14 November 2016, Writing Ideas
- New Novel, part 947, Publishing, Protagonists, Example: Aksinya: Enchantment and the Deamon
Announcement: Delay, my new novels can be seen on the internet, but the publisher
has delayed all their fiction output due to the economy. I'll keep you
informed. More information can be found at www.ancientlight.com. Check out my novels--I think you'll really enjoy
them.
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.
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.
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 26th novel, working title, Shape, proposed
title, Essie: Enchantment and the Aos Si,
is this: Mrs. Lyons captures a shape-shifting girl in her pantry
and rehabilitates her.
I
finished writing my 27th novel, working title, Claire, potential
title Sorcha: Enchantment and the Curse. This might need some tweaking. The theme statement is: Claire (Sorcha) Davis
accepts Shiggy, a dangerous screw-up, into her Stela branch of the organization
and rehabilitates her.
Here is the cover proposal for Essie:
Enchantment and the Aos Si. Essie is my 26th novel.
 |
|
Cover
Proposal
|
The most important scene in any
novel is the initial scene, but eventually, you have to move to the rising
action. I started writing my 28th novel, working title Red Sonja.
I'm an advocate of using the/a scene
input/output method to drive the rising action--in fact, to write any
novel.
Scene development:
1. Scene input (easy)
2. Scene output (a little
harder)
3. Scene setting (basic stuff)
4. Creativity (creative
elements of the scene)
5. Tension (development of
creative elements to build excitement)
6. Release (climax of creative
elements)
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.
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.
These are the steps I use to write 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
Would you like to write a novel that
a publisher will consider? Would you
like to write a novel that is published?
How about one that sells?
The third novel in the Enchantment series is Aksinya: Enchantment and the Deamon. Another great idea for a novel—if a sorceress
called a demon could she ever escape the power of that demon. Specifically, could she ever be redeemed? This is the theme and plot idea behind Aksinya.
At the same time, I blogged this novel to provide an entire novel example
of how I conceive, develop, and write a novel. This was my ultimate example.
Aksinya is the protagonist of this
novel. She is quite obviously a Romantic
protagonist. You can gather this from
the fact that she can call a demon in the first place. She must be a sorceress of great skill to
make such a spell. Here is her description:
The dank stone room
was filled with shadows. Every corner
oozed darkness. Within a pentagram that
was encompassed by a circle stood a slight young woman. Fat yellow beef-tallow candles marked the
points of the pentagram and weakly illuminated only the area around her. A brazier of incense filled the room with the
scent of myrrh along with an underlying smell that was indeterminate, but left
a taste of blood in the mouth. The woman
was dressed in a black gown that was much too large for her. Beautiful hand made lace cascaded down the
front of the dress and decorated the sleeves.
Thick velvet competed with black satin to form a perfect attire to greet
a Tsar, but certainly not a commissar.
The gown fell loosely away from the woman’s thin chest and small
breasts. It looked odd draped on her
body, like a girl playing dress-up from her mother’s closet. But this gown obviously came from the closet
of a princess.
Aksinya, the woman within the pentagram,
squinted across the dark cellar. She was
barely eighteen and much too thin for her age.
She was petit; that was a polite way of saying small. And underdeveloped, that was a polite way of
saying she didn’t yet appear much like a woman.
Aksinya’s hair was dark brown and silky and
beautiful, bound up in a long braid, but her face was plain and Russian, so Russian. Her voice was soft and sometimes too
shrill. When she was excited it rose in
strength and pitch, so she never sounded very mature or well mannered.
Aksinya stood in the middle of the
pentagram. She held a book in one hand,
and the bodice of the dress in the other.
It kept falling away from her chest and although there was no one to
see, she felt uncomfortable and underdressed when it did. She squinted across the cellar again and
focused back on the book. She knew the
words and the pictures in the book by heart.
She had memorized them long ago, but still she sought them like an
anchor against the storm she was about to release. In the dark—she hadn’t thought about how dark
it would be, she could barely read the text.
Finally, she took up an extra taper from the floor and lit it from the
closest candle. She had to hold the
taper in one hand and the book in the other, which almost completely revealed
her chest, but that couldn’t be helped now.
Aksinya read from the book. The words weren’t Russian, her mother tongue,
and they weren’t the French of the Russian
Court
She read the ponderous Latin from her
book. The cover was black, and a
pentagram was worked into the ancient leather.
The book was old, ancient. The
pages were yellowed with age. In spite
of that, the pictures and words were perfectly preserved as if time inside it
had been slowed to a stop. The words of
the book were dark and evil. Aksinya
knew them well. She knew their
meanings. She forced her lips to form
them, but this wasn’t the first time she had forced her lips to make these dark
words. For years and years she spoke
them. She manipulated the world through
them. She made the world obey her with
these ancient words. She let her mind
flow to the word—sorcery. Aksinya made
magic. She had taught herself from the
dark books she found, and here and now, she made the most horrible of magic.
You
get the competency of Aksinya from the very beginning. She is competent. She is a highly skilled sorceress. This idea continues through the novel. Her power, knowledge, and skill resonates
from beginning to end. If anything, she
is too innocent and inexperienced. The problem
with Aksinya isn’t her knowledge or skills but rather that she is driven by temptation. Once she has a demon, he temps her over and
over. In the end, Aksinya becomes a
pathos developing character because of this temptation. Here is another example from the novel:
A heavy sound woke
her. She raised her head. She didn’t dare speak. Then she heard it again. It sounded like the slap of a bare foot
against stone. She caught a whiff of
sulfur in the air. In the darkness, a
large dark figure stood outside her door.
Aksinya shivered
and trembled at the same time.
Asmodeus voice
thick with mocking amusement tumbled out of the darkness. Aksinya was so used to seeing his lips curl
up over his fangs, she wasn’t certain if she could see them or she just
imagined them in the darkness. The demon
chuckled, “Dear alleged Countess what a terrible predicament you find yourself
in.”
Aksinya stared at
him.
“Didn’t I warn you
not to confess? Didn’t I tell you to not
seek out the Church.” He spat the
word. “You sought to resist
me. That was a new experience for
me. None of my previous masters ever
tried to fight against me before. But
that doesn’t matter. There is no hope
for you now.”
“There
was never any hope for me from the beginning, was there, demon?”
“Ah,
the little girl finally speaks. Yes, you
are right. There never was any hope for
you.”
“Why
are you here now demon. Have you come to
give me more instructions or did you just come to torment me.”
He
laughed, “I have no more instructions to give you, alleged Countess. I’m here to steal all hope away from you.”
Aksinya
pressed her lips tightly shut.
“You
will never be rid of me, but now, I can torment you as I desire.”
“You
lie. You may only torment the guilty,
and I am confessed and forgiven.”
Aksinya
heard a slight change in the tone of Asmodeus’ voice, “I warned you not to
confess. I still have power over the
world, and the world will do my work for me well.” He stuck out his hand and pulled it back.
The
dress Aksinya wore slipped off her body.
At the door, the demon held it in his fist.
“There,
alleged Countess, the night is cold.
Your cell is colder. This dress
shall keep until the morrow.” He threw
it far down the corridor where Aksinya could never retrieve it. “I can still torment you, but I don’t need to
torment you. That was never my
plan. I sought to bring everyone around
you down to your level. Already my plans
have come to a wonderful harvest. It is
a harvest you shall reap for me. Could
you imagine that you would see the ruin of everything you hold dear? You don’t need to imagine it, because you
will soon live it. Everyone you touched
will be harmed. Little girl, you don’t
have any idea the havoc you have wrought in this world—soon you will know
all.”
Aksinya huddled
naked and shivering in the corner of the bench and the wall.
“This is usually
the time you threaten me, alleged Countess.
Why so quiet?”
“Because speaking
will do no good. It never did any good
before. The only thing that matters
anymore is that I am confessed and forgiven.”
“What about your
friends?”
“For them…for
them.”
“Hah, don’t say
you are willing to die.”
Tears trickled
down the sides of Aksinya’s cheeks, “I cannot say that. I am not willing to die for them. I wish I was able, but I am not.”
“That is your
problem. You were willing to release a
demon to protect your family, but you would not have died for any of them. Let me tell you a secret, alleged
Countess. I killed your family. I killed them all. If you wondered at your injuries when you
traveled with me from your cellar to your family’s estate, they came about
because you helped me bring about the deaths of your own family. I delayed just long enough between heaven and
earth so the Bolsheviks would have the time to do their dirty work. You were marked with the touch of hell in the
place where time has no meaning. Already
you have been to hell; therefore, you should embrace your new home with even
greater fervor.”
Aksinya was
breathless, “You let them murder my family?
You were sworn to obey me.”
“Never sworn to obey
you. I swore to do evil in your
name. You are such a fool, little
girl. You tried to negotiate with a
demon. My purpose is temptation and
evil. I have no other purpose in heaven
or earth.”
“So… I see.”
“Too late. Always they understand too late.” Asmodeus stretched to his full height, “Ah,
evil is so liberating, but you have chosen a different path, haven’t you.”
“I have chosen.”
“With all the pain
and suffering you will know. I could
offer you life, liberty, freedom, sorcery.”
“It wouldn’t help
my friends.”
“I could continue
to lie to you and tell you it would.
Would that change your mind?”
“I have chosen.”
“I must be
completely clear because I don’t wish to lose all the potential of evil within
you. If you determine to follow me, I
will save you from all this pain and suffering.”
“But you won’t
help my friends.”
“I will not help
your friends or your enemies. I offer
you evil and only evil.”
“You offer me
relief now and eternal suffering later.
Christ offers me suffering because of my own actions now and eternal
life later. In either case, I can’t help
my friends…or my enemies, and I don’t wish to bring any more evil into the
world.”
At the word,
Christ, the demon cringed. He frowned,
“Very well. You will not know peace
until your dying day, and I shall reap your soul in any case.”
Aksinya’s teeth
chattered, “You will not have my soul. I
am marked by Christ as His own.”
Asmodeus snarled,
“Shut up, Countess.”
“I am His. I am Christ’s.”
“Shut up.”
Aksinya hugged her
naked body more closely. The rosary
pressed solidly against her chest. She
pulled it out and raised it up, “In spite of all the pain and suffering I might
face because of this decision, I choose Christ.
You can’t do anything about that.
My mind is free of you. I am
Christ’s, not yours. I can swear, and I
can hold onto the promise that is mine.
I only wish I knew this before I knew you. Begone.”
At that moment
Asmodeus was gone. All that was left was
an acrid stink. Aksinya wondered if her
confession had sent him away or something else.
You can read this entire novel with commentary
in this blog. You can see how Aksinya
has become a pathetic character. In the
end, she has been abandoned by almost everyone.
She has lost her possessions, her family, her money, her position, and
her friends. She is about to be judged
by an ecclesiastical trial, and she will soon face a criminal trial. This is all not good for her, and none of it
was her fault. The demon caused
everything. The demon tempted her to
every failing and failure—in most cases, the demon just set her up and she fell
into the trap.
You can see this pattern of a
Romantic character who is made pathetic.
This is a form I have developed through many novels.
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
http://www.aegyptnovel.com/
http://www.centurionnovel.com
http://www.thesecondmission.com/
http://www.theendofhonor.com/
http://www.thefoxshonor.com
http://www.aseasonofhonor.com
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