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Saturday, July 30, 2022

Writing - part xxx031 Writing a Novel, We are Refining the Protagonist, Powering Through, Beginnings, Scene Setting Characters

30 July 2022, Writing - part xxx031 Writing a Novel, We are Refining the Protagonist, Powering Through, Beginnings, Scene Setting Characters     

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




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%

So, what is it about writer’s block?  Many if not most authors and writers will complain about writer’s block.  When I was a younger author, I would get writer’s block very often, but I’ve discovered something very important about writer’s block.  Writer’s block is a function of the plot and not the protagonist.  The correction or resolution of writer’s block comes from centering our writing on the protagonist instead of the plot.  This is what I’d really like to get into as a topic.  Here is an outline of how we will approach this.

 

1.      Problems with a plot focus

2.      Correcting with a protagonist focus

3.      How to figure out a plot with a protagonist focus

4.      Writing development

5.      Fixing or blowing through problems with writing

6.      How to write to prevent writer’s block

7.      The Scene Outline

8.      Exercises

9.      Examples

10.  Conclusions

 

I could easily write: if you develop a great protagonist, the writing will come.  That’s basically what I do, but I know that doesn’t work for the inexperienced and the young writer. 

 

Writing is really exhausting when you are first starting.  The problem, as I see it is getting into the rhythm of the writing.  When a writer is in the rhythm, the writing seems to come easily, when they aren’t, who knows what you might get. 

 

When I was a younger writer, I found many times I had no idea where I was going or what was going on in my writing.  Today, I realize the problem was with my protagonist, and also with my plot development.  Let’s lump those together and call them writing development. 

 

Below, I’ve left up the outline for the protagonist.  This is what you need to develop to build a proper protagonist.

 

1.      Define the initial scene

2.      At the same time as the above—fit a protagonist into the initial scene.  That means the minimum of:

a.      Telic flaw

b.      Approximate age

c.      Approximate social degree

d.      Sex

3.      Refine the protagonist

a.      Physical description

b.      Background – history of the protagonist

                                                      i.      Birth

                                                    ii.      Setting

                                                   iii.      Life

                                                   iv.      Education

                                                     v.      Work

                                                   vi.      Profession

                                                 vii.      Family

c.      Setting – current

                                                      i.      Life

                                                    ii.      Setting

                                                   iii.      Work

d.      Name

4.      Refine the details of the protagonist

a.      Emotional description (never to be shared directly)

b.      Mental description (never to be shared directly)

c.      Likes and dislikes (never to be shared directly)

5.      Telic flaw resolution

a.      Changes required for the protagonist to resolve the telic flaw

                                                      i.      Physical changes

                                                    ii.      Emotional changes

                                                   iii.      Mental changes

b.      Alliances required for the protagonist to resolve the telic flaw

c.      Enemies required for the protagonist to resolve the telic flaw

d.      Plots required for the protagonist to resolve the telic flaw

e.      Obstacles that must be overcome for the protagonist to resolve the telic flaw

Now, if you slavishly follow this outline for the protagonist, it will not guarantee you a great or even a good protagonist.  What it will give you is a protagonist detailed enough to write about.  I’ve covered the idea of the great protagonist before.  I’ll state again, and you should review what I’ve written, you need a good Romantic protagonist. 

The protagonist is developed simultaneously, in my mind with the initial scene.  There are other means to begin your writing development, but I don’t, and I’ve shown you the pitfalls I’ve discovered when using other methods or starting places.  That doesn’t mean you can’t come at this writing development from another standpoint.    

Here are the four, in order of precedence, means of approaching the initial scene.  I have used all four in published works.  I recommend only the first two.  The others can work, but they are not as good at producing a great initial scene.  This is the first step, in my book, to writing development.  As I wrote, it doesn’t matter how you got to this point, this is where writing development begins.  The list:  

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

 

I think the proper organization and approach to the writing itself is the best solution to writer’s black.  That’s why I spend so much time on the protagonist, scenes, and novel development.  I’m not an outline writer—that is, I don’t like to write from an outline.  You don’t have to be that organized.  We aren’t writing technical papers here—we are writing fiction.

 

So, the proper organization from my standpoint is the organization that allows you the greatest latitude to write something really good.  That’s what writing development is all about.  Couple that with the understanding of how to put together a scene, and you have enough organization to write a great novel.  Add to that the protagonist, and you have everything.

 

If you remember, the novel is the revelation of the protagonist, that’s really all you need—along with the organization.

 

If you are organized in this fashion, I see potential success in the future.  However, I know everyone gets to the point where they say, “I can’t get any further.”  Yeap, that happened to me why I was a younger, less experienced writer.  It doesn’t happen anymore.  The reason is this: I fix or blow through problems with writing.

It doesn’t matter what the problem is.  In writing, if you know the tricks, you can always fix or blow through your writing problems.  This isn’t a great single sentence description, but I’ll try to explain just what I mean. 

 

What I will do is look at the writing development and especially, the scene development.  We will apply that to the protagonist development to get into the writing.

 

If you are stuck at the beginning, in other words, you haven’t written anything yet, that is definitely a problem of protagonist development and the initial scene.  I won’t go back over everything we have explored before, but we will start at the beginning, and figure out how to solve the problem of writer’s block from the initial creativity.  Let’s use an outline like this (this is a type of technical paper).

 

1.      Initial ideas (protagonist, initial scene, and telic flaw)

2.      The scene

3.      Review and editing

4.      Notes

5.      Exercises

6.      Ideas

7.      Picking up the pieces

 

We are moving on from the very beginning.  I’m going to assume you have an idea with a protagonist, an antagonist, a telic flaw, an initial setting, and an initial scene.  This is all you need to start a novel.  I showed you how to get to the initial scene.  I will also help you to write it.  I hope you have made it this far.  Usually, people get an idea for a book and start writing.  The problem isn’t necessarily at the beginning but rather as the novel unfolds, they lose the strength of their initial enthusiasm.  The muse is gone.  I want to get the muse moving.  To kick it in the backside and keep the creative and writing process going.  That’s how we will get rid of writer’s block.  The next stage is the scene.

 

We need to power through the scene writing process.  By this, I mean, we must use the scene development outline to force the writing to continue—that is a means to get rid of writer’s block. So, here is the scene development outline repeated:

 

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

 

If you are writing the initial scene, you don’t technically have a scene input.  You are totally dependent on creativity here.  That is what I took so much time with the initial scene, both past and present.  You gotta have an initial scene.  Most writers don’t have a problem with this.  They might have a lame or bad initial scene, but they have an initial scene.  That’s why I tried to give careful help on how to get to that scene.  The rest is gravy—kind of.

 

You can have writer’s block at any time, but if you follow the scene outline, you should be able to power through especially with a good initial scene.  You don’t have to have a great initial scene—you just need an initial scene.  Further, you don’t have to have it written—yet.  Let’s go through the scene outline and see how to write the initial as well as all the other scenes in your novel.

 

Write the scene setting (place, time, stuff, and characters)

I showed you how to write the place and time setting.  It’s a critical part of scene and novel development.  Also, I gave you an example of how to write a character description.  That’s the next point.

Once the stage is set with place and time, we place the characters and stuff on the stage.  Usually, we go from place and time to stuff, so I guess I’ll move there too.

Think of the stage as the big picture of the setting: England, London, Covent Garden, a house, the interior, and then the time: year, month, day, time of year, and time of day.  In this case, we have an empty room in a specific place—we need to fill the room.

This is like a stage for a play except more detailed and shown through writing and not the visual sense in reality.  What is our interior room?  We already have a year and a time of the year.  The job of the writer is filling the room—decorating, if you like.

What is the room.  Let’s say it is a parlor in an upscale house in the modern era.  It could still be filled with Victorian antiques or French pieces from the previous century, or it could be filled with pure white and chrome modernity.  The author needs to figure all this out, look at pictures or view interiors to write the description. 

This is how we work out the details.  You don’t need to use too much of your creativity and imagination.  If you want to you can, but I don’t advise it.  I just find the pictures or the interior I want, or the multiple interiors I want, and then I make up the description based on all the ingredients and places I want.  This ensures the reality and the accuracy of the descriptions. 

If you can’t find pictures, for example, from the ancient world or the far past, or just the past when we aren’t certain what things were like or looked like, now you must start your research.  I hope you know ancient languages or have good translations, and you have your archeology and detective hat on.  Why is that? 

Because most people writing about the ancient world and the far past have simply no idea what they are about.  For example, there is little to zero furniture in the ancient world.  If you read my novels Centurion or The Second Mission, you will see what the ancient world was like.  These were based on all the historical and archeological information we have on those period: 1st Century AD (CE) and 400 BC (BCE).  Scene setting, in general, becomes more difficult as we move outside the normal time of picture, paintings, and reconstructed reality.  I’m assuming most of you are setting your novels in the immediate or at least the last 100 to 200 years.  This is the easy times.

I will point out that the stuff and the stuff that exists and existed at the time is very important.  You can’t have cell phones in 1950, and you can’t have smart phones before about 1990 and about 2000 for common usage.  All this needs to be researched.  If you are writing about 1985, you must have only the music, shows, the stuff, and the technology available in that period.  If you don’t, your story will be crap.  If you lived through these decades, you might just need a little research—especially if your memories are good.  If you didn’t, you better research like crazy.

When I write a novel, I do extensive research on the times and the stuff.  In addition, when I write about the future, especially the near future, I try to predict the technology my characters will have available to them. 

There are additionally, all kinds of tricks the writer can do to minimize or help with technology accuracy.  For example, describing the office of a person as behind the times—then you can use a description about five to ten years out of date.  Or you can sequester your characters in an environment that is lower tech for example a boarding school or a special academy.  In that case, you will want to accentuate the technology sense when the kids or trainees or students are outside the sequestered environment.  Yes, this stuff gets very complex and very exciting from the author.

This is exactly why I advise using pictures and especially photographs when they are available.  You can’t get into too much trouble by describing what you see in the photograph, especially if it is within the time and place you wish as a setting.

All this seems very complex, and it is.  Being an author, in my opinion, is presenting as accurate a picture of the world and the times as possible while providing an exciting, entertaining, and adventurous story to your readers.  The setting is a huge part of all of this.  You can present an exciting and entertaining portrait of the world that your readers will love. 

I guess I’ll get to characters next.   

I’ll look more closely at this idea as we continue to move along in the list of how of get rid of 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.

F or 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

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