Writing - part x888, Writing a Novel, Changing World and Capital

13 June 2019, Writing - part x888, Writing a Novel, Changing World and Capital

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 s 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. Money

16. Weapons and warfare

17. Transportation

18. Communication

19. Writing

20. Education

What’s the big deal with money?  Money is also called capital.  People get confused about this all the time, so let me define this for you.  The use of capital for trade instead of proto-money or goods is called capitalism.  That’s all capitalism is.  Capitalism means using capital (money) to purchase goods and services instead of barter.  Let’s talk about markets.

The market or a market is anywhere goods and services are exchanged.  Under capitalism that is with capital (money) in a market you exchange money for goods and services.  Goods and services can be all kinds of things from stuff in a store to property to stocks and bonds, and all.  There is nothing magical about a market, but a market, like barter and money, is part of a natural economic system. 

When I write natural, I mean that it is not imposed.  Left to their own devices, people from children to adults will always create a market for goods and services.  If you don’t have money, they will form barter markets.  If you have money, they will form capital or money based markets.  What is important to know about this is that markets, like the use of money and barter, are natural and governed by immutable laws. 

The law of markets in economics is as immutable as the law of gravity.  If you understand them, you will understand markets and economics.  The law of markets is that price is governed by availability and availability governs price.  Cost or value is meaningless.  We already wrote about this.  Gold, silver, copper, bronze, and iron had and have value because of their rarity in the marketplace.  We know that iron is not rare today, and iron has both an intrinsic value as well as a non-intrinsic value (not so much today).  Gold is still rare.  One of the reasons that gold is valued like it is is its scarcity and its beauty.  Now, today, gold has intrinsic value for electronics and other purposes, but the value of gold is governed entirely based on its availability.  This is true of all goods and services.  If there was a sudden addition of gold in the marketplace, the value (price) of gold would go down.  If the availability of gold increased by double, we should expect the price of gold to reduce by half.  This is the law of the market.  Likewise, if I increase the price of gold above market that is if I am selling gold above market price, people will not buy it, my stores of gold will increase, and eventually, to sell gold, I will be forced to reduce the price of gold.  If I am the only gold provider, I can’t simply set the price of gold wherever I wish because gold is simply a commodity in the market.  People don’t understand this reality of markets.  They imagine that a commercial (a natural) monopoly can set the price of goods and services wherever they want, but this isn’t really true at all.  The market sets the value (price) of a commodity.  If there is a single supplier, a monopoly, the market simply shifts to another commodity.  Instead of buying gold, the people will move to silver or another non-monopoly commodity.

In general without government control, you will never see a natural monopoly.  The reason is competition and the market itself will self-limit any monopoly.  In a competitive market, the prices of goods and services will move quickly to market and the competitors for price will adjust their prices based on availability.  This is very easy to see with food products.

Food products are perishable.  Their value decreases with time as they mature and then spoil.  The first to market with the best product can charge the highest price—the price the market will bear.  The scarcity and availability governs the value (price).  As other producers get a similar product, the availability goes down and the value goes down.  The price goes down.  As the product ages, the quality goes down and so does the value.  In all of this discussion, the availability and quality of the product govern its value in the market.  This is just like gold.  The availability and, I didn’t mention this before, its quality determine its value.  The quality of the gold is its purity.  The quality of a food product is its freshness.  In any case, no one can control a market because of the laws of the market in economics. 

Let’s look at what happens when people or a government try to control a market.                 

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  

fiction, theme, plot, story, storyline, character development, scene, setting, conversation, novel, book, writing, information, study, marketing, tension, release, creative, idea, logic