13 June 2024, this blog is about writing in scenes. I’m focusing on the tools to build scenes. I’ll leave up the parts of a novel because I think this is an important picture for any novelist. I’m writing about how to begin and write a novel.
- The initial scene
- The rising action scenes
- The climax scene
- The falling action scene(s)
- The dénouement scene(s)
Announcement: I need a new publisher. Ancient Light has been delayed due to the economy, and it may not be published. Ancient Light includes Aegypt, Sister of Light and Sister of Darkness. If you are interested in historical/suspense literature, please give my novels a try. You can read about them at http://www.ancientlight.com. I’ll keep you updated.
Today’s Blog: The skill of using language comes from the ability to put together figures of speech that act as symbols in writing.
Short digression: Back in the USA. I didn’t update you on all my travels, but I basically went all through Italy and Greece as well as a sidetrack to Malta. I’m back.
Here are my rules of writing:
1. Entertain your readers.
2. Don’t confuse 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.
Creativity is the extrapolation of older ideas to form new ones or to present old ideas in a new form. It is a reflection of something new created with ties to the history, science, and logic (the intellect). Creativity requires consuming, thinking, and producing.
Scene development:
Here is the beginning of the scene development method from the 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
First step of writing—enjoy writing. Writing is a chore—especially if you don’t know what you are doing, and you don’t know where you are going. Let me help you with that.
Today:
These are the three novels I’m contemplating writing. I finished Seoirse, and I developed these protagonists and the protagonist’s helpers for the other novels.
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.
The first or initial scene is what we work hard to start out our novels.
A scene always starts with the setting elements. Look at 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
If you notice, the first thing we write is the scene setting. You can continue setting development through the scene, but every scene should start with the setting. You must set the stage of the novel with the scene setting.
In the first place, without setting elements, you can’t write anything. You must introduce setting elements to be able to have action and dialog. The setting elements usually come out of narration of some type.
Every creative element should also be a plot element. If they are not, you should not make them a creative element.
This means the plots must further the telic flaw resolution and nothing else. A plot element can become a telic resolution element. However, I should write, a plot element should always become a telic resolution element.
I’ve never put this completely together before. Here’s a chronological list of my novels:
The Second Mission (399 to 400 BC)
Centurion (6 BC to 33 AD)
Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon 1917 – 1918 (1920)
Aegypt 1926
Sister of Light 1926 – 1934
Sister of Darkness 1939 – 1945
Shadow of Darkness 1945 – 1953
Shadow of Light 1953 – 1956
Antebellum 1965 (1860 to 1865)
Children of Light and Darkness 1970 – 1971
Warrior of Light 1974 – 1976
Warrior of Darkness 1980 – 1981
Deirdre: Enchantment and the School 1992 – 1993
Cassandra: Enchantment and the Warriors 1993 – 1994
Hestia: Enchantment of the Hearth 2000 – 2001
Essie: Enchantment and the Aos Si 2002 – 2005
Khione: Enchantment and the Fox 2003 – 2004
Blue Rose: Enchantment and the Detective 2008 – 2009
Dana-ana: Enchantment and the Maiden 2009 – 2010
Valeska: Enchantment and the Vampire 2014 – 2015
Lilly: Enchantment and the Computer 2014 – 2015
September 2022 – death of Elizabeth
Sorcha: Enchantment and the Curse 2025 – 2026
2026 death of Mrs. Calloway
Rose: Enchantment and the Flower January to April 2028
Seoirse: Enchantment and the Assignment August to November 2028
science fiction
The End of Honor
The Fox’s Honor
A Season of Honor
Athelstan Cying
Twilight Lamb
Regia Anglorum
Shadowed Vale
Ddraig Goch – not completed
What’s the point? I just wanted to list all my novels in chronological order. I’m not sure where I’m going from this, but I thought it was a fun idea. I didn’t put in the dates of the science fiction because although it is possible to figure them out, they are pretty esoteric. All the other novels are connected in history and time.
I’m going to move back to the beginning and imagination. Writing is not about writing, it’s ultimately about imagination. As authors, we imagine something, an exciting and entertaining idea, hopefully a story, we develop it in our minds, and then we commit it to symbols on paper.
Yes, the actual writing part can expand the ideas and the writing, but ultimately, we need to turn what we imagine into words and then into symbols. The symbols are the only thing the reader ever sees—everything else happens in their imagination space.
I know we live in the age of Empiricism. This is a terrible thing because it cripples the mind and especially the mind of the thinker. All thinking happens in unreal space. You may think it is within your cranium, but think about this: all the pictures, the thoughts, the emotions, the feelings, the sounds, tastes, smells, visuals that occur within your thoughts come from without your thoughts and many times are experiences that you never saw before. Where are they really? They exist only within the parameters of the physical world because they presumably are inside your physical brain, but your imagination and the imagination of writers always expands well beyond the bounds of their physical brains. Just look at science fiction and fantasy. All outside the realm of the real, the physical. I’ll look more into this.
Most people have no idea about the ages and really the history of the ideas and philosophy of productive civilization. In fact, most people aren’t familiar with history and civilization at all. I’m not a fan of how history is taught by the illuminati, that is the main educational system or universities. My main problem with how history is taught is that the educational systems have rejected the three Greek methods or ways to prove truth: historical method, logic, and the scientific method.
The main problem is empiricism. Empiricism can only be used to prove the truth of the physical world. The method is the scientific method, and the scientific method can only be used to prove things that can be repeated. Empiricism can’t be used to prove history or those things which lie outside of the physical. This is a serious problem for writers.
All fiction writing comes out of the unreal and not the physical. Fiction comes from the imagination which is no part of the physical world. In addition, the author turns ideas into words and then symbols. You do realize that words and the symbols that represent words are two different things entirely. Words exist in ideas and outside of the physical—they are turned into the physical by turning them into symbols.
Until the invention of the dictionary, the symbols defining certain words were not even critically defined. Different writers spelled the same word in different ways until the reckoning of Webster and Johnson. Even then, the culture than followed Ben Johnson still spells the same words differently than the culture than follows Webster.
We must turn the words into symbols, but there is more, next.
We can’t ever forget that words are ideas. Words are also sounds, but words are not independent of ideas and the symbols that form words represent the words and the sounds but they are not the words or the sounds. For example, if I say was. The sound is wuz and not was at all. The symbols we use for the word was happen to be was, but the word does not sound that way at all and it means something specific to itself, but not from the word symbols rather a meaning.
The symbols represent the words and this is what the reader sees on the page. As I noted before, the reader turns these symbols into words and the words are ideas. These are what the author wants the reader to see—or at least some facsimile thereof. This goes directly back to ideas. Ideas are imagination, and the imagination is what an author develops. I’ll continue, next.
Imagination is the basis for all writing. That’s it. That’s perhaps the most important point about creativity. That’s pretty much what I’m coming for—creativity. The reason is that creativity is the most important part of the writing, in my opinion, and perhaps the most lacking.
When I read novels from others, I’m looking for creativity. I measure that by how much I enjoy the characters and the story. I’m looking for pathos development through the characters and the plot. To me creativity is the pathos—to be very clear, pathos is the emotions generated in me by the characters and the story. That’s what I look and gauge for creativity.
Most specifically, I’m not looking for a high imagination with all kinds of twists and turns, although that’s a great approach and idea, I’m looking for high pathos designed and developed in the story that moves me. I want to be moved. Great story and great characters development is okay, but great pathos that moves the reader is much more powerful and effective. That’s what I aim for. More about how we achieve this, next.
Aristotle defines pathos as pity and fear for tragedy. Pity and fear are the emotions of the readers (viewers) and not necessarily the characters. I’m not sure I agree that pity and fear are the main emotions I want or I acknowledge in great writing. Aristotle thought that pity and fear were the main pathos type emotions for Greek tragedy. This is what he said moved the audiences the most and had the greatest effect on judges and the people.
I’ll mention here that all Greek plays were religious and they were judged based on tragedy or comedy and for the religious festivals of the time. Only the winning plays were presented for the festivals, and the judges were usually the priests.
The pity and fear Aristotle presumed the authors were going for was based on moving judges and the people—it was a part of their religious expression, even if the plays were not very religious at all.
For Greek tragedy, I’d recommend pity and fear, but I’m not sure that’s what the average modern reader is looking for. What we want is the emotions for great pathos today. That’s next.
What type of pathos (emotions) do I want to excite in my readers? Mainly, I want delight. Delight really isn’t an emotion as much as a response. I’d really say I want joy—let’s say unrestrained joy. I’d also like deep sadness—anything that gets my readers choaked up. The unhappiness should not be with my characters but for my characters. The readers are unhappy with the state of the characters. They feel a kinship and depth of emotion for them because of their situations. This is the pathos I’m looking for. Perhaps I should list emotions and see which ones I really want in my readers—not characters. Then we can figure out how to get those emotions in the readers. Here’s a list of emotions:
- Admiration
- Adoration
- Aesthetic Appreciation
- Amusement
- Anger
- Anxiety
- Awe
- Awkwardness
- Boredom – not useful
- Calmness – not useful for pathos
- Confusion – not useful for pathos
- Craving – perhaps the most powerful for pathos
- Disgust – very useful used indirectly
- Empathetic pain – empathy in general is pathos
- Entrancement – the suspension of disbelief
- Excitement – a general and powerful state for all good writing
- Fear – main pathos development in tragedy
- Horror – more intense fear
- Interest – an overall characteristic of a novel and not a pathos development
- Joy – the master pathos for comedy
- Nostalgia – moderates pathos from more powerful emotions
- Pity – the master pathos for tragedy
- Relief – main means of scene development as in tension and release, relief is just another term for release
- Romance – not a pathos emotion by itself, mystery and excitement caused by love
- Sadness – part of the negative dependency developed to influence the emotions of the reader
- Satisfaction – part of the positive dependency developed to influence the emotions of the reader
- Sexual desire – basis for all the emotions around romantic love, but eroticism in the raw.
- Surprise – a general type of experience in development of a novel or plot not necessarily a good pathos building emotion
- Anticipation – the main pathos development in comedy
- Mystery – master pathos developer
- Happiness – the end pathos in comedy
Let’s start with these. They are from a Berkley study, by the way. I’m not certain these can all be defined as emotions, and I am a little surprised they don’t include some of the most fundamental and basic feelings. Aren’t emotions feelings and feelings emotions? Where is pain, happiness, or jealousy. I can see why they didn’t include love, for example, but where is pity. Even though the Greeks wouldn’t have thought of love of any kind as an emotion by itself, pity is on of the most powerful of the emotions, and marked by Aristotle as the main point of tragedy, as producing pathos.
The entire point in looking at the list above has been to evaluate the use of these “emotions” for pathos. Let me go back to the basics of pathos for a moment—we can’t be confused about this very important subject.
Many inexperienced authors are like terrible screenplay writers, they imagine that a character on stage by showing emotions can excite those or pathos bearing emotions in the audience—the opposite is usually true. Let me explain. The purpose of all literature from plays to screenplays to novels to poems is to bring pathos (emotions) to the audience (reader). The emotions of the characters are in some ways meaningless except as they relate to the pathos (emotions) of the reader (audience).
Pathos is when the proper emotions are developed in the reader, while bathos is when the wrong emotions are developed in the reader.
To explain bathos, I’m sure you have been in a movie where the scene is tense with the expectation of deep emotion—the movie producer and director intended that reaction and the screenplay writer designed it. We see the characters in a tense and delicate situation and the characters are trying to milk the scene for the deepest reaction, but suddenly it all falls flat and while those on stage are acting their hearts out and spreading misery, the audience is tittering with embarrassment and complete rejection of the emotion on the stage—that is bathos. Most properly defined it is the sublime being turned into the ridiculous. One of the most bathos developing movies scenes I can remember is the one where Mr. Spock is about to give his life for the Enterprise and humanity (even though he isn’t even a human) with the Genisis machine (like a staristepper or something). In any case, Captain Kirk says with great irony and emotion, “He was just so…,” and I had to call out, “…green.” Because he was, and the audience broke out into laughter. That is bathos, and I know everyone else in the movie theater who could think was thinking the same thing. That was one of the most bathos developing scenes in any movie—so sutpid and vapid that an audience could not help but laugh at the foolishness. I know you’ve experienced them. Movie director get so focused on the emotions of their characters and their own creations they can’t help but produce such silliness. We as authors can’t—we need pathos not bathos. I guess I’ll move to that, next.
Pathos is the emotion our readers (audience) feels while reading (watching, experiencing) our art. Yes, writing is a type of art. There is much to this we can bring into the picture, and I think I will as part of this conclusion.
I think in my explanations of emotions we could use well for pathos that pity leads or builds fear we want for tragedy and anticipation leads of builds the happiness we want for comedy. That makes fear the main pathos we want in our readers for tragedy and happiness as the main pathos we want in our readers for comedy.
I also explained that pathos emotions are not necessarily felt or experienced by the characters or the protagonist. In fact, especially in tragedy or in horror, many times the most effective strategy is for the characters to not express any fear at all. Think of the many Alien movies, these are technically comedies, the most powerful expression of fear isn’t in the protagonist. The anticipation of the death or destruction caused against the slowly being ended characters is the most powerful expression of the fear in the audience. The eventual anticipation of the protagonist defeating the alien leads to hope, then despair, then hope and despair. Ultimately, when the audience thinks the alien is defeated, they pop up again and need to be redefeated.
Perhaps this example of a horror comedy isn’t a good one. Part of the problem of this expression that can result in bathos is the indeterminate ending. I mentioned many times before that in the Romantic plot is characterized by appearing to have an impossible resolution of the telic flaw, and the alien example certainly shows this well. However, the once you reach the climax, the resolution must then seem to have been inevitable. If the end or the resolution appears to be incomplete in any way, then the feeling of relief (or happiness) in the reader is delayed or not sufficiently resolved—this can be a problem in the writing.
I’m sure you have reached the end of a novel and felt a real letdown because the climax and resolution didn’t seem sufficient. It wasn’t that you wanted more from the novel, it was rather that the conclusion didn’t fit the buildup to the end. The resolution was not inevitable—that is the reader didn’t say in their own heart (mind) wow, I knew that was going to happen, even when they didn’t. There is more to this, next.
Now, I will note, that my writer friend did remark that such an insufficient end might be considered a good one because it makes the reader continue to think about the novel and the ending. I will leave the sufficiency of the climax as an issue. In my opinion, a novel with a sufficient conclusion or telic flaw resolution is much more memorable and powerful than one that isn’t.
For example, the ending of the Alien movie with it’s insufficient conclusion could be considered artistically good. I would argue that a sufficient and much more conclusive conclusion would be much more memorable than the current ending. The current ending doesn’t really end—it leaves the movie incomplete and insufficient. The audience can’t ever feel true happiness or a full conclusion and the work is incomplete. I argue this is because the writer was not creative enough to properly end the movie.
This inconclusive type of ending is typical for many of these poorly written movie screenplays. What the movie really needed was a very strong and well developed ending to conclusively resolve the telic flaw with an impossible but inevitable climax. These types of climaxes take great thought and work to develop. They are not simple or recursive like the never ending alien from Alien. How would I have ended the movie?
If I were the writer for Alien, I would have developed a well thought out trap for the alien designed by the protagonist and set up with painstaking care. There would have been all kinds of foreshadowing and I would have used some quality or innate feature of the alien to set and release the trap. There would be some weakness that the protagonist could take advantage of. In the end, when the trap was set and the alien caught in it, you could have all kinds of problems that bedevil the alien and the protagonist, but the end result must be the conclusive and complete end of the alien—unless there is an intentional cliffhanger, but that isn’t a good conclusion or climax either.
Point here—a better writer would understand and develop an inevitable and final end for the alien if that was the intent of the climax. That’s how I’d write it. There is much more to this. Perhaps we can find more, next.
Yes, I’m of the opinion that one of the main purposes of writing and writing well is to provide your readers with a conclusive and complete end. When I write this, I don’t mean that every shard and every string of every point in the novel has to be tied up in a bow—where is the possibility of a sequel in that? I’ll give an example, in Sister of Darkness, the third novel in my Ancient Light series, the protagonist, Paul Bolang and Leora Bolang go into the Third Reich to defeat Hitler through the Goddess of Darkness but also to rescue their daughter. The Goddess of Darkness is the one pulling the strings and propelling Hitler in much of his atrocities. In the end of the novel, Paul and Leroa, with the help of their daughter Lumiere are able to defeat the Goddess of Darkness and Hitler falls. That’s a pretty clean end and part of the telic flaw resolution. Paul and Leroa think that their daughter, Lumiere was killed; however, the Goddess of Darkness was not destroyed, she lost much power and fled. Lumiere took the power of the Goddess of Darkness and chased after her. The end in terms of the defeat of the Goddess of Darkness is complete in the novel, but the readers know something Paul and Leroa don’t—their daughter and the Goddess of Darkness are still alive and kicking. This leaves me room for the next novel, but the novel, Sister of Darkness is complete and finished.
That’s my point—I think a complete end and proper telic flaw resolution are necessary for the reader, however, we can leave incomplete other elements of the story (plot, theme) such that we can continue the main plot or a new plot, and indeed, the next novel in the series, Shadow of Darkness continues the story into the Soviet Union and the very trying times just after World War Two to the death of Stalin. These are critical and important events that get covered in the life of Lumiere with connections to the West.
So, in my opinion, a very well put together climax is impossible until it is inevitable and leads to the complete resolution of the telic flaw, but there can be elements of the overall story that are not concluded. The author needs to evaluate just how complete and how detailed the resolution should be. The ultimate telic flaw must be resolved, but other elements not so much so. I do think the power of the novel rests in the completeness of the resolution in the mind of the reader—the pathos as well. A further point is that the climax itself isn’t as important as the revelation of the protagonist, but that’s just another point in the ideas around a novel. As I’ve written many times before, the revelation of the protagonist is the entire basis for any great novel. That revelation is the most important part of the novel, starting with the initial scene. Many times a flat or poor climax will be overlooked by the reader when the revelation is well and powerfully done, just look at Harry Potty. There is more to this, next.
Yes, although a novel is basically overall the resolution of a telic flaw, it is primarily a revelation of the protagonist. This is what I’ve written before and my recommendation. The initial scene sets the telic flaw, the protagonist, the initial setting, and basically, the entire novel. Go with a great initial scene and develop a great protagonist. The resolution of the telic flaw can wait. In other words, don’t worry about the resolution or climax of the novel just write toward it. You might ask, how can I write toward a climax if I don’t know what it is? I think the answer is simple. Write toward the resolution of the telic flaw.
Every protagonist and every novel must have a telic flaw. You basically can’t write anything without a telic flaw. I always go back to the idea of the detective novel, but any telic flaw Ill do—the detective or mystery novel is the easiest to visualize. The crime or the mystery is the telic flaw. In almost every case, the protagonist either comes with a telic flaw or the telic flaw is placed on them. For example, in the case of the detective novel, the detective protagonist gets the case. The telic flaw is placed on the detective protagonist. On the other hand, for many mysteries, the mystery belongs to the protagonist. The protagonist has a secret or a family secret or a family mystery. You can just place a mystery on the detective-like protagonist. In other words, the detecteive protagonist accepts the mystery as his or her goal. While we are at this, goals versus telic flaws, what’s the difference. I guess that’s next.
A telic flaw is the idea behind any work of art and especially any piece of literature. Without a telic flaw, you have nothing. Even a poem must have some idea that is the basis for the poem. You might call this a topic, but the telic flaw goes much deeper than a topic. A telic flaw must include some problem that must be resolved. Even problem is a little misleading. The telic flaw is a difficulty in the world of the novel that must be resolved. In a Romantic type or plotted novel, only the Romantic protagonist of the novel, in that world, is capable of resolving the difficulty.
Although a telic flaw can be or appear to be a type of goal, it in itself is not a goal. The telic flaw is a very complex concept related to the protagonist, the antagonist, and the setting (world) of the novel. At the same time, the telic flaw, although complex, can be very simple. For example, in a detective novel, the telic flaw might be the crime or a mystery of some type. Admittedly, the answer (resolution) of the crime or the mystery might be simple, but the revelation to the climax (resolution) should never be simple. For examples, just look at your favorite or other’s favorite novels. Take, for example, the Harry Potty novel—the first one. In it, we have a hidden antagonist. The mystery is just who is this antagonist (hiding as a teacher). Additionally, we have a few other mysteries and problems: Harry’s parents and the mirror, the philosopher’s stone, quidditch, the super smart witch (Hermione), and some other small problems and adventures thrown in for fun. Point is this, the telic flaw is not completely understood by the readers until late in the novel. Although every event and scene should support the telic flaw, not all do (that’s just poor writing), but the telic flaw does not shape up into any kind of goal until the very end of the novel. Then we find the goal is the defeat of Voldermort in the guise of the teacher dude. The telic flaw isn’t this goal at all—the telic flaw was the mystery from the beginning. The resolution of the telic flaw and the climax of the novel becomes this goal at the end. This is pretty much how most novels run. You can identify the general telic flaw from the beginning of the novel, but the overall climax is unclear until we get toward the end. In other words, there is no goal to seek.
To most authors, the telic flaw is clear, but the climax may not be when they begin a novel. There are some authors who block (outline) their novels completely from front to back before they write. That’s great, but I think it leads to less well integrated and less complex novels, but that’s me. So, start with a telic flaw. The development of the climax can wait until the climax—I’ll write about this, next.
Yes, I have some inkling about what shape I’d like the climax to be when I start writing, but I’m not focused on the climax or the end at all. I focus on the revelation of the protagonist and the telic flaw. Always in the back of my mind is the telic flaw, and that’s what I’m writing to. The scenes produce their own tension and release because I’m developing the revelation based on the scenes.
In the first place, the scene is the most basic part or section of any novel. Novels are written in scenes. This is a little fact I discovered after writing more than one novel. In fact, just knowing his little piece of very important information will help you write better. One of my author friends has actually written a couple of books on writing and especially writing with scenes in mind.
For me, the most important feature of scene development is the scene outline. This is so important I’ll repeat it below:
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
With this outline, you can write a scene. With enough good scenes about the protagonist and the focus connected to a telic flaw, you have a novel. Yes, it is about as simple as that. It does get more complex. The scenes all drive to the telic flaw resolution and the climax. However, the creative power in the hands of the author is time.
When you are writing, you have all the time in the world to develop and perfect each scene and the state of the scenes in the overall novel. That is, if you have a sticky situation you can’t figure out—you have all the time in the world to study, develop, go back and fix, or go back and improve the entire novel. The author controls the world of the novel. Usually, if the revelation is properly focused and written, the movement of the novel pretty naturally moves to the telic flaw resolution—that’s been my experience. Proper development of the tension and release in the scenes leads naturally to an expression of a climax. Sometimes that climax might not be sufficient or powerful enough and then the writer might tweak it to make it better. I’m fond of judicial style climaxes in some of my novels.
Just what is a judicial climax? Instead of a highly focused action scene at the climax, I like one where the principles (protagonist and protagonist’s helper) are required to answer in a court of law or in a specific court (supernatural) for their actions. The end is usually a culmination of the circumstances and the telic flaw of the novel. The trial format allows the details of the protagonist’s actions to come out and be reviewed. This sets up the entire situation for a conflict and resolution—sometimes to the detriment of the protagonist while still resulting in a positive and comedy resolution (the protagonist overcomes the telic flaw).
There is more to this, next.
I know these definitions seem dated to some, but I see them as the basis for the art of literature. The Greeks pretty much started the idea of the play and that began with tragedy. The Greek ideas sprang from their religious pageant and their desire to please the gods. The Greeks eventually invented comedy as well. It seems reasonable to define the idea of tragedy and comedy in the same sense the Greeks did. That still leaves room for new ideas and definitions just as we create new plots and protagonists. The circumstances of the stories and the situations will differ, but the definitions and the overall themes not so much. For example, love is a timeless theme. It may be defined and represented differently by different cultures and societies, but love is a theme represented across time and space. There are many such themes that still excite and many that have been revied. I mean specifically the many magic themed novels that have come into play in this modern age. Everyone thought magic was dead, except in fantasy, but that fantasy has taken over in more than one genre and more than just writing. You hear about magic realism in art, music, and all.
So, what about the climax? In most cases, the author will want to write an action packed and based climax that resolves the telic flaw. However, the option always exists to not do that at all. I point out Dragonsong and Dragonsinger these two novels have a not so action based climax that still resolves the telic flaw. Perhaps we should look at these types of climaxes, next.
The perfect climax is action based and uses that action to have the protagonist confront the antagonist, defeat them at great cost, and resolve the telic flaw. You can take this to mean anything within the context of the words I used.
For example, you might have your protagonist actually engage in a fight or conflict of some time using strength, magic, some power, or some skill against the antagonist. This is a classic type of climax. On the other hand, you could have a verbal or intellectual conflict at the end. That would include a judicial climax like I mentioned. The antagonist must be defeated in some way. This can become what my writer friend calls a ironic resolution. In my thinking, it’s just a resolution, but you can make it ironic. I’ve done this myself. In other words, the antagonist isn’t fully defeated in the climax, however the protagonist prevails. It’s not always about destruction or the physical defeat of the antagonist. It’s always about the telic flaw resolution.
The other main point about every climax is that it should appear impossible until it is inevitable. This type of writing and climax is most satisfying and fulfilling to the reader. The reader wants a clear end, my thoughts, but leaving a little leeway for future conflicts and a future novel. You don’t have to wrap up every problem and every issue, you just need to resolve the telic flaw of the novel. Everything else is fodder for another novel or more connections in a future novel. I do like connections between novels.
Even if you don’t intend to write series novels, the connections in the worldview you create are still beloved and of interest to your readers. I especially like these connections. Even if the connection is a place like a store or a restaurant or a person like a shopkeep or a server, these connect people and can connect novels. In series novels, they are the bread and butter of connections. I guess I’ll mention more about the less conflict driven climax, next. Perhaps I should look at the climaxes of my novels and see how they worked out the telic flaw. That might be useful.
Perhaps I’ll move over to my science fiction novels. I need to write a new one of them.
The most important thing for the scene is developing the entertainment in the scene.
I’ll write more tomorrow.
For more information, you can visit my author site www.ldalford.com/, and my individual novel websites:
http://www.sisterofdarkness.com
fiction, theme, plot, story, storyline, character development, scene, setting, conversation, novel, book, writing, information, study, marketing, tension, release, creative, idea, logic
Zen of Scenes 