17 October 2017, 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
- The Climax
- The falling action
- The dénouement
Announcement: Ancient Light has been delayed due to the economy. 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.
Here are my rules of writing:
- Entertain your readers.
- Don’t confuse your readers.
- Ground your readers in the writing.
- Don’t show (or tell) everything.
4a. Show what can be seen, heard, felt, smelled, and tasted on the stage of the novel.
- Immerse yourself in the world of your writing.
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:
- Scene input (comes from the previous scene output or is an initial scene)
- Write the scene setting (place, time, stuff, and characters)
- Imagine the output, creative elements, plot, telic flaw resolution (climax) and develop the tension and release.
- Write the scene using the output and creative elements to build the tension.
- Write the release
- 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.
Now, with these basics: a protagonist, a telic flaw, an antagonist, and optionally, a protagonist’s helper, you can develop a plot. Very simply, the plot is the resolution of the telic flaw of the protagonist. The novel is also the revelation of the protagonist that leads to the telic flaw resolution.
Tension and Release, we have the input of the scene from the previous scene or as the initial scene. Setting, input, output, tension and release, these four elements allow us to write an entertaining and focused scene that takes into consideration the plot and climax of the novel.
Tension and release is the mini-rising action and mini-climax in a scene. A scene may have one or more mini-climaxes. I turn setting elements into creative elements in the scene to build tension and then eventually release. To actually understand tension and release, you must start with the setting elements.
Setting elements are anything that begins the scene on the stage of the novel. I started with three characters and here they are:
Protagonist: a detective in a crime mystery. She is young, smart, tricky, and has a child-like face. Let’s also add that she smokes John Player Specials like a chimney and drinks Guinness at every meal including breakfast. Otherwise, she puts on an act like a dandified Lady.
The Scotland Yard detective who is actually the official on the case is a stuck up Oxford type who does use unorthodox policing methods but would never be caught doing them.
His assistant is a tough middle aged woman who speaks with a relatively high middle class London accent and is a stickler for police and gentlemanly decorum.
Setting: the three are at the scene of a gruesome murder. The sky is overcast, but not raining. It is spring and somewhat warm. The time is late afternoon. The detective is late for tea. They just finished examining the corpse and are discussing the details. The place is a vacant lot near a busy London street. The place is surrounded by typical police tape and all that kind of thing. They are waiting for the ambulance to come and take the body to the morgue.
Let’s continue with tension and release development. First, the girl-like detective lights a John Player, and the assistant always complains when she does.
Second, the girl detective is impatient with the investigation speed, and the police detective is impatient with the girl and any rushing to conclusions.
Third, the girl provides telling logical reasoning that eclipses the police detective’s skills.
Forth, the girl’s looks are young and striking.
Fifth, the girl can affect the manners of the highly born as well as those of the street.
Sixth, she has a will of her own.
There is always more to write, but I’ll conclude this example about characters and tension. The purpose of this example was to show you directly how to use the characteristics of characters to drive tension in scenes. I focused on the protagonist and her interaction with the other major characters. I brought up points about her personality and character that I would use through the entire novel to build tension in the scenes. Although other characters can and should be used to build tension, the protagonist is the chief and best character for this. This should be obvious from the role and purpose of the protagonist. More than this, if the protagonist isn’t the character who is building and developing tension, then you chose the wrong person to write about.
I am so enamored about this character, I might even write a novel about her. The way I pictured her for you is unique among most detective novels I’ve read. I think I could do some wonderful things with her. In fact, I think I could set her up in a wonderful fashion to bring out her full pathos.
If you haven’t noticed, this protagonist produces tension just by being alive, especially in the environment I envision. Conflict is the word of the day for tension, and by conflict, I don’t mean toe to toe fighting, although it can be that, I simply mean the kind of verbal and potentially physical sparing that regular people do in entertaining ways. It happens in real life—it happens even better in novels.
The next step will be settings and finally, items.
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 