11 October 2021, Writing - part xx739 Writing a Novel, more Creating in the Reflected Worldview
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 29th 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.
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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 30th novel, working
title Red Sonja. I finished my 29th 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.
For Novel 32: Shiggy
Tash finds a lost girl in the isolated Scottish safe house her organization
gives her for her latest assignment: Rose Craigie has nothing, is alone, and
needs someone or something to rescue and acknowledge her as a human being.
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
Ideas. We need
ideas. Ideas allow us to figure out the
protagonist and the telic flaw. Ideas
don’t come fully armed from the mind of Zeus.
We need to cultivate ideas.
1.
Read novels.
2. Fill your mind with good stuff—basically the stuff you want
to write about.
3. Figure out what will build ideas in your mind and what will
kill ideas in your mind.
4. Study.
5. Teach.
6. Make the catharsis.
7.
Write.
The development of ideas is based on study and research, but
it is also based on creativity. Creativity
is the extrapolation of older ideas to form new ones or to present old ideas in
a new form. It is a reflection of
something new created with ties to the history, science, and logic (the
intellect). Creativity requires
consuming, thinking, and producing.
If we have filled our mind with all kinds of information and
ideas, we are ready to become creative.
Creativity means the extrapolation of older ideas to form new ones or to
present old ideas in a new form.
Literally, we are seeing the world in a new way, or actually, we are
seeing some part of the world in a new way.
I’ve worked through creativity and the protagonist. The ultimate point is that if you properly
develop your protagonist, you have created your novel. This moves us on to plots and initial
scenes. As I noted, if you have a
protagonist, you have a novel. The
reason is that a protagonist comes with a telic flaw, and a telic flaw provides
a plot and theme. If you have a
protagonist, that gives you a telic flaw, a plot, and a theme. I will also argue this gives you an initial
scene as well.
So, we worked extensively on the protagonist. I gave you many examples great, bad, and
average. Most of these were from
classics, but I also used my own novels and protagonists as examples. Here’s my plan.
1.
The protagonist comes with a telic
flaw – the telic flaw isn’t necessarily a flaw in the protagonist, but rather a
flaw in the world of the protagonist that only the Romantic protagonist can
resolve.
2.
The telic
flaw determines the plot.
3. The telic flaw determines the theme.
4. The telic flaw and the protagonist determines the initial
scene.
5. The protagonist and the telic flaw determines the initial
setting.
6. Plot examples from great classic plots.
7. Plot examples from mediocre classic plots.
8. Plot examples from my novels.
9. Creativity and the telic flaw and plots.
10.
Writer’s block as a problem of continuing
the plot.
Every great or good protagonist comes with their own telic
flaw. I showed how this worked with my
own writing and novels. Let’s go over it
in terms of the plot.
This is all about the telic flaw. Every protagonist and every novel must come
with a telic flaw. They are the same
telic flaw. That telic flaw can be
external, internal or both.
We found that a self-discovery telic flaw or a personal
success telic flaw can potentially take a generic plot. We should be able to get an idea for the plot
purely from the protagonist, telic flaw and setting. All of these are interlaced and bring us our
plot.
For a great plot, the resolution of the telic flaw has to be
a surprise to the protagonist and to the reader. This is both the measure and the goal. As I noted before, for a great plot, the
author needs to make the telic flaw resolution appear to be impossible, but
then it becomes inevitable in the climax.
There is much more to this.
I evaluated the plots from the list of 112 classics and
categorized them according to the following scale:
Overall (o) – These are the three overall plots we defined above:
redemption, achievement, and revelation.
Achievement (a) – There are plots that fall under the idea of the
achievement plot.
Quality (q)
– These are plots based on a personal or character quality.
Setting (s)
– These are plots based on a setting.
Item (i)
– These are plots based on an item.
I looked at each novel and pulled out the plot types, the telic flaw, plotline,
and the theme of the novel. I didn’t make a list of the themes, but we
identified the telic flaw as internal and external and by plot type. This
generally gives the plotline.
Overall (o)
1. Redemption (o) – 17i, 7e, 23ei, 8 – 49%
2. Revelation (o) –2e, 64, 1i – 60%
3. Achievement (o) – 16e, 19ei, 4i, 43 – 73%
Achievement (a)
1. Detective or mystery (a) – 56, 1e – 51%
2. Revenge or vengeance (a) –3ie, 3e, 45 – 46%
3. Zero to hero (a) – 29 – 26%
4. Romance (a) –1ie, 41 – 37%
5. Coming of age (a) –1ei, 25 – 23%
6. Progress of technology (a) – 6 – 5%
7. Discovery (a) – 3ie, 57 – 54%
8. Money (a) – 2e, 26 – 25%
9. Spoiled child (a) – 7 – 6%
10. Legal (a) – 5 – 4%
11. Adultery (qa) – 18 – 16%
12. Self-discovery (a) – 3i, 12 – 13%
13. Guilt or Crime (a) – 32 – 29%
14. Proselytizing (a) – 4 – 4%
15. Reason (a) – 10, 1ie – 10%
16. Escape (a) – 1ie, 23 – 21%
17. Knowledge or Skill (a) – 26 – 23%
18. Secrets (a) – 21 – 19%
Quality (q)
1. Messiah (q) – 10 – 9%
2. Adultery (qa) – 18 – 16%
3. Rejected love (rejection) (q) – 1ei, 21 –
20%
4. Miscommunication (q) – 8 – 7%
5. Love triangle (q) – 14 – 12%
6. Betrayal (q) – 1i, 1ie, 46 – 43%
7. Blood will out or fate (q) –1i, 1e, 26 – 25%
8. Psychological (q) –1i, 45 – 41%
9. Magic (q) – 8 – 7%
10. Mistaken identity (q) – 18 – 16%
11. Illness (q) – 1e, 19 – 18%
12. Anti-hero (q) – 6 – 5%
13. Immorality (q) – 3i, 8 – 10%
14. Satire (q) – 10 – 9%
15. Camaraderie (q) – 19 – 17%
16. Curse (q) – 4 – 4%
17. Insanity (q) – 8 – 7%
18. Mentor (q) – 12 – 11%
Setting (s)
1. End of the World (s) – 3 – 3%
2. War (s) – 20 – 18%
3. Anti-war (s) –2 – 2%
4. Travel (s) –1e, 62 – 56%
5. Totalitarian (s) – 1e, 8 – 8%
6. Horror (s) – 15 – 13%
7. Children (s) – 24 – 21%
8. Historical (s) – 19 – 17%
9. School (s) – 11 – 10%
10. Parallel (s) – 4 – 4%
11. Allegory (s) – 10 – 9%
12. Fantasy world (s) – 5 – 4%
13. Prison (s) – 2 – 2%
Item (i)
1. Article (i) – 1e, 46 – 42%
Previously, I defined creativity and how to build and apply
it. The trick now is how to use
creativity to develop the telic flaw and the plot(s). I write plot(s) because we determined that
there is no novel with a singular plot.
Plots come in all shapes and sizes that we an apply in all kinds of ways
to our writing.
I gave an example of how I approach creativity and the
development of a telic flaw. It all came
from the protagonist. That’s how I
recommend designing a novel. We really
are talking about a design process.
Let’s talk about some means of creativity development. There are three ways you can go.
1.
Real worldview
2. Reflected worldview
3.
Created worldview.
Do I need to define these again? Perhaps definitions and discussion is
necessary.
The real worldview is the normative view of the world from
the standpoint of a specific society and culture and their event horizon. This is what is accepted as normally and
notionally true. If you are writing
about history or the actual world in history or in modern times, you are most
likely working in a real worldview. The
problem with the real worldview is that it can change radically based changes
in culture and society. For example,
people in certain times believed fervently in many non-real ideas and
things. At the turn of the Twentieth
Century, astrophysics believed the universe was filled with aether, light was
waves, and that the universe was eternal.
Einstein and others proved that there is no aether to allow the
propagation of light, that light is made of particles and waves, and that the
universe has a beginning called the Big Bang.
What was once real, became reflective and historical false
theories. The world of science is filled
with these wrong ideas. At one time,
people believed the earth was flat and not a sphere. Science proved otherwise and the idea that
the world is not a sphere moved from real to reflected or just fanciful. There is much more to this. In the ancient world, people believed in
animism and gods and goddesses. As
people and time progressed, they became monotheists and stopped believing in
spirits (animism) in everything. Today,
a secular worldview has almost destroyed the idea of a God at all in common
modern society and culture. Is the
belief in God about to become a reflected worldview and not a real
worldview? That is very interesting
since science, philosophy, and history proves there must be a God. In any case, that is the real worldview. Let’s go to the created worldview.
The created worldview is simply one that the author invents
for a novel. The created worldview is
almost always based on a real or a reflected worldview, but it expands beyond
the reflected and can’t be traced back to the real. We usually think of science fiction and
fantasy as created worldview, but the created worldview is a bit more expansive
than that. For example, Harry Potty is a
created worldview. The author took a
reflected worldview based in magic, and created an entire world setting that no
one had ever thought of before. That is
a ket feature of the created worldview—it is a worldview that already
exists? As I noted, most science fiction
is a created worldview. Still, every
author normally starts with a real or a reflected worldview and builds a
created worldview from it. Here’s an
example. A writer might project the near
future by having a spaceport in orbit.
There has neve been an orbital spaceport before. They have been imagined in other science
fiction, but they are neither reflected nor real. To make a created worldview spaceport, the
author would start with an airport and extrapolate it into space. The author might additionally research other
author’s or scientist’s ideas of a spaceport, and develop the spaceport from
this. In any case, the author creates
the spaceport and the worldview from a real or reflected worldview.
There is then the reflected worldview.
I’ll leave up the definitions for the real and the created
worldview. Let’s look at the reflected
worldview.
The reflected worldview is a very special creative space for
the author. Many authors use this
creative space without fully comprehending exactly what they are doing. Let’s give a very simple definition. The reflected worldview is the use of a
setting that is based on what your or any culture believed as a society and
culture. This doesn’t mean you have to
write about history or that culture to produce a reflected worldview. It just means that the beliefs, myths, and
the ideas of the society and culture can make up the worldview of your
novel. What does this mean?
In simple terms, it means you can write about vampires,
witches, dragons, ghosts, werewolves, wizards, magic, gods, goddesses, Paul
Bunion, fairies, and all. You can write
about all of them or only some of them.
You can build a reflected worldview that includes anything known by
human cultures. You can even use
fiction, but that can be a little problem.
I’ll mention that a bit.
When I write, you can even use fiction, I mean that in the context
of the reflected worldview. For example,
if you are writing about vampires, you will undoubtedly use Bram Stocker’s
fictional vampire, Dracula, as your model.
You can’t help doing this because Bram Stoker defined the idea of the
vampire in society, culture, and fiction.
On the other hand, if you write about dragons, there are few historical
or mythical dragons defined in popular literature that have really stuck in
people’s collective minds. You might use
the dragon in The Dragon and the George, but not that many people have
read this fantasy novel. Here is how you
are supposed to develop a reflected worldview, and this is how ai do it.
If I want to write about dragons, I research dragons. I get together all the myths, cultural
references, and social references in history to guide me. Then I develop my dragon or dragons based on
those references. In a well developed
reflected worldview, you want your readers to be able to make some research and
discover that your dragon or whatever you designed fits into a historical
worldview. This lends power and realism
to your setting and characters. I do
this with all my characters and settings and not just the creatures in them.
I’ll write more about this, but I want to mention the
created worldview and dragons.
Typically, you will find most of your dragons in a created worldview
rather than a reflected worldview. The
Dragon and the George is just an example of a great reflected worldview,
and it isn’t unique, it’s just unusual for the inclusion of dragons in a
reflected worldview. More commonly, you
find dragons in a created worldview.
Anne McCaffrey’s dragons from Pern are exactly that. The dragons from How to Train Your Dragon are
exactly that. You can’t do a search of
literature or history and find either McCaffrey’s or the Train
dragons. They are made up from the mind
of their authors. McCaffrey in science
fiction and Train in fantasy.
This is the huge difference between the reflected worldview
and the created worldview. The reflected
worldview ties the writing, setting, and plots into the real world of the
reader. This is a very important
point. While the created worldview for
all it’s power and setting is still created.
It’s usually science fiction or fantasy or both.
Again, I’ll leave up the previous definitions and
explanation as we continue in the discussion of the reflected worldview.
When I write science fiction or intentional fantasy, I use a
created worldview. I’ve developed a
classic type science fiction universe for all my science fiction writing. You can read my novels and see this created
worldview as I describe and develop it.
In my later science fiction, I use this same created worldview. For any science fiction author, the created
worldview they develop usually becomes the main focus for all their science
fiction writing. Just look at Jack
Vance. All of his novels fit inside the
technological and to some degree cultural setting he created. In terms of fantasy, most authors do this
too. Let’s look at the currently most
famous fantasy author, J.K. Rowling.
Harry Potty is a fantasy.
It is called part of the magic realism genre, but it is not really
magical realism and it is not a reflected worldview. Here’s the reasons. Number one, the world of Harry Potty is
supposed to hide beneath the veneer of the real world. This is the opposite of the reflected
worldview. In a reflected worldview, you
should be able to make an internet search and discover some inkling of the mythical
of historical nature of the magical society hidden in the real world. It’s like the novels about Atlantis or
Pangea. You can make a simple search
about Atlantis and Pangea and discover all kinds of information about it. That doesn’t mean it isn’t myth, but it’s a
worldview many people do, have or did subscribe to.
Number two, the magical system in Harry Potty is unlike
anything from The Golden Bough.
Not to say, The Golden Bough is the truth about magic, but
reflected worldview magic is always based on the magical rules and ideas set
down in The Golden Bough. By the
way, The Golden Bough is a treatise that technically attempts to
disprove magic and spiritualism. It’s a
great source of information on how people see the world and especially from a
reflected worldview.
Number three, the creatures, places, and people in Harry
Potty are all made up in a large measure.
You can take some of the creatures and research them like dragons and
find a host of information, but most of the creatures are just made up or
borrowed from other fantasy literature.
The places and people are the same.
There are no real people or extrapolated people in the world of Harry
Potty. This makes it more fantasy than
magical realism, and there is nothing wrong with that. The problem becomes the intersectionality
with the real world and the writing itself.
This is my main complaint with Harry Potty, Rowling breaks C.S. Lewis’s
major rule about writing about the spiritual.
The spiritual points always to God.
You can’t write about the spiritual: magic, spirits, miracles, gods,
goddesses, or creatures, without addressing God. They all point to God. In this manner, we can almost beyond a shadow
of a doubt note that such writing is fantasy and not a reflected worldview. That is not to say the reflected worldview
must be about God, it just has to acknowledge the source of power, from the
world or from God. This is an important
point of morality and reality. Look at
Dracula.
Dracula is a full on reflected worldview novel. The novel is filled with vampires. The vampires are beaten by the power of God
in the world. Period dot, this is the
proper niche for the reflected worldview.
Again, look at The Dragon and the George. It isn’t the most sterling example of a
reflected worldview, but it isn’t entirely a created fantasy worldview
either. It has historical basis for its
characters and creatures and touches on the spiritual in that context. That’s great, I just like a little more in
the execution.
Sorry to leave such a long trail of breadcrumbs on this
subject, but I want my readers to be able to look back at the definitions. I think this may be one of the most important
concepts in creativity and writing. The worldview
of the writing and the means of creation of the author.
What I’m recommending is a very classic way of approaching
creativity and writing. What most people
don’t fully comprehend is the power and importance of the reflected
worldview. I went around most of my life
imagining there was just the created worldview and the real worldview, but then
it dawned on me. Many modern novels are
not based on the real world and many aren’t science fiction or fantasy. There are huge ideas in the cracks of many
novels and with many writers who might be considered real and yet who do not
write in a real worldview.
Look at Rudyard Kipling.
Kipling wrote in a wonderful reflected worldview. It is beautiful in its scope and breathtaking
in its appeal. It makes boys and girls
seek adventure within the mysterious fabric of the world. Harry Potty is fantasy that masquerades as a
reflected worldview. Dickens provides a
plethora of reflected worldview settings in his novels, the most remarkable of
which is A Christmas Carol. This little
piece of art could never be considered fantasy—it deals too well with concepts deeply
believed and advocated by his culture and society. He just shaped them in a beautiful reflected worldview. Then, I’ll mention Dracula again. This is just one of th many novels by Bram
Stocker that touch the reflected.
Here’s the thing. The
reflected worldview touches the real and the fanciful at the same time. Only, we usually can’t call it fanciful—not if
many believe in it. Remember the letter
to Virginia about Santa Clause? If the
idea of Santa Clause resides in the hearts of millions, then how can it not be
real? Then there are ideas that I know are
real that reside in the hearts and minds of millions. A quick sidenote.
Immanuel Kant proved philosophically that the not-God can’t
exist. In philosophy, you can’t prove a
true—you can only prove a not true.
Because the not-God can’t exist, this means that in philosophy, God must
exist (the not-God can’t exist).
Likewise, in science, the Big Bang proves that the Universe is not eternal
and that the telic cause of the universe must exist. The telic cause is what the Greeks called the
creator God. Science proves there must
be a God. Further, the historical
method, which I can’t get into great detail here, proves there must be a God
and that God is Jesus Christ—or to be most precise from C.S. Lewis, Jesus Christ
is one of the three manifestations of the four dimensional God projected into
our three dimensional universe. Cool
stuff there.
So, although many might put God and the spiritual into the place
of fantasy and a created worldview, it is not.
I would say God is real, but even if you don’t agree, God can coexist in
the reflected worldview with all kinds of ideas and concepts. The point is that there is room for His
existence without any problems at all.
The writers of the past understood this.
The writer of today seem to have forgotten it. The trick, and that’s what I want to tackle
next is how to use this to create.
So, a couple of questions come to me on this subject. First, how do we create? And second, how much
can we create in the reflected worldview?
The first point is that the reflected worldview like the
real and created worldview is a setting.
These are all three settings.
Therefore, the author has a lot of room to create within these
worldviews. The point is why?
Rowling went to a lot of work to invent many of the
creatures she used to populate her fantasy.
I’m not against creating, but why would you want to. Humanity and humans have already populated
the reflected worldview with everything and everyone you need. You can make up your own witch, warlock, or
wizard, but I’d say, why make your own magic system when one exists in The Golden
Bough. The real difficulty in
designing any congruent magical system is that you will have one as lame as
Harry’s. There’s the problem, congruence
in a magical system is like congruence in physics. If you don’t know physics, I wouldn’t
recommend designing your own system of mechanics. Just say’n.
No one in their right mind would even think of building a system of
physical mechanics for even a created worldview, why would anyone begin to make
their own magical system. Perhaps the problem
is one of knowledge—I’d say get studying.
That’s one of the most important parts of creativity.
So, here’s my point.
I don’t need to invent new creatures to populate my reflected world—I just
look them up and modify my world to match the reflected one. You might say, what if you do need a special
creature. I’d ask why, but I can see
where in the development of a plot or a storyline, the author might want to
have a special creature or being to fit a specific niche.
In this case, I’d say look harder and deeper. In the absolute case you can’t find anything,
you modify or you combine. What you just
don’t want to do is create Ewoks.
Creating Ewoks might be obvious to you or not. What does everyone who watches the Star Bores
movies do when the Ewoks or Jar Jar comes on—they groan and laugh. This is because Jar Jar and the Ewoks are
bathos characters. They are supposed to
bring some degree of solum sophistication, but they just make people laugh. Just like the silly award ceremony at the end
of the first Star Bores movie—it’s just bathos.
The thing you can’t have is people laughing when they should be crying
and vise versa. That is bathos and it
will kill your writing.
So, find a character or being from myth or human culture
that will meet your needs. Modify a
creature or a being to meet your needs.
Or, combine a creature or being.
In my novel, Hestia: Enchantment of the Hearth, I
found every kind of being I could imagine in Greek mythology. The demi-gods and demi-goddesses as well as
the other mythical creatures from Greek myth are perfect for this business on
the reflected worldview. In Kione:
Enchantment and the Fox, I made Kione, from the marriage of a Greek goddess
and a Greek mythical creature. The
result is perfect, and just what I needed in my novel. Additionally, in Hestia, I needed some
things made by the Greek god of the forge.
Hephaestus made all kinds of great stuff. I used some things he made in myth and
extrapolated similar things. This is the
reflected worldview. If you were to look
up any of these subjects, persons, or beings, you would find much information
on them already.
This answers pretty much how much we can create in a
reflected worldview. I still need to
answer the other question—how do we create?
I love the reflected worldview because of the potential creativity
it invites. I’m not writing just about
vampires, dragons, elves, fairies, and such, I’m including the entire mythus of
the human race.
Whatever humans believed becomes your pallet for
writing. Whatever humans believed
becomes your setting. That is the
reflected worldview in a nutshell. That’s
not to say you should have everything all in one—you can, and mixing cultures
and society can be fun. I try to refrain
from mixing too many cultures together, that’s why I usually stick to the
British myths and culture. However, I do
and have mixed interesting cultures in my novels.
For example, in Lilly: Enchantment and the Computer,
I have a setting in the Seattle area with Japanese influence including
Shintoism and the Japanese gods. I also
mix in some of the American Indian gods, Coyote to be precise. Why not when the setting is America and the
mixing bowl nature of the country. This
makes the reflected worldview fun to work in, and we are talking about working
in a type of writing media.
Just like oil or watercolor, the reflected worldview allows you
to operate and work in a different worldview than real, but still presents the
real world as real. This means your
readers and your writing can transverse the worlds of the real and the
reflected—they are ultimately almost the same.
For example, in Lilly: Enchantment and the Computer, Lilly and
Dane go to various real places in the Seattle area. I used to live there, and I can show you the
place I lived.
Thus, while I show you the real world of Seattle and all the
places I have been there, I can also show you the reflected world represented
by Japanese and Native American gods and those cultures. The cultures aren’t reflected worldview, but
the elements of those cultures are.
Therefore, the creativity comes from developing the setting
around these creatures, ideas, and beings.
In Lilly, I have a great time introducing creatures from the
Japanese myths and stories. These are
usually unknown to American and British readers, so the information and the
creatures are new and luscious in the writing.
Likewise, most readers are not really familiar with Native American culture
or gods, the introduction of Coyote is a really fun thing especially in the
context of the culture. Cultures are
usually not what readers think they are—not unless they are really familiar or
have studied them.
I’m about done with the worldviews. I’ve left up the information so you can see it
all at once. I’ll move on to the next
topic—writer’s block.
In the end, we can figure out what makes a work have a great
plot and theme, and apply this to our writing.
The beginning of creativity is study and effort. We can use this to extrapolate to
creativity. In addition, we need to look
at recording ideas and working with ideas.
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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