Writing - part x633, Developing Skills, How to Suspend Disbelief, Developing Pathos, Imagination, and Entertaining Characters

1 October 2018, Writing - part x633, Developing Skills, How to Suspend Disbelief, Developing Pathos, Imagination, and Entertaining Characters

Announcement: Delay, my new novels can be seen on the internet, but my primary publisher has gone out of business—they couldn’t succeed in the past business and publishing environment.  I'll keep you informed, but I need a new publisher.  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 29^th novel, working title, Detective, potential title Blue Rose: Enchantment and the Detective.  The theme statement is: Lady Azure Rose Wishart, the Chancellor of the Fae, supernatural detective, and all around dangerous girl, finds love, solves cases, breaks heads, and plays golf.  

Here is the cover proposal for Blue Rose: Enchantment and the Detective. 

Cover Proposal

The most important scene in any novel is the initial scene, but eventually, you have to move to the rising action. I am continuing to write on my 30^th novel, working title Red Sonja.  I finished my 29^th novel, working title Detective.  I’m planning to start on number 31, working title Shifter. 

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 30:  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 31:  TBD 

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

          

Today:  Suspension of disbelief is the characteristic of writing that pulls the reader into the world of the novel in such a way that the reader would rather face the world of the novel rather than the real world—at least while reading.  If this occurs while not reading, it is potentially a mental problem.  To achieve the suspension of disbelief your writing has to meet some basic criteria and contain some strong inspiration.  If you want to call the inspiration creativity, that works too.  Here is a list of the basic criteria to hope to achieve some degree of suspension of disbelief. 

1.      Reasonably written in standard English

2.      No glaring logical fallacies

3.      Reasoned worldview

4.      Creative and interesting topic

5.      A Plot

6.      Entertaining

7.      POV

Everything is about entertainment.  The purpose for all published novels is entertainment.  Other than this is the only point of fiction literature, one of the main reasons is that entertainment can fill a lot of holes as well as result in the suspension of disbelief.

The factors that do lend themselves to entertaining are these:

1.      Characters

2.      Plot

3.      Setting

4.      Topics

5.      Writing

6.      Use of figures of speech (vocabulary and language).

How to develop entertaining protagonists?  I can’t leave the discussion of entertaining protagonists without mentioning the romantic character.  I assert that we are still in the Romantic Era for writing, but whether we are or aren’t, the romantic character is the favored character of most readers.  If your protagonist is a romantic character or has romantic characteristics, this will improve the chance your readers will find them entertaining. 

So, what does a romantic character look like?  I happen to have a short list.  This isn’t a perfect list, but it gets the basic idea.  I’ll find examples as well.

1.       The common man, innocence of humans, and childhood (children)

2.      Focus on strong senses, emotions, and feelings

3.      Awe of nature

4.      Celebration of the individual and individualism

5.      Importance of imagination

The purpose of imagination is entertainment.  The execution of imagination provides much more than that, and the catharsis for the reader both in terms of frustration and relief at the verdicts are the goal.  That is the depth of entertainment--pathos.

Just to remind you—pathos is the proper emotional reaction to an experience while bathos is the improper emotional reaction.  Just keep in mind, everything comes out of the imagination of the author to the imagination of the reader—this is ultimately what we as authors are aiming to achieve.           

The goal and the means of entertainment is to make the readers feel proper emotion—pathos.  The Greeks recognized this and immortalized it in their philosophy.  The biggest problem they saw was the accidental production of bathos in the observer or reader instead of pathos.  Pathos is the proper emotional response.  Bathos is the improper emotional response.

You see bathos occasionally in movies.  This is when the audience laughs during a tense or emotional scene.  The laughter is bathos and it’s the death of entertainment.  Authors generally won’t be published if their writing causes bathos—usually a good editor will find it and get rid of it.  Not so with self-published works—and that’s a serious problem with many self-published works.  The author realizes he or she should develop the emotional response of the readers, but doesn’t know how—the result is bathos.

The first thing to know is that the character’s or protagonist’s emotional response is not the measure of the reader’s emotional response.  Many times when the protagonist is upset and crying, we expect a similar response from the reader, but not always.  One of the most emotional scenes in literature is when the cold, abused, and hungry Sara Crew uses a found coin to buy bread and gives five of six buns to a starving urchin girl.  There is no sappy emotion.  There is no crying involved, but the response of the reader is intense emotion.  The feelings of Sara are continued hunger.  The urchin is happy and partially fed.  The bread store owner is astounded by the actions of Sara.

There is little shown or expressed emotion in the entire scene, but most readers can’t help crying or at least feeling amazing compassion for all three characters.  The resulting pathos from the writing is intense and powerful.  This is what pathos looks like.           

  

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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