Snowflake Step 2

Step 2) Take another hour and expand that sentence to a full paragraph describing the story setup, major disasters, and ending of the novel. This is the analog of the second stage of the snowflake. I like to structure a story as "three disasters plus an ending". Each of the disasters takes a quarter of the book to develop and the ending takes the final quarter. I don't know if this is the ideal structure, it's just my personal taste.


Step 2)

Into the Woods again.

I’m going to take a run at Into the Woods again. I was unhappy with the way it turned sideway during Nano.

Once I had a better understanding of the nature of the setting’s pagan magic everything changed.

And while I’m at it, I’m going to noodle the Snowflake Method and the Perfect Scene.

Step 1) Take an hour and write a one-sentence summary of your novel This is the big picture, the analog of that big starting triangle in the snowflake picture.


Step 1)

A pagan mage binds herself to Christian noble in a dangerous mission to an Inquisition stronghold.

Fun Run....

As well as the inventory being moved up, our sales manager has asked me to sit in on customer audits as needed.

That means no writing into the wee hours of the morning.

I'll participate at a fun run level.

It's Official.

The End of the Year inventory is now the Pre-Holidays inventory. The first two weeks in November are going to be simple word count dumps, as my brain will be mush when I get home.

How NOT to Write a Novel

Bad Writing Index

How NOT to Write a Novel


Books on Trope

Lit Class Tropes

A Few Links

A nod to my on again off again Hemingway obsession.
Ernest Hemingway’s Top 5 Tips for Writing Well


6 Tips to Keep Focused and in the Write Frame of Mind


Crash Course for Writing a Novel in 30 Days

Honorable Mention

I've read a truckload of 'how to write' books, gleaning a useful nuggets now and again. The few that I refer back to are:

Thinking on Paper by Howard and Barton - covers the structure of the essay among other useful things. Always work on the basics.

Screenplay: the Foundations of Screenwriting by Syd Fields. The course book for the class taught by the most practical writing prof I ever had.

Aspects of the Novel by E. M. Forster.