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Friday, October 21, 2022

Writing - part xxx114 Writing a Novel, Romantic Protagonist, Travel Plot

21 October 2022, Writing - part xxx114 Writing a Novel, Romantic Protagonist, Travel Plot

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:  Let me tell you a little about writing.  Writing isn’t so much a hobby, a career, or a pastime.  Writing is a habit and an obsession.  We who love to write love to write. 

 

If you love to write, the problem is gaining the skills to write well.  We want to write well enough to have others enjoy our writing.  This is important.  No one writes just for themselves the idea is absolutely irrational and silly.  I can prove why.

 

In the first place, the purpose of writing is communication—that’s the only purpose.  Writing is the abstract communication of the mind through symbols.  As time goes by, we as writers gain more and better tools and our readers gain more and better appreciation for those tools and skills—even if they have no idea what they are. 

 

We are in the modern era.  In this time, the action and dialog style along with the push of technology forced novels into the form of third person, past tense, action and dialog style, implying the future.  This is the modern style of the novel.  I also showed how the end of literature created the reflected worldview.  We have three possible worldviews for a novel: the real, the reflected, and the created.  I choose to work in the reflected worldview.

 

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. 

 

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. 

 

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.

 

With that said, where should we go?  Should I delve into ideas and creativity again, or should we just move into the novel again?  Should I develop a new protagonist, which, we know, will result in a new novel.  I’ve got an idea, but it went stale.  Let’s look at the outline for a novel again:

 

1.      The initial scene

2.     The rising action scenes

3.     The climax scene

4.     The falling action scene(s)

5.     The dénouement scene(s)

    

The initial scene is the most important scene and part of any novel.  To get to the initial scene, you don’t need a plot, you need a protagonist.

 

Let’s be very clear.  You can start with a plot, a protagonist, an idea, or an idea for an initial scene.  The easiest and most controlled method is to start with a protagonist.  As I’ve written over and over, a protagonist must come with a telic flaw.  I think it is impossible to have a protagonist without a telic flaw, but I suppose you could develop a completely lackluster protagonist without any telic flaw connected to them. 

 

Here is my list for the characteristics of a Romantic protagonist.  I am not very happy with most of the lists I have found.  So, I will start with a classic list from the literature and then translate them to what they really mean.  This is the refined list.  Take a look.

 

1. Some power or ability outside the norm of society that the character develops to resolve the telic flaw.

2. Set of beliefs (morals and ideals) that are different than normal culture or society’s.

3. Courageous

4. Power (skills and abilities) and leadership that are outside of the normal society.

5. Introspective

6. Travel plot

7. Melancholy

8. Overwhelming desire to change and grow—to develop four and one.

9. Pathos developed because the character does not fit the cultural mold.  From the common.

10. Regret when they can’t follow their own moral compass.

11. Self-criticism when they can’t follow their own moral compass.

12. Pathos bearing because he or she is estranged from family or normal society by death, exclusion for some reason, or self-isolation due to three above.

13. From the common and potentially the rural.

14. Love interest

 

Here’s what I want to do or how I want to place these on a protagonist:

 

1. Some power or ability outside the norm of society that the character develops to resolve the telic flaw.

 

This may be the most important characteristic of the Romantic protagonist.  The Romantic protagonist needs some skill or power that they can develop outside of the norm of humanity.  This doesn’t make them inhuman, but rather makes them a normal human with some extraordinary capability that they develop into something very powerful and special. 

 

This skill can be as simple as intelligence, martial arts, shooting, weapons use, magic, miracles, chemistry, reasoning skill, or any others.  To be the most effective for a Romantic protagonist, this skill should not be common but the Romantic protagonist should develop themselves to be the best in the world.  Or at least, capable enough to astound others and differentiate themselves while also being able to resolve the telic flaw due to their expertise.  This is simpler than it sounds.

 

Let me give an example.  Form Rose, the novel I’m working on right now.  Rose has been turned into the most perfect aristocrat possible.  This was simple for her due to her personality, but she worked for about a month to develop the skills required.  Luckily, these skills are really dependent on both high wealth as well as personality or acting skill.  The personality and acting skill is exactly the skill that makes Rose unique.  Rose also has other skills, but this is the one I’m examining at the moment. 

 

Rose has a very special skill related to her personality that she can act with a high level of perfection at almost any endeavor she wishes.  In other words, she can fit in perfectly or stand out perfectly.  This skill is not necessarily unique in humanity, but for Rose and in the worldview and setting of the novel, it pretty much is.  In other words, Rose is acting nearly a prefect part of an aristocratic girl.  She can for many reasons, but mainly nearly unrestricted wealth. 

 

Because of her wealth, or apparent wealth, she can use her acting skills and personality to create the perfect part. 

 

I will develop this for another character as part of this evaluation and protagonist development, but I’m not ready to provide one yet.  Instead, I’ll give another example.

 

My character Lilly from Lilly: Enchantment and the Computer, is a computer hardware and software genius.  She is also a math genius, but that is a direct relation to being a hardware and software expert.  She became this way because she worked most of her life writing game software and building game hardware to try to fit in with the kids in school.  This is a very deep character, but you can see that her skills and abilities are very unique, and she has developed them through extensive effort.

 

That’s exactly what we are aiming for.  I’ll go through the rest of these first before beginning the development of a new character. 

 

2. Set of beliefs (morals and ideals) that are different than normal culture or society’s.

 

Let’s start in on this and we will finish it tomorrow.  This doesn’t mean the character is some wacko or evil or immoral.  For example, the modern world is pretty immoral.  Therefore, a character who is church going or highly moral would be considered different than the normal culture. 

 

I’m leaving up breadcrumbs on purpose. 

 

In the Victorian Era, the normal protagonist was church-going, moral, ethical, and even knew which fork to use.  The western world has changed.  The chance you will find a protagonist who goes to church, who is moral, ethical, and who can sit at a formal dinner is highly unlikely.  Our society has gone to the barbarians.  Today, the most common protagonist is amoral, unchurched, usually atheistic or agnostic, and can’t even set a table much less use the proper utensils during dinner.  This means the Romantic protagonist in the modern world to meet this characteristic would be church-going, moral, ethical, and well trained socially.  This is your new Romantic protagonist. 

 

I’m all in on this.  We are writing and providing protagonists who are different than the society and culture.  In this regard, they must be different.  Let me tell you a little about this.  When you lived in the Victorian culture, you felt safe in your culture and a little excitement with a Romantic protagonist who was a little counter cultural was a great thing—you loved it.

 

We are in a modern era.  When all the people around you are not sure about God, unethical to some degree, immoral to some other degree, and can’t even follow basic human culture, you are certainly uncomfortable.  I know.  I know.  You likely say, these people are not necessarily immoral or unethical.  I can assure you compared to the normal human society 100 years ago, the average person today is certainly immoral and unethical.  That’s what makes a Romantic protagonist so powerful.

 

When you are confronted with the squishy, a person who knows their way in the world and can be assured to act in a certain manner is much more safe and comfortable than one who is not.  Do you need an example?  Now every person might be a potentially bad person, that’s proof text enough to my point, but let’s presume we have a friend who is not God-fearing and who is known to be kind of loose around women.  Let’s also presume we have another friend who goes to church every Sunday and prides themselves on being a virgin.  Who would you trust to drive across the country with your girlfriend or even your children.  As I noted, anyone can turn out to be a cad, but those who are not known to be cads usually continue in their good ethics and those who are usually continue in their caddish behavior.  That’s the way the world is.

 

The point is that today, a moral and ethical person or the perfect Victorian would be a Romantic Protagonist.  The reason is that they are counter cultural.  That wouldn’t be true in a novel set in the 1950s.  Therefore, the worldview of the novel and the event horizon of the novel is a critical factor in determining the mind and ethics of the Romantic protagonist.  We will definitely need to address this when developing a character.

 

3. Courageous

 

This is where we will go next.  This is an absolute characteristic and not like the previous.

 

I’ve written before about the basics of characters.  The reason we like or love a protagonist is basically because we agree with them.  This is a question of rationalism and the author and not necessarily the protagonist.  For example, who could ever like an aristocratic messiah who is bratty to his friends and enemies?  That’s Harry Potty, if you didn’t know.  We like Harry Potty not for who he really is, an aristocratic messiah who is bratty to his friend and enemies, but because the author presents such a character in a way that mostly children can adore him. 

 

We really want to love the protagonist, and the main reason we love them isn’t because we see ourselves in them, but because they act as we would like to act in a similar situation.  For example, in a terse disagreement with a friend or a not so friend, sometimes, we would just like to let it go and let it out, but we don’t.  That’s not because we aren’t courageous, but because we know the ramifications socially and culturally—so we keep our mouths shut.  In a novel, this kind of character is mostly a wimp.  The protagonist says what we wish we could say.  That doesn’t mean the protagonist gets away with it.  There are always social and cultural repercussions for speaking one’s mind, but the great author makes it all work out—like it usually can’t in real life.

 

This reminds me of Victorian and oriental literature where things can’t and many times aren’t said, but those miscommunications or lack of communication creates all the social and plot friction in the writing.  If you don’t believe me, just read almost any novel or fiction from the East.  Compare that to Victorian literature.  That which can’t and won’t be said becomes the nexus for many of these works.  That’s not a bad thing at all.  I think Western authors can gain some real understanding about creating social and cultural friction through miscommunication.  That means lack of communication.  Many times, it is what you don’t say as well as what you do say.

 

Now, back to courage.  The Romantic protagonist accomplishes actions based on the courage to overcome the society and the culture.  They are counter-cultural.  This is their power as a character.  All Romantic protagonists are counter-cultural to some degree.  The point of courage is that they have the conviction of their beliefs, and they are willing to accomplish them generally no matter the repercussions. 

 

The points we will get to for the Romantic protagonist is also regret and self-criticism.  This regret and self-criticism is one of the author’s tools that allows them to present the Romantic protagonist as a real and not a totally ideal character.  They do make mistakes—they may not speak up when they should.  They will always act with courage, but they may have reasons to regret their behavior and their actions.

 

Let me note one other thing about courage.  As I wrote, the point of loving the protagonist comes form the protagonist not being like the reader, but being like the reader wants to be.  If your protagonist does something that is unacceptable to the reader, read that as that the writer or author does not explain or make out as rational and reasonable to the reader, then the reader’s view of the protagonist will change in a very negative manner. 

 

Yes, a protagonist can do something wrong, bad, and immoral—if the writer makes those actions seem rational and reasonable from the standpoint of the protagonist.  But beware.  You need to really make it work and seem rational and reasonable—what the reader would do themselves if they were in a similar situation.  If not, you might as well kiss your protagonist goodbye. 

 

Placing the protagonist and especially the Romantic protagonist in a situation where they must make a very difficult and controversial decision is great writing.  Letting them act like an irrational or unreasonable person will ruin them. 

 

I’ll end with an example of this.  Harry Potty goes down fast in my mind when he isolates himself from his friends and has his teenage angst stage in the middle novels.  I don’t like him then, and it is obvious that someone got Rowling back on the hard and fast because although she didn’t ruin her protagonist, I think she did him great damage.  Those are the least readable of her books and mostly because I don’t like who Harry is in them. 

 

You must have your protagonist appear to be rational and reasonable.  This is especially true with a Romantic protagonist.  You would like your protagonist to be loved or at least liked by your readers.  Courage is a very important characteristic for the Romantic protagonist.  It is what the reader wants to be like.    

 

4. Power (skills and abilities) and leadership that are outside of the normal society.

 

We will look at this next.  The important point about this comes from characteristic number one above.  This is the basis of the strength of the Romantic protagonist as a character.  You can think of this from the normal great leader to much much more.  The much much more is what we want to look at.

 

5. Introspective

 

There is a significant problem with this very important characteristic.  Moving from the Victorian Era into that of the common use of the Romantic protagonist, we see a very important change in writing.  Although the Victorian characters did think internally about themselves and their actions, they did so through telling.  The author used either the omniscient narrator or pure telling through some type of narration to tell us the mind of the protagonist.  Then the Romantic protagonist came along with modern showing.

 

Showing is so effective that the world of writing uses it as a measure of effectivity.  At the same time, the Romantic protagonist must be introspective—how can you show the mind of the protagonist?  This is the greatest problem of this era.  Some writers just give up and tell.  You can see this in a lot of writing.  What the author must do is find a means to express the mind of the protagonist without telling.  How can you do this?

 

The fact that a Romantic protagonist is introspective is an undeniable fact.  The means of expressing this is more difficult with showing.  What you must do is a mix of showing the actions of the protagonist and though dialog allowing the protagonist the opportunity to express their mind.  This is exactly why I use a protagonist’s helper in almost all my writing.

 

The protagonist’s helper is a character that allows the protagonist to express themselves in a conversational and protected dialog.  You can use other types of characters, but the protagonist’s helper is the closest to the protagonist, and gives the best chance of open communication. 

 

So, we need an introspective protagonist, but this also means we need a protagonist’s helper or some means to let our protagonist speak their mind.  This means we are already looking at some degree of other characteristics for our Romantic protagonist.

 

6. Travel plot

 

Yes, Romantic protagonists have some degree of wanderlust.  I intentionally forced Rose to travel, but a travel plot of some kind should be a characteristic of the Romantic protagonist.  We’ll look at this next. 

 

Wanderlust seems like a conflict with the country and common of the Romantic protagonist.  To a degree it is, but there is a reality of this for the Romantic protagonist.  We aren’t talking about the Asian view of the spiritual search for oneself formed by a physical wandering in the world, but it’s close. 

 

The Romantic protagonist is a seeker.  We can see how the Romantic protagonist is seeking his or her unique ability or abilities.  Many times these don’t require a travel plot or a wanderlust, but part of the power of the Romantic protagonist is to take their skills into the world to actually use them. 

 

The picture of the power of the Romantic protagonist is to gain their special skills for example in the common and the country.  I’ll give a simple example.  We have a country person who is fully trained or training in a specific skill—let’s say horticulture. The Romantic protagonist is a perfect farmer not just knowing the basics or the advanced skills but rather the in depth and secret skills of horticulture.  The Romantic protagonist wants to take their skills to a higher level.  That usually means travel and further education or travel and study of some type. 

 

The point and the power of the travel plot is both to push the Romantic protagonist forward but also to move the plot forward.  This is part of the strengths of the Romantic protagonist.    

 

7. Melancholy

 

What about melancholy?  Just what does this mean for the protagonist?  This is a character trait that we can use to great effect.

 

8. Overwhelming desire to change and grow—to develop four and one.

9. Pathos developed because the character does not fit the cultural mold.  From the common.

10. Regret when they can’t follow their own moral compass.

11. Self-criticism when they can’t follow their own moral compass.

12. Pathos bearing because he or she is estranged from family or normal society by death, exclusion for some reason, or self-isolation due to three above.

13. From the common and potentially the rural.

14. Love interest

 

We need a Romantic protagonist.

    

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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