Writing - part xx010 Writing a Novel, Protagonist

13 October 2019, Writing - part xx010 Writing a Novel, Protagonist

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

Perhaps I should go back and look again at the initial scene—maybe, I’ll cover that again as part of looking at the rising action.  The reason is that I’m writing a rising action in a novel right now.

That gets us back to the protagonist—complexity makes the protagonist and the telic flaw one and the same.

What do I mean by this?  The novel is the revelation of the protagonist.  At the same time, the problem that must be resolved in the novel is the telic flaw.  This means that in a complex novel, the protagonist and the telic flaw are interrelated.  In a simplistic novel, the problem of the novel might not be an interrelated problem for the protagonist.  It should be.   What’s a simple telic flaw?

So, the teenaged protagonist must solve a mystery.  That is a telic flaw separate from the protagonist.  The protagonist, makes this telic flaw his or her own by attempting to solve it.  With the acceptance of the telic flaw of solving the mystery, the protagonist accepts the telic flaw as his or her own.

In a more complex novel, a problem of the protagonist becomes the telic flaw of the novel.  For examples of the simple, just take a look at most young adult novels.  Look at Harry Potty.  In the first Harry Potty novel, the telic flaw of the protagonist is the telic flaw of the novel.  This is likely the reason the novel appealed to so many readers—it is a complex supposition and novel.  To be clear, in the first Harry Potty novel, the telic flaw is specifically the problem of Voldermort.  Harry is the boy who survived.  The problem is the attempt by Voldermort to return to life and harm the Wizarding community and specifically Harry. 

In the first novel, this is very obvious.  The problem of Voldermort is directly related to the revelation of Harry.  The resolution is when Harry defeats this incarnation of Voldermort.  Then we get seven or eight novels with all the same basic plot.  In all of them, we know the problem, Voldermort, and the savior, Harry.  In most of them, Harry is pushed into the position of resolving the problem.  For example, in the novel with the cup, Harry is mystically selected even when he didn’t apply.  Now, all of this is a great example of how to take a simple idea and make it a complex one through making the protagonist accept the telic flaw as his own problem.  I will note this, in most adult novels, the problem of the protagonist is the telic flaw of the novel.

This is how you should approach the novel and the protagonist.  In the past, in developing the protagonist, I started with a character and turned the character into a protagonist.  Why not start with a telic flaw and build a protagonist around the telic flaw?

This is sorta how Harry Potty looks.  In fact, one Harry Potty novel, the first looks like the telic flaw was designed for the novel and the protagonist was developed from this telic flaw.  You can go either way.

So let’s start with this idea.

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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