapter or scene.  The reason is that writing a novel is a process, the characters and your understanding of the plot grows with the writing.  Usually when I finally write up to the point I already wrote, the circumstances of the input and sometimes the scene output have changed and the characters and plot have subtly changed.  The previous writing of the scene is stale or out of place, and I have to completely write it again.  This is what I explained about on Centurion www.CenturionNovel.com.  The short story I originally wrote that to a degree spurred the novel could not fit at all into the novel.  The characters were different and the circumstances (inputs and outputs) were different.  So my advice is to not write out of sequence, but this is not a rule for everyone.  Plus, if you do write in time sequence, you can later move the scenes around, if necessary, to fit the way the plot demands--if you need to.  Tomorrow, I'll talk about more subtle means to work with your characters in scenes.

Outlining in Scenes, How I Start part 6

I use scenes to outline the development of each chapter.  I also focus a chapter on a scene or scenes.  I unimaginatively write in chapters and aim for 20 pages or about 5000 to 6000 words per chapter.  This may not be the best way to write a novel, but it works for me.  I don't necessarily recommend using my technique of using a chapter length as a goal, but I do recommend using scenes as the center point and outline of the chapter.

Now here is how you focus your writing in scenes.  First, you must develop a theme for your novel.  I've written about themes before, and I will eventually get to it here one day.  Suffice to say, the theme must be somewhat universal, and it must not be trivial.  It doesn't have to be to save the world, but it should speak broadly and powerfully.  Once you have a theme (it should be written or in some way cohesive in your mind), you can move to the next step. 

Second, imagine the actions of your characters.  Imagine generally the exciting and interesting scenes that will paint them and your novel within the theme.  This is where you begin to design the plot and the storyline.  I have been using the terms plot and storyline separately but together since the beginning because, to me, these are two very separate things.  The plot is the pattern of events that make up the larger narrative, specifically it is the scenes put together cohesively to make the story that supports the theme.  The storyline is the entertaining line of events that make up the narrative.  Whoa, what's the difference.  The difference, in my mind is the theme.  I never want the theme to get in the way of the story.  This preoccupation with the storyline prevents this problem for me.  I first of all want my writing to be entertaining.  I don't intend to beat the reader with the theme, I want the theme to come out naturally as part of the plot as directed by the storyline.  My example is Shakespeare.  You know each of the plays has an underlying theme, the purpose of the play, overall, is to bring out this theme, but the author doesn't beat the theme over your head.  The first purpose of the plays is to entertain.  A reader who reads your work and is entertained will get the theme.  The reader who is not entertained will put down your work and walk away.  No read, no get the theme.  Your readers have to first read and enjoy your work.

Third, start to figure out how to get the action of each scene down on paper.  To keep this from being overwhelming, outline by scene with a general goal toward some resolution.  If you have a general resolution in mind, the novel will grow toward that resolution.  Usually, your theme supports this resolution.  For example, without giving everything away, I knew Dana-ana would be a novel of discovery.  Dana-ana has a great and horrible secret that she is prevented from sharing.  She doesn't want to share it because it is so horrible.  Because of her secret, groups seek to punish her and demand her death.  The resolution is when she must face this horrible secret.  Now, she confronts her secret at multiple levels: personally (with Byron and his family), individually (with herself), legally (she was punished for her actions), physically (others want her life because of her secret), and mentally (I don't tell you, you see the effects on her).  The novel drives to the conclusion that brings all these together.  This may sound very difficult.  It is if you try to go at it as a whole.  Don't.  I wrote each scene as an entertaining piece that drove toward the conclusion.  The scenes each had their input, event, and output.  These all pointed toward the conclusion.  Let me give you an example of this scene outlining.  First scene, input Dana stole lunches, event the fight, output Dana knocked out.  Second scene, input Dana knocked out, event Byron gets help for Dana, output Byron escorts Dana to her home.  Third scene, input Byron escorts Dana to her home, event Dana washes Byron's feet and speaks for the first time, output Byron leaves Dana's house--end of chapter.  First chapter ends cleanly and I need a new input for the first scene of the next chapter.  Second chapter first scene input is Byron notices Dana in homeroom and speaks to her... The scenes continue from there.  In every case, I try to provide an entertaining episode that drives the overall plot and theme.  The scenes are the storyline.  Tomorrow, I'll see if I can give you more on developing scenes.