Writing - part xx038 Writing a Novel, Characters and Pathos, Tragedy

10 November 2019, Writing - part xx038 Writing a Novel, Characters and Pathos, Tragedy

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. 

The novel is a revelation of the protagonist.  The telic flaw is connected directly to the protagonist.  The plot is the revelation of the telic flaw.  This connects the protagonist to the plot and the telic flaw.  The point is that to plan a novel, I simply need to plan the revelation of the protagonist.  To accomplish this, you need to develop a protagonist.

When I write you develop your protagonist, you write notes about:

1.     Name

2.     Background

3.     Education

4.     Appearance

5.     Work

6.     Wealth

7.     Skills

8.     Mind

9.     Likes

10.  Dislikes

11.  Opinions

12.  Honor

13.  Life

14.  Thoughts

15.  Telic flaw

I design a protagonist around the initial scene.  This is the way I write a novel.  This isn’t the only way to write a novel, but it is the way I have discovered to write well-conceived and powerful novels.  This goes back to the initial scene. 

Above, I gave you four options for developing the initial scene.  Yesterday, I told you to take two off.  Authors have used three and four, but they don’t produce the kinds of exciting initial scenes we want.  Here’s the list again.

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

Let’s plan to put one and two together.  Let’s also focus on the other characteristics of the initial scene.  Notice that first, the initial scene must include the protagonist.  This should be obvious, but let’s go down the list.  I’m looking at background and pathos.

Looking at the classic pathos developing scene from A Little Princess, the emotions of the characters are not very strong, but the reader is significantly affected by the circumstances and situation.  How can this be?  More specifically, what are the characteristics of a scene or of a characters that builds pathos?

A character is pathos building who through no fault of their own is:

1.     hungry

2.     sad

3.     abused

4.     an orphan

5.     penniless

6.     abandoned

7.     cold

8.     injured

9.     falsely convicted or accused

10.  desiring for information

11.  education

12.  to read

13.  a child

14.  a female

15.  beauty

16.  loss of a child

17.  general loss

18.  friendless

19.  alone

20.  afraid

21.  helpless

22.  isolated

In the end, only a tragedy seems to be the absolute best method to develop pathos with a male protagonist.  Tragedy vs comedy is an interesting point in this discussion.

I need to point out that the Japanese and many other oriental cultures recognize the power of women and girls in pathos.  They are so sensitive to this that routinely, they turn male historical figures into females.  There are many reasons for this from producing characters more attractive to juvenile and adult males to the power of pathos in these female characters.  Female characters are pathos building simply by being placed in a similar historical situation to a male character.  This is a high level revenue producing practice in especially Japanese movies and writing—that includes manga and anime.

As I noted, for males in most cultures, only tragedy can produce high levels of pathos.  Aristotle wrote about this when he described and defined tragedy.  One of Aristotle’s main definitions of tragedy is that it produces pity and fear.

Pity and fear are the reflections of pathos in the reader or viewer.  According to Aristotle, the reader experiences pity and fear due to a tragedy.  If you remember, in a tragedy, the protagonist is overcome by the telic flaw of the fiction.  The realization and actualization of the failure of the protagonist to overcome the telic flaw creates a response of pity and fear in the reader. 

I argue that all pathos is based in pity and fear even in a comedy.  The point is that you have to develop some type of tragic point to guarantee pity and fear attributed to a male character.  For a female character, most readers are predisposed to accepting pathos from their circumstances.

This is why The Little Match Girl develops such exquisite pathos.  A little match boy might generate a little pathos, a little match woman might build some degree of pathos, but a little match man doesn’t fly at all.  In fact, a little match man doesn’t generate much more than the uselessness of the man.  Now, make the man disabled or a veteran, you might get a little pathos out of him.  You can immediately see a disabled boy or girl or even a woman builds much more pathos. 

The question the reader immediately asks about a little match man is why doesn’t he work harder?  Why is he wasting his time selling matches instead of really working for a living?  If you know the whole point of the little match girl, it gets worse.  The little match girl is obviously an abused child who was forced to go out in the snow to make money for her parent(s).  Although you can try to write such a novel, the power of an abused man is nothing like the pathos power of an abused girl, boy, or woman—in that order. 

In terms of an abused man, the reader asks, what is wrong with this man, that he can’t fight for himself?  That might be an unfair comparison and an unfair conclusion, but it is simply how a culture and almost every culture views males in these circumstances.  A hungry girl is pathos.  A hungry male is lazy or weak.  None of these types of characters, ones whose condition is caused by their own fault, will build pathos.

This goes back to what I wrote about characters who caused or even appeared to cause their own problems.  For example, a girl who ran away from home.  This character can build pathos, but nothing like the girl who not because of her own fault is on the street. 

As I wrote tragedy develops pity and fear.  Miniature tragedies in the scenes and plot can build this pity and fear.            

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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