Announcement: I heard from my publisher that my Aegypt novels will continued to be titled Ancient Light and that the next two books will be called Sister of Light and Sister of Darkness. These were the original titles. They will be released individually and as a 3 in 1 volume. I saw the proposed cover. I'll keep you updated.
Introduction: I wrote the novel Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon. This was my 21st novel and through this blog, I gave you the entire novel in installments that included commentary on the writing. In the commentary, in addition to other general information on writing, I explained, how the novel was constructed, the metaphors and symbols in it, the writing techniques and tricks I used, and the way I built the scenes. You can look back through this blog and read the entire novel beginning with http://www.pilotlion.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-novel-part-3-girl-and-demon.html.
I'm using this novel as an example of how I produce, market, and eventually (we hope) get a novel published. I'll keep you informed along the way.
The four plus one basic rules I employ when writing:
1. Don't confuse your readers.
2. Entertain your readers.
3. Ground your readers in the writing.
4. Don't show (or tell) everything.
5. Immerse yourself in the world of your writing.
All novels have five discrete parts:
1. The initial scene (the beginning)
2. The rising action
3. The climax
4. The falling action
5. The dénouement
The theme statement of my newest novel, Valeska, is this: An agent of the organization becomes involved with a vampire girl during a mission, she becomes dependent on the agent, and she is redeemed.
Here is my proposed cover for Valeska:
So, if words follow immutable rules (spelling and meanings) and sentences follow immutable rules (grammar), do paragraphs follow rules too? I think I expressed this in a reasonable fashion before. Paragraphs do indeed follow certain rules. These rules aren't immutable like those for words and sentence construction, but they mean the difference between a cohesive paragraph and an uncohesive paragraph. What would you rather write? Something understandable or something not understandable. If you wish people to understand your writing, I'd go with cohesive. If you want cohesive, you will follow the very basic rules of paragraph development I mentioned.
What about scenes? Paragraphs are formed by the writer into scenes. I've taken a lot of time to show you the basic ideas for scene development--are these rules? They are not rules in the sense of grammar or spelling. They are rules in the sense of helping to put together something cohesive.
Are there rules for novels--that is scenes put together in a cohesive sequence. Those are the five parts of a novel that I have listed in this blog for a long time. Are these rules? Not really rules so much as they are the format for a classical novel. I don't think you are going to get very far with any serious piece of writing that does not follow this very general guideline. So, there are rules in writing. What rules can you break? When writers or teachers mention that you should break rules in your writing, the first thing I want to ask is what rules are you talking about. The second is, why would you want to break any of these basic rules? If your words don't mean the same thing to others, then you will not have any understanding. If your grammar is poor, no one will read your writing. If your paragraphs are not understandable, no one will want to read your writing. If your scenes are inncochate and unentertaining, you aren't going anywhere. If your novels are a jumble of unstructured mess, who is going to publish you?
More tomorrow.
For more information, you can visit my author site http://www.ldalford.com/, and my individual novel websites:
http://www.aegyptnovel.com/
http://www.centurionnovel.com
http://www.thesecondmission.com/
http://www.theendofhonor.com/
http://www.thefoxshonor.com
http://www.aseasonofhonor.com
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