14 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 Ancient Light has been delayed due to the economy, and it may not be published.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.
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.
The Second Mission (399 to 400 BC) – The telic flaw of The Second Mission is that a modern man gets accidentally caught up in the second mission into time. The mission is for a time traveler to record the words of Socrates to see how accurate Plato’s accounts of the dialogs were. The resolution of this telic flaw could have taken many different paths. The way I resolved it was that following the death of Socrates, the time traveler was taken back, as planned, to the future. The man, Alan Fisher was also taken back to the time in the future. The main problem is that Alan Fisher was the man of invented the means of time travel. Since he came to the future, he couldn’t have developed the time travel technology in the first place. The ability to travel in time was lost. I thought the climax and the end was pretty elegant. In any case, it resolved the telic flaw and the novel.
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
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 