3 November 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 inspector 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.
Plot devices, are basic plot designs in writing that an author uses to produce entertainment in a scene. Plot devices are creative elements. Each scene may incorporate one or more plot devices at least one of which must relate to the telic flaw and the climax.
Classically, plot devices are plot elements such as cliffhangers, Chekov’s Guns, foreshadowing, and etc. I went through all of these for you in this blog. I argue that these are not plot devices at all—these are simply writing plot tools. Every novel must include Chekov’s Guns and foreshadowing. I would argue that a cliff hanger is a type of kicker and every scene should have a kicker. Each of these things that are called plot devices are simply plot tools used in all writing. To me, plot devices are actually plot elements a writer uses to build scenes and a novel. For example, a plot device (element) might be any of the love plot themes: unrequited love, mutual love, love triangle, and there are others. The point is that plot elements are what we use in writing scenes to bring entertainment into a scene. We use plot elements along with settings and items. These are the fixed items in a scene that build excitement and entertainment in the scene.
The next step will be settings, items, and finally plot devices.
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
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Zen of Scenes 
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