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Saturday, August 26, 2017

Writing - part x232, Novel Form, Culmination in Tension and Release


26 August 2017, Writing - part x232, Novel Form, Culmination in Tension and Release

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 c9n 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 28th novel, working title, School, potential title Deirdre: Enchantment and the School.  The theme statement is: 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.  

Here is the cover proposal for Deirdre: Enchantment and the School

Cover Proposal

The most important scene in any novel is the initial scene, but eventually, you have to move to the rising action. I continued writing my 29th novel, working title Red Sonja.  I finished my 28th novel, working title School.  If you noticed, I started on number 28, but finished number 29 (in the starting sequence—it’s actually higher than that).  I adjusted the numbering.  I do keep everything clear in my records. 

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 29:  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.

 

This is the classical form for writing a successful 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 (protagonist, antagonist, and optionally the protagonist’s helper)

d.      Identify the telic flaw of the protagonist (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

              

The protagonist and the telic flaw are tied permanently together.  The novel plot is completely dependent on the protagonist and the protagonist’s telic flaw.  They are inseparable.  This is likely the most critical concept about any normal (classical) form novel. 

 

Here are the parts of a normal (classical) novel:

 

1.      The Initial scene (identify the output: implied setting, implied characters, implied action movement)

2.      The Rising action scenes

3.      The Climax scene

4.      The Falling action scene(s)

5.      The Dénouement scene

             

So, how do you write a rich and powerful initial scene?  Let’s start from a theme statement.  Here is an example from my latest novel:

 

The theme statement for Deirdre: Enchantment and the School is: 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.

 

Here is the scene development outline:

 

1. Scene input (comes from the previous scene output or is an initial scene)

2. Write the scene setting (place, time, stuff, and characters)

3. Imagine the output, creative elements, plot, telic flaw resolution (climax) and develop the tension and release.

4. Write the scene using the output and creative elements to build the tension.

5. Write the release

6. Write the kicker

          

If you have the characters (protagonist, protagonist’s helper, and antagonist), the initial setting, the telic flaw (from the protagonist), a plot idea, the theme action, then you are ready to write the initial scene.  I would state that since you have a protagonist, the telic flaw, a plot idea, and the theme action, you have about everything—what you might be lacking is the tension and release cycle in your scenes.

 

Here is an example of developing or building emotional tension and release in a scene.  This example is from Shadow of Darkness an Ancient Light novel.  Sveta has a penchant for learning and speaking languages.  Her mind was injured during the battle for Berlin.  She doesn’t remember the languages she speaks and understands.  I showed you a scene before were she realizes she can read Hebrew.  In the previous scene, she reads Greek without understanding that she is reading Greek. This scene is a cumulative scene.  It is a type of very high level tension and release.  In many previous scene, some that I showed you, Sveta’s language skills were displayed and we learned more and more about her capabilities.  Finally, in this scene, we see a showing of explanation about her skills.  The Mother Abbess is right and wrong.  She is more right than wrong about Sveta.  This is a key revelation in the novel.  Many scenes foreshadowed and built to this particular scene, but this is not the climax of the novel—it is an intermittent release in the novel.  It is a specific and important revelation in the novel.        

 

If, as I mentioned yesterday, that scene was an ah ha moment, this is the explanation of that ah ha moment.  This is a type of reflective scene that my writer friend likes to call a sequel.  I’ll go for that, but notice—there is no mental reflection in the entire scene.  This is a type of reflective scene, but there is only showing in the scene.  The showing and revelation in this scene are very complex.  We have the Mother Abbess making deductions, some of which are right, through the entire scene, but no mental reflection.  Everything is expressed through dialog, action, and description.

 

Here is the scene:        

 

        Immediately after the communion dismissal, Mother Marya brought the message to Sveta, “Mother Anna would like to speak to you in her office, Sister Svetlana.”

        Sveta nodded.  Then with great trepidation and faltering steps, Sveta made the trek through the long hallways and around the foyer of the convent.  She had never been ordered into the abbess’ office.  She understood from the sisters that a summons was the beginning of the highest form of dissatisfaction from Mother Anna.  She wondered if she did something wrong during the service.  None of the other sisters spoke to her before the message came from Mother Marya, but they had all been looking at her strangely.  Sveta intentionally made the walk slowly.  She could not move very fast, but she hung back, filled with fear and foreboding.

        When she arrived at the office door, she paused for a few minutes while gathering up enough courage to knock.  Her first tap was too quiet to hear.  She had to rap her knuckles against the door a second time.  This time the knock seemed much too loud to her.  Mother Anna’s distracted voice came from behind the door, “Enter.”

        Sveta, with her head bowed, opened the door and stepped into the room.  She closed the door carefully behind her before she turned to face the abbess.

        Mother Anna sat behind her desk with her hands tightly clasped in front of her, “Come closer, Svetlana.  I need to speak to you.”

        Sveta moved to the center of the area before the large desk.  A chair stood there.  Sveta sat down at Mother Anna’s gesture.

        Mother Anna sat quietly clasping and unclasping her hands as though she didn’t know how to begin.  Finally she started, “Svetlana, about the reading this morning.”

        Sveta raised her face.

        “Do you realize you were reading Greek?”

        Sveta’s eyes widened.  Her face contorted in amazement and denial, “Greek?”

        “Yes, that is why Mother Larisa and Mother Inna were weeping.  They had not heard that language used in the readings for many years.  Didn’t you realize the words of the Epistle were strange?”

        “No Mother Abbess.”  Sveta bit her lip and dropped to her knees off the chair, “I’m so sorry.  I…”  She laid her face against the floor, “I will do any penitence, if you will continue to let me read and worship.  Please Mother Abbess…don’t send me away.”  Hysteria tinged Sveta’s petitions though they were muffled by the floor and her emotion.

        Father Nikolay’ deep voice came from the left, “For the Lord’s sake, Mother Anna, the girl thinks she has done something wrong.”

        Sveta jerked up in embarrassment.  She had no idea someone else was in the room.

        Mother Anna abruptly rushed around the desk.  She lifted Sveta up and sat her back in the chair.  She kissed Sveta’s eyes and her forehead, “Svetlana, do not cry.  Do not be sad.  You have done nothing wrong.  I will not send you away.  You will not stop having your place in the readings or in our worship.  Stop crying.”  Mother Anna pulled her handkerchief from her Exorassa, her outer robe, and wiped Sveta’s cheeks and nose, “You’ve done nothing wrong.  One of the sisters played a typical joke on you, and child, that joke could not have better spent itself.  You didn’t know you understand Greek?”

        Sveta bit her lip again and shook her head.

        Mother Anna moved her gaze to Father Nikolay, “This child astounds me at every turn.”  She snorted, “She is brought to us by a Jew who shows us an affidavit of her competency in Hebrew.  She works in a Jewish bookstore, sorting Hebrew and Aramaic texts.  The local commissar wants to place this jewel in a people’s asylum.  Yes, jewel.”  She turned back to Sveta, “You, Svetlana are a jewel, a pearl of great price.  We spent nothing to gain you, and I am not sure we know your full potential or capability.  Father Nikolay, we did not speak enough on this subject before.  We need to now.”

        Father Nikolay stood a little straighter.

        “This girl, Svetlana, is about fifteen.  Is it conceivable she learned what she knows in Moscow before the Germans captured her?  If so, such a prodigy would be renowned.  Could the Soviet state know of her?  Could they be looking for her?”

        Father Nikolay moved a little closer, “I have connections, and I have heard nothing about such a person or such a search.”

        “Then, could the Germans have taught her?  Is she the result of one of their horrible experiments?”

        “That might explain her dreams and fears, but it is not unusual to find multilingual people in much of Europe.  They learn from their parents and through study when they are young.”

        “But not in the Soviet state.  She would have to be the child of a scholar, a scholar in Hebrew and Greek.  She read the epistle in classical Greek…what other languages do you know, Svetlana?”

        Svetlana shook her head.

        Father Nikolay scratched his beard, “Why don’t we see.  We know she speaks French, Hebrew Aramaic, Classical Greek, Russian.  What other books do you have on your shelves?  Why not try Latin.

        Mother Anna went to the shelves of books that lined her office, “There were some Latin texts here at one time.  I remember them before they took this place away from the church.  Ah, here we are.”  She brought a book to Sveta and held it out to her, “Svetlana, try to read this book.”

        “I’m not sure I want to, Mother Abbess.”

        Mother Anna knelt beside Sveta’s chair, “Why not Svetlana?”

        Sveta turned her face full of anxiety toward the abbess, “I am not sure I want to be a jewel.  I don’t want to be different.  I just want to be whole.”

        Mother Anna stroked Sveta’s hand, “Sweet, sweet Svetlana, you are who you are.  We only want to know how great your skills so we can use them for God’s kingdom.  What other great gifts do you already have are locked inside you ready to be used?  To not use them would be a greater sin than to hide them from yourself.”  With sudden inspiration, Mother Anna smiled, “I think I understand.  I, we will not let everyone know of your skills.  I see; you are afraid they will separate you from your sisters who are becoming your friends.  It is too late to hide your Greek from them.  I suspect you will give Mother Larisa and Mother Inna great joy by speaking to them in that tongue, but any other skills we will hold in confidence.  We will not let the knowledge out to anyone.  Don’t you see, Svetlana?  I never told the sisters your full name.  We are very aware that SMERSh, NKVD, and other Soviet agencies want to infiltrate us and to know who is in our church.  We don’t use your full name.  We don’t mark your official papers.  We don’t keep them for you.  We encourage you to keep your job in a Jewish bookstore.  If something happens, you have a cover and a place to go.  Do you understand?”  Her voice was almost a whisper in Sveta’s ear, “For the good of the Church, we do these things to protect the Church and you.  For the good of the Church, we must know what tools we have available to use…”

        Sveta nodded and took the book.  Her eyes brightened with delight.  She began to read.  After a page, she stopped, “I know this book.  I read it as a child.”

        Father Nikolay stood close to them, “Do you understand what you read?”

        “Oh yes,” Sveta smiled.  “I understand it all.”

        “She knows Latin.  I would definitely guess a scholar’s family.  A scholar of theology.”

        Mother Anna stepped back to the shelves, “If she was born in 1930, that leaves few Russian scholars.”

        Father Nikolay handed Sveta a book, “Try this one then.”

        Sveta took the book and opened it.  Her face turned down in a frown, “I understand this book too.  It is German.”

        “Do you speak it?”

        Sveta bowed her head more deeply, “Yes.”

        Mother Anna came back with a book, “What about this one?”

        Sveta smiled peculiarly, “I understand this one too.  I can read it two ways.  Listen.  Sveta read the text of a page in one way and then another.  What does that mean?”

        Father Nikolay put his thumbs in his zone, his cincture, “I don’t know the language well, but she is reading English.  The first is the way the British speak, and the second, I think is the way the Americans speak.  I know because I saw an American movie once.”

        Mother Anna returned to stand beside the chair, “What can that mean?  Did her parents take her to America?  Has she lived in England and France and Germany?  She certainly could not have lived in ancient Greece or Rome or Israel.”

        “No,” Father Nikolay laughed, “Let’s try some others.  What else do you have?”

        “Here is an Arabic book and a Coptic copy.”

        Sveta could not make heads or tails of the Arabic, but she could partly understand the Coptic.  Father Nikolay brought an Italian book and a book in Polish.

        She deciphered some of the Italian, but couldn’t speak it.  She could read some Polish, but not speak it.

        “She knows some of these languages only because they are close to others she understands well,” Father Nikolay remarked.  “We know more, now, but I don’t think we know all.”

        “I have an important question for you Svetlana,” Mother Anna bent close to her.  “When you first awoke after your injury, what language did you speak?”

        Sveta grasped Mother Anna’s arms, “Please, Mother Abbess, don’t make me answer that.”

        Mother Anna pulled Sveta close to her, “Why not, child, that might tell us what tongue you were born to.  I’m not sure it was Russian.  You speak as though you were born in Moscow, but…let’s say, I am making a guess, that you could not have learned all these languages in Russia.  You are much too young for that.  The Soviet state cut off much international travel and training in the 1920s.  Unless your family escaped from Russia, there is little chance of your exposure, much less training in these languages.”

        “Please, Mother Anna, if I answer that question, it will be worse for me.”

        “Why, child?  Why would anything change?  We realize you might not be Russian by birth.  Your papers tell who you are—in the Soviet state they are all defining.  We will inform no one.  You have my promise.”

        “If I answer it means I lied to you before.”

        “Then the confession will be good.  You may whisper it into my ear.”

        Sveta didn’t move for a moment, then she put her mouth near the abbess’ ear, “When I first could speak, I spoke French.  Vasily taught me Russian.”

        Mother Anna nearly jerked back, “He taught you Russian?”

        “What is she saying Mother Abbess.”

        “May I share your words with Father Nikolay, Svetlana?”

        Sveta nodded slowly.

        Mother Anna stood and threw out her hands, “She said, she spoke French when she could finally speak, and that Vasily Grossman taught her to speak Russian.”

        “Svetlana, when were you injured?  Do you know?”

        Mother Anna spoke out of her reflection, “Don’t you remember Father Nikolay?  Grossman said it was during the fall of Berlin; that was in May of this year.  Grossman brought her to us in September.  She spoke Russian perfectly enough to fool everyone well before that.  I guess she spoke perfect Russian before he brought her to Moscow.  Svetlana, when did Vasily Grossman bring you to Moscow?”

        Sveta’s head was still bowed, “In early June.”

        Father Nikolay’ mouth was dry, “So, she effectively learned Russian in a month.”

        “A month, Father Nikolay.  Have you seen her injuries—of course you haven’t.  Mother Marya tells me Svetlana has extensive damage to her right arm and her right and left legs.  She is missing much of her right calf—Marya is astonished she can walk at all.  Her throat and lungs were obviously damaged.  Marya… This child was convalescing for that month and yet she learned Russian.  Do you see what you are saying?”

        “Don’t you believe it?  Can’t you accept it?”

        “Of course I believe and accept it.  The point is how important this is to us.  Here is a tool…”  Mother Anna held up her hand, “We must speak of this later Father Nikolay.”  She knelt again beside Sveta, “Listen to me very carefully, Svetlana.  You have a gift.  The gift of tongues, if you like.”

        “Like at Pentecost.”

        “Yes, like in the Acts, child.  You can understand and communicate as I have never heard another person.  You speak flawless Russian as though you were born in Moscow.  Few can do that, maybe no one else in the world.  Don’t be afraid of this skill, but don’t tell others.  Keep it to yourself.  I am your confessor.  I know this about you.  Father Nikolay is your priest.  He knows this about you.  The sisters know of your skills in French, Hebrew, Aramaic, and now Greek.  You may speak Greek and read Greek to those sisters who ask you.  You may help them if they are studying the language.  You may do the same with French, but I ask you to not reveal any other skills right now.  We can hope they have forgotten you understand Hebrew and Aramaic.”

        “They know I work in a Jewish bookstore.”

        “But they may not know why—there are always rumors.”  Mother Anna smiled broadly, “Not everyone needs to know every skill God has blessed us with.  Do you understand, Svetlana?”

        Sveta nodded.

        “Don’t be ashamed.  I have no reason to punish you and every reason to reward you.  You will be a great blessing to us.”

        “And, I may still read?”

        “Yes, child, of course you may still read—my joy will be to hear you read as often as possible.”

        “Thank you, Mother Abbess.”

        “Now go and have lunch with the sisters.  When they ask you about our meeting, you may tell them, I praised your Greek.  Mother Larisa and Inna will want you to speak and read Greek to them—you may.  Yes?”

        “Yes.”

        Mother Anna helped Sveta to her feet and led her to the door.  At the door, she kissed Sveta’s forehead, then closed the door after her.

        As Sveta started down the hall, she heard the low drone of conversation start up again in the abbess’ office.

I think this is an absolutely engaging and fun scene.  This, to me, is entertainment.  If you notice, the most important thing in the entire scene to Sveta is that she will be allowed to continue to read in the daily cycle of readings.  She isn’t stupid—she just is focused on something else.  The Mother Abbess and Father Nikolay are interested in how they can use Sveta’s skills.  Sveta doesn’t fully comprehend that she has any important skills.

 

This is not really an emotional scene.  Sveta does display some emotion at the beginning.  It isn’t throw-away, but it is intended to shock Sveta more than the reader.  The power in this scene is deduction and the pulling together of ideas from the very beginning of the novel.  Vasily and Efim noticed Sveta’s uncanny ability to learn Russian, but that is fully reflected here—not at the beginning where it happened, but over a hundred pages later.  This is the development of tension through many pages and scenes to finally find a culmination here.  How much entertainment value is this?  I didn’t give you all the intermittent scenes.  I did give you many of the important scenes.  I didn’t show you the many scenes at Dov Cohan’s bookstore where Sveta reads Hebrew and Aramaic every day.

 

If you understand the power of this culmination of thought, ideas, and action, you will get the potential you have in a novel for developing scenes.  The more connected.  The more developed.  The more foreshadowed the ideas, the more powerful the release of tension in the novel—and not even the climax.  I think this is very important.  This is a skill I would like to express and pass on to other writers—the ability to drive a topic to a multi-scene tension and release that is an important revelation in a novel.  This is difficult to display easily—this scene captures the idea perfectly.                           

 

More tomorrow.


For more information, you can visit my author site http://www.ldalford.com/, and my individual novel websites:

fiction, theme, plot, story, storyline, character development, scene, setting, conversation, novel, book, writing, information, study, marketing, tension, release, creative, idea, logic

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