Writing - part xxx580 Writing a Novel, Building a Protagonist, Fitting, Refining the Protagonist, Details, Telic Flaw Resolution, Plots, I’m still on the Historical

31 January 2024, Writing - part xxx580 Writing a Novel, Building a Protagonist, Fitting, Refining the Protagonist, Details, Telic Flaw Resolution, Plots, I’m still on the Historical

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 21^st 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.

6. The initial scene is the most important scene.

 

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 31^st novel, working title, Cassandra, potential title Cassandra: Enchantment and the Warriors.  The theme statement is: Deirdre and Sorcha are redirected to French finishing school where they discover difficult mysteries, people, and events.

 

I finished writing my 34^th novel (actually my 32^nd completed novel), Seoirse, potential title Seoirse: Enchantment and the Assignment.  The theme statement is: Seoirse is assigned to be Rose’s protector and helper at Monmouth while Rose deals with five goddesses and schoolwork; unfortunately, Seoirse has fallen in love with Rose.     

Here is the cover proposal for Seoirse: Enchantment and the Assignment: 

Cover Proposal

The most important scene in any novel is the initial scene, but eventually, you have to move to the rising action. I am continuing to write on my 30^th novel, working title Red Sonja.  I finished my 29^th novel, working title Detective.  I finished writing number 31, working title Cassandra: Enchantment and the Warrior.  I just finished my 32^nd novel and 33^rd novel: Rose: Enchantment and the Flower, and Seoirse: Enchantment and the Assignment.

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 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.

 

For novel 33, Book girl:  Siobhàn Shaw is Morven McLean’s savior—they are both attending Kilgraston School in Scotland when Morven loses everything, her wealth, position, and friends, and Siobhàn Shaw is the only one left to befriend and help her discover the one thing that might save Morven’s family and existence.

 

For novel 34:  Seoirse is assigned to be Rose’s protector and helper at Monmouth while Rose deals with five goddesses and schoolwork; unfortunately, Seoirse has fallen in love with Rose.

 

For novel 35: Eoghan, a Scottish National Park Authority Ranger, while handing a supernatural problem in Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park discovers the crypt of Aine and accidentally releases her into the world; Eoghan wants more from the world and Aine desires a new life and perhaps love.

 

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.

 

My main focus, at the moment, is marketing my novels.  That specifically means submissions.  I’m aiming for agents because if I can get an agent, I think that might give me more contacts with publishers plus a let up in the business.  I would like to write another novel, but I’m holding off and editing one of my older novels Shadow of Darkness.  I thought that novel would have fit perfectly with one potential agent who said they were looking for Jewish based and non-Western mythology in fantasy.  That’s exactly what Shadow of Darkness is, but they passed on it.  In any case, I’m looking for an agent who will fall in love with my writing and then promote it to publishers.  That’s the goal.

 

The dependency I’d like to present in a new novel is similar to Valeska but one where the protagonist falls romantically in love with the focus.  The question is the focus. 

 

Now, I’m looking and researching for a being or character who would fit the needs of the book I’m proposing.

 

Don’t modify known settings, people, or history unless you are writing alternate history.  Modify, at will, those things that are not known or recorded in history.  That comes to a very important point about historical fiction, even reflected worldview historical fiction.  That is that history doesn’t record much of the mundane we wish to include in our novels. 

 

If I’m going to develop a protagonist, I need to bring out the protagonist outline.  I’ve got it somewhere in my writing—I just have to find it.

 

I guess I’ll start with the Romantic part of the protagonist.  Then I’ll move to the more specific pieces of the protagonist.  Most precisely, I’m looking at the list of potential characters from my list of characters in my other novels.

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.

I have Áine as the potential focus of the novel.  She’s a Celtic goddess.  This focus isn’t set yet, but I need a protagonist, and I need to develop and design one.  I’m contemplating a son of the Stuarts and the Calloways.  Here’s the information from my notes.

 

Elaina actually Evir Elisabeth Stuart,  Gaelic:  Eamhair Ealasaid Stiùbhartach – The girl: she was blond with grey-blue eyes and a very Nordic or Norman look.  Her long hair was tied in a tight French weave.  She was tall and looked mature—much more mature than Sorcha or Deirdre.

            Old Raleigh bike with a basket and a bell - an old Raleigh welded-steel frame girl’s bicycle

Elaina actually Evir Elisabeth Stuart,  Gaelic:  Eamhair Ealasaid Stiùbhartach  g. Oxford b. 1975 late to Wycombe Abbey a special student of Luna’s was being groomed for work in Stela and the Organization.  He specialty is with the Fae.  They are bound to her because of her nobility and background.  She is not Fae but commands the Fae to some degree. 

                                    m. James (Seumas) Donaidh Calloway b. 1971 

                                                            c. Eoghan (Owen) Ragnall Calloway/Stuart (Stiùbhartach)

                                                            c. Aife (Eva) Eamhair (Evir) Calloway/Stuart (Stiùbhartach)

So, my protagonist Eoghan will have the very special skills of charm and sensitivity to the creatures of the land.  He won’t have any other general powers of glamour. 

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

He knows the Fae, the creatures of the land, angels, the God, and the gods and goddesses of the land.  That gives him a moral basis centered on an orthodox belief.  His family goes to church and practices all the strong tenants of Christianity. 

3. Courageous

Still, Eoghan and his sister gained some degree of training their mother and father never expected.  Eoghan is a park ranger with the Scottish National Park authority.  He was taught at their special training in law enforcement and all its attendant training.  The British military taught many of his courses, especially in hand to hand, weapons, and the wilderness.  He knows more than his mother would like, and he is strongly attracted to this life and this training.  He would like to be part of the military and has had overtures.  He is naturally courageous and naturally good.  Then he finds Aine, and she will give him a purpose for his special skills.

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

Just be aware, it must have to do with the use of their powers of charm and sensitivity in relation to leadership.  That’s the ticket.   

5. Introspective

Eoghan must be an introspective character.  We have a protagonist’s helper to aid him in expressing his mind, but he won’t let out much or as much as Aine wants and that will help drive the novel.  Remember, in writing a novel, secrets are your best friend.   

6. Travel plot

I don’t expect a really powerful travel plot like I provided in Rose and Seoirse, but we need to get Eoghan and Aine into the regular world and into regular society—that’s where the differences and the interactions with people and each other can really play out.  Plus, there is no way after about 1500 or more years in a crypt that Aine wants to remain holed up in a rural or wilderness area.  She’s for society and culture, plus part of the real fun in the novel is for them both to have new and exciting experiences together.  The travel plot makes all this possible.

7. Melancholy

Eoghan is like his mother Elaina and his sister.  They are all touched by their mother’s and family’s depreciation of their aristocracy.  They lost all in the game of promotion and house.  They lost in the game of thrones, so to speak, but they all have charm and sensitivity to the Fae and beings of the land.  That makes them powerful in their own way, but powerless in society.  This is what we will change in Eoghan.  That’s one aspect of the novel’s telic flaw.      

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

This is the desire that will consume and empower Eoghan.  This is what will drive him and Aine forward in the novel.  He will have special skills, but the reader will realize that it isn’t the skill but the dedication and work behind the skill that leads to Eoghan’s success.    

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

I’m sure there are other ways to develop this pathos in the novel.  For Rose and in Seoirse, I used some other methods and means based on Rose’s qualities and skills to develop pathos.  In general, I used dependency and the military situation in Seoirse to build pathos.  This is easy with females, but a little less easy with males.  With females, the pathos becomes situational.  For men, the pathos is dependency based.  I’m planning and building a male protagonist, so these are important considerations.  With Seoirse, I could play off the female development of pathos and the male pathos.  I think this is a great means of designing pathos.  I might be able to do this for Eoghan with Aine too.              

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

In the end, Eoghan might regret some of his actions and the results of his actions.  This creates a situation that provides tension and release.  It also continues the tension and release in what is called a sequel by some writers. 

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

In any case, self-criticism will be a characteristic of Eoghan, and it will drive Aine crazy.  Aine will be from an era where people made decisions based on life and death.  She isn’t used to second guessing.  I can imagine one of their discussions. 

To solve a problem, she says just kill someone or something.  Eoghan says no, and that astounds her.  Perhaps she will need to learn to be self-critiquing.   

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.

I will point out that with many and normal Romantic protagonists, the exclusion and self-isolation is intentional and permanent.  They desire it.  The exclusion and self-isolation caused by being an orphan or a partial orphan are also permanent and tend to develop automatic pathos in the reader for the Romantic protagonist.  I won’t use this for Eoghan. 

13. From the common and potentially the rural.

In any case, we want our Romantic protagonist to be out of the common.  We can work this in many ways, but the ultimate point is to convince the reader that the Romantic protagonist is just like them and not really special at all.

14. Love interest

So, we’ll have a great setup for this novel, this Romantic protagonist, and this protagonist’s helper.  What will really be fun is seeing Aine totally outside her comfort zone for many reasons trying to win over Eoghan.  I need to think on the details, but that’s what I’m thinking.  She’ll try all the wiles she knows and all the wiles she can figure out.

Meanwhile, Eoghan will want her to be mellow and gentle, but that’s not her way.  Can these lovebirds recover from each other?  Can they find love?  Will Aine have her way with Eoghan, or will she chicken out.  We shall see.  That’s what a love interest is all about. 

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. 

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 – I already wrote the theme statement for this novel.  Here it is:

 

Eoghan, a Scottish National Park Authority Ranger, while handing a supernatural problem in Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park discovers the crypt of Aine and accidentally releases her into the world; Eoghan wants more from the world and Aine desires a new life and perhaps love.

 

b.     Approximate age – I already wrote that Eoghan is between 19 and 21.  I think I settled on 20.  Here’s the details:                        

m. 2005 James (Seumas) Donaidh Calloway b. 1971 m. at 34 y.  2028 57 y. 

                                                            c. b. 2008 Jan Eoghan (Owen) Ragnall Calloway/Stuart (Stiùbhartach) – 2028, 20 y.

                                                            c. b. 2012 Aife (Eva) Eamhair (Evir) Calloway/Stuart (Stiùbhartach) – 2028, 16 y.

                                                            Aine appears about 16 y.

c.      Approximate social degree

 

      For Eoghan, he will be from an interesting background that allows him some opportunities, but most of them will be due to himself and not his background.  This is why I’d like to get Rose involved.  Rose has wealth and position, and she will know who should be her friends. 

    

d.     Sex - male

3.     Refine the protagonist

a.      Physical description

 

Eoghan (Owen) Ragnall Calloway/Stuart (Stiùbhartach) was a young man of average stature, height, and build.  He was so average you might miss him in the crowd except he was a man no one could miss.  His bearing wasn’t really different from most other men, but you couldn’t miss him in any group.  His height wasn’t taller than others, he was average, but for some reason he always stood out.  His face was pleasant and somewhat nondescript, but it wasn’t nondescript at all.  It was striking in the most unstriking fashion.  He just looked regal while seeming completely normal.  Women couldn’t keep from looking at him, and men all wanted to be his friend.  They flocked around him, but never hid him or overwhelmed him.  All the time, he seemed like the calmest and most reasonable person.  He was the person you wanted to invite for any reason, tea, a meal, a game, a walk—just being near him was calming and wonderful.  Even when words didn’t pass from his lips, the time was delightful.  Men wanted to hear his voice and women to touch his hand.  His voice was unimpressive and quiet, but filled with promises and strength.  It was as if every word that came out of his mouth bolstered and strengthened even when he didn’t say something erudite or when he remarked about the weather.  It was uncanny and soothing, never unnerving or worrisome.  Even his name, Eoghan Ragnall Stuart felt noble while sounding so unnormally normal.  If you called him by his Anglicized name Owen Ronald Calloway, it still sounded noble but normal.  And then his smile was always encompassing, but unassuming.  It had a slightly gloomy bent as if he took even happiness and jovialness in a sober and thoughtful way so even the most lame jokes became important and intelligent even when they weren’t.  Eoghan was always the life of the party, but unfortunately, he didn’t attend many parties at all.  He was too busy as a Scottish National Park Authority Ranger handling small difficulties for the Crown and Stela.

       

b.     Background – history of the protagonist

 

      i.     Birth

m. 2005 James (Seumas) Donaidh Calloway b. 1971 m. at 34 y.  2028 57 y. 

                                                            c. b. 2008 Jan Eoghan (Owen) Ragnall Calloway/Stuart (Stiùbhartach) – 2028, 20 y.

                                                            c. b. 2012 Aife (Eva) Eamhair (Evir) Calloway/Stuart (Stiùbhartach) – 2028, 16 y.

                                                            Aine appears about 16 y.

                                                                                                                        ii.     Setting  

                                         iii.     Life

 

iv.     Education

 

                                            v.     Work

 

                                            vi.     Profession

 

                                            vii.     Family

        

b.     Setting

   i.     Life

                                                ii.     Setting

                                              iii.     Work

c.      Name - Eoghan (Owen) Ragnall (Ronald) Calloway/Stuart (Stiùbhartach)

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 – here’s the theme statement again:

Eoghan, a Scottish National Park Authority Ranger, while handing a supernatural problem in Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park discovers the crypt of Aine and accidentally releases her into the world; Eoghan wants more from the world and Aine desires a new life and perhaps love.

The theme statement includes the telic flaw, and this theme statemen is very blatant.  The telic flaw is this:  Eoghan wants more from the world and Aine desires a new life and perhaps love.

Now, you might say this is pretty amorphous, but it does tell us a lot about Eoghan and Aine.  This drives the novel—the telic flaw is all about Eoghan determining what he wants as well as accommodating Aine in some fashion.  We can immediately see how these two ideas could fit together, and that’s what I want to do with the novel.  I want to use about 100,000 words to have Eoghan discover himself and discover his relationship with Aine.  Sounds simple, doesn’t it.  The main point in any novel is to put together a set of plots that give us a resolution of the telic flaw.  Note, there is a single telic flaw, and it belongs to the protagonist.  The rest is simply a connection to the protagonist. 

I already wrote that I am making Aine the protagonist’s helper.  This is how I love to write novels.  The protagonist’s helper is one of the most important characters in a modern Romantic novel.  That’s because the protagonist must share their inner thoughts, most specifically to be introspective.  You can’t have introspection without either telling or a sounding board.  The protagonist’s helper is a sounding board.  This character allows the Romantic protagonist to have dialog about themselves, and Aine will be the perfect protagonist’s helper.

That’s not to say, Aine won’t cut off information from Eoghan she doesn’t want to hear.  This is a real problem for and with Aine, she is a very direct, honest, and selfish person, but she really wants to please Eoghan.  She will realize her own deficiencies from the beginning, and although she will have constant lapses, she will know when she has stepped on Eoghan’s toes too much.  These events and incidents will drive the plots and the resolution of the telic flaw, Eoghan’s telic flaw.

a.      Changes required for the protagonist to resolve the telic flaw – this is what the protagonist and especially the Romantic protagonist is all about—the change.  This isn’t what you might think it is.  In some overall plots or themes this is obvious.  For example, the kid who wants to be a football player but is a 90 pound weakling.  You know what must happen.  I’ll state it, the kid must change physically and potentially mentally to achieve the goal of becoming a football player.  How about the kid who wants to become a rockstar?  They must learn to be a musician (maybe) first—that’s a change.

 

Most protagonist changes are much more subtle, and they all are redemption plots.  This is basically the definition of the redemption plot.  Even when you throw in the self-discovery or the skills plot, change insinuates some type of redemption in the change.  In fact, change itself defines redemption, and in the most beloved novels, the protagonist is all about self-discovery and change.  That’s the entire point of zero to hero and all. 

 

Just look at Harry Potty.  Harry must discover his magic and then refine it to be able to be the messiah for his friends and world.  This is a total redemption plot with a messiah none the less.  Other adult novels are much more subtle.  In Jack Vance novels, the protagonist must understand the rules of the culture and apply them.  That’s his entire Romantic protagonist development.  In other novels, the sparkly vampires, for example, the protagonist must become a vampire, but again that’s a young adult novel and not very subtle. 

 

In real past Romantic favorites, like Ivanhoe.  Ivanhoe must change his society to achieve his desired goals.  He still gets a Saxon princess.  In Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic Romantic style novels, the protagonist must make incredible discoveries, mostly about mysteries and secrets to eventually achieve the redemption telic flaw resolution.  Think Treasure Island where the protagonist must deal with pirates and others but the ultimate point is about friendships and betrayal.  The Black Arrow gives us a protagonist who must discover just who he is escorting to safety and why he (who is really a she) is so weak and unmanly.  He still falls in love. 

 

Even our favorite, non-Romantic, protagonists make changes, but usually not in the same way.  For example, Sara Crew in A Little Princess, doesn’t change so much as she comes to a realization of the life of the lowly and poor, and she wants to do anything to get out of it.  Again a type of physical redemption, but Victorian protagonists don’t change emotionally or mentally as much as physically.  Sometimes, they have to just apologize.  In any case, the protagonist and the Romantic protagonist must change in some way to achieve the telic flaw resolution.  In adult type and sophisticated novels this change is subtle.  In youth based novels, this isn’t usually very subtle at all.  We’ll look at some potential redemptive changes for Eoghan.    

i.                Physical changes – I could easily state there are no physical changes necessary for Eoghan to resolve the telic flaw, but that would be wrong.  It isn’t just internal changes or physical personal changes, but rather movement, wealth, position, and etc. when we write about physical changes.  Let me repeat the theme statement again:

 

Eoghan, a Scottish National Park Authority Ranger, while handing a supernatural problem in Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park discovers the crypt of Aine and accidentally releases her into the world; Eoghan wants more from the world and Aine desires a new life and perhaps love.

 

                                                                                                                                                To achieve this resolution, Eoghan must get more from the world.  We’ve defined this as achieving his goals in life, to some degree.  We know that Eoghan has latent charm powers which he has been trained to use, mostly through not interacting with people.  He lives his ranger existence mainly away from others.  He is self-isolated mainly because his mother see this as the best way to keep his skills in check.  However, Eoghan will soon be convinced to use his skills.  We’ll get to that, that is mental and emotional changes, but the physical changes are still very important. 

 

Physical changes are what you do with your body and placement once the emotional and mental decisions are made.  The questions we might have are:  where will Eoghan and Aine go?  What will they do?  How will Aine integrate into the world?  What will the result of their romance be?  Is there any hope for their romance?  What will Eoghan achieve?  Where will they live, train, and exist?  What will his work be?  Who will he work for?  All these questions are physically based.  They have to do with what happens in the novel and the realizations the characters make. 

 

At this point, I can’t answer all these questions.  I have my own ideas, and I’m formulating them, but from my experience, it does no good to fully outline and answer every single question, because part of the power in creative writing is to figure out ideas on the wing.  Especially the detailed ones.  It’s enough to know they exist and they are not direct physical changes.  For example, if Eoghan wanted to become a football (soccer) star in Britain, he might need to make some real physical changes.  That’s something entirely different.

                                                ii.     Emotional changes – the emotional changes or mental changes are the ones we mainly expect from modern protagonists and especially Romantic protagonists.  What’s the difference?  Emotional are usually based on feelings while mental are based on reason.  Changes in the emotional outlook, thoughts, beliefs, and perhaps feelings, as well as, the interpretation of those things are mainly what we are writing about.  There are very complex issues and points.

 

                                    I’m mainly writing about human interpretation of ideas and not the ideas themselves.  Those ideas are the mental part while emotions are about how the characters see those ideas.  For example, an idea or a fact is a fact no matter what anyone thinks about it.  Let’s use for example, Eoghan and his mother.  How does he view his mother’s interference in his life?  Before Aine, I’d say he accepts it without much thought.  That’s just what his life and life is all about for him.  After Aine, Eoghan begins to see his mother’s interference and actions as not positive at all.  His reaction will be driven by his mother’s response and actions.  With reflection, we should see Eoghan begin to change and moderate his emotions and thoughts about his mother, or specifically, how he reacts to his mother’s actions. 

 

                                    So, what I expect is that Eoghan begins to resent his mother’s actions and interference that will lead to tension and release in the novel followed by a resolute focus where Eoghan will begin to ignore and accept his mother’s negative views.  We’ll see where this all goes.  This is just one example of the many complex situations about emotions I plan for the novel.

 

                                    Another is about Aine and her feelings about Eoghan.  There is much much more.

 

Aine is the protagonist’s helper and not the protagonist, but I intend to develop her in a very romance based manner.  The problem with Aine is her culture and her past.  She is used to aggressive men who deand what they want even to the point of rape against women they desire.  In fact, this rape concept is also called ancient marriage and was and is practiced by less civilized cultures.  The idea in ancient cultures is marriage is sex and sex is marriage.  When a man had sex with a woman, he took the responsibility for the progeny from that relationship.  He also was responsible for the woman.  This is very patriarchal, but in might makes right, you do have some choices.  Death and slavery is a couple of them.  Most of the time, slavery or concubinage marriage is better than death.  The rape concept of what is considered captive marriage is and was common.  That’s just how the American Indian culture worked.  In any case, that is the type of culture Aine is used to.  She’s in for a great surprise.

 

Eoghan is nothing like the men she is used to.  Eoghan is a man of honor and integrity.  That means in the sense of the modern culture and society.  He rescues Aine because he would rescue anyone, and Aine is unbelievably grateful.  The reason is that she thought all hope was lost.  I want to paint this very strong scene in a very poignant way.  Aine is completely willing to give up everything to Eoghan because he saved her from the crypt.  She would give up her virginity, her freedom, her everything, and from her cultural world, she expects Eoghan to take all.  Only Eoghan would never think of acting in that way to any woman.  Aine is horrified that Eoghan doesn’t want her right then and right in the open.  She’s a little insulted by it.  Already affected deeply and emotionally by his rescue, Aine has a lot to process and think about.  I’m deciding just how deeply I want the conversation to delve about this great problem for Aine.  In fact, this problem that starts as Aine’s will very quickly become Eoghan’s.  That’s one of the very entertaining and fun parts of this novel I’m developing. 

 

Aine is going to have to figure out how to capture not just the mind, but the heart and soul of Eoghan.  Once she learns what in the world this silly love thing is all about.  She will pursue Eoghan with a great fervor, but she has to figure out just what love is all about, in this modern age, and how to make Eoghan love her.  This causes mental changes for Eoghan.

                                              iii.     Mental changes – now we are moving into the norm for the modern novel.  I also want to remind you that the information here are sketches while the novel is the painting.  The point of this information is to define the protagonist and potentially other important characters while defining the scope and movement of the novel.  Mental changes are just he types of changes we in the Twenty-First Century are used to in our thinking about the protagonist.  In fact, physical changes, although the norm for most earlier literature, isn’t really what we think of in most modern literature.

 

For example, in Robinson Caruso, the major point of the novel is a survival and escape plot.  There are mental changes involved, but the main point of the novel is physical and not mental.  If we look at much of Charle Dickens’ novels, we see something similar.  The overall plots are not mental, but physical.  The escape from poverty or from the current circumstances.  Even George Eliot has a similar touch in her novels.  What we can gain from this is a couple of important points.  The first is that physical change in the protagonist can move mountains.  It can really produce a powerful novel and plot.  On the other hand, the Romantic protagonist gives us a type of filter into the mind of the protagonist.  With that filter, we can see the motivations and the reasons for the need of the protagonist to change.  We can’t tell this, we must show it.  The showing it part is always physical.  This leads to the mental.

 

In the case of the novel Aine, I want to show how Eoghan changes mentally by the influence of Aine and the circumstances around their lives.  The great hook in this novel is the emotional and physical disturbance that Aine causes in the world and specifically, in Eoghan’s world.  What changes does Eoghan need to make to achieve?

 

In the first place, Eoghan needs to learn to love Aine.  That means he must learn about loving a woman.  This isn’t as easy or flippant as it might sound.  Yes, we hope love comes naturally to people, but what does that love look like and how does it manifest itself.  We know, based on his character that Eoghan is a solid and decent young man, but he is young and inexperienced.  He just has no idea how to handle Aine and her personality.  I guess I’ll get more into this, next.

 

Aine is the problem.  She isn’t the telic flaw, but she is the focus of this novel.  In other words, she is the focal point that makes everything happen.  This is typical in almost every novel, but I’m not certain there is a name for this focus.  It could be considered the subject of the novel, and I’ve heard this referred to as the cause—that’s where we get the telic flaw concept from. 

 

A telic flaw is by definition (in the Greek sense), the cause and the resolution of the novel.  Telic, in Greek means the intersection of the horizon with a vanishing point.  This is both the beginning (cause) and the end (conclusion), although the Greeks wouldn’t put it exactly that way.  So, Aine is the cause of all that will happen to Eoghan, therefore, she could be called the telic flaw.  However, she isn’t the real problem.  Eoghan’s problems are extra Aine.  In other words, Eoghan has problems outside of Aine, but Aine is the thing, the cause, that will get Eoghan thinking and changing. 

 

For this reason, I’m calling Aine, and this concept in writing, the focus.  She is the reason everything happens, but not the telic flaw that needs resolution.

 

Now, what does this have to do with mental changes?  Aine is and will be a very peculiar person.  She is a being out of time, which is exactly what I aim for in my novels.  Almost all my novels are about ancient people and beings caught up in modern times.  This allows me to compare and expand for my readers the events of the past as well as the people from the past.  I want to do this intentionally as opposed to placing modern people in the past or writing a historical fiction novel.  The point is to enable a comparison between the times, the thoughts, and the people.  That’s what is so delectable about Aine.

 

Aine is no girl from the present.  I’m sure there are girls (women) like Aine in the modern world, but what is so powerful is that Aine represents a culture, the ancient Celtic and Gaelic culture.  This provides me a circumstance of writing about that culture and the ancient times.  Every reference Aine has is a reference from the past.  She has no idea or concept of the present or modern times.  Eoghan will be an enigma for her.  I’ve mentioned this before, and I’ll get into it next.  That is Eoghan as seen by Aine and the changes he must make mentally to resolve the telic flaw.

 

Perhaps the first major or main change in Eoghan is to accept Aine.  Eoghan has never met a girl let alone a person like her.  In his worldview, she is crass, crude, dangerous, violent, emotional, somewhat underhanded, driven to excess, uneducated, unrefined, uninformed, among other negatives.  Some of these just aren’t her fault.  She can’t really help being uneducated by the times—they passed her by.  The problem is to get Eoghan to see the world from her standpoint, and also to see success using her methods and her approaches. 

 

I’m not saying that Aine has better ideas or ways of living, but she does have many positives.  Let’s look at them.  Aine is a survivor.  She is educated in living in the wild and with nothing.  She’s used to having nothing and most of her life has been a real fight for survival and just to eat.  She is a deity, but what does that mean?  She doesn’t need food or sustenance to exist, but she desires it to live and for life.  As a Celtic deity, her desire is to provide and to receive adulation.  She is the sun goddess and represents the growth of the crops.  Most specifically she is “the Celtic sun goddess and goddess of wealth, sovereignty, and summer. In Irish mythology, she is also a fairy queen and goddess of the moon, earth, and nature, and could shapeshift into a red horse.”  These abilities don’t necessarily make her invincible.  They imply and give her powers and responsibilities that she then gives to the Celtic people.  These are also the things she knows and has power over.

 

In the reflected worldviews I use, the gods and goddesses have great powers, but their powers are significantly limited by the constraints of their environment as well as the limits of myth.  Aine can bring wealth, sovereignty, and provide summer, but she can’t make the world perpetual summer, that would destroy nature.  The longer and more power she applies to hold the world in summer, the weaker she gets.  Likewise, she can bestow wealth, but that requires actions to produce wealth.  The more she has to do to bring it about, the more power of the land it takes from her.  She is very like the Fae—they also use the power of nature to use glamour.  Aine controls glamour but also direct miracles. 

The main point of this is that Aine must convince Eoghan of her value and Eoghan must come to terms with Aine’s personality and abilities or lack thereof.  Aine must change and Eoghan must change.  That may be enough said.

b.      Alliances required for the protagonist to resolve the telic flaw – remember, none of this information is ever shared with the reader.  This information might and may be revealed, but only through actions and dialog.  We show alliances, we don’t declare alliances. 

 

Now, you might reach some point in a novel where the characters come to some agreement to work together.  Yes, that is an alliance, they can even call it an alliance, but that should never be declared in the narration or by some omniscient voice of the narrator, or any other such means.  If the author feels like a declaration of alliance needs to be made, then that is expressed in dialog—that’s showing.

 

I’ve done this in many of my novels.  I really haven’t called it an alliance perse, but my characters have made agreements and contracts with each other to support their goals, some mutual and some not so mutual.  Now, back to Aine.

 

The most obvious alliance is between Aine and Eoghan.  This will be carefully and deeply manufactured based on their personalities and likes and dislikes.  The point is to get the very strong willed Aine to agree that she must depend on Eoghan.  I think this will be easy to show and to work since Aine starts entirely and completely dependent on Eoghan. She has nothing in this world, no friends, no acquaintances, no support, no money, nothing.  She starts emotionally and physically dependent on Eoghan.  He’s just a nice guy.  He would never hold anything back from her.  Part of the fun of this novel will be the clash between these two with Aine constantly reminding herself of her own dependency and lack of everything.  Then there are the other characters who will bring great fun into the novel because of their closeness and alliances with Eoghan and then Aine.

 

This is the point, Eoghan naturally brings people into his camp—Aine does not.  I’ll get to those alliances, next.

 

What I want to do is to expand Aine’s world in the novel while bringing Eoghan into the fold of the world and others in the Organization and Stela.  At the beginning of the novel, Eoghan’s only connectiona to the Organization, which I’ve explained, and Stela, which I’ve explained, are his mother and his father.  He is an isolated person.  I’m not sure how I’ll play his earlier friends and acquaintances or if he has any.  What I really want to build up is the relationships with the characters I’ve developed and made in my other latest novels.  These are specifically: Rose (Lady Tash, Princess of the Fae), Seoirse (Lieutenant Wishart), Shiggy (Major Cross), Major Cross (Shiggy’s husband), Luna Bolang (Colonel Bolang), Sorcha (Lieutenant Colonel), Ms. O’Dwyer (Mrs. Marshall), and all.  There are many many more.  The point is to introduce Eoghan and then Aine to these people and bring him out of his shell and into the community of his work and those who work for these groups. 

 

The primary people I’d like Eoghan to meet are Rose and Seiorse, but I’m not sure how I’ll play this out.  The other person I’d like Aine to become acquainted with and friends with is Eoghan’s sister Aife (Eva).  That’s a start.  Eva has desires for much more than she currently has.  She wants more from the world and is something of a mirror to Eoghan.  Aine and Eva will collude together to use Eoghan to get what they want.  Perhaps the best first contact is with, Stela in the Organization.  That would be Mrs. Marshall (Ms. O’Dwyer).

 

Ms. O’Dwyer is the head of Stela.  She is the main connection to all the others.  There may also be some means of connecting Eoghan to the others through the Black Branch and the Red Branch.  The Red Branch is the Celtic training island for men analogous to the Black Branch which is the Celtic training island for men.  The Celts had strange ideas about warrior training.  They believed women warriors should train men and women warriors should train women.  Women were the trainers.  That’s odd in cultures.  What’s fun about this is that Aine is not a warrior of any kind.  Eoghan isn’t a warrior either.  On the other hand, Rose and Seoirse are warriors.  I want to contrast these two couples.  That’s part of the point of the Eoghan and Aine pairing.  These are the alliances I’d like to develop.  They will build on these to eventually resolve the telic flaw.  Then there are enemies, like the antagonist.         

c.      Enemies required for the protagonist to resolve the telic flaw – yes, there should and must be an antagonist.  In modern writing and literature, an indirect antagonist is becoming more and more common.  I’m not sure if this is good or bad.  An indirect antagonist is like a nation, a government, nature, a company, a religion, an idea, a concept, a force of nature, or an organization.  Authors can make these direct antagonist by turning them into a leader, a person in the government, a god, the CEO, a priest or religious leader, a guru (one who sells and leads the idea), a professor (one who sells and leads the concept), a spirit, or a leader.  Notice each of these are personifications of the broader organizations or concepts they represent.  What shall we do with Aine?

 

The problems in Aine relates to Stela and the Organization and their connections to the British government.  These are really the indirect antagonists in the novel.  To personify these antagonists, I should use the leaders and specifically Mrs. Marshall (Ms. O’Dwyer).  Now, Mrs. Marshall isn’t really opposed exactly to Aine or to Eoghan or to their desires and wants.  Eoghan’s mother and father are a bit.  Basically, the system and structure of the organizations in authority here are somewhat opposed to the interests of Eoghan and Aine only because of lack of knowledge and because of fear. 

 

Mrs. Marshall wants to protect Britain from the supernatural.  She will view Aine as a potential threat and Eoghan with Aine as a real threat.  Eoghan has much much more power than Aine in many ways.  This will become clear in the novel.

Eoghan’s mother and father want what’s best for Eoghan and his sister Eva.  Aine will be offering something new and different to them both.  The excitement and new worlds Aine offers are really not from Aine herself only her rogue and uncontrolled nature.  Aine offers freedom and excitement and new ideas.  These will be promoted by Rose and Seoirse and others. 

 

By the way, I also want to show Rose and Lady Wishart’s reconciliation in this novel.  I’d like to have Eoghan and Aine bring them together.  Lady Wishart is a wild child and a wild heart.  She is independent.  Rose is very similar.  In my previous novel, they had a huge falling out, caused by Rose to achieve her goals.  I want to show how Rose was thwarted and how she gained back some of Lady Wishart’s trust.  That same change will show trust to Eoghan and Aine.

 

There is another point about antagonists I’d like to make and express.  It’s the Christmas Carol conundrum.  I’ll get to that, next.

 

A Christmas Carol is an interesting novel.  I’m not sure if it is the first novel that has a positive antagonist, but it’s one of the first.  Just what is a positive antagonist?  In A Christmas Carol, Scrooge, the protagonist is not a nice person.  He requires redemption.  The antagonists (enemies) are the spirits of Christmas past present and future with the overall antagonist being good will, but really God Himself.  It’s a type of allegory.  Now, the point is that the antagonists in A Christmas Carol are all good and not bad at all.  They have no negatives and no ill will about Scrooge—they are all about helping Scrooge reach and resolve the telic flaw.  This is a new idea in literature.

 

In almost all literature prior to this novel, the antagonist, by definition, attempted to prevent the protagonist from achieving the resolution of the telic flaw.  In A Christmas Carol, this is turned on its head.  Yet, everyone knows this is a very effective and entertaining novel.  For this reason alone, I think it might be one of Dickens best novels.  He set the standard.

 

That means you can have an antagonist who is or is not actively opposing the resolution of the telic flaw, but who isn’t really an enemy or directly opposed to the protagonist.  It give the writer a sliding scale of the antagonist.  This also means you can have an antagonist who means well and hopes for the best for the protagonist, but at the same time opposes the resolution of the telic flaw.  This is what I’m likely going to put in Aine.

 

The antagonist(s) are likely the Organization and Stela along with others who believe they are helping Aine and Eoghan.  The end result will be something different than any of them can imagine, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t friends or working together.  The point, for the writer, is the telic flaw resolution.  The antagonist causes opposition or as we see can actually aid in the telic flaw resolution (A Christmas Carol) the point is to develop the storyline and the characters in an entertaining fashion.  That leads us to how we achieve this.  That’s through the tension and release in the scenes and directly through the plots.       

d.     Plots required for the protagonist to resolve the telic flaw – this is where it gets easy and complicated.  First, let me tell you about plots. 

 

We generally think of plots in novels as singular, as in, Harry Potty’s first novel has a plot, but that’s not true at all.  To be able to actually define the singular or overall plot of any novel is nearly impossible.  I write nearly impossible, because I’m sure many have tried and think they achieved some success, but if you look at any novel in all of history, you will find many plots at least as many plots as scenes in the novel. 

 

Now, the idea of scenes isn’t a new one, but it’s one most people and many writers don’t fully comprehend.  Novels are made up of scenes.  Basically, scenes are the final building block of the novel.  A scene incorporates a plot that leads to tension and release within the scene (or it should).  A novel is usually of this form (99% of them):

1.     Initial scene

2.     Rising action

3.     Climax scene

4.     Falling action

5.     Dénouement

 

The novel has many plots involved in the development and expression of the novel.  One means of novel development is to pick plots to put into the novel.  I wrote that a scene has at least one plot, but it can have many plots.  You can stack plots on plots.  In fact, that’s what most really great and classic novels do.  They are plots on top of plots.  There might be an overall plot, like the resolution of a mystery or a crime, but that’s just part of the many plots in the novel.

 

I mentioned mystery or crime specifically because this is one of the easiest telic flaws to understand and describe.  The telic flaw of a mystery or crime novel is the resolution of the mystery or the crime.  How the mystery or crime gets resolved incorporates the many different plots in scenes that all move toward the resolution.

 

For example, the detective (crime) or mystery plot is based on the resolution of the telic flaw or a mystery or a crime.  One of the other plots you will certainly see in such a novel is one or most discovery plots.  Each scene might have a discovery plot that drives it.  The protagonist discovers some clue or clues that help lead to the resolution of the overall plot. 

 

In detective and mystery novels, the reason plot is almost always a part of the scenes.  The protagonist discovers something and makes inductive or deductive conclusions or at least reasons about the discovery.  Reason is a type of plot.  A scene with reason incorporated includes a reason plot.  I think you can see a single scene could easily incorporate both these plots.  In fact, some writers call this scenes and sequels although I just call them all scenes.  A scene, in this view, incorporates a plot that leads to a clue (discovery is just one type), while a sequel is where the protagonist thinks and perhaps makes a new discovery through reason, a mental expression. 

 

I don’t see scenes this way at all.  I write scenes that include the discovery as well as the reasoning al the time.  They aren’t separate events or pieces in my novel.  I do think the scenes and sequels concept is a good way of thinking about writing novels.  It gets the writer into the idea of scenes.  Scenes are where it is.  Next, I’ll list the potential plots form the list of classics, and discuss them.

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.

Let’s write about the overall plots a little.  In the first place, a novel is never a single plot, and not even a single overall plot.  You can find some plots sticking out further and stronger than others, but except for the three great overall plots of redemption, revelation, and achievement, you can’t really get any more detailed.  Well, with simple novels, perhaps you can, but most novels are not simple, let’s hope, and few of the classics could be considered simple.  I’ll look at the overall and the other plots in detail, but the critical point for a writer to understand is the scene.

Plots take place in scenes and scenes define the novel.  With about two to three scenes per chapter and about twenty chapters in a full length novel, we can expect about forty to sixty scenes with, let’s say an average of fifty in a novel.  Each scene is defined by a plot with tension and release.  I should go back to the overall makeup of the novel to compare, and to make this relationship of plot to the novel very clear.  Here’s the outline for most classics and about 99% of all novels:

1.      The initial scene

2.     The rising action scenes

3.     The climax scene

4.     The falling action scene(s)

5.     The dénouement scene(s)

This is how we write novels, and it’s all about scenes.  No single plot covers the entire novel.  In other words, there might be an overall plot, for example redemption, revelation, and or achievement, but there is usually no singular plot that defines the entire novel, other than these overall plots.  What you find is that in each scene, there is some plot.  That plot leads to tension and release in the scene and that scene forwards the overall telic flaw resolution in the novel.  Let me take a step back and define the novel itself.

To write a novel, we require a protagonist with a telic flaw, an antagonist, and a setting (at least initial).  The telic flaw is the telic flaw of the novel, it is not necessarily a flaw in the protagonist, but rather the flaw in the world the protagonist must resolve, not solve, but resolve.  Let me give my favorite and the easiest telic flaw to understand—the mystery telic flaw.

We have a mystery that needs to be solved.  In a Romantic novel, the only person in the world who can solve this mystery is the Romantic protagonist.  In the classics or a non-Romantic novel, the protagonist is usually one of the few in the world who might have a chance at resolving the telic flaw.  Usually, the telic flaw is exclusive to the novel and to the protagonist.  There is some connection between the two, but that’s getting into the complexities of the novel itself. 

The reason we say to resolve and not solve is that, for example, the mystery might be a murder.  It is usually impossible to bring back the dead, so the resolution will usually be determining the mystery, catching the criminal (murderer), and resolving the issues around the crime.

Now, if you look through the type of plots, there is no murder plot.  Murder isn’t a plot as much as it’s a crime, immorality, or betrayal.  It can fit into all or any of these, plus others.  The reason for the murder can also be fit into many plots: money, miscommunication, love triangle, vengeance, escape, rejection, and all.  There are many many basic plots that can be the cause the and result of murder. 

So, we expect our protagonist to determine the criminal, bring them in to justice, and resolve the telic flaw.  The question then is how and why.  There must be a how, to the murder and the resolution as well as a why.  The murder could be justified or it could be accidental.  The resolution could be very positive or very negative.  When the protagonist resolves the telic flaw, that is a comedy and when the telic flaw overcomes the protagonist, that is a tragedy. 

In any case, we stack plots in scenes to resolve the ultimate telic flaw of the novel.  In most cases, we only want and allow a single telic flaw in a novel, but many of the short story type novels, like Game of Thrones and The Martian Chronicles have made multiple telic flaws with multiple protagonists popular.  Usually there should be only one telic flaw per protagonist per novel.  That’s not a hard a fast rule, but a good one.  Messing with one telic flaw effectively is enough for most writers, and to tell the truth, short story type novels with more than one protagonist and potentially more than one telic flaw is exhausting to the reader as well as to the writer.  I find Game of Thrones to be unreadable although it fits for a motion picture or television series.  Go figure.

Now, let’s start with the basics: a single protagonist with a telic flaw, an antagonist, and a setting.  The telic flaw is a mystery.  We start with an initial scene, and I guess, I’ll continue from there, next. 

The initial scene introduces the protagonist, the telic flaw, the initial scene, and the antagonist or the protagonist’s helper.  I like to use a protagonist’s helper in my novels because I write Romantic novels with a Romantic protagonist.  Usually, the initial scene is the meeting of the protagonist and the antagonist or the protagonist’s helper.  Notice that in Aine, this is the exact initial scene I’m developing.  There are other ways to develop the initial scene, but none quite as effective. 

If you notice, most initial scenes will have a plot entirely different than the overall plot of the novel.  For example, in a mystery novel, the characters can’t just start looking for the resolution of the mystery, well I guess they can, but usually, you need to introduce the mystery—the telic flaw.  Depending on the type and storyline of the novel, the introduction of the mystery might be through a discovery plot, a travel plot, a money plot, a legal plot, or a mix of any of the plots.  For example, the impoverished protagonist might inherit a house, travel to the house, and discover there is some mystery in the house.  That’s a money, legal, travel, and discovery plot all in the initial scene and we are only introducing and unveiling the mystery. 

Once the protagonist, the antagonist (or the protagonist’s helper), the telic flaw, and the initial setting are introduced, the novel can move apace into the next scene.  These scenes form the rising action.  In the rising action, the expectation is that every scene will support the movement toward the climax and the resolution of the telic flaw, but many of these scenes incorporate different plots in themselves.  I’d say that most of these scenes will incorporate multiple plots to move the novel to the resolution.  For example, the next scene might include travel to the city to research in the library and the protagonist might meet his or her girlfriend or boyfriend.  The plots for the scene are then travel, discovery, and romance.  There might be more.  Then the author might just pick some plots to increase the excitement in the novel.  The librarian might be secretly trying to solve the mystery too.  That gives a potential betrayal plot as will as a possible vengeance plot.  In one scene the protagonist might be injured or get sick—that gives an illness plot in a scene or more than one scene.  The librarian might break into the house to find more clues—that’s a crime plot.

Here's the point, every scene includes a plot, many times multiple plots, all of these plots combining to move the rising action to the climax and the telic flaw (mystery, in this case) resolution. 

Novels are not about a single plot or even a single overall plot—they are a bundle of plots held together by scenes—the scenes incorporating plot(s) that all lead to the climax and resolution of the telic flaw.  For this reason alone, we can look at the list of plots and choose them to incorporate, or not, into the novel we intend to write.  That’s just what I want to do with Aine.

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) – as I wrote, when we converse about plots in a novel, we generally mean an overall plot, but in reality, novels usually don’t have an overall plot, not in the sense we usually mean.  We want to find some physical plot that defines the novel, but I really challenge you to do that.  In reviewing the classics, I found no such singular overall plot, but rather many plots in every novel.  I did find three general overall plots in every novel with subplots of these that then form the novel itself. 

These overall plots are very interesting.  They do define the novel, and they are historically defined and show an evolution with novel design.  That is, we find early novels with the overall achievement plot followed by the revelation plot and finally most modern novels with some degree of a redemption plot.  That’s not to say there are no early examples of a redemption plot, but the history of novels and of writing fiction, in general, follows an evolution of ideas and writing skills and styles.  It shouldn’t be surprising that Robinson Caruso is all about achievement (escape from an island) while Harry Potty is all about redemption (from the evil Voldermort and his evil wizards)--and Harry Potty is just one hack example.

Now, about overall plots.  These are definitely something we should evaluate and choose for our novel.  Many times the specifics of the telic flaw and it’s resolution will define the overall plot.  For example, stuck on an island or solve a crime or solve a mystery.  These types of novels almost always devolve into achievement plots, although they can rise to a more details and internal plot. 

When I write detailed and internal, I don’t mean that as a pejorative.  You find great novels that are all about achievement, but the really great and indeed the modern classics are all about redemption as well as achievement.  Whoops, I wrote it.  Almost all novels start with an achievement premise and telic flaw, but the overall telic flaw usually becomes one of redemption.  I’ll get into the idea of redemption when we address it next.  It may not be exactly what you are thinking.   

1.     Redemption (o) – 17i, 7e, 23ei, 8 – 49% - I should start with achievement as a plot, but I’ll go for the best, but latest first—redemption.  Redemption means to be redeemed from something—this might sound overly simple and repetitive, but the point is that many might imagine redemption is about the soul or spirit, in the sense of being religiously redeemed.  Religious redemption isn’t necessarily what redemption means—that is only one type of redemption.  A person can be redeemed from their abusive lifestyle or from sickness or from poverty.  The most important part of redemption, however, is that the person, the protagonist changes mentally.  That’s the point of redemption of any type.

You can have a redemption plot where the protagonist finds his or her place with God in a spiritual sense, but usually, and in most literature, that’s not what we are writing about.  We are writing about the change of heart and mind of the protagonist that propels them out of whatever bad place they happen to be.  This is why redemption is such a powerful and popular plot type, and especially an overall plot type.  The redemption plot is really the bread and butter of overall plots.  In fact, we pretty much expect these types of plots. 

It isn’t enough that Harry Potty overcome his enemies in whatever version of the seven novels about him, what really matters is how he has changed inside that allows him to overcome his doubts, fears, and problems so he can be redeemed by the end.  Now, Harry Potty is obviously an overall redemption plot, especially the first novel.  The others are all redemption to some degree or other.  They just aren’t as powerful as they should be, even as redemption plots.  What we really want in a novel is an full on redemption of the protagonist.  That’s what I plan in Aine.

Eoghan needs to find himself.  He really isn’t from an abusive background.  His parents are kind but controlling—that’s still not enough reason for redemption.  What Eoghan needs is to find what he really wants and to achieve it.  What I’m going to build is that Eoghan needs Aine and Aine needs Eoghan.  I want to put them together in a romance and helping relationship where they are both changed for the better.  Aine integrates into the modern world and Eoghan finds his place.  He will have to change mentally, emotionally, and intellectually to be achieve this—that’s a type of redemption.

2.     Revelation (o) –2e, 64, 1i – 60% - the revelation plot broadly precedes the redemption plot in history.  In this type of plot, the novel reveals usually a character but many times some other aspect in the world.  Because the protagonist is the focus of the novel, the revelation must be part of the protagonist and the telic flaw, but you can see the revelation can be a mystery or a crime the protagonist must solve. 

Revelation plots are still very popular and successful, but the revelation plot turns easily into a redemption plot.  Revelation very quickly turns to a need to be redeemed plot or the redemption premise becomes part of the redemption.  I’ll point out A Christmas Carol as an example  That’s a revelation plot with a redemption premise.  Another example is the Harry Potty books.  They are all redemption plots wrapped around revelation plots.

This is perhaps the best modern type of novel—it keeps the level of excitement high through revelations and the overall plot balanced with the redemption plot and the end or telic flaw.

That’s not to say you won’t find many purely revelation novels or redemption novels without a high degree of revelation, but revelation is a very powerful type of plot and overall plot.

What we can see already is that the overall plots are mixed up with each other in the same way the other plots are all mixed up with each other.

I intend the revelation plot to be a very large part of Aine.  From the first moment of the novel, the world of the supernatural and of the Scottish National Park system as well as certain aspects of British intelligence system.  That’s what my novels are all about.  Did I have to mention Eoghan’s and Eva’s family.  All these and more are revelation targets in the novel.     

3.     Achievement (o) – 16e, 19ei, 4i, 43 – 73% - notice all the classic with an achievement plot.  That’s because achievement was one of the first overall plots.  It fits very well into the scheme of the novel, but it was pretty quickly eclipsed by the revelation and the redemption plots because those are much more important once people get out of a starvation culture.  The achievement of certain overall goals still make a great overall plot, but once people have food in their bellies, a job, and purpose or at least entertainment, they become more interested in the whys rather than the whats.  When they have achieved, they are more interested in the reveling and the redeeming. 

This is also why young adult and children’s novels are usually about achievement rather than revelation and redemption.  Perhaps we should explain about achievement. 

Achievement, as a plot, is about achieving some goal.  Robinson Caruso is considered the first novel in the English language—it’s overall plot is all about rescue and survival.  Rescue and survival are obviously achievements.  There are some touches of revelation in the novel, but not many any there is no redemption.  Robinson Caruso didn’t need to change at all to achieve his goals—he needed to survive.

Then we get into the true Romantic Era with Sir Walter Scott.  One of his greatest works is Ivanhoe.  Ivanhoe is about achievement—the achievement of peace and success for the Saxons in Norman French England.  There are also touches of revelation, but achievement is the goal and the main point of the novel. 

That brings us into the Victorian Era and let’s pick one of those dead male writers academia shears to hate like Jane Austin, George Elliot, or maybe the Bronte sisters.  Oh, they are female authors in their own right and the crowns of the Victorian Era.  We should pick at least a male, like Dickens.  Look at Oliver Twist, for example, there is a novel about achievement with a huge touch of revelation.  The Moonstone is the first detective novel, and all about revelation.  Don’t forget Dracula, also all about revelation.  Then back to Jane and Pride and Prejudice, that is a novel almost entirely taken up with revelation with the final act the revelation of the affections of the antagonist for the protagonist.  The end is an achievement, matrimony, but everything else is all about revelation.  That then brings us up to the modern Romantic Era—the Modern Era for writing.  That’s the Era of redemption.  I won’t go over it again.

Back to achievement.  The achievement plot is the basis for all other plots.  Readers expect some achievement basis that then has a revelation and redemption component. So, what will be the achievement basis for Aine?

I think I’ll start with the idea of Eoghan becoming integrated into the Organization and the Stela part of the intelligence structure.  He has skills they could use as well as leadership skills from his mother.  Eva can also tag along with this basic achievement.  Aine herself wants to integrate and she wants the love of Eoghan.  That’s a great achievement. 

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) – the first stop in Greece was Olympus.  The tour was great, but the lunch okay.  I could have used a Greek salad and a Mythus beer, but there was an okay buffet.  I’ve been to Greece many times before and to Olympus more than once.  I set a couple of my novels in Greece.  I really like Greece.  I’ve even had my characters go to Olympus.  It was just as I described it and just as I remembered it.  However, they have a new entry and gatehouse.  Here’s where we write about setting and the setting plot.

Just by picking Greece and places in Greece as a setting, I’ve enacted a setting plot.  It happens to be Greece as a setting, and the reality is that Greece is a setting while a setting plot is a setting that automatically starts a type of plot based wholly on the setting, so, no, Greece is not a setting plot.  Greece is just a type of setting, and a great setting.

In a setting plot, the setting itself determines the plot.  This will become clearer as we develop the idea of a setting plot.  A great type of setting, like Greece, makes for a great setting—a great place to launch a plot.  This is why I choose very specific places or setting for my novels and my plots. 

If you haven’t noticed, I choose settings based very specifically on my protagonist and my characters.  The novels I set in Greece are there because of the protagonist and the characters.  Setting plots are similar, but different.  In general, a setting plot is a setting plot because of the type of plot as compared to the type of setting.  I really won’t get deeply into the details of building a setting, but suffice to say, the initial setting of the novel is critical to the novel.  It comes from the protagonist and the setting of the initial scene.  From there, the scenes build on their input and output sequences.  We’ll see how we might use setting plots in Aine.  

1.     End of the World (s) – 3 – 3% - I don’t intend to use any type of this plot although I think you can use a limited end of the world plot.  I want to explain how the setting creates or develops the plot.  In this case, if you have an end of the world setting, you will have an end of the world plot.  You can’t get away from it.  This is true of most (all) setting plots, and this is the problem with the setting plot.  If you have a certain type of setting, you pretty much must include that setting plot.  This is especially true of the end of the world plot.  In fact, I can’t imagine how you can’t have the end of the world plot without an end of the world setting and visa versa. 

Now, the bigger question is can you set up an end of the world plot that isn’t really about the end of the world—the answer is, yes.  As a matter of fact, Harry Potty is a limited end of the world plot.  How’s that?  Harry Potty is a limited end of the world plot.  The end of the world is the end of the wizarding world and the Harry Potty world.  Really, who cares?  That is, who cares about the end of the wizarding world that no one except the magic folks can even know?  The end of Harry Potty’s world doesn’t mean any negative affect on the rest of the world, but it gives you an understanding of how to write a limited end of the world plot. 

If it is the end of something important like a business, an era, a nation, an idea, a philosophy, a theology, or anything like that.  Anything that is valuable and that will change people’s lives or existence can be developed into an end of the world type plot, and used very well. 

I’m opposed to the end of the world plot because since Noah, it has been stale.  There really was an end of the world, the rest are just facetious and silly.  I mean really, the closest humanity has come to the end of the world is a nuclear war, but it hasn’t happened and even the couple of nuclear events that we know affected humanity, didn’t come close to destroying the world.  However, such an event, like the bombing of a city or destruction can be a limited end of the world plot. 

In the case of Aine, I could present an end of the world she knows, but that would only affect her and no one else.  An end of the world plot of any size must affect a large number of people.  One or two isn’t enough.  A business might be enough, but it should affect more than a few.  It should really affect a community.  So, I don’t think an end of the world plot is suitable for Aine.  A limited end of the world plot might be a great fit in some novels.  I don’t recommend an all out end of the world plot.

2.     War (s) – 20 – 18% - the war plot is perhaps the most useful plot in all literature.  It was totally misused and not used enough during the Victorian Era.  For some reason the Victorians were embarrassed by sex, sickness, toilet work, basics of work, household stuff, and war.  Why they didn’t like to write about war is silly to me.  Then the few war plots you get are real classics from the era, like Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities.  The few war plots from this era are usually classics.  So, how can you use the war plot?

You can obviously go for the full-on war plot—you can place your novel in a war.  That setting can be either in the midst of the fighting, in support of the fighting, the home front with the soldiers, the home front with non-fighters, or about anything else you can think of.  This variety is what makes the war plot and the war setting so powerful.  It also brings up the question why the Victorians didn’t use the war plot when there were wars going on all around them and during their times.  They just didn’t like the war setting, I guess.  I love the war plot.

In my writing I use the cold war concept to develop my novels.  Not all of my writing has a war plot or setting, but much of it does.  Almost all of my published science fiction has a war plot and setting.  Much of my other fiction is set either during wars or in cold wars.  The intelligence setting (which is a war setting) makes for a great war plot.  Let me give you some ideas and write about it.

In the intelligence business, there is overt and covert operations.  Both of these support a war setting and a war plot—they aren’t about hot wars, usually, they are all about cold wars.  This was the basis for my work in the military.  I use the war setting in many if not most of my writing, and if it isn’t a war setting or plot, the novels or characters have a connection to the intelligence business and therefore to the war plot and setting.  For example, in Essie: Enchantment and the Aos Si, the Aos Si is characterized as being at war with Ceridwen and therefore with England.  In addition, in the same novel, Mrs. Lyons is the wife of Lt Col Lyons who runs the Organization a language intelligence service and operation under the MI structure (it used to be MI-19).  So, even this novel that is only loosely connected to a war setting is really a war plot with a war setting.  Who would imagine.

The intelligence structure and operations make for great war settings even when they are not full-on war settings.  This is the type of environment (setting) I like to work with and in.  Aine will be like this, too.

In Aine, Eoghan and his family are connected to the intelligence structure through the Organization (MI-19) and Stela, a branch under the Organization that protects Britain from the supernatural.  This automatically places the setting in a type of war setting—it is an intelligence and cold war type setup, but the challenge is from the supernatural as well as the other political and hegemonic enemies of Britain.  The intelligence agents and operatives are working to protect and help protect Britain even if there is no hot war going on.  I’ll describe more about how I’ll use this plot and setting, next.

We have Eoghan who is an agent for Stela—even if he doesn’t fully understand what Stela is.  Steal, I’ll remind you is the British intelligence agency under the Organization that is the past MI-19.  I guess I’ll write about the MI structure just for kicks and grins. 

In WWII, the MI structure included MI-1 through MI-19 excluding MI-13 and MI-18.  They just weren’t used.  All the MIs except MI-5, MI-6, and MI-19 were absorbed into MI-5 and MI-6 or other military and civilian government agencies.  We know what happened to MI-5 and MI-6—they are still around.  The big question is what happened to MI-19.  I have no real idea, but MI-19 was the prisoner interrogation arm of the MI structure.  It handled mostly Germans, but obviously all the other prisoners.  To do that, you need to be able to speak the languages of the prisoners.  Every military intelligence system or structure must have a foreign language group attached to it.  A foreign language group handles three levels of language intelligence. 

1.     Basic language intelligence – this is the detailed knowledge of a foreign language for the purpose of training, translations, and education.  These are operatives who may be first language speakers of the foreign language.  These people understand, for example, English and their primary language very well, their language perfectly, but may have accents and not a perfect understanding of English.  They can’t pass as a British citizen in their appearance or their English pronunciation.

2.     Mid-grade language intelligence – these are British citizens whose primary language is usually British English, but their secondary language is good, but not perfect.  Their appearance usually doesn’t matter.  They don’t need to look or sound like a perfect British citizen, but they usually need to seem like a British citizen.  These are the operatives who usually accomplish prisoner interrogations and expatriate and defector debriefings.  They can additionally occasionally be used as basic language operatives, but usually their secondary language skills aren’t good enough to be basic language operatives.  Usually, they have accents in their secondary language that makes them unusable in the highest classification of language spies.

3.     Language intelligence agents—these are British citizens whose primary language is British English, who have one or more secondary languages that they learned in the country of question, and who look undoubtably like a British citizen.  Their language skill in English is perfect with no foreign accent and their secondary language skill is street level with no British accent.  These are your covert agents.  I should note that there is a subgroup of these agents who might understand a secondary language perfectly, but have some accent.  These are less useful, but can play a role as an agent.  The characters I usually write about are these agents.

Let me explain a little bit about language intelligence.  I guess I’ll do that next.

Where is MI-19?  Nations don’t get rid of their most powerful intelligence organizations.  That’s why in my novels, MI-19 became, the Organization.  They support foreign language operations and provide foreign language operatives and agents to the system.  Their agents and operatives are found in the other military intelligence agencies, MI-5 and MI-6, and specifically in the foreign office.  Most of the Organization’s operatives are in the Organization, but some are shared with other intelligence and government offices.  The greatest use of agents is in the foreign office and in MI-6.  Here’s why.

There are many uses for language intelligence assets, but the highest use is the covert surveillance of foreign actors.  This usually happens around the embassies and foreign dignitaries like ambassadors.  The most common overt and covert operations are just listening through all kinds of means to foreign actors.  For listening, in this sense, you don’t need the really high end level three language intelligence agents—you just need operatives at the first level.  However, for covert operations, you must have level three agents.  What exactly does a level three agent do?  In language intelligence, these are listeners who, look like they could never be listeners.  This is the backbone of covert language operations.  In the main, these are the young and totally British looking secretaries, guards, muscle, and lower level people who are full-on language experts with intimate understanding of the targeted language or languages.  They might accompany an ambassador in all kinds of capacities, and they act in these capacities, but their real reason for being is that they can surreptitiously listen and report on conversations around them.  They are rarely known to the ambassador or British secretary.  They never let on their language skills because that would compromise their covert positions and the effectiveness.  If an enemy sees a lower level pure British looking subject in a group, they are very likely to communicate openly with other members of their own group in a way that might give up great intelligence.  Plus, these agents can check translators and translations.  The reports go secretly through the intel system and come back to the ambassador or secretary via classified means.  Meanwhile, no one expects the lower level secretary to the ambassador or secretary.  The enemy feels like they can speak plainly around them.  This is also why guards and muscle make great covert language agents—who would expect the MI-6 muscle protecting an ambassador or secretary to know the language?  Especially those who don’t look like the culture or society in question.  That’s why looking like a common British citizen is important.  Remember the first language and covert agent of the Brits in India?  At least the first written about in a novel.  Don’t you remember Kim by Rudyard Kipling? 

Kim was a child who was brought up and lived on the streets of India.  He was the child of a Brit and an Irishman.  He looked nothing like the Indians around him, but he knew their languages at the street level, and he knew the people and their culture at an intimate level.  He was, for all practical purposes, an Indian person in the body of a British citizen—this is the perfect language intelligence asset and agent (spy).  How do you get a person like this?  I’ll show you that, next.

Like Kim, language spies and agents, in general, came and come from those children born of British citizens who grew up in foreign environments.  These are many times the children of foreign secretaries, ambassadors, and military people.  As the British empire wound down and caved in on itself, another and better source became more prevalent—missionaries.  The children of foreign secretaries and ambassadors are only a small resource and tend to be of the class that doesn’t need much employment.  The British military has been reduced to mostly embassy assignments.  Missionaries go to very exotic locations, live there, and have children.  Their children grow up learning the languages on the street—they are the main modern source of the level three language agents.  The only other source comes from mixed families, however, there are a couple of problems with these.  The first is that a great language agent looks completely British and not like they could ever understand the language.  That allows covert actions and operations.  The other is accent and street wise understanding of the culture.  Unless properly trained, many mixed families don’t pass the necessary accents and street understanding of their own cultures as well as the British culture.  Both are necessary.

There are also infiltration operations and covert operations within groups as agents, however, these are less common and there is an obvious tendency to use local people and not citizens in these operations.  A British citizen caught in covert operations within another country faces exposure, punishment, and potentially death.  On the other hand, a foreign national caught operating either legally or illegally in their own nation can be tried for treason, but usually such indirect connections, especially in the third world, are difficult to expose and more difficult to prosecute.  The fact a citizen is selling or discovering information for Britian in their own nation usually has a commercial reason, however, if a little military or other information happens to make it into the briefing, who’s to say it wasn’t just for commercial reasons.  So, how do you use these language experts, and how will I use them in Aine?  That’s next.

I’ve used the language experts, operatives and agents from the Organization and Stela in my novels as embassy secretaries and muscle as well as operatives in the Organization.  I follow the main tenants of the language intelligence structure.  Many of my characters are shares from the Organization.  They work in MI-6.  I haven’t written about MI-5.  I’m not as familiar with their operations.  You might ask why I write about the French and British language intelligence and intelligence operations when I’m not British or French.  The reason is easy.  I used to work for the US government in Special Missions and Special Operations.  I can’t write about those operations, but I can write about the similar British and French operations because they are similar. 

In Aine, I will use the Organization and Stela as the main agencies of Eoghan and his family.  In my finished novel, Deirdre: Enchantment and the School Dierdre and Sorcha met Elaina who is the mother of Eoghan.  Elaina was recruited by Luna Bolang for Stela.  She has issues and powers.  I already mentioned about this, and they directly affect Eoghan and his sister. 

Much of the novel will be about the problem of Aine which is that she is a goddess and Stela would be very interested in her is they knew about her.  That’s the secret and one of the mysteries.  The readers and Eoghan will know who Aine is from the beginning, but the fun use of the reveal of this secret will be a driver in the novel.  Both the reveal and the threat of revelation will be the fun and entertaining part of the novel.  This will have a lot to do with Stela and the Organization.  Stela because of the supernatural, but the Organization because of the language.  This is where we get the language intelligence and the war plot. 

Eoghan is trained in modern English, Celtic, Gaelic, Anglo-Saxon, the Fae language, and maybe other ancient British languages.  These are his language skills for the Organization.  These re his intelligence skills, and he will need them. He will have to be the communicator and translator for Aine.  His sister, Eva, will be about to communicate in these languages as well.

The war will be a cold one that threatens to become a hot one.  The war will be the silent one between the supernatural forces, the gods, goddesses, Fae, and other creatures and the humans.  There is some degree of conflict between humans and the Fae because of land.  Other creatures have their disputes with humans as well—that is Eoghan’s job, to make things right with the Fae.  Aine is supernatural, so she will fit into the bailiwick of Eoghan and his sister.  The problem will be that Eoghan and Eva will want to keep Aine’s existence and being on the down low.  There will be many reasons for this, but if you can imagine that Aine is not just a goddess, but a Fae Queen, as well as a symbol of the power of Ireland, then you might be able to see some of the real issues she could cause, or that her presence could cause.  This will be the war setting and the war plot.  It’s not a full on setting or plot, but it’s like the cold war with secrets and secret actions.  We’ll see how this all works out, but that’s about it for the war setting and plot.         

3.     Anti-war (s) –2 – 2% - if you notice there are only two classics that have an anti-war plot—the reason should be obvious to the most casual observer.  Anyone who has any knowledge of history knows that anti-war is much more dangerous for humans than war.  History shows that a war can completely end not just a nation but a society and a culture.  The Carthaginians, for example, were completely eradicated as a people, a culture, and a nation.  They were about the most evil culture known to man—infant slaughter (sacrifice) and other atrocities, and the Romans finally got tired of fighting them.  In the third war against them, they annihilated their people, their capital, tore it down and salted the ground.  It was a great day for humanity, but a lesson for the ages that war can indeed solve a problem and end real evil. 

The trite claim that war doesn’t solve anything is haunted by the ghosts of the Carthaginians—war did, indeed solve all their problems.  So, you might think that we should promote anti-war so we don’t end up like the Carthaginians.  Not so, we should promote security like the Greeks and Romans so we don’t end up like the Carthaginians.  That’s the lesson of history.  Anit-war is considered an irrational idea and plot, and although many have used it, there are only two classics and they are basically worthless, in my opinion.  Plus anti-war doesn’t provide a great setting or plot anyway. 

If you want to use an anti-war plot, I’d recommend it as a satire.  I don’t intend to use the anti-war plot in Aine.  I might introduce a little satire about anti-war because of just who Aine is, but I don’t know how I might introduce or use it at the moment. 

4.     Travel (s) –1e, 62 – 56% - it’s pretty ironic that three of the most important and earliest novels are based on a travel plot: Genji, Don Quixote, and Robinson Caruso.  The reason this is ironic is that many if not most of the novels between the earliest and the modern tend not to include travel plots.  As the Victorian Era came to an end and in Romantic plotted and protagonisted novels we see them take off with many travel based plots.  For example, almost everything Robert Louis Stevenson wrote has a travel plot.  Stevenson was a Romantic writer and one of the Victorian Era breakout writers.  Some of Dickens’ novels include travel plots, however, most of the Victorians didn’t change their settings much or move their characters.

If you remember, one of the major characteristics of the Romantic protagonist is travel—usually from their rural roots to the urban, at least at first.  What the modern world brought, along with all the other conveniences was the ability to travel quickly and easily.  In England, the train started this general ability to travel, but the automobile, plane, and others brought about the revolution in travel.  I already noted Romantic characters tend to move away from their rural roots to the urban, they also travel a lot.  The travel plot isn’t just the initial plot, like Robinson Caruso that starts the novel, it can also be like Don Quixote, and propel the entire plot.  What is interesting is we see this penchant to travel in the earlier epics just think of The Odessey, The Iliad, as well as the Arthur, Parzival, and Osorio epics.  Even Beowulf includes a travel plot.  It’s funny that writing seemed to settle down a little in a certain period.  In any case, we see the travel plot well used in the classics. 

My novels all have a Romantic plot and Romantic protagonists, you can guess, there must be travel plots in all my novels.  I love travel plots, and you should too.  Travel plots are primo just because we want to start our Romantic protagonist in the rural and then move them to an even more interesting and unfamiliar urban setting.  The urban setting allows them to really use their special skills—those generally developed in their original setting.  Harry Potty runs this a little backward, which is a great use of the travel plot.  Her characters generally start in the urban, but then move to the rural, which is Hogwarts.  Intermittently, we get movement back and forth rural to urban and urban to rural.  The use of the travel plot is especially well developed in Harry Potty.  If you notice, this is the most proper use of the travel plot, plus, a novel doesn’t really include a travel plot unless something happens during the travels.  Harry Potty’s travel plots usually use the primary travel to introduce new characters, introduce plots, do a little foreshadowing, and all.  A terrible use of a travel plot is where your characters just take a bus somewhere, the bus, train, plane, automobile ride are all opportunities for dialog and communication.  Dialog from the writer’s standpoint, and communication from the character’s standpoint.  There are many other things you can do during the travel.  In my novel, Seoirse: Enchantment and the Assignment, Rose sets up training for Seoirse during their helicopter trip from Monmouth to the Isle of Shadows.  At the same time, Rose trains her cadets, but we don’t get to see this, we just know of it from the dialog between Seoirse and his instructor.  Great use of a helicopter trip, that’s just what Rose thought, and one of her tools to continue to encourage and seduce Seoirse.  Now, about the use of the travel plot in Aine.  I’ll write about that, next.  

Aine starts with a travel plot.  Eoghan is traveling to a Scottish National Park to get rid of a Fae issue.  When I write get rid of, I mean to negotiate and accommodate.  The Fae are too powerful for even some other Fae to handle, so unless we are writing about Rose or one of the Fae royalty, there is little chance to defeat the Fae.  This traveling gets Eoghan in the vicinity of Aine and her place of incarceration. 

The second travel plot is when Aine and Eoghan head back to his place.  Then there must be a third and perhaps a forth travel plot when Aine and Eoghan go to Stela HQ and then to the training points as required.  I’m not sure at all how I’ll work this last part out, but the rest is pretty clear.  All the circumstances of this novel point to the need and development of travel plots to resolve the telic flaw issue.  Recognize that Eoghan is a Romantic protagonist.  He must move from the rural to the urban or close enough. He will eventually go from Scotland to London, definitely a movement from rural to urban.  In addition, Eoghan will need to move around more than that to accommodate and work with Aine.  Aine is an especially troublesome girl.  That’s what makes things fun. 

The travel plots will be introduced as plots or developments for Eoghan, Aine, and Eva to prosper and to grow.  They will be happy to get out from under Eoghan and Eva’s parents.  Their parents are nice, but ewww.

That’s not eww in a nasty sense, but eww in a parental overcontrol helicopter mother sense.  I think I’ll play the father as helping, but I’ll be careful about it.  We don’t need father to get on the bad side of mother, especially with her powers.  Aine is pretty powerful too, but she won’t want to use her powers against her declared boyfriend’s mother.  She’s not stupid.

We will have and develop a fun travel plot based on all of this, but they will be supporting and not overall plots.  Remember, the overall plot is a redemption plot based on Eoghan’s needs.  We’ll work toward that. 

Here’s my conclusions about the travel plot.  I’m not sure you can write any good modern novel without some travel plot.  A Romantic protagonist demands a good travel plot, at least moving from the rural to the urban.  You might put this plot ahead of the initial scene, that’s possible, but difficult to work out.  Even if the protagonist mustn’t travel to get to the urban, there are more reasons for travel and especially in the modern world and with a Romantic protagonist.  Travel is just a good common plot in all modern novels—use it when necessary.      

5.     Totalitarian (s) – 1e, 8 – 8% - the totalitarian plot is a very modern plot.  In the Victorian Era, everyone except the USA was under a monarchy—wait for it, a monarchy is always a totalitarian regime therefore all Victorian and other novels under a government with a king was a totalitarian plot.  In the Victorian Era, no one knew or cared about being in a totalitarian regime.  Today, we know better, I guess. 

Look, a totalitarian plot is a plot that involves the government as a non-republic.  You might even say non-democratic, but many democratic governments in history have been considered tyrannical and totalitarian.  The totalitarian plot is about a plot where the government extends its power into the realm of normal human operations.  This is why most Victorian and other plots aren’t considered totalitarian.  The monarch might have been dictators, but they mainly left the people alone.  If the kings or queens got involved with the people, negatively, that’s a totalitarian plot. 

In modern Britian, I think there is scope for an easy totalitarian plot, but most people don’t see the British government that way so it is hard to make that argument.  On the other hand, I have used in novels, the Soviet regime, the Chinese Communist Regime, the German National Socialist (Nazi) regime, and the Vichy French Regime—and these are definitely totalitarian.  Additionally, I have used a science fiction world setting in Escape from Freedom which is also a totalitarian regime. 

As I noted, I don’t intend to put a totalitarian plot in Aine.  I could, but I don’t think it would resonate or be very worthwhile for the novel.  That’s about it.  I’ll move to the next plot.  

6.     Horror (s) – 15 – 13% - ho ho, this is one of the best plots ever because it can reside in almost any novel from comedy to whatever.  You don’t have to have a horror novel to include a little horror. 

All horror is, is a little fear, scaring, or disturbing.  Hey, there are many definitions for horror, but I think you get the idea.  If you can understand this about fear, scaring, and disturbing, it’s all about feeling and pathos.  It’s the pathos of the reader not the characters—or rather, the pathos created by the author fills the reader and not the characters.  We want our readers to feel fear, be scared, or be disturbed.  I’m not so much into disturbed because we aren’t about grossing out our readers, but pulling them a little out of their comfort zone is what horror is about.  How do we invoke horror?

I’d say it’s all about setting, feeling, and style.  In this case, I’m going to ask you to change up your style.  You might like to write unicorns and rainbows—that’s great, but a few dangerous unicorns or ominous rainbows can move the tension in the scene to horror—okay a little fear.  This is what I’m aiming for.

When you present a scene—set a scene that is supposed to be scary and tense, set it to be scary and tense.  That’s all that horror is.  My point is that there is no reason to shy away from a little horror.  Some people even make a living and write horror based novels.  My novel, Escape from Freedom could be considered a horror novel.  I’ll go with that—it’s about a communist totalitarian state in a science fiction world, and it’s pretty horrific.  In my other novels, I feel for the scene and interject a little fear when it feels right.  The point there is to incite the emotions of the reader.  I’d like my readers to feel emotions like fear for my characters.  A little horror is just the thing, and when I write horror, you are supposed to understand: fear, scared, and possibly disturbed.  There is even room for your characters to be disturbing.

I don’t mean disturbing in the sense of morality or ethics or crime, there are many things in life that can be disturbing but not be wrong—like the five second rule.  I don’t think I’ve used this before, but a character from a starvation culture would never waste food no matter the problem.  A little dirt, muck, sand or whatever, they would eat it.  That might be disturbing to many readers.  How about eating insects or grubs.  It’s disturbing—it’s by definition horror.  As long as it doesn’t kick the reader out of the suspension of disbelief, it’s a great means of producing pathos.  I’ll look at how I might use horror in Aine, next.

This is the ultimate question about writing—when can I just throw in a plot I’d like to use?  Okay, perhaps not the ultimate question, but it’s one of the main questions I like to think about in writing.  When we write, we want to interject plots into a scene so we can use them for entertainment and excitement.  In this case, we want interject a horror plot into the scene or perhaps a few scenes for exactly that purpose.  We want some entertainment and excitement.  The question then, is how do we get some of this into Aine?

The first scene in Aine is basically pretty creepy.  We have Eoghan in an ancient Anglo-Saxon cemetery.  This is horror without any other actions.  We want to keep this going.  We will build the scene with more and more horror.  This isn’t a horror novel, but the beginning is filled with horror.  I think this is the perfect use of the horror plot in a horror scene.  This horror is produced by the circumstances and the setting.  As the scene progresses, the action and the narration in the scene develops this horror.  What can be more horrific than a person held captive for thousands of years and finally released.  That’s maybe more of a tail of salvation and rescue, but the point is this.  Aine who has been held captive for thousands of years is released into the world.  She is dirty, naked, confused, upset, and very happy.  Who wouldn’t be if they were released from that kind of prison.  This is the situation and circumstances Aine and Eoghan find themselves in.  We have Aine, and we have Eoghan.  We have a scary setting and scary circumstances.  The point is to use these in a horror plot to entertain our readers—that’s my point.  I want to use the circumstances and the setting to build the plot into a horror plot.  In this way, we have chosen a plot and a horror plot, at that.

This is the point.  I can’t always and everywhere interject a horror plot, but there are many times when I can.  In this case, the circumstances fit the idea and situation of the horror plot.  In this case, I want to accentuate and use the plots involved to build a horror plot.  The point is to make the writing more exciting and entertaining. 

So, we can see that in this novel, the horror plot is a natural fit especially for the beginning.  It will get harder and harder to interject such a plot in the later points of the novel, or it should.  Perhaps it shouldn’t.  The main idea here is that in writing in we pick and choose scenes to increase the tension in the scene—horror is a natural tension.  I suspect there are other opportunities to use horror in Aine.  I just have to get to them.  That’s part of the power of writing.  We build scenes and add plots to support them.  Horror is a powerful and easy to use type of plot.  I will use it through Aine, and perhaps more than I’m expressing at this moment.    

7.     Children (s) – 24 – 21% - here is a great plot but one I’m not certain I can use in Aine.  I might be able to fit it in, but it might be difficult.  The children plot is a very modern plot.  It has been used, not so much as a plot, but as a pathos developer in older novels.  You can pretty much see the evolution of the children setting to a plot in the Victorian Era.  Dickens introduced children in A Christmas Carol, but there is really no children’s plot.  The plot is adult with children as part of the setting to provide some pathos—think Tiny Tim. 

Where the children’s plot comes into its own is as the Victorian Era gives way to the modern and the modern Romantic.  The idea of real children in a plot comes basically from the very important novel What Katy Did.  This was a seminal novel for children and about children.  The children were the focus and they weren’t handled like young adults.  They were children with the thoughts and feelings of children.  Perhaps some of the most interesting novels out of this period of great change are Mark Twain’s novels for boys and girls as well as Robert Louis Stevenson and The Wind in the Willows.  Once the bridge had been crossed, the concept of writing novels for children drove the further idea of novels wholly about children.  We move from Robert Louis Stevenson’s and Mark Twain’s children being pushed into the adult world with little help from adults to the novels of Brazil and others where the children are children facing real but not adult problems.  These are uniquely children’s plots. 

It is still a children plot when children are introduced into an adult novel either as students or as wards and just kids in a family.  I did this in my Aegypt (Ancient Light) novels.  There, the Bolang Children became a necessary part of the novel and drove plots and scenes that led directly to saving their mother and father.  Again, I don’t see this in Aine, but I will write, next, how Aine could include a children’s plot.

To build a children’s plot, we need children.  Youth will work, but the characters must be handled like children and not like adults.  The best ways to do this is first, make children.  I did this for Aegypt.  The Bolong’s had four children and the children were children for two novels and grew up.  The second is to train children.  This is using a training or teaching plot with children.  I’ve incorporated these types of plots in my novels but not usually with children.  In Essie: Assignment and the Aos Si, I had the childlike person Essie being raised by Mrs. Lyons.  This was a great and entertaining novel and plot.  Third, you can bring in children in other ways—usually not as the protagonist’s children or as students, but as walk-ons.  This is perhaps the best way to introduce a children’s plot. 

How could we develop this in Aine?  I could make her a preschool teacher, ha ha.  Don’t think so.  This might take too long to build for Aine, but it is an interesting way to write the novel—at least bring her into a special class for special children.  That might be a fun show and tell.  That is have Eoghan bring Aine for show and tell.  This is worth thinking about.  I could use Aine as a show and tell for many other classes and training involving the Organization and Stela. 

I’m not sure I want to have Aine and Eoghan have a child this quickly, we are moving in that direction.  Most of the time, I present the first blush of love (meeting and romance).  I sometimes play the second stage of love (marriage).  I love to build on the third stage of love, that is after marriage sometimes with children and many times without. 

Perhaps the way I’ll do this is with bringing in other people’s children.  This is a great method and one I’ve done a few times.  In fact, I should have mentioned in the last paragraph that I routinely bring in the first stage of love in a novel and then use the protagonists later after they have had children and been married as side characters.  That seems to be very successful.  In the case of Aine, I’m certain I have a host of children and youth I could being into her life and Eoghan’s life for this novel.  In addition, there is the Ceridwen in this generation who happens to be about two years old.  I wanted to being Rose and Seoirse in as her adopted parents for many reasons.  As a sideline, this is how I develop long term stories and storylines in my novels.  I wrote about Rose because she was a very interesting and powerful protagonist, but in the back of my mind, I’ve had a need to bring in the foster parent for Ceridwen.  This is a foreshadowed and active theme deep in the novels since I brought in Kathrin, the last Ceridwen and included her in multiple novels as a protagonist and as a side character.  This is the way of building worlds for your novels and not just stories.    

8.     Historical (s) – 19 – 17% - it’s all historical, baby.  Actually, for many novels that’s not true, but it’s a character and author’s issue and not an issue with the historical plot.  I assert that every novel that isn’t science fiction or created fantasy must be or should be historical in nature. 

I don’t use made up places.  I don’t use made up history.  I don’t use made up people (who really exist).  I do modify information based on potential history, but all my made up stuff is based in history and might be true.  I do change places to meet the needs of the novel.  I make up all the main, major, and protagonists.  My novels are all reflected worldview—so they all include the history of the times and the world and the place, but they also include those ideas that things people think might or have faith could exist.  My novels are historical to the highest degree I can make them.

This is kind of a difficult subject to address because I understand exactly what I am expressing, but I’m not certain many people understand the idea of plotting a novel in history and reality.  I’ll try to give some examples.  In the broadest sense, my novels include a British intelligence agency I call the Organization.  This agency is based in MI-19 from World War II.  Anyone in the business knows language intelligence is one of the foundations of national security.  Where did MI-19 go?  I give it a new name and some new work, and I fit it into the world of my novels.  Is there the Organization in Britain?  I’m sure something is still there, it’s classified.  That’s what the Organization is like.  It’s a step above the highest classified levels of MI-5 and MI-6.  In fact, it supplies shares to both, and to other intelligence organizations like the Foreign Office.  All this is based on history and the historical.

Then I also have Stela.  Stela is the part of the Organization that protects Britian from the supernatural.  It’s not really based on real history.  This organization is based on the history I developed in my novels.  It happens to be in the Organization because it was founded by Bruce Lyons who ran MI-19 at the end of World War Two.  Bruce was a major character in many of my novels.  This is all based on the reflected worldview from my novels.  That reflected worldview is completely based on history.  How can that be? 

The reflected worldview is based on what people believe and not what is necessarily real.  For example vampires.  Everyone knows about vampires.  Are they real?  In some ages most people believed in vampires.  Today, everyone knows what a vampire is, but do they really believe in vampires?  A reflected worldview allows vampires to exist in the world of the novel.  In a real worldview, there can’t be vampires, but in a reflected worldview there certainly can.  Think about any supernatural creature or being you know about.  They can exist in a reflected worldview.  In fact, a great reflected worldview can give reasons why and how such creatures can exist.  It also provides reasons how such creatures might coexist with humans in the real world and yet normal humans have no idea such creatures are around them.  There is much more to this.  I’ll write about it, next.

The historical is more than just what really happened in the world.  The historical includes the real, the imagined, and the supernatural.  How do I know?  Today, every Sunday, along with other days, Christians go to church.  On Shabat, Jewish people go to synagogue.  Likewise, others of other religious groups go to their own services and ceremonies.  Much of their creeds and theology is based in history.  For example, Christianity and Judaism are both historically based religions—they are wholly based in historical events.  Others not so much, but the focus of all of them are aspects of the supernatural in the world and in history.  This is a part of the reflected worldview. 

In addition, the feelings and perceptions of people may not be real—they may be caused and affected by emotions and imagination.  These are still real, and they are historical, but they aren’t like historical events, however, they can be recorded and, as I noted, they are real parts of history, they just aren’t the kinds of things you can take a picture of. 

Here’s the main point.  In my novel, Aine, if someone searches for information about Aine, the world of Aine, the world of Eoghan, and their times, that’s history, they will find exactly the world I will describe.  In addition, I will include all the historical reflected worldview stuff in a cohesive fashion that will interact with and interweave the real and completely historical.  I’ll also provide reasons and show how this reflected world coexists with our own, but we don’t usually see or perceive it.  You all know the drill.

Only the sensitive can perceive the world of the Fae or the creatures of the supernatural.  Occasionally, people get a glimpse through some revelation of the supernatural, but usually, we assume it is there around us, we just don’t know.  Here’s an example.

I know of a great restaurant in New Mexico that is in an old hacienda mansion.  One of the rooms is reputed to be haunted by a maid with whom one of the sons of the house fell in love, but they were never allowed to marry.  The ghost of the maid supposedly haunts this room.  We always tell the story and then tell our fellow diners to sit in each corner of the room and see if they can feel the presence of the ghost.  Many if not all will say one of the corners is colder than the others.  Great story, fun test, is it real or Memorex.  I’m not telling, I think it’s a perfect image of the reflected worldview.  I’ll look closer into the historical and the reflected, next.

What I want to do and what I recommend in all writing is to ground your writing in the real world.  In fact my third rule of writing is this:

3. Ground your readers in the writing.

This is a very general statement for something that to me is very specific.  What I mean and what I do is to set my writing in the real and the reflected world, and most specifically the history and places of the real world. 

My characters don’t just go to some place in some town.  My characters live in a real place (as real as possible), in a real town, where the streets, places, and spaces are all real, and where the insides of the buildings are all the real insides with the same furniture, if I can get to that level.  In other words, I don’t ever make up what I don’t have to make up.  Let me explain.

When I need a place for a setting, for example, I research that place.  In the case of my novel, Rose: Enchantment and the Flower, I looked for a possible haunted house in the Orkney Islands.  I wanted the Orkneys for the isolation and the place because I was going to use a nuclear smuggling operation by the Chinese and the Russians as the main reason for both Shiggy and Robyn’s parents being assigned there.  My research gave me Viera Lodge, which is luckily on the market for sale with all kinds of pictures and a house plan.  I could use this place for my setting and my character, Rose.  I didn’t need to make up a place, I just needed to use a real place.  Some of the details had to be made up because not all the information we need to write is in the descriptions and such.  I know exactly what I’m adding and what I’m doing with the information.  I can get details for travel and for streets and for places from the satellite maps and other map information.  There is so much more to this.

If I need a place, like a lake or a river or a creek or a forest or a building or a clearing, guess where you can research and find this information?  In the past, I had to find maps or visit these places or at the extreme just make it up.  The specific was hard to find, but the general was always there.  Today, I can get all this information, and I can provide it in the settings of the novel.  My characters no longer just travel, they go on Gooseberry Street to the A901 to their destination, and so on.  In addition, my characters wear real clothing.  An example.

When one of my prepublication readers provided comments on Sister of Light, he mentioned that I should specifically say the clothing designers and more details.  I took this to heart.  I have a character, Rose, who is playing an act as a debutant and aristocrat.  Her clothing is not just the best, it is designer clothing.  She rarely wears less than 10,000 pounds worth of clothing at any time, and that’s including her handmade French knickers.  I guess I’ll explain more about this, next.   

With the research tools available to the writer today, it is very easy to include specific and exacting details in our writing.  I do just that.  As I mentioned, I research all my settings.  Sometimes this is just looking at a satellite map.  If I can, I’ll get to the street view.  I’m doing research with the tools available that would require travel and experience to write about.  Let me tell you how I did it in the past.

All my novels include extensive and extensively researched settings and history.  For Aegypt, I took out every map I could get from the library and from atlases.  I studied the places and read books on my setting (Tunisia) as well as the French Foreign Legion that was the basis for this novel set in 1926.  I additionally read hundreds of books on hieroglyphics and ancient Egypt.  With this information, I was able to set, describe, and write about the subject, Tunisia, Fort Saint, the people, my characters, the Foreign Legion, as well as all of the other places around Fort Saint.  I wasn’t able to travel there for professional and diplomatic reasons, but a great novel, Aegypt and the first novel in the Ancient Light series was birthed.  Today, instead of two years worth of research, I could have written Aegypt in about a month.  I took five years to research and write Centurion.  All my novels are filled with complete historical accuracy, at least the best I could achieve.  As I’ve aged and gained experience, the novels have become better and even more detailed and accurate.  This is what I wanted to express about clothing and especially woman’s clothing.

As I noted, one of my author friends who also provided me some great comments about Sister of Light, the second Aegypt and Ancient Light novel, recommended I give very specific details about the clothing Leora Bolang wore.  Here’s what I wrote:

      Leora provided a striking vision in pale-blue silk.  She wore a dress Paul had bought for her the day before.  Although the gown came from a rack on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore, it flowed over her body as though its designer had only her in mind.  The modestly slit hemline floated on air; it just kissed the top of her petite, high-heeled Arnoult slippers.  A thin silken cord encircled her neck and allowed the teasing neckline to accentuate her gentle bosom.  To complete the ensemble, she grasped a small gold colored clutch with three-quarter length gloves that matched the azure of her dress.

At the time, the ability to accomplish research on women’s and men’s clothing wasn’t as good as it is today, plus I had to work with fashion and fashions from 1927 and not today.  That required a little more in depth study, but I think you get the point, right. 

For my more modern novels, I can simply research on the internet the clothing styles and designer fashions I want my characters to wear.  Yes, much or many of the outfits my characters wear are ready made, but still, to cloth them in each scene, I look at fashion and I describe the clothing from the real world.  They are wearing clothing that is from the real world.  They are wearing it in settings from the real world.  Here’s an example from Rose: Enchantment and the Flower:

By that time, Bob was taking away the last of the empty trunks.  Robyn rummaged through her clothing, “Hey Rose, what kind of stuff should we change into?  She held up a frock.”

Rose went over to her, “Do you have jeans and a nice top?”

“Do you think they’ll be wearing jeans?”

“I can promise you they all will be.”  Rose went to her drawers and pulled out a pair of Dolce & Gabbana jeans.  They were slightly distressed and faded with embroidered butterflies. The Dolce & Gabbana logo was engraved in gold on the front left pocket while a pink patch marked the back pocket.  She also pulled out a white embellished Gucci woolen top with a slight nautical flare.

Alice couldn’t help herself.  She towed Leora out of the door of the room, “Leora, did you realize Lady Tash is planning to wear a thousand-pound pair of jeans to supper in a catered girl’s school cafeteria?”

Leora tapped her chin, “The top cost a bit more than that, but who can tell the aristocracy what they can or can’t wear.”

Alice grabbed her hand, “I thought she was one of yours.”  She whispered, “This is not the girl from Rousay.”  Then louder, “How is this Lady supposed to look after my Robyn?”

Leora held back her laughter, “Lady Tash is Lady Tash.  You need not worry a single bit about her or your Robyn.  I can assure you of that.”

Alice took a concerned glance back into the room. 

This is the level of detail I’m able to provide my readers.  I hope I’m giving sufficient description for the general reading crowd, but anyone who recognizes the designers and the brands will understand even more.  That’s what I tried to show with the dialog surrounding the clothing.  This is how I balance the clothing description, the clothing specifics, and the understanding of the readers.  This is just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak in placing history and realism in a novel.  I’ll look a little more at the setting, next.

I’ve mentioned this before, but I’ll go over it again, because this is all about how to interject the historical, real, and reflected into your writing.  When I need a place, like a restaurant, I go researching just the place I need in the place I need it.  For example, in Sorcha: Enchantment and the Curse, I needed a place for my characters to have a nice dinner in Edwinstowe near Nottingham Forest.  I just found the perfect place for my characters to eat and have a little discussion.  I used descriptions of the place enhanced with a little fiction and the actual menus to describe the meals.  With all of this, I didn’t have to make up anything, I just used what existed in the real world to reflect the real world.  There, I used reflect in the exact sense of the reflected worldview because that worldview is pretty much the same in the sense of the real world. 

I use this concept of research for all my novels.  When I need a place, I don’t make up fiction, I use a real place.  If you think this is unusual or in some way not kosher in writing, think about the bigger types of images and places writers use.  If I included New York, London, Dublin, or any other main city in the world, no one would bat an eye.  If my characters visited Times Square or Trafalgar Square or the Spanish Steps in Rome, no one would think that odd.  So why would it be odd to use the Denny’s down the street in some Podunk town for a place or some swanky steak joint in Tulsa?  It isn’t and you should.  You should interject the real and real places throughout your writing.  You should give directions and street names.  You should put in real dates and real people and places as well as real brands and stuff—at least in the West.  Don’t do it in Japan—mentioning a brand or some real places can get you in jail there, but not here. 

If you do get jittery about it, you can just make up the name and use the place—that’s always an option, but I think you dilute the power of the historical.  Here’s what I don’t do.  If I’m going to have some negative experience, I don’t use the real.  My characters might have some terrible misadventure in some real place, but if it will be a negative, I don’t use a real brand or a real company.  I suspect this is an important topic to write about, next.

If you need to go negative, go fiction.  Most of my writing isn’t about the place as much as it’s about the characters, but if I did need a negative company or brand, I’m not going to make a social statement.  With all the criticism in the world, you might ask, why not?  Novels are not about social statements.  They aren’t about political statements or science statements.  Novels are about entertainment.  I have had my characters make reasoned statements about what I think are obvious problems in the world, but I’m very careful about these. 

For example, German National Socialists make a great enemy.  That’s Nazis if you didn’t know.  Nazi is an acronym for National Socialist in German.  They are everyone’s most evil creatures.  Another is the International Socialists—that is the Soviet Union and the Chinese Communists.  There are other International Socialists.  They are all evil and criminal—they make great criminals and bad guys.  Terrorists are also fair game.  There are other really bad groups and nations that are worth using as the “bad guys” in your novels.  This keeps you away from the potential for not holding to a universal enemy. 

Now, you might say, but there are those who support terrorists, Nazis, and Communists.  I say, most of them can’t read and won’t read my novels anyway.  I don’t want them for my readers unless they want to change—I guess there is even hope for Nazis and Communists.  However, from a writer’s standpoint, if you need a bad guy, they are your bad guy.

As I noted, I stay away from brands and companies.  I’ll tell you why.  Every company I’ve ever worked for has wanted to make money.  If you harm or kill your customers, you don’t make money--in fact, you go broke.  I worked in the aviation industry on every side.  In aviation, the individuals, the company, and all the management would do anything to prevent any kind of problem, accident, or issue.  I’ll give you an example, when maintenance accidentally dropped a drop tank and put a small dent in it, the company spent thousands to fix the dent.  In the Air Force, the tank would have stayed dented and been used forever.  Governments don’t really care about people, but companies really do.  As I noted, a single problem by a customer can break a company, a government has no other competition.  Are there bad companies and people out there?  Sure there are, but there are many more bad governments, and governments can take your life, liberty, and property from you—a company can’t, not unless they are a criminal cartel.

So, if I need bad guys, I do go for criminals, terrorists, and governments.  There are plenty enough of these to go around.  If you really want to go for a brand or business, I’d advise you to work for them for a year before bad mouthing them.  Realize, most of your readers are people with jobs and some degree of education.  You can fool some like journalists and perhaps those in certain industries, but you can’t fool your core readers.  Plus, as I wrote, novels are all about entertainment.  Next, I’ll look at putting real people in your novels.

Yes, by all means place real historical people in your novels.  If they are alive, I would recommend not defaming or vilifying them, but under some circumstances, you might.  I’d be cautious. 

In my novels, Queen Elizabeth plays an important walk-on roll occasionally.  I definitely don’t show her in a negative light.  In fact, she is a good friend and help to my characters.  Part of this comes from the interaction and influence of the Fae and the gods and goddesses of Britain with the government of Britain. 

In my novels, since they are reflected worldview, I have the Queen, now, the King as responsible for the human side of the courts of the land.  While Ceridwen is in charge of the Fae and courts of the gods, the King or Queen is in charge of the human courts.  These two worlds interact through the office of the King.  I also have a very important character, the Keeper of the Book of the Fae who works for the King and who oversees the Laws of the Fae for the Courts.  Yes, this is all reflected worldview, so it could be true.  The King isn’t saying.

In addition to important people, I also include the less important.  Many times I’ll change the names, but keep the look.  I’ve written before that real people don’t make great protagonists, but they do make great general characters.  When you need a character, there is nothing wrong with looking for a picture and going for a description.  Just change the names.  Unless there is some positive need.  For example, I use the names of real royalty in my writing.  Why not?  I’ll also use the names of real people who are dead as a part of the history of the place.

Now, the question at hand is how will we use history in Aine.  I’ll cover that, next.   

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%

Tomorrow, I’ll start with these plots and evaluate how and which I’ll use in this new novel Aine.

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

 

     

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

 

I want to write another book based on Rose and Seoirse, and the topic will be the raising of Ceridwen—at least that’s my plan.  Before I get to that, I want to write another novel about dependency as a theme.  We shall see.

 

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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