26 November 2014, Writing Ideas – Vampire Novel, part 145, more Revelation Writing skills how to develop Storyline, Entertaining, Rising Action
Announcement: Ancient Light is in publication, and you can buy it at almost any internet book sellers or order it from any brick and mortar bookstore. You can read about it at http://www.ancientlight.com. Ancient Light includes the second edition of Aegypt plus Sister of Light and Sister of Darkness. I’ll keep you updated.
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.
5. Immerse yourself in the world of your writing.
All novels have five discrete parts:
1. The initial scene (the beginning)
2. The rising action
3. The climax
4. The falling action
5. The dénouement
The theme statement of my newest novel, Valeska, is this: An agent of the organization becomes involved with a vampire girl during a mission, she becomes dependent on the agent, and she is redeemed.
Here is my proposed cover for Valeska:
I decided on a white cover style. You can see more at www.GoddessofDarkness.com.
In the past, novel writing was also all about the revelation of the characters, it was just handled in a slightly different way. The writers had not developed the concept of show and don’t tell as well as we have today. Just look at novels like Oliver Twist. That is a strong character revelation novel. If you note, when I write character revelation, it is both the past of the character and the now of the character. Oliver Twist is a great example of the way writers in the past used revelation. Oliver Twist is a novel about the life of that guy, Oliver Twist. Because Dickens didn’t have the same toolset and his readers were not used to our modern means of revelation, he used action narrative through the writing to get the life and history of Oliver to the reader.
In a modern novel, writers use generally conversation to show the past. In some cases modern writers use flashbacks. I think these are less worthwhile, but they are an intermediate step between the “show all (tell and show)” of Dickens to the “revel (show)” of the present. In modern revelation, the character tells another character or characters about him/herself. The revelation usually isn’t a single event, but rather a novel-length experience. The revelation of the past is tied to the reality of the now, and the action and conversation interacts with the character from the experience of her/his past.
In a modern novel, we have gone from the certainty of the showing of history to the uncertainty of the self revelation of the character. This is a very important step in the development of the novel.
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
ldalford 