Writing - part x835, Writing a Novel, Changing World, and Evolving Cultural

21 April 2019, Writing - part x835, Writing a Novel, Changing World, and Evolving Cultural

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 

Culture is the basis of customs, arts, religion, social fabric, language, dialect, reasoning, myths, and ideas of a particular group of people.  Culture is based on three very important ideas.  First, what the people in the culture think about themselves.  Second, what the people in a culture actually do.  Third, what other cultures or people observe about the culture in question.  All of this is important to writing.

Perhaps the most important point to realize about cultures is first, they are all different, and second, they are always evolving.  

Cultures and concepts in human cultures are always in change.  They may appear to be somewhat static, but all cultures change or they die.  As I have shown you the idea of love has changed significantly over time in Western civilization.  Further, love means something very different to some cultures, even similar cultures, than it does to others.  Just think about how the concept of marriage has changed in some cultures or hasn’t changed in others.  Although cultures evolve and change, authors are required to write about culture set in time.

Now, that doesn’t mean an author can’t reflect the change of cultures—in fact, this change in culture is usually surrounded by a clash of cultures.  In many cases, the clash doesn’t end with the end of a culture or even the change of a culture.  In many cases, you find two viable cultures in constant conflict.  The point is that the author must understand about reflecting culture and cultures, and I think authors should use the clash of cultures as a means of writing entertaining plots.

In fact, the clash of cultures provides a positive and powerful means of developing an entertaining and exciting plot.  Evolving culture is such a positive and good type of plot that a large number of very successful movies especially use it.  For example, most of the Disney animated movies are about evolving culture especially modern ones.  Take a look at Frozen.  The world and the people of the land are changing because of the emotional issues of the older sister.  The younger sister wants to do something about it, but she is held back by the culture of nobility and the culture of the land.  To save her sister and the land, the sisters much change the culture of the society and of their leadership.  They still end up as nobility, but they makes changes.  These are surface changes and not really very realistic, but they are what Disney has come to since it can’t really use good and evil any more.  The good and evil must be something outside of human experience. 

In novels, we don’t usually see the simplicity of the Disney modern plot, but we do see evolving and clash of evolving cultures.  Usually, we see the expression that a culture must change for the, so called, better to allow some resolution to happen to benefit the protagonist.  This is the telic flaw resolution and tied to the culture or change in culture.  This is a pretty classic telic flaw resolution.  I’m not in as much favor of using evolving culture as I am clash of cultures.  The reason is that in the real world cultures don’t change that quickly.  They do change, but it usually takes years, decades, or centuries.  Now, a radical cultural change might be a great cultural plot, the problem is they are few and far between.  Plus some of them are boring. 

The sixties change of culture to sex, drugs, and rock and roll is a great example of an evolving culture.  The problem is that it is a tragedy in many ways.  There is a lot of writing about this period, some great, some terrible, and some inchoate (they were on drugs).  The change of culture in the 1919s to prohibition and then the change back were very distinct cultural change events.  It’s funny that there are many novels set in the sixties and many novels during prohibition, but little that pins the changing culture to bad.  Is that a problem of the writers or the times?

Whatever, politics also changes.    

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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