My Favorites

Sunday, January 22, 2023

Writing - part xxx206 Writing a Novel, A New Romantic Protagonist, Marketing Materials, Type and Words

22 January 2023, Writing - part xxx206 Writing a Novel, A New Romantic Protagonist, Marketing Materials, Type and Words

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 30th novel, working title, Rose, potential title Rose: Enchantment and the Flower.  The theme statement is: 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 cover proposal for Rose: Enchantment and the Flower




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.  Writing number 31, working title Shifter.  I just finished 32nd novel, Rose.

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 is the protagonist development list.  We are going to use this list to develop a Romantic protagonist.  With the following outline in mind, we will build a Romantic protagonist.  However, I’m going to ignore the first step.  Instead of starting with an initial scene, I’m just going to design a Romantic protagonist.  Then we may apply the outline to them.

 

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

 

Here’s what I want to do or how I want to place these on a protagonist.  Let’s clean them up a little and begin to evaluate a protagonist.

I’m not ready to write a new novel yet, and I’m too busy to put the extra time to write an initial scene.

 

I’ll repeat.  I just finished up Rose, and I want to finish up Cassandra.  I’m moving in that direction.  For now, I’ll focus on the finishing steps of Rose, and then the marketing development steps.  This might get tedious, but I’ll try to keep it meaningful and helpful.

 

Here is a list of the basic marketing information I am putting together:

 

Proposed Cover




Title of Work:

 

Rose: Enchantment and the Flower

 

Author(s) Name:

 

L. D. Alford

 

Type: Either Screenplay or Book

 

Book

 

Why does this matter?  I worked with an agent who wanted this information, so I left it in my marketing materials.  It should be obvious, but let me mention something that has gone wrong in the world of writing.

 

You see this all the time with some bestsellers—they are writing a screenplay type novel and not a novel at all.  I guess they are planning for the movie version and want to save time in writing the screenplay.  How can you tell it’s a screenplay?

 

If the description is poor, there is a lot of telling, a bunch of action without much dialog, and did I write poor description?  You can spot them a mile away.  Usually a gaudy cover with coming soon to the big screen on them.  They didn’t even wait for the book to become popular. 

 

Then there are authors such as Harlan Ellison and George Martin.  Both were unwilling to compromise on the adaptation of their writing and paid a high price for it—in some ways. 

 

In any case, don’t write your novel as if you think it’s going to become a screenplay—just write a good entertaining novel.  Make sure there is lots of description and lots of good dialog.

 

Length: Either # of words for books, or # of pages for screenplays

 

113,845 words

 

What’s the big deal with number of words?  This is the measure of any piece of writing in the world of writing.  It isn’t pages or weight, it is number of words.  If you have written something less than about 40,000 to 50,000 words, you haven’t written a novel.  Usually, the cut off point is about 40,000 words.  Plus, the word count is highly related to the type of literature or the genre of the work.

 

I’ve really become used to writing 100,000 word novels.  I don’t think I could write a shorter one, and usually I’m putting them together in the 115,000 word range.  One of my early novels was published at 114,000 words, so I don’t see this as a problem, but as I wrote, the genre can make a great difference. 

 

In general, science fiction comes in at around 75,000 words.  One of my published science fiction novels weighs in at 93,300 words.  It was still published, and I’ve been writing science fiction in the 100,000 word length for a while.  My problem is just getting a publisher who loves my work and wants to publish my newer works. 

 

In any case, I don’t think novels in the 100,000 word realm will hurt your chances unless you are writing for a young adult publisher.  They are intentionally looking for shorter works, and there are other genres, like the science fiction I mentioned that might wish something shorter than 100,000 words. 

 

If 100,000 words can be a possible problem what about longer novels.  Yeah, novels in the 125,000 word length are most likely right out.  Many publishers won’t even want to read them.  They will assume your skill is rambling or way too inclusive or worse.  150,000 words is right out.  You should cut a novel like this into multiple volumes.  I did this with my Ghostship Chronicles novels.  The novel was getting long and I broke it into five pieces, each about 75,000 to 100,000 words long.  My publisher was eyeing it for publication, but it never made contract.  I need a new publisher.

 

So, you can see, Rose: Enchantment and the Flower is in the normal range for a good novel.  I hate to write for a literary novel because literary is one of the genre that is dead at the moment.  No one wants to publish or read literary works any more.  We can just call this a normal type novel and length.  We’ll get to genre soon.

 

Keywords and Market Focus:

 

Genre:

 

Author Bio: Approximately 120 words

Synopsis:  Approximately 1000 Words

Synopsis:  Approximately 500 Words

Synopsis:  Approximately 200 Words

Concept of the Work:  Approximately 250 Words

Registration: WGA, ISBN, or Library of Congress, Write the number.

Other Information:  If you have more work, a website, anything interesting and professional, especially any awards or recognition.

Reviewer’s quotes.

1.  No more than 3 sentences about the content of your manuscript.

2.  One sentence about successful works similar to yours.

3.  No more than 2 sentences about yourself. (use 3rd person)

4.  No more than 2 sentences that include “other,” i.e. any reasons, relationships, or other factors that might make your work more attractive.

Internet site development

You might ask where did all this come from and what do I do with it?  It comes from my forty year experience with writing and publishing and working with different publishers and their representatives.  I’ll have to confess, this isn’t all my own ideas.  I received the main list years ago.  The second section came from a similar source.  My publisher wanted something very similar to that. 

 

Through extensive submission making and writing, I’ve found the information above fills all the squares.  I’ve also discovered that if and when you get a publisher, the first thing they want is some of this information.  They want blurbs.  They want a synopsis (if they didn’t already have one).  They want exciting marketing stuff.  In addition, they will want a cover idea, and they will usually want you to go through their photo provider to find photos that fit your cover ideas.  Modern covers are put together from photo and other artwork that your publisher can or has purchased from their graphics providers.  Then they stitch them together into a cohesive cover.  I take a little different approach.  I’ll discuss that tomorrow and show you what I put in the proposal.

 

All of this information is important for a publisher and for you to market your work.  Further, I use this to populate my websites.  I haven’t bought a URL for a while, but I use the many I have for my novels.  If I finally get another publisher and a work on contract, I’ll get a real URL for the novel title.  This is another important part especially for sales and marketing to readers.  I’ll go over that too.  I added that to the list at the bottom.

 

This is the list of marketing materials.  I’ll go over the cover proposal next.

 

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  

fiction, theme, plot, story, storyline, character development, scene, setting, conversation, novel, book, writing, information, study, marketing, tension, release, creative, idea, logic

No comments:

Post a Comment