Writing - part x258, Novel Form, Culmination and Tension

21 September 2017, Writing - part x258, Novel Form, Culmination and Tension

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 28^th 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 29^th novel, working title Red Sonja.  I finished my 28^th 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 tension and release in a scene.  This example is from Shadow of Darkness an Ancient Light novel.  To complete her life goals, Sveta determines that she must be able to get to and communicate in China—that means she must learn Chinese.  Since she controls the language instruction in the universities in the Soviet Union, she can immediately get the training she desires.

 

The culmination of many specific incidents and foreshadowings occur in this scene.  I’ll note them for you after the scene, but I want to warn you so you can look for them.

 

This is Aleksandr’s second encounter with Sveta.  He has a kind of moon-calf personality that contrasts nicely with her very decided but still ambivalent approach to life.  What I mean by that is you see Sveta motivated when she has a goal.  Without a goal, she is adrift.  When she has a goal, she is driven.  Aleksandr is very methodical and yet Soviet in his response to issues.  I mean by that, he works diligently, but he represents the typical Soviet university type. 

 

The typical Soviet university type is completely cowed by the authoritarian nature of the communist party.  Modern leftist in the university should take note because in leftist type regimes, the universities are not revered, they are purged.  The purging process doesn’t leave activists and leaders, it leaves those the party can control and use.  If you notice, Aleksandr faces potential purging, not because he is a leader or activist, but because his background and parentage lead the party officials to assume he might be.      

 

Here is the scene:        

 

        Associate Professor Aleksandr Nikolayevich Diakonov reported to Sveta’s office in the early morning.  Sveta always arrived at seven.  He came at eight and missed Sveta because at that time, she began the meetings she missed the day before.  Sveta could not get back to her office until ten.  Aleksandr did not have any other instructions, and he was afraid to return to the university without the approval of Sveta or the dean, so he sat in Sveta’s waiting area until she called for him.

        Sveta used her call box, “Marya, where is that Chinese teacher?”

        “He is waiting for you.”

        Sveta smiled, “Good.  Send him in right now.”

        Marya let Aleksandr into Sveta’s office.  The office was huge, much bigger than the dean’s and maybe larger than the head of the university’s.  A portrait of Sveta hung on the wall.  Aleksandr wanted to get a better look at it.  It showed her in a fantastic green satin gown with a peasant’s green scarf around her braided hair.  She was speaking to the people of the world represented by a globe.  The picture was realistic and yet in the formal Soviet Realism style.  Not quite to his taste, but the subject matter was magnificent.

        Sveta flushed angrily, “Associate Professor Diakonov, I did not bring you here to admire my portrait or anything else in my office.”

        “I’m sorry.”

        “Finish the nouns today and we can begin with some verbs.”

        Aleksandr began to recite the names of things to her.  She upbraided him if he repeated a noun from the day before.  Sveta wrote and spoke on the phone at the same time.  She gave him her full attention when she could and repeated each word to him once.  He also began to explain the tonal system of the language and the syntax.  Sveta did not halt him, so he continued.  After a while, she finally stopped him, “It is one and time for lunch.  You will come and eat with Marya and me.”

        Aleksandr picked up his coat at the front and opened the door of Sveta’s motorcar for her and Marya.  Marya always made the decisions of where to eat.  She chose a place not far down the road and the car let them off.  In the café, Marya found a place for them and they all sat at a small table.  The owner brought Sveta a cup of tea with milk and sugar and a cup of plain tea for Marya.  Aleksandr ordered a cup of plain tea too.  Marya spoke to Aleksandr, “You seem very young for a professor, Comrade Diakonov.”

        “I am twenty-six.  I just completed my dissertation last year.  There are few scholars in Oriental Languages in Moscow, so I was assigned there.”

        “You learned Chinese while you lived near China?  That is what Svetlana Evgenyevna told me.”

        He continued with some bitterness, “Yes, the MVD knows all about my family anyway.  My father was a priest sent to a Gulag near the Chinese border with his family.  That was  my mother and me.”

        “Then you are Orthodox?” Marya sipped her tea.

        “That is a dangerous thing to admit even in this time.”

        “I’m sorry, you are right.  Your father…”

        “My father is still the priest for a village near the Chinese border.  My mother is still alive too.”

        “That is very good.”

        Their thick borscht soup was served with large chunks of bread.  Aleksandr ate with relish.  His stipend didn’t pay well enough for this quality of soup with meat in it.  The bread was more than he received for his daily ration.

        Sveta looked at him, “You like the soup?”

        Marya leaned toward Sveta and whispered in her ear.

        Sveta stared at him, “We will have to do something about that.”

        The automobile drove them back to the MVD office.  After another hour of…, Aleksandr could not call it language study…of telling Sveta words in Chinese and explaining what they were in Russian, Sveta sent him back to the university.  Each day Aleksandr returned to the office in the morning, and each day, he would give words and explanations to Sveta until two in the afternoon.  This went on for a week.  He did not see her on Saturday or Sunday. 

        The next Monday, when he entered the office, Sveta greeted him in perfect Mandarin Chinese.  She continued speaking with him in the language without stopping until lunch, and at lunch, insisted on using Chinese.  A new level had begun in Sveta’s Chinese study.  Aleksandr began to bring books of Chinese writing.  Sveta picked this up as quickly as the spoken word.

The office, the painting, the Orthodox Church, the language study, Alexandr’s background are all creative elements that were foreshadowed and are finally mentioned in this context here.

 

The office was described before.  Here we see the impression of a low level non-Party member of Sveta’s directorate office.  In the Soviet society, just like all other fascist societies, the size of the office determines the power of the individual.  Since the government pays for all, the offices of those in power are enormous. 

 

The painting was referred to more than once as was the painter.  Here the painting is finally described and admired.  The historical style of the art is mentioned.  This was a typical Soviet method and style.  Method of creating the myth of the leadership and style that supposedly revealed the perfect Soviet art.

 

Aleksandr’s family was persecuted for their Orthodox connections.  They were sent to the Gulag for it.  I wanted to show the prevalence of this horrific means of control and the results.  This in itself is a foreshadowing.  The assumption is that Aleksandr can be trusted because of his Orthodox background and associations.

 

The language study continues.  Part of this is to show Aleksandr’s lack of comfort with his student and part of it is to show Sveta’s drive and determination.  This will continue as a theme.

 

Finally, I mentioned under Orthodox Church the point of Aleksandr’s connections to the Gulag.  By building on this very historically based example, I then have the opportunity to give a reason for Sveta to eventually visit the Gulag in question.  This is both a foreshadowing and the development of an opportunity.  For example, in such a novel or any novel, you can’t reasonably just write: Sveta went to see a Gulag—such an action, for her position, would be considered unusual in the plot, odd and possibly un-Partylike.  On the other hand, if Sveta were to visit such a place where the parents of an associate lived, it would seem natural and regular.  Obviously, Aleksandr must become Sveta’s associate.  That is also a type of foreshadowing.   

 

I’ll give you more examples.

 

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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