Writing - part x568, Developing Skills, Supernatural Research

28 July 2018, Writing - part x568, Developing Skills, Supernatural Research  

Announcement: Delay, my new novels can be seen on the internet, but my primary publisher has gone out of business—they couldn’t succeed in the past business and publishing environment.  I'll keep you informed, but I need a new publisher.  More information can be found at www.ancientlight.com.  Check out my novels--I think you'll really enjoy them.

Introduction: I wrote the novel Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon. This was my 21st novel and through this blog, I gave you the entire novel in installments that included commentary on the writing. In the commentary, in addition to other general information on writing, I explained, how the novel was constructed, the metaphors and symbols in it, the writing techniques and tricks I used, and the way I built the scenes. You can look back through this blog and read the entire novel beginning with http://www.pilotlion.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-novel-part-3-girl-and-demon.html.

I'm using this novel as an example of how I produce, market, and eventually (we hope) get a novel published. I'll keep you informed along the way.

Today's Blog: To see the steps in the publication process, visit my writing website http://www.ldalford.com/ and select "production schedule," you will be sent to http://www.sisteroflight.com/.

The four plus one basic rules I employ when writing:

1. Don't confuse your readers.

2. Entertain your readers.

3. Ground your readers in the writing.

4. Don't show (or tell) everything.

     4a. Show what can be seen, heard, felt, smelled, and tasted on the stage of the novel.

5. Immerse yourself in the world of your writing.

These are the steps I use to write a novel including the five discrete parts of a novel:

1.      Design the initial scene

2.      Develop a theme statement (initial setting, protagonist, protagonist’s helper or antagonist, action statement)

a.       Research as required

b.      Develop the initial setting

c.       Develop the characters

d.      Identify the telic flaw (internal and external)

3.      Write the initial scene (identify the output: implied setting, implied characters, implied action movement)

4.      Write the next scene(s) to the climax (rising action)

5.      Write the climax scene

6.      Write the falling action scene(s)

7.      Write the dénouement scene

I finished writing my 29^th novel, working title, Detective, potential title Blue Rose: Enchantment and the Detective.  The theme statement is: Lady Azure Rose Wishart, the Chancellor of the Fae, supernatural detective, and all around dangerous girl, finds love, solves cases, breaks heads, and plays golf.  

Here is the cover proposal for Blue Rose: Enchantment and the Detective. 

Cover Proposal

The most important scene in any novel is the initial scene, but eventually, you have to move to the rising action. I am continuing to write on my 30^th novel, working title Red Sonja.  I finished my 29^th novel, working title Detective.  I’m planning to start on number 31, working title Shifter. 

How to begin a novel.  Number one thought, we need an entertaining idea.  I usually encapsulate such an idea with a theme statement.  Since I’m writing a new novel, we need a new theme statement.  Here is an initial cut.

For novel 30:  Red Sonja, a Soviet spy, infiltrates the X-plane programs at Edwards AFB as a test pilot’s administrative clerk, learns about freedom, and is redeemed.

For novel 31:  TBD 

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:  Somehow the world and the world of writing has the impression that fantasy and science fiction is just stuff the author makes up.  This might be true is some regard, but in general is patently false.

The science fiction author must provide a high degree of rationality, logic, and science fact—unless we are talking about Star Bores or Star Dreck.  It is one thing to have science fiction and another science fantasy.  I’ll reiterate, science fiction must have a high degree of rationality, logic, and science fact.  You aren’t going to get this by just making it up.

Likewise, in fantasy, there are a couple of ways you can go, but both lead to the same point and both require extensive study and development. 

I like to characterize fantasy a little more delicately than many might conceive of it.  My novels are not called fantasy, but they all have some type of fantasy or supernatural element in them.  Maybe the question should be the degree of fantasy.  You could also ask of other novels, what is the degree of science fiction—many modern novels share the elements of science fiction, but we don’t usually refer to them as science fiction.

In any case, when we write about fantasy, similar to science fiction, fantasy requires significant suspension of disbelief.  In science fiction, the author achieves this through rationality, logic, and science fact.  In fantasy or normative fiction the author achieves suspension of disbelief through rationality, logic, and a well-developed world view.

Notice, all strong writing requires logic and rationality.  In science fiction you require science fact and in other writing of all types a purposeful and rational world view. 

Let’s look at the world’s current favorite fantasy novel (not called fantasy for some reason)—Harry Potty.  Harry Potty is not the type of novel I would write—it doesn’t fit into my style or type of novel, but Harry Potty is a set of novels with a strongly developed world view.  The author took a wizarding world and integrated it into the modern British world.  There are seams, irrationalities, and illogical issues throughout, but it’s also for young adults and children.  The author did an adequate job making a fantasy wizarding world.  The world is consistent and generally fits together.  This is the first type or point of the science fiction or fantasy world—the author develops a world which is consistent within itself. 

Don’t this this is easy.  Frank Herbert is reputed to have spent over ten years developing the universe of Dune.  I spent long years developing the universe of my Chronicles of the Dragon and Fox and Ghost Ship Chronicles science fiction series.  If you develop your fantasy or science fiction world from scratch, you must spend typically years and years to produce a properly logical and reasoned place.  Not to mention the many rules that your magic or fantasy system is based on.  This leads us into the second means or type of fantasy and science fiction world development.  

More tomorrow.

For more information, you can visit my author site http://www.ldalford.com/, and my individual novel websites:

http://www.ancientlight.com/
http://www.aegyptnovel.com/
http://www.centurionnovel.com
http://www.thesecondmission.com/
http://www.theendofhonor.com/
http://www.thefoxshonor.com
http://www.aseasonofhonor.com  

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

Writing - part x567, Developing Skills, Research

27 July 2018, Writing - part x567, Developing Skills, Research  

Announcement: Delay, my new novels can be seen on the internet, but my primary publisher has gone out of business—they couldn’t succeed in the past business and publishing environment.  I'll keep you informed, but I need a new publisher.  More information can be found at www.ancientlight.com.  Check out my novels--I think you'll really enjoy them.

Introduction: I wrote the novel Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon. This was my 21st novel and through this blog, I gave you the entire novel in installments that included commentary on the writing. In the commentary, in addition to other general information on writing, I explained, how the novel was constructed, the metaphors and symbols in it, the writing techniques and tricks I used, and the way I built the scenes. You can look back through this blog and read the entire novel beginning with http://www.pilotlion.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-novel-part-3-girl-and-demon.html.

I'm using this novel as an example of how I produce, market, and eventually (we hope) get a novel published. I'll keep you informed along the way.

Today's Blog: To see the steps in the publication process, visit my writing website http://www.ldalford.com/ and select "production schedule," you will be sent to http://www.sisteroflight.com/.

The four plus one basic rules I employ when writing:

1. Don't confuse your readers.

2. Entertain your readers.

3. Ground your readers in the writing.

4. Don't show (or tell) everything.

     4a. Show what can be seen, heard, felt, smelled, and tasted on the stage of the novel.

5. Immerse yourself in the world of your writing.

These are the steps I use to write a novel including the five discrete parts of a novel:

1.      Design the initial scene

2.      Develop a theme statement (initial setting, protagonist, protagonist’s helper or antagonist, action statement)

a.       Research as required

b.      Develop the initial setting

c.       Develop the characters

d.      Identify the telic flaw (internal and external)

3.      Write the initial scene (identify the output: implied setting, implied characters, implied action movement)

4.      Write the next scene(s) to the climax (rising action)

5.      Write the climax scene

6.      Write the falling action scene(s)

7.      Write the dénouement scene

I finished writing my 29^th novel, working title, Detective, potential title Blue Rose: Enchantment and the Detective.  The theme statement is: Lady Azure Rose Wishart, the Chancellor of the Fae, supernatural detective, and all around dangerous girl, finds love, solves cases, breaks heads, and plays golf.  

Here is the cover proposal for Blue Rose: Enchantment and the Detective. 

Cover Proposal

The most important scene in any novel is the initial scene, but eventually, you have to move to the rising action. I am continuing to write on my 30^th novel, working title Red Sonja.  I finished my 29^th novel, working title Detective.  I’m planning to start on number 31, working title Shifter. 

How to begin a novel.  Number one thought, we need an entertaining idea.  I usually encapsulate such an idea with a theme statement.  Since I’m writing a new novel, we need a new theme statement.  Here is an initial cut.

For novel 30:  Red Sonja, a Soviet spy, infiltrates the X-plane programs at Edwards AFB as a test pilot’s administrative clerk, learns about freedom, and is redeemed.

For novel 31:  TBD 

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:  The author’s life is one of study.  I don’t mean facile study, and I don’t mean simplistic study.  I mean the kind of study I’m certain most people didn’t accomplish in school although they should have.  I mean the kind of study that is usually reserved for people who want to know and who want to teach.  There we are, already at the next topic, which is teaching, but we will get there.

Back to study.  You really need to study as if you intend to teach the subject at hand—the reason is you are teaching the subject at hand.  As an author, the purpose of your writing is not to teach, it is to entertain, but think about this very carefully—your writing must be able to pass normal scrutiny.  Normal scrutiny to me means that casual readers, those who know a little about your subject, will completely accept your statements, description, and premise, while those who know a great deal about the subject will not be lost from their suspension of disbelief.  This isn’t as difficult as it sounds.  Remember, the point is to entertain, not to educate.  To pass “normal scrutiny” let me suggest the following: 

First, stay away from completely debatable topics.  Global warming is one.  Unless you intend to focus your plot on this subject, I wouldn’t touch it.  Current fads and politically correct topics are also right out.  I wouldn’t touch politics except in equal satire or as a cultural or social point.  For example, in Blue Rose, I make jokes about Azure’s versus a few of the 1990s British political party member’s points of view.  I accomplish through figures of speech and quips.  I can get away with it because most people who are familiar with the era and the people will get it everyone else can tell there is a joke, but might not care.  Thus, I don’t touch politics at all, but I do appeal to the experts and to those who might know a little.

Second, know your subject.  Lots of topics are not debatable at all.  Many ideas are set in stone.  The wise author knows his or her subject so well any statements will be correct and true.  This is true about the description of people, places, and things.  Get your details correct, and no one can complain.  When I use actual people, places, and things in my novels, I look at a picture, go there, and have knowledge about them as I describe and use them.  This will usually placate the most avid expert—if the details are correct.  Make sure you are right in time and space.  The worse mistake in using an actual person, place, or thing is when they didn’t exist in the time or place.  A great example today is the many historical works with incorrect stuff throughout them.  The other is modern works that place the incorrect computers, cell phones, and other electronics in the wrong time or place.

Third, if you don’t know or it isn’t that important, obfuscate.  If the exact is unknown in history, be a good enough study to provide a likely correct answer.  For example, in my novel Centurion, the precise details of many historical events and day to day operations of the Roman Legions is unknown.  People don’t record certain common details in history especially ancient history.  You have to take many sources, know your subject, and be able to interpolate and extrapolate to provide a reasoned detail.  Again, from Centurion, no one knows exactly how inns or eateries operated in the first century.  The author must know enough to be able to fill in the details based on a knowledge of what we know.  In addition, visiting the area in the current century and using recorded details from the near past with the obviously missing touches of the modern world allows the author to build a reasoned model for his or her readers.

Study is critical, and I didn’t get to the point I wanted to today—that is the supernatural and study.  That’s next.

More tomorrow.

For more information, you can visit my author site http://www.ldalford.com/, and my individual novel websites:

http://www.ancientlight.com/
http://www.aegyptnovel.com/
http://www.centurionnovel.com
http://www.thesecondmission.com/
http://www.theendofhonor.com/
http://www.thefoxshonor.com
http://www.aseasonofhonor.com  

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

Writing - part x566, Developing Skills, Practicing Skills

26 July 2018, Writing - part x566, Developing Skills, Practicing Skills  

Announcement: Delay, my new novels can be seen on the internet, but my primary publisher has gone out of business—they couldn’t succeed in the past business and publishing environment.  I'll keep you informed, but I need a new publisher.  More information can be found at www.ancientlight.com.  Check out my novels--I think you'll really enjoy them.

Introduction: I wrote the novel Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon. This was my 21st novel and through this blog, I gave you the entire novel in installments that included commentary on the writing. In the commentary, in addition to other general information on writing, I explained, how the novel was constructed, the metaphors and symbols in it, the writing techniques and tricks I used, and the way I built the scenes. You can look back through this blog and read the entire novel beginning with http://www.pilotlion.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-novel-part-3-girl-and-demon.html.

I'm using this novel as an example of how I produce, market, and eventually (we hope) get a novel published. I'll keep you informed along the way.

Today's Blog: To see the steps in the publication process, visit my writing website http://www.ldalford.com/ and select "production schedule," you will be sent to http://www.sisteroflight.com/.

The four plus one basic rules I employ when writing:

1. Don't confuse your readers.

2. Entertain your readers.

3. Ground your readers in the writing.

4. Don't show (or tell) everything.

     4a. Show what can be seen, heard, felt, smelled, and tasted on the stage of the novel.

5. Immerse yourself in the world of your writing.

These are the steps I use to write a novel including the five discrete parts of a novel:

1.      Design the initial scene

2.      Develop a theme statement (initial setting, protagonist, protagonist’s helper or antagonist, action statement)

a.       Research as required

b.      Develop the initial setting

c.       Develop the characters

d.      Identify the telic flaw (internal and external)

3.      Write the initial scene (identify the output: implied setting, implied characters, implied action movement)

4.      Write the next scene(s) to the climax (rising action)

5.      Write the climax scene

6.      Write the falling action scene(s)

7.      Write the dénouement scene

I finished writing my 29^th novel, working title, Detective, potential title Blue Rose: Enchantment and the Detective.  The theme statement is: Lady Azure Rose Wishart, the Chancellor of the Fae, supernatural detective, and all around dangerous girl, finds love, solves cases, breaks heads, and plays golf.  

Here is the cover proposal for Blue Rose: Enchantment and the Detective. 

Cover Proposal

The most important scene in any novel is the initial scene, but eventually, you have to move to the rising action. I am continuing to write on my 30^th novel, working title Red Sonja.  I finished my 29^th novel, working title Detective.  I’m planning to start on number 31, working title Shifter. 

How to begin a novel.  Number one thought, we need an entertaining idea.  I usually encapsulate such an idea with a theme statement.  Since I’m writing a new novel, we need a new theme statement.  Here is an initial cut.

For novel 30:  Red Sonja, a Soviet spy, infiltrates the X-plane programs at Edwards AFB as a test pilot’s administrative clerk, learns about freedom, and is redeemed.

For novel 31:  TBD 

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:  The next obvious topic is what do you do with your marketing materials?  I’ve kind of filled you in on this while covering each section and idea in them.  Therefore, I’m moving on to a new topic, or rather, I’m continuing with developing writing skills.

I’ve written that the major skill sets for the writer are reading and writing—this is true, but there is another general skill set that we usually pull under reading, and that is study. 

Study, next to writing and reading, may be the most important skill set of the author.  Since I just spent five hours researching a single school for the current book I am writing, this may not be far off the mark.  The most important issue is to note the means to study.

First, the importance of study.  An inexperienced author might ask, why spend hours researching a school for a novel—just make one up?  You can certainly, “just make one up,” and when I was a younger writer or rather a less experienced writer, that’s just what I would do—to a degree.

One of the major characteristics of my writing is realism.  Since I set my novels in time and space but provide a supernatural twist in them, the historical and factual parts of them have become a characteristic of my writing.  I use real places, events, and people and fit my novels directly into the real world.  My obstinacy and care in this should be obvious.  Since I incorporate a supernatural twist in my writing, I wish the rest to fit perfectly and whole into the fabric of the real world—this makes my writing more realistic and makes the supernatural seem to be part of the real world.  This is the effect I’m trying to achieve.  I’d like my readers to be unaware that the touches of supernatural I incorporate are anything abnormal or odd.  I use this as part of the suspension of disbelief in my writing.

Thus, to me, I want to place my characters squarely into the real world.  As I wrote, the places, people, and events are real.  I’ve given this example before.  In my Aegypt (Ancient Light Series) novel, Sister of Darkness, I had my protagonist attend an event at the British Foreign Office.  During this event, the protagonist went through a receiving line that included the foreign representatives who were in the embassies in London at the time (Fall 1941).  I needed to know the names of the ambassadors and their wives.  Many were available in historical sources and I used that for my factual information, but I wanted my protagonist to meet and greet the Greek ambassador and his wife (it’s a tiny plot point).  The names were not available from the normal sources, so I wrote the Greek foreign office and got my information.  This is the degree I try to make my novels factual.

There is a further need for accuracy even in the supernatural.  The fact of research but modify is an important point in writing the way I do.  I’ll get to that next.

More tomorrow.

For more information, you can visit my author site http://www.ldalford.com/, and my individual novel websites:

http://www.ancientlight.com/
http://www.aegyptnovel.com/
http://www.centurionnovel.com
http://www.thesecondmission.com/
http://www.theendofhonor.com/
http://www.thefoxshonor.com
http://www.aseasonofhonor.com  

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