23 August 2018, 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 Ancient Light has been delayed due to the economy, and it may not be published.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.
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.
How do we gain the skills to write well? Let’s begin with reading. Reading allows us to understand the following:
- What a novel is.
- How a novel is constructed.
- How a novel is entertaining.
- How a novel is written.
- How novels have evolved.
- Different genre in novels.
Here is a list of genres that are reflective of the current market for modern novels:
- Romance
- Action Adventure
- Science Fiction
- Fantasy
- Speculative Fiction
- Suspense/Thriller
- Young Adult
- New Adult
- Horror/Paranormal/Ghost
- Mystery/Crime
- Police Procedurals
- Historical
- Westerns
- Family Saga
- Women’s Fiction
- Magic Realism
- Literary Fiction
Perhaps the best way to approach this is to define each of these and discuss them. I found the definitions and the list at https://writerswrite.co.za/the-17-most-popular-genres-in-fiction-and-why-they-matter/.
Here is a definition for the Horror/Paranormal/Ghost genre:
Horror/Paranormal/Ghost. These are high-pitched scary stories involving pursuit and escape. The protagonist must overcome supernatural or demonic beings. Occult is a sub-genre that always uses satanic-type antagonists.
Is my novel, Aksinya: Enchantment and the Damon a Horror/Paranormal/Ghost genre? I don’t think so. It is a subgenre and theme, but the primary for that novel is historical suspense. The point of this genre is to scare. That is the Stephen King genre. For example, the sparkly vampires don’t really scare. Dracula, which is a gothic horror novel was written to scare and also as a constructive redemptive theme novel.
I am a fan of magic and the occult, but not necessarily horror or ghost novels. It think they are great genre and themes, but not my favorites.
In any case, this genre and theme requires careful development and worldview creation or reproduction. This also bring up the idea of themes as compared to genre. I should discuss both together to some degree.
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 