I found a link via the NaNoWriMo forums to author Randy Ingermanson’s article, How to Write a Novel: The Snowflake Method. This is one of those articles where you read it, think, “Yeah, that’s the way to do things,” and then ask yourself, “So why am I not doing things this way?” The answer: “I never thought to do it this way!”
The snowflake method is named after the concept of a triangle fractal. Beginning with a triangle, one is able to put a quarter-sizes triangle on each side of the triangle. This results in transforming the three-pointed shape to a six-pointed shape, simply by “adding depth” to each side. That also leaves the three-sided triangle as a 12-sided shape. But, don’t stop there! For each of the six mini-triangles, add a one-quarter-sized triangle onto it. Now each of the six triangles has three tips, totalling 18 mini-mini triangles, and 48 sides. It my math doesn’t fail me, adding more, smaller triangles, results in …well, I’d rather not work my mind that hard on numbers.
What was once a triangle is now a complex shape, while still holding a perfect symmetry all around. A story and its characters can work in the same way. You begin with a sentence of the story. You add depth to that sentence, and it becomes a paragraph. You expand each sentence of the paragraph into a paragraph of its own, and you end up with a page of information about the story. Doing the same with each of the main characters (and to a lesser to extent to the minor characters) results in a very detailed storyline and characters with much depth.
Ingermanson’s method intertwines working out the story and the characters. As you add detail to the story, you learn more about the characters. As you write about the characters, you realize how they’ll act in the story, giving birth to new ideas as well as causing rewrites of old ideas.
The snowflake method follows the following steps:
- Write a one-sentence summary of your novel.
- Expand that sentence to a full paragraph describing the story setup, major disasters, and ending of the novel.
- For each of your major characters, take an hour and write a one-page summary sheet.
- Expand each sentence of your summary paragraph into a full paragraph.
- Write up a one-page description of each major character and a half-page description of the other important characters.
- Expand the one-page plot synopsis of the novel to a four-page synopsis.
- Expand your character descriptions into full-fledged character charts detailing everything there is to know about each character.
- Make a spreadsheet detailing the scenes that emerge from your four-page plot outline.
- Optionally, begin writing a narrative description of the story. Take each line of the spreadsheet and expand it to a multi-paragraph description of the scene.
- Sit down and start pounding out the real first draft of the novel.
You can see how each step builds on top of an earlier step. I can freely copy Ingermanson’s steps here because a writer cannot simply follow this reproduced list. I’m only showing the basic concept. A writer must read the full article and take in all the details to the method.
I’ve been using the snowflaking method for most of the month so far. I’m quite impressed with the results. Characters I thought I was already starting to know suddenly came to life before me (and I haven’t even had to interview any of them yet, my usual method of learning about a character’s history, in their own words).
Currently, I’m not planning on posting any of the snowflaking work. Maybe after November, I’ll post the final version of the written snowflake.
