Writing - part x800, Writing a Novel, Changing World, more Vocabulary

17 March 2019, Writing - part x800, Writing a Novel, Changing World, more Vocabulary

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:  Deirdre and Sorcha are redirected to French finishing school where they discover difficult mysteries, people, and events. 

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:  Why don’t we go back to the basics and just writing a novel?  I can tell you what I do, and show you how I go about putting a novel together.  We can start with developing an idea then move into the details of the writing. 

To start a novel, I picture an initial scene.  I may start from a protagonist or just launch into mental development of an initial scene.  I get the idea for an initial scene from all kinds of sources.  To help get the creative juices flowing, let’s look at the initial scene. 

1.     Meeting between the protagonist and the antagonist or the protagonist’s helper

2.     Action point in the plot

3.     Buildup to an exciting scene

4.     Indirect introduction of the protagonist

The protagonist is the novel and the initial scene.  If you look at the four basic types of initial scenes, you see the reflection of the protagonist in each one.  If you noticed my examples yesterday, I expressed the scene idea, but none were completely independent of the protagonist.  Indeed, in most cases, I get an idea with a protagonist.  The protagonist is incomplete, but a sketch to begin with.  You can start with a protagonist, but in my opinion, as we see above, the protagonist is never completely independent from the initial scene.  As the ideas above imply, we can start with the characters, specifically the protagonist, antagonist or protagonist’s helper, and develop an initial scene. 

Let’s look at a subject that is really ignored in the modern era.  I’m not certain how much this can help your current writing.  I would argue that theoretically, this subject can really help those who write historical and futuristic fiction.  It depends on how your write your historical and futuristic fiction.  There are two ways to write historical fiction—let’s look at this.

The first and most common way to write historical fiction is to write a novel that projects modern ideas and history as historical ideas and history.  In other words to present modern ideas and historical ideas as the same.  I think this is perhaps the most egregious and perverse means of presenting a false view of history.  The author is either completely ignorant of the past, is intentionally attempting to education people in a false view of history, or both.  The real historical world is very different both culturally and socially from our current world.  The true author attempts to convey this in historical writing.

The second and less common means of historical writing is to actually incorporate the past into a novel to convey the actual way people thought and acted in the past.  This approach actually goes back into time to give a complete view of the way the people thought and acted.  To this end, let’s look at how the world changed and how people thought in the past.  This is more of a historical look at the world for the purpose of understanding how the world worked in the past and how people thought and acted.  We’ll use historical information to see what concerned affected their lives. Here is a list of potential issues.  We’ll look at them in detail:

1.   Vocabulary

2.   Ideas

3.   Social construction

4.   Culture

5.   Politics

6.   History

7.   Language

8.   Common knowledge

9.   Common sense

10. Reflected culture

11. Reflected history

12. Reflected society

13. Truth

14. Food

15. Weapons

16. Transportation

17. Communication

18. Writing 

The first subject I want to look at is vocabulary.  Vocabulary has changed enormously in every language, but there is much more to this subject than simply using different words for things.  The first is that in any culture, words are loaded with significance.  This is especially true with time and changes in culture and society. 

I’ve been using the concept of sacrifice as an example of a very important idea and word.  We can see directly how this word has changed both as an idea and a word.  Sacrifice is tied directly to food, religion, ideas about the world, the concept of the world, animals, laws, human interaction, markets, brain development, and social development.  We will touch this more as we move along.  Let’s look at another word and concept, love.

To get to love, we need to look at the development of language.  Prior to literacy, the world of words was one hundred percent verbal.  We know a little about non-literate societies.  The first is that non-literate societies are defined by what you can see and do.  The idea of anything can’t exist outside of itself and the word that defines it.  There is no word to imagine, therefore, there is no archetype for any thing (noun) or action (verb).  Let’s use an example.

If I say the word, “chair,” most people see the word chair in their minds—they don’t see any specific or a form that is the archetype of a chair.  The word itself stands in place of all chairs—it is an archetype.  Non-literate societies do not have this capability to understand the concept of the archetype of a chair.  As I noted, we have studied non-literate cultures.  The word chair, since it can’t be understood as a word picture, is understood as a specific chair.  When a non-literate person hears “chair,” they imagine a chair.  This is also why many primitive languages don’t have articles—there is only the chair and not a chair.

There is a similar problem with verbs.  For example, the verb run is easily seen, imagined, and considered.  The verb love can’t be.  “Run” is an intransitive verb—it doesn’t ever take an object.  Transitive verbs may or may not take one or two objects.  The verb “love” can be intransitive as in, “I love,” or it can be transitive as in, “I love my wife.”  The problem is that you can’t simply show love.  You can show hugging, kissing, sex, holding hands, touching, but you can’t show love.  Love is a complex concept both culturally and socially. 

Hebrew has four words in the Tanakh that are incorrectly translated as love in English.  None of these four words really mean love in the sense of our society, culture, or language.  They are all descriptive verb forms that indicate a social and cultural position.  One indicates the position of the deity to man.  Greek has over ten words that can be translated as love in English.  These words are generally verbs that express the relation of two people or beings to each other.  In Greek, the word “agape” means the love of the gods.  In Greek thought, only gods can have “agape.”  Humans can’t “agape.”  There is no Greek word that indicates love in any of the senses that we understand love.

It is also important to note that English is a very euphemistic language.  The word euphemistic means that word in a language have many or various meanings dependent on context.  The word love in English indicates this very well.  I can love my cat.  But that is significantly different than what I mean when I say I love my child or I love my wife or I love pizza or I love my job.  Every one of these loves are very different, but the context creates the meaning with no other explanation required.  In fact, if I meant any of these words concretely, I would have to provide a significant explanation in addition.  For example, in Greek, the word “phileo” means the love between shield brothers.  We say brotherly love in English, but this isn’t love between brothers.  “Phileo” is the social and cultural position and trust between two men who are bound to each other as warriors who fight and protect each other in battle.  Women can’t phileo and slaves can’t phileo.  Men and women can’t phileo.  Only two men who are shield brothers can phileo.  Old and ancient English is somewhat similar. 

English came out of Anglo-Saxon and Norman French.  Both these languages are similarly euphemistic.  Anglo-Saxon is much more euphemistic than Norman French, but Anglo-Saxon, like Greek, is a “beide” language.  That means it has shield brothers and the pronoun “both.”  In other words, the concepts of love are very similar in Anglo-Saxon to Greek.  Norman French brought in some more modern concepts about love, but every language makes a similar movement in the complexity of words from concrete to more euphemistic.  Somehow in English, we got to where we are from the basic ideas of the Greeks.  This is the simplest way to understand this very complex concept.  We’ll continue to look at love.                    

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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