How To Write A Novel Utilizing The Snowflake Technique

Step 1) Take an hour and write a one-sentence abstract of your novel. One thing like this: “A rogue physicist travels again in time to kill the apostle Paul.” (That is the abstract for my first novel, Transgression.) The sentence will serve you perpetually as a ten-second promoting software. That is the large image, the analog of that massive beginning triangle within the snowflake image.

Once you later write your guide proposal, this sentence ought to seem very early within the proposal. It’s the hook that can promote your guide to your editor, to your committee, to the gross sales drive, to bookstore house owners, and finally to readers. So make the most effective one you possibly can!

Some hints on what makes an excellent sentence:

• Shorter is best. Strive for fewer than 15 phrases.
• No character names, please! Higher to say “a handicapped trapeze artist” than “Jane Doe”.
• Tie collectively the large image and the private image. Which character has probably the most to lose on this story? Now inform me what she or he desires to win.
• Learn the one-line blurbs on the New York Occasions Bestseller listing to discover ways to do that. Writing a one-sentence description is an artwork kind.

Step 2) Take one other hour and broaden that sentence to a full paragraph describing the story setup, main disasters, and ending of the novel. That is the analog of the second stage of the snowflake. I wish to construction a narrative as “three disasters plus an ending”. Every of the disasters takes 1 / 4 of the guide to develop and the ending takes the ultimate quarter. I don’t know if that is the best construction, it’s simply my private style.

If you happen to imagine within the Three-Act construction, then the primary catastrophe corresponds to the tip of Act 1. The second catastrophe is the mid-point of Act 2. The third catastrophe is the tip of Act 2, and forces Act 3 which wraps issues up. It’s OK to have the primary catastrophe be brought on by exterior circumstances, however I believe that the second and third disasters needs to be brought on by the protagonist’s makes an attempt to “sort things”. Issues simply worsen and worse.

You can too use this paragraph in your proposal. Ideally, your paragraph may have about 5 sentences. One sentence to provide me the backdrop and story setup. Then one sentence every in your three disasters. Then yet one more sentence to inform the ending. Don’t confuse this paragraph with the back-cover copy in your guide. This paragraph summarizes the entire story. Your back-cover copy ought to summarize solely in regards to the first quarter of the story.

Step 3) The above provides you a high-level view of your novel. Now you want one thing related for the storylines of every of your characters. Characters are a very powerful a part of any novel, and the time you put money into designing them up entrance will repay ten-fold once you begin writing. For every of your main characters, take an hour and write a one-page abstract sheet that tells:

• The character’s title
• A one-sentence abstract of the character’s storyline
• The character’s motivation (what does he/she need abstractly?)
• The character’s objective (what does he/she need concretely?)
• The character’s battle (what prevents him/her from reaching this objective?)
• The character’s epiphany (what’s going to he/she be taught, how will he/she change?
• A one-paragraph abstract of the character’s storyline

An vital level: You might discover that you could return and revise your one-sentence abstract and/or your one-paragraph abstract. Go forward! That is good–it means your characters are instructing you issues about your story. It’s all the time okay at any stage of the design course of to return and revise earlier levels. Actually, it’s not simply okay–it’s inevitable. And it’s good. Any revisions you make now are revisions you gained’t have to make afterward to a clunky 400 web page manuscript.

One other vital level: It doesn’t should be excellent. The aim of every step within the design course of is to advance you to the subsequent step. Hold your ahead momentum! You’ll be able to all the time come again later and repair it once you perceive the story higher. You’ll do that too, until you’re quite a bit smarter than I’m.

Step 4) By this stage, it is best to have a good suggestion of the large-scale construction of your novel, and you’ve got solely spent a day or two. Nicely, in truth, you could have spent as a lot as per week, however it doesn’t matter. If the story is damaged, you understand it now, slightly than after investing 500 hours in a rambling first draft. So now simply continue to grow the story. Take a number of hours and broaden every sentence of your abstract paragraph right into a full paragraph. All however the final paragraph ought to finish in a catastrophe. The ultimate paragraph ought to inform how the guide ends.

This can be a lot of enjoyable, and on the finish of the train, you’ve a reasonably first rate one-page skeleton of your novel. It’s okay for those who can’t get all of it onto one single-spaced web page. What issues is that you’re rising the concepts that can go into your story. You might be increasing the battle. It’s best to now have a synopsis appropriate for a proposal, though there’s a higher different for proposals . . .

Step 5) Take a day or two and write up a one-page description of every main character and a half-page description of the opposite vital characters. These “character synopses” ought to inform the story from the viewpoint of every character. As all the time, be at liberty to cycle again to the sooner steps and make revisions as you be taught cool stuff about your characters. I often take pleasure in this step probably the most and recently, I’ve been placing the ensuing “character synopses” into my proposals as an alternative of a plot-based synopsis. Editors love character synopses, as a result of editors love character-based fiction.

Step 6) By now, you’ve a stable story and a number of other story-threads, one for every character. Now take per week and broaden the one-page plot synopsis of the novel to a four-page synopsis. Principally, you’ll once more be increasing every paragraph from step (4) right into a full web page. This can be a lot of enjoyable, since you are determining the high-level logic of the story and making strategic choices. Right here, you’ll positively need to cycle again and sort things within the earlier steps as you achieve perception into the story and new concepts whack you within the face.

Step 7) Take one other week and broaden your character descriptions into full-fledged character charts detailing all the things there may be to learn about every character. The usual stuff reminiscent of birthdate, description, historical past, motivation, objective, and so forth. Most significantly, how will this character change by the tip of the novel? That is an growth of your work in step (3), and it’ll educate you a large number about your characters. You’ll most likely return and revise steps (1-6) as your characters change into “actual” to you and start making petulant calls for on the story. That is good — nice fiction is character-driven. Take as a lot time as you could do that, since you’re simply saving time downstream. When you’ve completed this course of, (and it could take a full month of stable effort to get right here), you’ve most of what you could write a proposal. If you’re a printed novelist, then you possibly can write a proposal now and promote your novel earlier than you write it. If you happen to’re not but revealed, you then’ll want to put in writing your whole novel first earlier than you possibly can promote it. No, that’s not honest, however life isn’t honest and the world of fiction writing is very unfair.

Step 8) You might or could not take a hiatus right here, ready for the guide to promote. Sooner or later, you’ve obtained to really write the novel. Earlier than you do this, there are a few issues you are able to do to make that traumatic first draft simpler. The very first thing to do is to take that four-page synopsis and make an inventory of all of the scenes that you simply’ll want to show the story right into a novel. And the best strategy to make that listing is . . . with a spreadsheet.

For some motive, that is scary to a whole lot of writers. Oh the horror. Cope with it. You discovered to make use of a word-processor. Spreadsheets are simpler. You’ll want to make an inventory of scenes, and spreadsheets had been invented for making lists. If you happen to want some tutoring, purchase a guide. There are a thousand on the market, and one among them will give you the results you want. It ought to take you lower than a day to be taught the itty bit you want. It’ll be probably the most beneficial day you ever spent. Do it.

Make a spreadsheet detailing the scenes that emerge out of your four-page plot define. Make only one line for every scene. In a single column, listing the POV character. In one other (huge) column, inform what occurs. If you wish to get fancy, add extra columns that inform you what number of pages you anticipate to put in writing for the scene. A spreadsheet is right, as a result of you possibly can see the entire storyline at a look, and it’s straightforward to maneuver scenes round to reorder issues.

My spreadsheets often wind up being over 100 strains lengthy, one line for every scene of the novel. As I develop the story, I make new variations of my story spreadsheet. That is extremely beneficial for analyzing a narrative. It could take per week to make an excellent spreadsheet. If you end up performed, you possibly can add a brand new column for chapter numbers and assign a chapter to every scene.

Step 9) (Non-obligatory. I don’t do that step anymore.) Change again to your phrase processor and start writing a story description of the story. Take every line of the spreadsheet and broaden it to a multi-paragraph description of the scene. Put in any cool strains of dialogue you consider, and sketch out the important battle of that scene. If there’s no battle, you’ll realize it right here and it is best to both add battle or scrub the scene.

I used to put in writing both one or two pages per chapter, and I began every chapter on a brand new web page. Then I simply printed all of it out and put it in a loose-leaf pocket book, so I may simply swap chapters round later or revise chapters with out messing up the others. This course of often took me per week and the tip end result was an enormous 50-page printed doc that I might revise in crimson ink as I wrote the primary draft. All my good concepts after I awoke within the morning obtained hand-written within the margins of this doc. This, by the best way, is a slightly painless manner of writing that dreaded detailed synopsis that every one writers appear to hate. But it surely’s really enjoyable to develop, you probably have performed steps (1) by way of (8) first. After I did this step, I by no means confirmed this synopsis to anybody, least of all to an editor — it was for me alone. I appreciated to consider it because the prototype first draft. Think about writing a primary draft in per week! Sure, you are able to do it and it’s effectively well worth the time. However I’ll be trustworthy, I don’t really feel like I would like this step anymore, so I don’t do it now.

Step 10) At this level, simply sit down and begin pounding out the actual first draft of the novel. You can be astounded at how briskly the story flies out of your fingers at this stage. I’ve seen writers triple their fiction writing velocity in a single day, whereas producing higher high quality first drafts than they often produce on a 3rd draft.

You would possibly assume that every one the creativity is chewed out of the story by this time. Nicely, no, not until you overdid your evaluation once you wrote your Snowflake. That is presupposed to be the enjoyable half, as a result of there are various small-scale logic issues to work out right here. How does Hero get out of that tree surrounded by alligators and rescue Heroine who’s within the burning rowboat? That is the time to determine it out! But it surely’s enjoyable since you already know that the large-scale construction of the novel works. So that you solely have to resolve a restricted set of issues, and so you possibly can write comparatively quick.

This stage is extremely enjoyable and thrilling. I’ve heard many fiction writers complain about how laborious the primary draft is. Invariably, that’s as a result of they haven’t any clue what’s coming subsequent. Good grief! Life is simply too quick to put in writing like that! There isn’t a motive to spend 500 hours writing a wandering first draft of your novel when you possibly can write a stable one in 150. Counting the 100 hours it takes to do the design paperwork, you come out manner forward in time.

About halfway by way of a primary draft, I often take a breather and repair all of the damaged elements of my design paperwork. Sure, the design paperwork should not excellent. That’s okay. The design paperwork should not fastened in concrete, they’re a residing set of paperwork that grows as you develop your novel. If you’re doing all of your job proper, on the finish of the primary draft you’ll chortle at what an amateurish piece of junk your unique design paperwork had been. And also you’ll be thrilled at how deep your story has change into.

Methods To Use The Snowflake

Are you struggling proper now with a horrible first draft of your novel that simply appears hopeless? Take an hour and summarize your story in a single sentence. Does that make clear issues? You’ve simply accomplished step (1) of the Snowflake, and it solely took an hour. Why not strive the subsequent few steps of the Snowflake and see in case your story doesn’t all of the sudden begin coming to life? What have you ever obtained to lose, besides a horrible first draft that you simply already hate?

Are you a seat-of-the-pants author who lastly completed your novel, however now you’re observing an unlimited pile of manuscript that desperately wants rewriting? Take coronary heart! Your novel’s performed, isn’t it? You’ve performed one thing many writers solely dream about. Now think about a big-shot editor bumps into you within the elevator and asks what your novel’s about. In fifteen phrases or much less, what would you say? Take your time! This can be a thought recreation. What would you say? If you happen to can give you a solution within the subsequent hour . . . you’ve simply accomplished Step 1 of the Snowflake! Do you assume among the different steps would possibly allow you to put some order into that manuscript? Give it a shot. What have you ever obtained to lose?

Have you ever simply obtained a nightmarishly lengthy letter out of your editor detailing all of the issues which can be incorrect together with your novel? Are you questioning how one can probably make all of the modifications earlier than your inconceivable deadline? It’s by no means too late to do the Snowflake. How about for those who take per week and drill by way of all of the steps proper now? It’ll make clear issues splendidly, and you then’ll have a plan for executing all these revisions. I wager you’ll get it performed in document time. And I wager the guide will come out higher than you imagined.

If the Snowflake Technique works for you, I’d like to listen to from you. You’ll be able to attain me by way of the contact web page on my web-site.

Acknowledgments: I thank my many associates on the Chi Libris listing and particularly Janelle Schneider for a lot of discussions on the Snowflake and far else.

If you happen to be taught finest by seeing examples, you would possibly like this guide. It’s a few younger lady who’s been dreaming all her life about writing a novel. Her dad and mom all the time advised her that fiction writing was “impractical,” they usually made her get a sensible school diploma. However now that she’s married and has two youngsters at school, she decides to do one thing only for herself, for as soon as in her life. She’s going to put in writing that novel and no one goes to cease her. The one factor blocking her is herself.

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