Writing Ideas - Vampire Novel, part 141, more entertaining Writing skills how to develop Storyline, Entertaining, Rising Action

29 August 2014, Writing Ideas - Vampire Novel, part 141, more entertaining Writing skills how to develop Storyline, Entertaining, Rising Action

Announcement: We are in the countdown phase for the publication of my new novels.  The date on the internet is 1 September.  We will see how close we come, or if the publishers meet the deadline.  My Aegypt novels will be titled Ancient Light, and the next two books will be called Sister of Light  and  Sister of Darkness.  These were the original titles.  They will be released individually and as a 3 in 1 volume.  The proposed cover and info can be found at www.ancientlight.com.  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.

Entertainment comes in multiple varieties, but in writing we see two very strong strains.  The first is the action content and the second is the word usage.  Action or conversation content is any excitement or banter that occurs in the narrative or conversation.  In scene setting, there is no action (or little action) and no conversation.  The way to interject entertainment into scene setting is through the use of words.  In English (and other languages) this mean figures of speech.  The means of interjecting entertainment in a scene setting is through the choice of words used.  The ultimate example of poor scene setting is: it was a dark and stormy night.  An entertaining means of writing the same idea would be:  the night was filled with raging clouds that cascaded bright bolts of lightening from cloud to cloud.  You could increase the entertainment by writing: the black night was illuminated by brilliant flashes that fell from the heavy weeping clouds.  Think about it, there are a million ways to write an entertaining scene setting.  Even the description of a room can come alive thought figures of speech and proper description.

This is what I mean by entertaining.  If you take your assignment to write a room description and edit it to be filled with figures of speech and action words, you will be beginning to write like a novelist.  Notice, I wrote action words.  "It was a dark and stormy night," has no action words--it has a identity construction (was).  I've written before that you should reduce identity constructions from your writing.  They are generally not necessary or they can be replace with an action word (verb).  That is not to say was, is, am, are not verbs--it is to say that these are identity verbs that can be many times replaced with more powerful verbs.  In my writing, I do a search for these verbs (is, am, was, were) and try to reduce them as much as possible.  Action words (verbs) are the bread and butter of good writing.

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