21 October 2018, Writing - part
x653, Developing Skills, How to Suspend Disbelief, more on Use of Figures of
Speech
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 29th 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 30th novel, working
title Red Sonja. I finished my 29th 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).
Characters are the focus of
entertainment and the plot, but other parts of a novel can help drive
entertainment. As we are discussing, the
suspension of disbelief is about entertaining.
If you can hold your readers in a state of entertainment, you can
usually hold them in a suspension of disbelief.
The point is to hold your readers in a suspension of disbelief.
In writing, especially fiction, I
must transfer the thoughts and pictures in my mind to the reader. The only way to do this in the real world is
to produce a movie. In writing, I have
to take my thoughts and mental pictures and turn them into words. I have to put the words on a page, and I have
to do that in such a way that the reader actually sees and interprets those
words in some way similar to my thoughts, mental pictures, and ideas. The only way I can do this is by exciting a
reader’s higher level and creative thinking.
As I mentioned, try to describe a
sunrise. I could write:
The sun rose.
This communicates that the sun rose,
but it doesn’t engage the reader’s mind and it certainly is telling and not
showing. Let’s move it along a little:
The blazing sun peeked over the lip
of the world.
Now, we are moving to actual showing
and communicating to the reader. The
blazing sun is a figure of speech. The
lip of the world is a figure of speech.
The sun peeked, is a figure of speech.
There are three obvious figures of speech in this description, and that
in a single sentence. The effectivity of
this description is up to the reader and the writer. The point is to communicate more than just
words, but ideas to the reader.
The more complex the ideas the more
figures of speech are necessary. There
are certain ideas and thoughts that can’t be conveyed directly—they can only be
conveyed abstractly (using figures of speech).
For example, ideas that can’t be physically seen must either be
described with actions or through figures of speech. An example is love. I can’t see love. I can barely define or describe love. I can try to show love through actions of a
character, and I can use figures of speech to describe the concept. In any case, figures of speech are necessary
for the communication of ideas from the mind of the writer to the mind of the
reader. What does this have to do with
the suspension of disbelief?
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
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
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