Writing Ideas - New Novel, part x131, It’s Finished, Editing, Fifth Stage

17 May 2017, Writing Ideas - New Novel, part x131, It’s Finished, Editing, Fifth Stage

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.

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 27^th 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 Sorcha: Enchantment and the Curse. 

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 28^th novel, working title Red Sonja.  I finished my 29^th novel, working title School.  I’ll be providing information on the marketing materials and editing.

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 28:  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 29:  Sorcha, the abandoned child of an Unseelie and a human, secretly attends Wycombe Abbey girls’ school where she meets the problem child Deirdre and is redeemed.

 

The fifth stage is preparation for presentation with formatting.  In addition, the author might as well continue to work on any obvious problems. 

 

I write my novels in chapters.  The reason is that when I started writing on a computer, the programs couldn’t handle book length texts.  To prevent the loss of the writing, I broke the writing into chapters.  The programs could handle chapters and the software allowed you to paste together the files into a complete document.  Out of habit, I continued to write this way.  You gain some really important capabilities by writing this way.  The first is that you can only lose a chapter if anything horrific happens to your files or computer.  The second is that you can keep track of your writing in terms of chapters.  This is how I manage my writing.  The third is that this is a great means of organizing your text. 

 

At this stage, once I’m sure of the writing, I put the files together in a compete file and in a pdf.  Your publisher and editors will want the file in the word processor file.  You will want the file in a pdf for reading and for your kindle, ibooks, and other tablet and phone readers. 

 

When you format the text, you need to place the novel title, your name, and the page numbers.  Skip page numbers for the first page of each chapter.  You need to figure out how to do this for your word processor software.  The title, your last name, and the page number needs to be in the header.  You don’t put anything in the footer except footnotes.  If this is confusing, just look at any guide for publication—they should show you an example of how the files should be formatted.  You can also see examples of the first chapter of all of my novels—that will show you how to format your novels.

 

The reason for this formatting is to prepare your novel for presentation to publishers.  That’s the point after all.                      

 

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  

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