Writing - part x971 Writing a Novel, Historical-Legal

4 September 2019, Writing - part x971 Writing a Novel, Historical-Legal

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 websites 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

Gnosticism is the major religion of the modern secular world.  The way modern people think is based almost exclusively in Gnosticism.  This isn’t a good thing.  Gnosticism is the idea that knowledge is the greatest power in the world, and that through knowledge that humans can become like God or gods. 

We are living in the Gnostic world.  With the invention of the three means to know truth, the first and most important question that the educated asked was, “Can we prove God.”  Philosophy and science (logic and the scientific method) have proven God must exist.

You might ask, what about the historical-legal method and God.  The answer to this is very simple, but it requires more explanation than a paragraph.  Perhaps the most important idea to understand at this point is that the history of human thought is and was driven by deeply held religious ideas.  This is as true in the age of Gnosticism as it was in the other evolutions of religion.

With the historical-legal method, we have a means of willowing evidence and witness.  The first thing to know is that we have no originals from any work in antiquity.  A work in antiquity is a piece of writing from before approximately 600 AD.  Before the printing press, most works started as three copies.  The reason for this was the libraum method of writing in the Greek world.

If you wanted to write anything even if you were fully literate, you wouldn’t write it yourself, you hired a librais who came to you with inks, pens, and writing substrate.  You choose the grade of writing substrate: grade of papyrus or velum, and the quality of the ink.  You then dictated the letter or writing to the librais who wrote your words in proper Greek in a logos to unstated telos organization.  When you were finished, the librais would read back your writing and make corrections.  When you were happy with your writing, the librais would take the corrected copy back to his office (so to speak) and make three copies.  Then he would bring the copies back to you. 

When the librais returned with the three copies, he or you would provide a scroll slave.  The librais would teach the scroll slave the writing.  the scroll slave would memorize the text of the writing.  If you remember, all ancient writing is mnemonics.  So, we now have three copies and three people who have memorized the text.  Any of the three can “read” the document because they have memorized it, and can use it to repeat the exact recitation of the text. 

Now, we are ready for distribution.  You keep one of the copies.  The librais keeps one of the copies.  The scroll slave takes the writing to the author’s target or if a letter to the recipient.  When the scroll slave arrived, he would read the text of the letter and remain with the letter until one of the recipients memorized the text.  Then the scroll slave would return to the librais or the author—depending on who owned him. 

This is how all letters and scrolls were written in antiquity.  When the works began to wear out from use and age, the owner or the librais would have the works copied.  Of course, if the works were not copied, they were not passed down in history.  The paper or papyrus might be cut up or reused.  Works did not last as long as we might think in antiquity because there was no air-conditioning, humidity control, or controlled heating.  The only way works from antiquity were passed down to us is when they were copied.  Many works were just lost forever—they weren’t worth copying.  The works that were copied were worth keeping and passing on.

For works in antiquity, the measure of transmission is the number of copies and the distance, in time, between the copy and the original.  This can tell us about history and God. 

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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