22 July 2026, Writing - part xxxx482 The Novel, The Initial Scene Development, Protagonist, Social Degree
Announcement: I
still need a new publisher. However, I’ve taken the step to republish my
previously published novels. I’m starting with Centurion, and
we’ll see from there. Since previously published novels have little
chance of publication in the market (unless they are huge best sellers), I
might as well get those older novels back out. I’m going through Amazon
Publishing, and I’ll pass the information on to you.
Introduction: I wrote the
novel Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon. This was my 21st novel
and through this blog, I gave you the entire novel in installments that
included commentary on the writing. In the commentary, in addition to other
general information on writing, I explained, how the novel was constructed, the
metaphors and symbols in it, the writing techniques and tricks I used, and the
way I built the scenes. You can look back through this blog and read the entire
novel beginning with http://www.pilotlion.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-novel-part-3-girl-and-demon.html.
I’m using this novel as
an example of how I produce, market, and eventually (we hope) get a novel
published. I’ll keep you informed along the way.
Today’s Blog: To see the steps in
the publication process, visit my writing websites http://www.sisteroflight.com/.
The four plus two 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 31st 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 34th novel
(actually my 32nd 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 the third edition of Centurion:
|
Cover Proposal |
The most important scene
in any novel is the initial scene, but eventually, you have to move to the
rising action. I am continuing to write on my 30th novel,
working title Red Sonja. I finished my 29th novel,
working title Detective. I finished writing number 31,
working title Cassandra: Enchantment and the Warrior. I just
finished my 32nd novel and 33rd 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.
I want to start with these definitions as
a premise for writing.
1. Write to entertain
2. Write using the
common outline for a novel
3. Develop a telic flaw,
a protagonist, an antagonist, and plan to resolve the telic flaw.
4. Start with an initial
scene.
5. Develop and define a
modern protagonist: you get a telic flaw, a potential protagonist’s helper, and
a potential initial scene from the development.
6. Write to reveal the
protagonist.
And here is the scene:
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
I’m working on finishing my latest novel
number 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.
Since many writers and especially new
writers don’t understand about the format of the novel, perhaps I should go
back to the basics again and explain this.
When I write about the format of the novel, I’m not writing about the
formatting of the novel like a style guide, I’m writing about the way a novel is
successfully put together. Now, you can develop
novels using different outlines and forms, but there is a distinct reason for
not doing this—lack of success. I know
of a few novels which are considered successful that use a different form than
the normal novel. When I write few, I
mean almost zero. Famously, there are a
very few, almost zero, roman-fleuve style novels out there. Most of the roman-fleuve style novels are
French, and they aren’t real roman-fleuve novels. John Dos Passos famously wrote the USA
trilogy that is an American roman-fleuve style novel, but if you haven’t heard
of it, your education was lacking. If
you actually read it, I’m pleased, but I bet you didn’t think much of it—it is
a real-life roman-fleuve novel series.
What does that mean?
The reality of the roman-fleuve novel with
its movement through time and a family or nation are more important than the
plot or storyline. In fact, the
storyline and the plots are totally dependent on the projected history of the
nation, tribe, or family. Everything
else is rubbish. What does that
mean? In general, it means there is no
there there in the novels that make up a roman-fleuve style novel. The intention might be to entertain the
reader, but the execution is to establish a lengthy and realistic account about
something. There is no there intended to
be there. In fact, the there that is
there is usually not real at all—it is a fictional depiction of the real. I’ll point back at John Dos Passos and
USA. This is a fictional roman-fleuve
novel that has some connection to the real world, but not much at all. It isn’t an history, it is an history fiction
to depict John Dos Passos’ view of the USA.
It isn’t a very pretty view either, but most realism isn’t. I don’t consider it to be very entertaining,
but I really like the normal and common style of the novel for entertainment
purposes. Since about 99.9 percent of
all novels are written this way, and about 99.9 percent of all successful
novels are written this way, you should become familiar with it. I can touch on the other types of novel
styles while we investigate the very successful and normal novel style.
I should note, that when I studied about
novels back in the 1970s, my very proficient teacher explained and defined
novels this way. Yes, he and we looked
at other novel forms and true to the times and the focus of the class in
literature, he didn’t make any determination about the success or the quality
of the very few odd novels that didn’t match the common style. He was a teacher, but also as a teacher, I
would have pointed this out. As a
writer, I can’t help myself. If you, as
a budding novelist, don’t follow the common form for writing a novel, your
chance for success is almost zero. It
isn’t high in the normal course of existence.
It behooves you to know and learn the common structure for an
entertaining novel—if in the course of your own development, you are inspired
to write in a different form, more power to you. As it is, you theoretically have near zero
success, but we should look at the common and normal structure of a novel. That makes a novel relatively easy to write.
When I was in high school, I actually had
a wonderful English teacher, Mr. Martin.
He taught me American Classical Literature, British Classical Literature,
and Philosophy. I wish I had more of his
classes, but I think that was about the full extent at the time. He also taught me some great maxims about
testing and some other classical means to teach. I think he was a great teacher, but perhaps
the greatest thing he offered was the classical and successful form of the
novel. He didn’t teach it necessarily as
a form to be copied but as a form to be exploited in understanding
literature. I remember his use of the
form of the novel distinctly from our evaluation of The Scarlet Letter
by Hawthorne. In Mr. Martin’s
explanation of the novel, he described the classic form of the novel. It looks something like this:
1. Rising
action
2. Climax
3. Falling
action
That’s it and about all you need to define
a classical novel. Again, when I write a
classical novel, I mean one people want to read. Now, it is possible to write a novel in this
form and to end up with a crappy novel, but that is a problem with the writing
and not the form. In any case, over time,
as I learned more about the novel and as I learned to write novels, after about
the tenth, I came up with this outline:
1. Initial scene
2. Write the next scene(s) to the climax
(rising action)
3. Write the climax scene
4. Write the falling action
scene(s)
5. Write the dénouement
scene
This was an observation about my novels
and about novels in general. At the
time, I was trying to develop an easier method to write my own novels and a way
to understand how a proper novel was put together. My entire goal was one of entertainment. I wanted to discover how I wrote a successful
novel—at the time I had six in publication and two with a trilogy on
contract. I also had started this blog
on writing, and I wanted to explain in as simple terms as possible how to
approach writing a successful novel. The
above outline gives you this means and method.
If you note, the outline also gives you generally the number of scenes
you need for each section of the outline—that is except for the rising action,
and that can be discovered only through writing, but can be designed. In any case, I’ll give you the punchline. My current outline gives you not just the
outline for the novel, but the means for the development and design of a novel. Here it is:
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
These are more steps in the writing of a
novel that include the outline. I guess
I should start at the beginning and move on down to the end. I’ll explain this outline beginning with step
one, next.
I’m not really sure about the best way to
approach this. This is a very simple
concept with a very in depth historical and logical basis. It isn’t really a bumper sticker because
behind it lies the novel and almost every novel ever written. This idea is literally the basis for the novel
and fiction writing. So, the approach
needs to break it down into bite sized chunks and the proper pieces for
understanding. Let me start with the
simplified complete outline:
1. Initial scene
2. Write the next scene(s) to the climax
(rising action)
3. Write the climax scene
4. Write the falling action
scene(s)
5. Write the dénouement scene
I listed this before, but I need to get a
little more in depth about this list and outline. In the first place, I should describe what
these five parts are. At the same time,
I should note some not super obvious points about these pieces. I should note that in history, these were not
necessarily obvious to writers of novels.
If you look at very early writing, they weren’t novels in the sense we
understand them. I’m giving a
superficial glance because there are few novel length works until later in history,
but if you look at works like Genji, The Canterbury Tales, Boccaccio,
and Don Quixote, you will see these are generally from Genji an
extended collection of stories connected by a single idea or person. Genji looks like a story the author
just kept adding to. It doesn’t really
have a beginning or an ending. It looks
a lot like a roman-fleuve style novel that had no ending but at the death of
the author. The others are similar in
some degree. The Canterbury Tales is
a collection of stories centered around a religious pilgrimage to
Canterbury. The author intended there to
be many more stories, but ran out of ideas or time. Boccaccio finished his collection of
bawdy stories, but like Genji and Canterbury, they look like a
collection of stories that just kept going as long as the author had paper,
ink, and strength. Then we get to Don
Quixote which is a collection of events in the life of the
protagonist. There really isn’t any
climax although there is a beginning, and somewhat an end. The tales of the man of La Mancha keep going
and even are added to in a subsequent couple of volumes. This isn’t totally uncommon in both poetry
and longer nonpoetical works in the past.
It really wasn’t until Robinson Caruso that we see the modern
form of the novel. Robinson Caruso is
also considered the first novel in the English language.
Now, I should note that Robinson Caruso
was written in the first person past tense journalistic style implying the
past. This is an observation and an
important truism for history and writers.
Further, although Daniel Defoe, the author of Robinson Caruso, produced
a novel in the basic organizational outline of the classic novel, there are and
were differences in execution more than outline. This is specifically how novels came about,
but notice that they very quickly fell into the classical format almost
immediately and gradually, people defined and described this basic formation
and form. Now, to the form.
1. Initial scene
2. Write the next scene(s) to the climax
(rising action)
3. Write the climax scene
4. Write the falling action
scene(s)
5. Write the dénouement scene
What isn’t completely obvious in the
outline, but I provided it, and completely not obvious to the early writers was
the concept of the scene. I’ll get to
that eventually, but notice, the outline is defined by scenes. The early authors, like I mentioned may or
may not have been aware about scenes. We
certainly don’t see much of this in the writing about writing from the
times. It has become a focal point in
modern writing about writing. If you
remember, the novel came from stories and stories are similar to scenes. The very important question is just what is a
scene. I need to answer that, next.
What exactly is a scene? No one used to speak, write, or even think
much about scenes at all. Before scenes
became the thing, I concluded that everything in fiction was all about the
scene. How I came to this realization is
interesting in itself.
For years I had been writing about the two
types of major successful novelists: short story versus long form
novelists. For example, most novelists
develop novels as complete wholes based on the outline for the classical novel
I presented. However, some novelists,
especially in the twentieth century like Ray Bradbury and Goerge R.R. Martin
write chiefly in short stories and then bind them in various ways into novel
length works. For example, The
Martian Chronicles and The Game of Thrones novels. Other works by Martin and by Bradbury show
this distinct writing method.
Personally, I don’t recommend it, but there it is—it appeals and works
for certain types of writers and writing.
I find it tedious myself and not as entertaining or fulfilling although
Martin’s Tuff Voyaging is one of my favorite science fiction
novels.
Now, back to shorts and scenes. The idea of short stories forming the basis
of a novel got me thinking, what exactly are scenes? Scenes are really similar to short
stories. They have a setting and
introduction, usually a single of a couple of paragraphs that set the scene in
time, place, and plots. They have a
rising action we usually call tension development, and they have a release
similar to a climax but that furthers the telic flaw resolution and the continuation
of the novel. The short story typically
has an introduce that sets the scene, a rising action, a climax, falling
action, and a dénouement. In a short
story, these are not scenes but a short story can be composed by scenes. As I contemplated scenes and short stories, I
realized that a scene is really like a short story in many ways, and this along
with another concept led me to conclude that novels are all about scenes. There was another thought that helped drive
my ideas.
When contemplating about how to write
novels, I thought about the simplest structure of the novel. Consider that all these ideas took years of
writing and thinking about novels. If
you start at the beginning and the overall novel, then break it down, you
immediately can see the basic classical outline, but the outline shows you the
parts of the novel. This can’t be the
simplest component. The obvious next
part is the chapter, and if chapters formed the initial scene, the rising
action, etc. every novel would only have five chapters. Chapters have very little to do with the
actual development of the novel. Writers
divide novels into chapters for readability and for cliff-hangers. I’ll discuss this more in the future. Chapters really can’t be the simplest
component of the novel.
You can go from the other side. Start with the word. That’s too small a component as is the
sentence or the paragraph. Once we start
putting paragraphs together, we gain the scene.
What is a scene exactly? I
mentioned it before, the scene is a collection of related paragraphs that
introduce and set a plot, they build tension to a release (rising action to a
type of climax) and have a closing connection to the next scene. That seems succinct to me, but I guess I need
to develop this further. Just go along
with me, the scene is the simplest component of the overall novel. It is the distinct and necessary part that
must be used to develop any novel, no matter the form or type. This is why it is so important for the
writer. I’ll get to the scene itself,
next.
Whatever a scene is, the basic and
simplest part of the novel is the scene.
You can see it in the classical outline of the novel:
1. Initial scene
2. Write the next scene(s) to the climax
(rising action)
3. Write the climax scene
4. Write the falling action
scene(s)
5. Write the dénouement scene
Notice, I applied the scenes to the
outline for you. If I strip off the
scene structure, the pure classical outline looks like this:
1. Initial scene(s)
2. Rising action
3. Climax
4. Falling action
5. Dénouement
In some of the older classical novels, the
initial scene isn’t just a single scene.
I can assure you in the modern world, you really can’t get away with
this design of a novel. The initial
scene is, in my opinion, the most important and consequential scene in any
novel. In the past, the early writers
could get away with fractured and buildup initial scenes, today some authors
attempt a similar thing with a prologue.
A prologue is very similar to a multi-scene start to a novel. I can’t
recommend prologues and I certainly don’t recommend multi-scene initial starts
to any novel. If you intend to chase
away potential publishers or readers, be my guest. I will get into the fundamentals of the initial
scene at some point but for now let’s just assume the beginning of any novel
should be some type of initial scene that sets the novel, introduces the
protagonist and the antagonist or the protagonist’s helper, sets the telic flaw
of the novel, and provides the progression of the plot into the rising
action. This is very specific, but the
entire purpose of the initial scene.
I’ll get into the development and design details later. Let’s presume the beginning of a modern novel
is the initial scene. If this is true
the outline looks like this:
1. Initial scene - sets the novel, introduces
the protagonist and the antagonist or the protagonist’s helper, sets the telic
flaw of the novel, and provides the progression of the plot into the rising
action
The rising action cannot be a single scene—that
is patently impossible for a novel. The
main construction of any novel of any type is the rising action. We call it the rising action because from the
beginning to the climax, the excitement and the resolution development of the
novel increase in tension until the climax.
This increase in excitement is what we are referring to in the idea of rising. It really is an increase in tension. For example, in a detective novel, the
initial scene introduces the crime and the mystery the detective must solve. In the rising action, the detective gathers
the clues to the crime and the mystery until the climax. Our outline looks like this:
1. Initial scene - sets the novel, introduces
the protagonist and the antagonist or the protagonist’s helper, sets the telic
flaw of the novel, and provides the progression of the plot into the rising
action
2. Write the next scene(s) to the climax
(rising action) - the excitement and the resolution development of the novel
increase scene by scene in tension until the climax
3. Write the climax scene
4. Write the falling action
scene(s)
5. Write the dénouement scene
The climax is a single scene. The climax is always the resolution of the
telic flaw of the novel. You might have
an extended telic flaw resolution, but everything before the resolution is the
rising action—in the rising action, the groundwork for the telic flaw
resolution is begin laid and the climax culminates that rising action and the
resolution. Therefore, the entire rising
action is the extended climax resolution—the climax itself must be a singular
scene. I should explain what the telic
flaw is and about it’s resolution.
The telic flaw is the problem the novel must
resolve for the protagonist. The telic
flaw for some novels is easier to see and define than others. Usually, in children’s novels or in young
adult novels, the telic flaw is more obvious than in very complex adult
novels. We can look at the classics for
some great telic flaws and their resolutions.
In Robinson Caruso, the telic flaw is that Robinson is shipwrecked
on an island and must escape or be rescued.
The rising action is all about his survival until he himself rescues a ship
captain and can then return to England. Notice
that the telic flaw resolution is to return to civilization, but most of the
rising action concerns survival.
In A Little Princess, the telic flaw is
Sara Crew’s loss of her father and her position of wealth and society. The rising action is about her fall and then
resilience under pressure and as a person.
She remains a princess even under the greatest pressure, but the
resolution is the revival of her wealth and position in society because of her
father’s business partner and friend.
More to the modern times, The Sorcerer’s Stone,
has a telic flaw of the magical education and experience of Harry Potty. He basically doesn’t know much about himself
or his life. I would have made the
climax about his magical discovery and self, but as many modern novels do, this
novel creates a circumstance outside of the main focus of the telic flaw and
then resolves it. This isn’t necessarily
a terrible thing to do, but it really isn’t very logical or as exciting as it
should be. It is classical, the antagonist attempts to take an item that could
bring him back as a full blown threat to Harry Potty. Harry completely and assuredly defeated this
antagonist in page one of the novel.
Then the same defeated antagonist tries to come back and is foiled, but
then comes back stronger and stronger even though he is defeated in each novel. Does anyone else see a logical problem with
this plot and telic flaws? I’m not
totally opposed to the buildup to the actual telic flaw that then is resolved
in the novel. I like that kind of novel,
but just make a new antagonist for each novel.
The resurrecting antagonist is becoming a kind of trope.
I’ll continue with the rest of the outline and
move into the scene development, next.
The climax is a single scene—everything
else up to the climax is the rising action scenes. If I didn’t define it properly, the climax is
the resolution of the telic flaw of the novel.
This occurs in a single scene supported by the rising action up to that
scene. The climax is, for example, the
scene where the detective declares the resolution of the mystery or the
discovery of the criminal. I write
resolution as opposed to solution because many telic flaws don’t have any kind
of solution they can only have a resolution.
For example, in Batman, Batman’s parents were murdered. Nothing short of resurrection is going to
bring them back to the living. If the
telic flaw is the death of the parents, then there can never be a solution only
a resolution. Sara Crew’s author did
resolve this with a replacement father for Sara, but even that is unusual in
most literature. It’s a nice climax, but
a little Deus ex Machina.
With this in mind, here is the classical
outline again for the novel:
1. Initial scene - sets the novel, introduces
the protagonist and the antagonist or the protagonist’s helper, sets the telic
flaw of the novel, and provides the progression of the plot into the rising
action
2. Write the next scene(s) to the climax
(rising action) - the excitement and the resolution development of the novel
increase scene by scene in tension until the climax
3. Write the climax scene -
the climax is the resolution of the telic flaw of the novel
4. Write the falling action
scene(s)
5. Write the dénouement scene
The scenes following the climax are called
the falling action. This is usually a
single scene, but the falling action can be a series of scene, just realize,
following the climax, the author needs to get the actors off the stage. It’s time to complete the novel. Anything following the climax is not fully
extraneous, but it is mostly extraneous.
If you have that much to write following the climax, you did something
wrong—just say’n. The climax resolves
(completes) the telic flaw, there is no more reason for the novel to continue. I mean, just on the tip of my mind, I can
imagine a cruise or a train trip where the resolution of the mystery comes at
some point in the trip and the cruise must continue to the next port before
everyone can get off. That needs
truncation—the novel, the reader, and the writer all should be ready for the
novel to end.
I will write this. When my prepublication readers state that as
they reached the end they didn’t want the novel to end because they loved the
characters—that’s the best and the most important criticism you can get. The overall modern novel is the revelation of
the protagonist within the rising action.
So a critique that they didn’t want the novel to end because of the
characters means you got it right.
However, the rising action is dead at the climax. There is no more real revelation of your
protagonist or anyone else.
Finally, we have the dénouement
scene. This is the real get off the
stage scene. This is the final scene in
a novel. You might have a single falling
action scene or a short series of scenes, but the last scene should be the
dénouement. What makes the dénouement
different than the rest of the falling action?
The dénouement is the scene you craft to close the novel. It shuts the curtain on the stage of the
novel. Since I really like this play
type language for novels, if the initial scene sets the stage, the dénouement
closes the curtain. This is an important
and decisive scene. In the past, it was
considered very important and very critical to the proper end of the
novel. In the modern era, all that was
forgotten and you get muddied dénouements that mix into the falling action. That’s unfortunate. I suspect the problem is that most are not
taught the basic form of the classical novel.
If you are, you can’t miss the point of the dénouement. If not, you have never heard of it, and you
have no idea that it exists as an important component. You might have heard or read the incorrect
statement that the last sentence in a novel is one of the most important. This is completely incorrect. The last sentence is almost meaningless. It might be pithy, great, and thought
provoking, but remember, the entire point of any novel is entertainment. If anything, you wish your dénouement and
your last sentence to attract the reader to your next novel, but not
necessarily produce any kind of cliffhanger or incomplete point. The novel begs for completion—that’s why I
hate continued novel forms like The Lord of the Rings trilogy. There are many of these writers, and I can’t
stand them. When I write for a series of
novels, I fully complete each novel as a standalone piece of literature. The novel is complete and the ideas are
complete, but there is a natural continuance of the novel through the ideas in
the novel or the families in the novel.
I never leave my readers hanging—on purpose. In any case, let’s complete the classical
outline:
1. Initial scene - sets the novel, introduces
the protagonist and the antagonist or the protagonist’s helper, sets the telic
flaw of the novel, and provides the progression of the plot into the rising
action
2. Write the next scene(s) to the climax
(rising action) - the excitement and the resolution development of the novel
increase scene by scene in tension until the climax
3. Write the climax scene -
the climax is the resolution of the telic flaw of the novel
4. Write the falling action
scene(s) - following the climax, the author needs to get the actors off the
stage. The falling action is the scene
or scenes used to get the actors off the stage.
5. Write the dénouement scene – this scene closes the curtain of the
stage of the novel and completes the novel.
This is the classical form of the
novel. It is the way to write a
successful and entertaining novel. I’ll
look more closely at it and we will look at how to use this to develop a novel,
next.
Look at the classical outline for the
novel with the scenes listed within it.
If you notice, it is possible to write a novel simply by writing scenes
for the novel. When you understand how
the scenes are designed, you will also learn about scene dependency. One scene depends on the earlier scenes. In other words, writing a novel can be made
as simple as possible if we look at it as a collection of directed scene. I’ll spell this out if it isn’t already
obvious.
If I write an initial scene, that leads
directly to the rising action scenes.
Now the quality and power of the novel is directly related to the
strength of the initial scene and the cohesive entertainment of the rising
action, but I still have a very direct path to the mainstay of the novel. Slap on a climax scene, a falling action
scene, and a dénouement scene, and I have in my hands a completed novel. I wish I had known this when I first started
writing. It would have made everything
much easier. Even though I knew the
basis for the classical novel, I never thought about scenes or scene
development in the sense of the overall novel, and I certainly had no idea how
the novel was constructed. That’s
because no one made this connection for me when I first started writing. I just thought a writer started writing a
novel, and that was that. I’ve come a
long way baby. Today, I apply the scene
and novel classical outline to make all my novels. The novels write themselves to some degree
because of the way my scenes and all scenes should be developed. Let’s more over to that—the development and
design of the novel, and I’ll show you just how it all works together. These aren’t new ideas necessarily, but they
are realizations and reflections on writing that have helped me
significantly. I’m certain they will
help you too.
Here is my novel development outline based
on the classical outline for a novel and the scene overlay:
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’ll start with the initial scene. That’s the first step and that’s where I
develop every one of my novels. That’s
next.
The initial scene is the most important
scene in any novel. I’m certain you have
heard the old maxim about the initial sentence and initial paragraph of a
novel, but the scene is what produces that initial sentence and paragraph, and
the excitement and entertainment from the initial scene drives and derives that
initial sentence and paragraph. As the
author of novels, just always think in terms of the scene. The scene is the fundamental building block
of the novel, and needs to be treated that way.
When I write a novel, I almost always
begin by picturing an initial scene in my mind.
That wasn’t necessarily true when I first started writing novels, but
even my first unsuccessful attempt at writing a novel began with the idea and
development of the initial scene. It
wasn’t a very good initial scene—I had no clue what I was doing when I set a
pencil to paper as a university student back in the twentieth century. I had no idea what kind of novel I was going
to write. I had no idea about a plot or
a protagonist or anything. I just had a
picture in my mind about a wonderful but boring beginning of a novel. The excitement, for me, was in the writing
and the picture I was drawing with words.
As I noted, I didn’t have a clue at all.
Now, I think I know what I’m doing. When I get an idea for an initial scene, I’m
looking at the scene and thinking about the elements in it. Most importantly, I’m designing a scene that
is exciting and entertaining, and that is based on an entertaining and exciting
idea and interaction.
For example, I’ve been macerating on an
idea for over a couple of years. Here’s
the picture of the initial scene: a young man discovers a goddess who was
trapped and enclosed in a crypt for thousands of years. He releases the goddess, and that’s the
beginning of a novel. That’s the
picture, but there is an entire video in my mind that I’ve designed but not
written. As soon as I finish the current
novel I’m writing, I’m going for this one—I’m calling it Aine after the
goddess. Also, I’ve pretty much boiled
down the overall development into a single picture with the captions. Imagine this initial picture as I see
it. A young man discovers a person
calling from within an ancient crypt.
The person sounds like a woman or a girl. What is he going to do about it. I don’t know about you, but a more
experienced person might run away, and that’s the end of the story. My picture includes the rescue of Aine. I also told you she is a goddess, but that’s
yet unknown by the protagonist. By the
way, the young man is Eoghan, he is the protagonist. That’s the picture that will launch my
initial scene.
I should mention the picture that launched
my current novel. The picture is of a
tall and gangly girl who is being bullied.
She is stoic and holds a book in her hand. The bully is a much smaller girl who is
wealthy and haughty. That’s the initial
scene for Bookgirl. The video gets more
interesting when the smaller girl, Morven loses everything and only Bookgirl is
there to pick up the pieces for her. My
descriptions aren’t very good. I’m
trying to draw a picture for you that launched books I wrote. Each of my novels are like this. I see a picture that I turn into a video in
my mind—eventually that picture and video get processed into a word drawing to
produce te initial scene, and that initial scene launches the writing of a
novel. This is my main point to you.
I’m sure there are other ways of designing
an novel from the beginning, but my advice is starting with the initial
scene. You can make up everything that
follows using great (or just good) writing skills and plots. The most important point is the idea that begins
the novel and focuses the initial scene that begins drawing the novel. There is much more to this. Perhaps I’ll explain more or just get into the
development of the initial scene. That’s
next.
I like to write using word pictures to
describe complex and simple ideas in my novels.
I like to use word pictures to make difficult ideas easier to understand. For the initial scene, I like to describe
pictures and videos. The picture is the immediate
idea that defines the initial scene.
For Bookgirl, the picture was the tall and
gangly Bookgirl with a book in her hand being bullied by the petite and fancy
Morven. For Aine, the picture is Eoghan releasing
her from her crypt. In my completed
novel, Essie: Enchantment and the Aos Si, the picture was Mrs. Lyons
capturing a naked feral girl in her pantry.
I could go on. Like I wrote, I
start with a picture, then I turn the picture into a video. The video is the beginning of the events
defining the scene. I should mention my
great problem I had designing the initial scene for Seoirse: Enchantment and
the Assignment.
The picture for Seoirse was of Rose
standing among the destruction wrought by the five girls (the daughters of
goddesses) for whom she had been made responsible due to her skill. Seoirse is a follow-on novel to Rose. The problem with this scene is that the video
of it took more than one scene to get to the events of the great debacle. What to do?
I’ll explain in a nutshell that I had to
back up to the assignment of Seoirse to be Rose’s handler and proceed from
there to get to the scene I really wanted to begin the novel. The point is this—I needed a scene still
filled with excitement and entertainment and I needed a scene that provided the
initial meeting of the protagonist and the protagonist’s helper. The protagonist was Seoirse and the protagonist’s
helper was Rose. I’ve written this
before. The best initial scene is the
initial meeting of the protagonist with the antagonist or the protagonist’s
helper. This makes a great picture that
you can turn into a video. We are
writing about the development of creativity and creative ideas here. I’m trying to guide you to a means of
developing an initial scene. Let’s move
back a little.
In the beginning of the picture, I really
have little idea about who or what the characters might be or the circumstances
of their existence, meeting, or lives.
Those all come out of research for the characters and the novel. Here’s what I’m writing about:
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)
I’m writing about designing the initial
scene. I start with a picture and move
to a video. When I write about starting
with a picture, you shouldn’t be surprised, many novels and shorts have been
developed in the past by pictures, by which I mean, photos, paintings, pictures
in the imagination of the authors, a place, a scene, another work of art like a
play, a novel, a movie, a short story, and so on. When I write a picture, I mean all
these. Let’s imagine some picture and
then address the next steps. I’ll go
there, next.
My picture very quickly begins to build
into a video—this is all in the imagination, but I can imagine you actually
starting with a picture or a video and turning it into an initial scene. Notice, I didn’t write turning it into a
novel. I turn initial scenes into
novels.
You could turn an actual picture or a
video into an initial scene, but I’ll explain again the problem I have with the
real. The ultimate problem with the real
in writing fiction is that the real is not enough to make a great novel. Go ahead, try to develop an initial scene and
a novel based on a protagonist without any real character. I’ve found that most people are not worth
writing about. Readers aren’t
necessarily looking for characters who are normal—they want Romantic
characters. Romantic characters are
extraordinary. They are extraordinary in
a normal wrapper. Readers want
protagonists who look like them on the outside, but who take the normal skills
of the reader and turn them into something amazing. How does that work?
It isn’t the normal person who really
excites readers—it is the person who appears normal and like them, but who then
succeeds in amazing ways. I’ll try to
put it in a context of reality. Many
people never get over their high school years.
They were the peak of their existence.
However, in a high school, there is the best athlete, best scholar, and best
looking. We used to celebrate and honor
these people. They would go into the
real world and find that they really weren’t that beautiful, smart, or
athletic. It’s the classical story of
the small town football star who goes to college and can’t make the team. Typical storyline. Now, what about everybody else?
If only the single smart person from each
high school was your reader, we wouldn’t sell hardly any novels. Does this mean everyone else has a chance and
a hope? They don’t let me speak to high
school students much, but if they did, my message to them would be, you aren’t
as smart, beautiful, or skilled as you think you are. Real smart, beautiful, and skilled people got
picked up way before they graduated from high school. If you didn’t notice, there are 12 year olds
in college and graduated, 12 year olds working as models and movie stars, and
12 year olds in Olympic sports. Why
didn’t you measure up? The point is that
even if you are the best in your small or large community, there are people out
there much more capable than you. The
regular people might not totally realize this, but they are the ones who buy
and read our novels. They know that
something more than just inordinate skills, smarts, and beauty drive the world
and people to great success. Let me tell
you a secret—it isn’t just discovery. Discovery can make a difference, but you only
get discovered if you are truly special and skilled. Most people won’t.
For the regular person, the answer is work
and perseverance. People who get it,
fight to succeed and that success takes time and experience. The Romantic protagonist or character is
beset with some skill then nurture with all their heart and soul to make
themselves the best. Not just the best
in high school or their community, but the best in the world, so to speak. This is what real people recognize and
believe. The hard working will succeed
where those gifted may not. I’ll also
posit that usually the Romantic protagonist is gifted with some great skill,
but the skill itself isn’t the answer—they real power is their work to exceed
their own and anyone else’s expectations.
This is what the regular person thinks.
They imagine that hard work will always succeed. Even if they don’t believe this, they want it
to be true, and based on the number of millionaires next door as well as the
billionaires coming up in many nations, this view of the world is highly
accurate.
Hard work mixed with some great skill,
especially the discounted skills can turn the normal person into a very
different and capable being. That’s your
Romantic protagonist. So, why do I need
to make an imaginary picture to begin my initial scene? I don’t want the normal. I do want someone who appears normal or even
less than normal as the basis for my novel, but must people can’t meet this level
of design. If I want someone who is
beautiful, like Bookgirl—I need to build her as a contrast to the normal. In fact, my character, Bookgirl begins as an
overly normal and average person. Or
perhaps I should write about it like this—Bookgirl starts as a despised and hated
person who is not really pretty or beautiful in any normal sense. Her main characteristic is that she always is
reading a book. She’s too tall, too
plain, too poorly dressed, too poor, too shabby, and so on to be in any other
way remarkable, but she is always reading.
In this way, I take the person who is always bullied and turn her into someone
very special. This, by the way, is the
greatest desire of our wonderful readers.
Even if they can’t and don’t attain their greatest goals, they want to
see others attain them in novels. In
fact, your average reader will attain some semblance of their life’s goals in
their life, but they always want more.
They seek the affirmation and power they see in their favorite novels
and favorite protagonists.
I’ll explain this in greater detail, next.
What I’m writing about is the Romantic
protagonist. I heartily recommend using
a Romantic protagonist for every protagonist.
Perhaps I’ll get into this again, but let’s start with the basics. Here’s the info about the initial scene
again:
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)
I’ll repeat, I design an initial scene
from a picture that I turn into a mental video.
Let’s just imagine the picture showing the protagonist, the antagonist
or the protagonist’s helper, the initial setting, and the video showing the
initial action which should delineate the telic flaw of the novel. Notice, the action statement if the initial
action and the telic flaw. All we need
to do is research and describe these people and ideas.
Even if you have a picture and a video,
the picture is meaningless without knowing the details within it. That’s the reason for research. Who are these people? What is their history and background? Where are they and why?
For Bookgirl, I had to design and develop
everything about these characters, their initial setting, and the telic flaw of
the novel. Of course all these should
fall out of the initial scene to some degree, but for any novel of any worth,
you need to figure these out before you begin to write.
I accomplish significant research on my
characters and their settings before I attempt to write an initial scene. This is one of the reasons I reuse characters
and settings. Once you’ve designed and
developed them, you don’t need to make them again. For example, for Essie: Enchantment and
the Aos Si, I just stole Mrs. Lyons from many of my novels, but I had to
design Essie from the beginning. I had
to research and design the village of Lyons, but it’s a real place, I just had
to pull it back in time to the 1990s—that wasn’t hard to do.
Bookgirl wasn’t as simple. I had to design the protagonist and
protagonist’s helper. I had to find
their initial setting. It was a girl’s
boarding school in Scottland. I had to design
Bookgirl’s home and the bookstore. Each
of these required research and design. Then
there are the side characters. For many
of the side characters, I just used the setting and put them together as I
needed them. That doesn’t mean it’s simple
to do, it just means that you can wait until you need them. For example, I needed the Headmistress of
Kilgraston School eventually. I just
used the real thing for the character. I
had to develop her from the limited information on the internet. Perhaps that’s getting too close to reality.
The point is this, many fiction authors
think they don’t need to do much research or design from the real world. They think they can just make everything
up. I never do this. Reality is reality. If you have a real place in your novels, then
you need to make it the real place. If
you invent or design a place for your novel, you still need to design it based
on reality. For example, Gotham City is
really New York, for some reason the D.C. Comic book editors didn’t want to use
the real city, but the setting is a real city.
In my novels, even with a different name, I would use the real places
from the city for the novel. I don’t
even make up some fake name—why not use the real places. Back in the day, the Victorians hid place and
time. Today, why hide the real
world. If you are Japanese writing for
the Japan market, yeah, you need to change the names for every known company,
place, and recognizable human. The laws
in the USA and many other places aren’t the same. Don’t get in trouble with the law, but use
real places and real people.
For people and places, I don’t make
negative comparisons or put them in a negative light. If I do need to have a bad person type
character or denigrate a place, I usually hide it or change the names, or make
up a place entirely from fiction. Still,
even if you need to make up a place, don’t be stupid about it—in other words,
why would I make up a place instead of just describing a similar place from
reality? Don’t make extra work for a
difficult and tedious process. By the
way, if you don’t think this type of research is tedious and difficult, you
aren’t doing it right. Yes, it is fun,
wonderful, and encouraging, but it should be work. It’s good work.
I’ll keep on in this track for a while,
next.
Research, research, research—look, writing
is all about research. This little fact
seems to be out of the knowledge level of the average writer, which is a
terrible problem for writing and writers.
Back when I first started writing,
research just came naturally because most of the novels I wrote were all
centered around history and were historical novels. Also, I also wrote and write science
fiction. You can’t write science fiction
without research and you can’t write historical fiction without research. I think you can’t write any fiction without
research. How’s that?
Let’s think about a simple example. Let’s say I want to write a short story or a
novel about an event on a boat. If you
want to write about a boat or boating, you need to research boats and
boating. Now, I am not one of those who
believe in the crazy idea that you should only write about things you know
about. This is kind of true, but if it
were entirely true, no one should write science fiction. In general, if you are writing about
something completely outside of your knowledge horizon, or you are writing
about something with a significant knowledge basis, you might try something
else.
What do I mean? If you have never been in any military, I
suggest you not write a novel set in the military or with a military protagonist. The reason is because the military is a
pretty specific, and if you don’t understand it from a basic level, you can’t
really write about it. There are some
subjects and areas of knowledge like this.
Concerning history and science fiction, to get a good understanding of
it takes a significant amount of study.
However, there is no one alive today who knows it except through study. You
can and must study the ancient world to write about it, you can’t really live
it. There are skills, areas, knowledge,
and professions that require experience as well as study. For most of the others, you can study and
research them.
Which professions and skill sets require intimate
knowledge—I can’t really tell you, but I expect they are those that are tied
directly to closed professions and those that deal in esoteric and restricted people
and places. For example, you can’t
expect to write about special missions (covert) or special operations (overt) actions
without direct and intimate knowledge of them.
Even if you read about them, you will likely knot be able to explain or
understand them well enough to write about them.
I’ll get more into this, next.
I suspect that I haven’t convinced everyone
about the research required to write fiction, but perhaps I’ll get there with
the next section. I’ll repeat some of
the information I’ve shared in the past just because it it very important for
writing fiction and especially writing novels.
I went through the whole smear about the
initial scene. I suggest you start with
an idea for an initial scene, and I’ll repeat.
If you imagine the initial meeting between the protagonist and the
antagonist or the protagonist’s helper, I think you will have a perfect setup
for any novel. I do warn you, the
protagonist must be something special and you need some idea about them before
you go any further. This is why I
haven’t told you to leap into writing the initial scene.
Now, if you are the type of writer who
needs and likes to just leap into a scene without thinking about it much,
please go ahead. Personally, I like to ruminate
about the initial scene for a while before I write it. I find this helps me get it together in my
mind better. In the past, I discovered
if I write too quickly without much thinking, I end up with something I have to
completely rewrite in the future. I
don’t do this much anymore. I also find
that building the initial scene first with an imaginary picture, then an imaginary
video, and then research to flesh out the major parts of the scene, then allows
me to write a better and deeper scene. Better
means more entertaining and exciting, deeper means one that has novel
legs. Novel legs mean the subject and
parts have the strength to become a novel-length idea. I think this is important.
When I was an inexperienced writer, I
found my novel ideas usually pushed the 50,000 to 65,000 word count which is an
okay novel, but shorter than I really like to write or read. I was a little surprised that Centurion came
out in the 114,000 range, and a little more surprised that my publisher when
ahead with it’s publication at that length.
Usually, for first and early novels, publishers don’t like taking a risk
with a full length longish novel.
Although I don’t currently have a regular
publisher, I keep writing novels in the 100,000 work count range. I find this length to be about right for most
of the ideas I want to put on paper (so to speak). I’ll eventually get to novel length and writing.
For now, just take my word for it. You need an initial scene with characters
(protagonist, antagonist or protagonist’s helper) with a telic flaw and a
setting that can get you into the regular novel length point. This requires a good initial scene with well
developed characters and setting as well as a strong telic flaw.
Ultimately, however, the protagonist is
what drives the novel in every sense. If
you remember this maxim, my maxim—the novel is the revelation of the
protagonist—you can see why the protagonist is so important. I’ll explain about protagonist development
and research, next.
Here’s
the list for protagonist development:
1. Define the initial scene – let’s start with the
initial scene. Here’s the scene 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
2. At
the same time as the above—fit a protagonist into the initial
scene. That means the minimum of:
a. Telic
flaw
b. Approximate
age
c. Approximate
social degree
d. Sex
– male.
3. Refine
the protagonist
a. Physical
description
b. Background
– history of the protagonist
i. Birth
ii. Setting
iii. Life
iv. Education
v. Work
vi. Profession
vii. Family
c. Setting
i. Life
ii. Setting
iii. Work
d. Name
4. Refine
the details of the protagonist
a. Emotional
description (never to be shared directly)
b. Mental
description (never to be shared directly)
c. Likes
and dislikes (never to be shared directly)
5. Telic
flaw resolution
a. Changes required for the protagonist to
resolve the telic flaw
i. Physical
changes
ii. Emotional
changes
iii. Mental
changes
b. Alliances
required for the protagonist to resolve the telic flaw
c. Enemies
required for the protagonist to resolve the telic flaw
Okay, I’m going to subject you to a
reflection and redo of the development of Eoghan for Aine. I’ll add more and new material, but I want to
review the material myself. I might be accomplishing
this too early for what I want to do. I
want to start writing Aine, but I’m finishing Bookgirl. I really need to finish Bookgirl, but I’m
busy with other stuff at the moment.
Within the list for the protagonist
development, if you notice, there is the scene development outline. As I wrote, to write a novel, at the moment
and for a long while, I have started with the initial scene. To get to this initial scene requires
imagination and some real introspection.
When I write introspection, I mean research, study, and thought. I think about this for a while, and then
suddenly I get an idea for writing a novel—that idea comes to me as an initial
scene.
As I wrote, the best type of initial
scene, in my mind and opinion, is the initial meeting of the protagonist and
the protagonist’s helper or the antagonist.
In the case of Aine, like many of my recent novels, the meeting of the
protagonist (Eoghan) with the protagonist’s helper (Aine) is the basis for the
initial scene. This is the picture I
had. To be most precise the exact
picture was Eoghan, a poor (not in wealth, but socially) rescuing a naked girl
from a crypt. Okay, you might say why
naked, and why a crypt for goodness sakes.
It’s not like I see titillation, but to be
frank, readers like a little (actually a lot) of entertainment and
excitement. For me as a writer who
incorporates the Irish and the Scottish ancient ideas in my novels, one of the
most fun is the ancient view of nudity.
The Irish were entirely put off by any nudity. This is a cultural quirk from the Celtic and
Gaelic ancients. The Scots are
similar. Aine is an Irish goddess. She would almost rather die than be seen
naked by a young man—even in the bedroom and in marriage. This is just a cultural issue, and I play
with it in all my novels. That’s not to
say I’m obsessed with it, but this is a great allusion to an idiosyncrasy in
these cultures. I find it to be an
entertaining and unusual circumstance.
Let me be blunt in this regard.
As the Gaels and the Celts will tell you, you can protect yourself from
the Fae, the fairies, the Neighbors, etc. by sleeping in the nude, because
nudity is a known problem for the Irish and Scottish Fae to see. Notice however, these cultures would rather
die than use the protection of nudity to protect themselves from the Fae.
I hope I explained this well enough. I’ve got to work it into the storyline for
the initial scene. In any case, my
picture was this young man Eoghan rescuing a fully Irish girl from a
crypt. She had been there for over a
thousand years, so yeah, she might be somewhat immortal, but her clothing was
not. You can imagine the state she is in
when rescued: mental, emotional, and physical.
I’m trying to and I want to make it really juicy. The total embarrassment Aine faces is all in
the picture. When I use my imagination
to make it into a video, it gets even better.
The point I’m getting to is the initial
scene and then the research and development in designing the initial scene—the
theme statement that represents the novel.
I’ll move there, next.
I’ll move on to the initial scene in a
bit. What I want to show you is the
research that goes into that scene and specifically, at this point, the
protagonist and the protagonist’s helper.
The protagonist is Eoghan, and I’ll give you more information below.
2. At
the same time as the above (the design of the initial scene)—fit a protagonist
into the initial scene. That means the minimum of:
a. Telic
flaw – fitting in and self-development with late coming of age. What exactly is this? Fitting in is an encapsulated view of the two
identified plots: coming of age and self-development. These are major (and minor) plot types
identified from major classical novels.
If you remember, the telic flaw is the problem that must be resolved in
the novel. These are problems for the protagonist
to solve (resolve), and notice, they are also problems of the protagonist. They are also problems of the protagonist’s
helper. I intend to produce a symbiotic
relationship that feeds on and then resolves their individual issues. This should be really fun especially when I
get to the point of the problems that each have.
I guess I can
start with Eoghan. He is a really great
guy, I’ll give you more details below, but a little early explanation is good. Eoghan is the quiet person in your schooling
or work who is always ready and willing to get the work done. No matter what you ask him to do, he will do
it. He is kind, gentle, efficient,
effective, and capable. You should ask,
then what is the problem? Eoghan has
real people issues. He isn’t a pushover,
but he is a person meant for so much more.
Eoghan is a leader and a natural leader.
He’s the kind of person everyone should be following, but he isn’t
leading, and that is his personality.
He’s about to meet a person who will demand that Eoghan change. The point to realize is that Eoghan has all
the skills and tools he needs, he just hasn’t learned to use them. He’s a type of classic redemption
character—that’s a character in need of redemption, but who has no idea he
isn’t redeemed. How’s that? Eoghan is like many readers. The see their own potential, but they don’t
know how to harness it.
Now, many of
our readers really don’t have any extra potential that needs to be expressed or
expanded, but the reality is that they wish they did. They want to be like Harry Potty, with unused
and unknown magic (skills) that they can turn into great success. Some might have it and some might not—the
important thing isn’t the real skills of our readers, it’s the longing within
their hearts and minds as well as the reflection of their greatest desires from
the actions and minds of the protagonist.
I’ve written
before, readers don’t necessarily want to be the protagonists they read about
in our novels, but they certainly want to be like them. Even if they never can be like them at all,
they want to live vicariously through our protagonists—so, we need to give them
protagonists that they love and that they think reflects them.
No negatives
to our readers at all, but readers aren’t like most people, and they are
getting fewer and fewer. In the past,
most people read for entertainment, today, you will be lucky to find a single
reader is a crowd of thousands. Many
will say they read, but they don’t. Many
will want to experience the joys of reading, but they can’t. Lack of a fundamental education is hurting
our readers, and the lack of real storytelling or story showing capability in
entertainment like movies and such is crippling the entire industry of writing
and reading. If people could get the
powerful story showing of novels out of movies, there might be a great
revolution in readers and reading, but Hollywood just gives us crap in place of
real plots and telic flaws.
In any case,
Eoghan is a late bloomer and needs some self-discovery. He needs to fit in especially in the crowd
I’m preparing for him. This, by the way,
is the feeling of many readers, even the aged ones. They have a proper sense of their own reality
and their own person, and they want to fit in (but have a hard time finding
other readers) and they want to discover their own special skills. Will they?
That doesn’t matter, they want to live it through others, and that’s the
main point.
b.
Approximate age – I’ve written 18 to 21. Now,
what about age? Age is a very important
consideration for any protagonist. In
the first place, the telic flaw drives us to youth. When we write about fitting in and coming of
age, even if it is late, we are writing about youth. You can have a very late self-discovery plot
with a middle aged or older protagonist, but really what is the point? If you realize first, that we are looking for
pathos, and there is some pathos in the aged who never figured out their own
life, but I’m not a real advocate for that at all. I don’t think your readers are either. When I read about a novel about the aged
figuring out life, I think about melancholy and horrible waste rather than
success and wonder. Just think, even if
you did figure out life when you are aged, you are aged, and you already wasted
your entire life before you figured it out.
That’s sad, perhaps true, but sad.
Nope, I’m into
youth for my protagonists. I’ve placed
some of my protagonists in the early middle years of their lives for very specific
reasons, but usually I’ll make my protagonist’s helpers the aged or the much
more mature. Why youth? Readers like youth and pathos demands
youth. The main issue with age is that
very few really think they are aged. You
do get the very aged who know and have fully accepted their aged status, but
those in their middle aged to older aged and earlier just think of themselves
as nearly timeless. They don’t really
consider age as much of a factor at all.
They just are. In fact, I’d say
if you asked the average person no matter what the age, only the youth or very
youthful even consider age as a real factor.
Now, you’ll get those who near their birthdays who make a big deal of
age, but usually not at any other time.
And then people lie about their ages all the time. Lying about age means only those less than 21
get older, everyone else gets younger.
So it life. My main point about
age is that you want pathos and pathos for the aged is difficult. Why is that?
When we look
at people who are supposed to be capable, knowledgeable, educated, and experienced,
we know that youth are not. Youth are
seeking these basics. Youth and children
can’t be expected to be wise and knowledgeable and educated. However, the aged are—and if they aren’t, we
wonder what is wrong with them. As I
wrote, you can develop some degree of pathos with the aged, but it usually is
difficult, and it’s usually not entertaining.
Usually, for the aged, you might seek irony, satire, and even intentional
bathos—I’m thinking of Don Quixote. You
remember, the aged imposter knight who self-decided to revive chivalry, and
magnificently failed. This was a totally
ironic and satiric novel—the picture of Don Quixote was designed to use bathos
and not pathos. You laughed at the sad
picture of the aged and stupid knight who couldn’t figure out the meaning of
life—or rather that the meaning of life came late to him. Such is a real tragedy.
So, I like to
use youth in my novels. Readers like
youth, and youth is filled with hope, lack of knowledge, easy foolishness, yet
eagerness and great desire to succeed.
Their success means something, and as I noted, most readers don’t really
think of themselves as an age, they think of themselves as a person, youthful,
inexperienced, and trying very hard to succeed.
There is another reason why youth is so good for novels.
We expect
youth to make mistakes and to not be fully self-sufficient and capable. Thus, a poor youth who is hungry and striving
develops more pathos than a person who is older and supposed to be
self-sufficient. We expect youth and
children to be needy. We don’t expect
the same from the aged. If an aged
person has no means, food, or skills, we might be able to eke some pathos out
of that, but since we expect the aged to have knowledge, experience, and
skills, we expect them to be self-sufficient and capable. On the other hand, I can take even a very precocious
child and turn their strivings into pathos because we don’t expect it from a
child.
I’ll give you
an example. In the very entertaining,
but not that well edited or written (it’s a translation), Ascendence of a
Bookworm, the protagonist, Myne, is a child with the reincarnated mind of
an adult. She desires books in a
medieval society that has magic, but very few and no printed books. She is a very well developed pathos
delivering protagonist because the author made her first, very weak due to her
physical state, very young and extra young looking, but gave her the drive and
knowledge of an adult. Her very size and
youth makes those in her culture both accept and be deceived by her. Now, she is a child in a medieval society, so
she isn’t getting the benefits of the full on pathos a child in our modern
world would get, and that makes the pathos even stronger for the reader. In spite of the fact that adult readers are
usually turned off by very young protagonists, Myne is a very good one driving
pathos in the novel from the other characters and driving pathos in the readers
on a whole different level. This may be
a unique approach from the tropes of the Asian reincarnation plot. Or, it may be a very new way to develop a
character.
Another
example is Flavia de Luca the murder solving ten year old British
aristocrat. Her story is not more pathos
developing, but the idea of a very young protagonist in an adult novel is still
very novel. Flavie de Luca appeals to
adults because her very existence, like Myne, develops pathos. Plus, being on the bad end of the destruction
of the British aristocracy is always a horrific situation. When the government decides you need to go
because of who you are, that’s Holocaust type stuff no matter the age or the
wealth. The Soviet destruction of their
middle class and wealthy is another great example of pure pathos in a can. Very few have written about it at all.
So, I advise
the use of youth for your protagonist.
You can use the aged, and I have, but not usually as a protagonist, but
as a protagonist’s helper. This appeals
to your most readers, and it also fosters the types of pathos and plots that
only youth can bring. I give a range at
this time, but I’ll expand and specify the specific age of Eoghan later. Next is social degree.
c.
Approximate social degree – high, but
hidden. So what’s this about social
degree. There ain’t no such thing in the
world anymore. I beg to differ. If you don’t notice the very obvious ideas of
social degree in the current age of anti-billionaires or anti-millionaires, I
guess you aren’t keeping up. Just
between you and me, I’m worried more about the trillionaires—that is the governments
who really hold the reigns of wealth and the destruction of wealth. You could live in Europe where they tax
literally 70+% of your income and property only to give you back a pittance of bare
physical necessities. That’s
trillionaires for you.
Now, back to social degree. We see social degree very clearly in older
novels and historical productions for example from the Victorian Era or from
the beginning of the Twentieth Century, but for some reason people tend to miss
the significant social structures and degree everywhere in the modern world and
especially in the states. Let’s just say
this is an intentional ignorance breed by lack of observation of reality. So here is some reality.
Social degree is alive and well
everywhere. One of the greatest tropes
in literature is the characters who don’t neglect social degree but who use it
to leap forward especially in the modern world.
For example, the poor ghetto child who grows up to be a Supreme Court justice
or the poor child who becomes the first graduate from college for a family. These are all characters who defy their
social environment and excel. I
mentioned I was reading an Asian novel, actually a light novel series, Ascendance
of a Bookworm which is an entire novel dedicated in the main about social
degree and culture. It’s a fantasy
novel, but the ideas of social degree aren’t new, it’s just placed in a new
wrapper. The point is this—all cultures
and societies have social degree, and the question is what is the author going
to do with it.
There isn’t just rags to riches. There is riches to rags to riches, and riches
to rags, and rags to rags, but here I’m just mentioning wealth. Yes, social degree does go along with
wealth. The real fact is that no matter
what your understanding of social degree is, you can have jerks who are poor
and jerks who are wealthy. The big difference
is that those with a higher social degree tend to have the power of grace and
dignity behind them. Yeah, they can
still be jerks, but as authors, we use all of this to drive our characters and
plots. What about Eoghan?
I intentionally made Eoghan a person of high
degree, and he’s a Brit. What does that
mean? He has a royal pedigree. This is just fun because he’s living an
absolute normalish and basic middle class life in Scotland. There is no real wealth or importance there,
but there is an undercurrent of especially importance due to social
degree. Now, I do really like to take
poor characters who have some social degree and throw them into the plot mixer—that’s
what I’ve done with many of my novels. I
take a character of no social degree, but who has learned or who is taught and
have them become something wonderful. Eoghan,
on the other hand, comes from a high social degree, but with a mother and
family that wants to lay low. His actual
social position is a secret, but part of that goes back to his family and their
connections. He just has a gun-shy
mother. She hates her social position
and has no desire for her family or children to succeed in it. This just makes another fun plot and secret
in the novel.
The big deal is that this gives me the plot
of theme of the protagonist who is a literal prince in hiding. The hidden prince. Yeah, Eoghan really isn’t completely a
prince, but that’s not the real point here.
I haven’t gotten to Aine yet, I will.
Aine is totally enveloped in the ancient Irish and ancient goddess ideas
of social position and social awareness.
Unfortunately, her manners, cultural awareness, and skills are centuries
out of sync, but she still wants to make Eoghan her prince. This is an intentional and incredible tension
in the novel—that’s why I address his social position as high but hidden.
This is why I’m going through all this with
you. The point of developing a protagonist
is to fit the initial scene and the ideas that will propel the novel from
beginning to end. The point in the
development of the initial scene and the protagonist (protagonist’s helper and
antagonist) is to produce tension for the rising action. The more the tension, the better the plot and
story. I want tension. If I made Eoghan simply a poor farm boy, his
rescue of Aine would be great and she would be dedicated to him, but by making
him a type of royalty (in the British sense) I place him on an equal or higher
footing than her. Aine might help and be
grateful to a poor farm boy who rescued her, but she could fall in love with a boy
who is poor but socially equal to her. I
can taste the tension and this entire development in the novel. I look forward to it.
This is what I recommend. Rags to riches and ghetto to boardroom are always
great plots. Bring in the greatest
tension you can with your characters.
That’s what makes a novel entertaining.
Think well ahead and design each element to give you the greatest
tension possible in your novel. You can always
back it off if it’s too much, but I can assure you, it’s never enough. The more the better. The more tension you can produce, the more
powerful and pathos developing the novel will become. Then there is sex.
d. Sex
– male.
3. Refine
the protagonist
a. Physical
description
b. Background
– history of the protagonist
i. Birth
ii. Setting
iii. Life
iv. Education
v. Work
vi. Profession
vii. Family
c. Setting
i. Life
ii. Setting
iii. Work
d. Name
4. Refine
the details of the protagonist
a. Emotional
description (never to be shared directly)
b. Mental
description (never to be shared directly)
c. Likes
and dislikes (never to be shared directly)
5. Telic
flaw resolution
a. Changes required for the protagonist to
resolve the telic flaw
i. Physical
changes
ii. Emotional
changes
iii. Mental
changes
b. Alliances
required for the protagonist to resolve the telic flaw
c. Enemies
required for the protagonist to resolve the telic flaw
There’s more.
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
