How to Plan a Novel Using the Snowflake Method

This is a great method for people who have a great idea for a novel and want the quickest and most efficiant way to write one. It is called simply, "The Snowfake Method". It was created by Randy Ingermanson the author.

Step One: Write a one-sentence summary of your story. This is the most important sentence if you want to, in the future, sell your novel. It should be a detailed hook for your novel, the big point. Here is mine from the story I'm working on:

A High school sweetheart may lose everything she cares about in one strike, if rivalry cannot do Justice within their own Shakespeare tale.

Step Two: Take that one sentence and turn it into a one-paragraph that describes the story set up, maor disasters, and the ending. This paragraph is ideally 5 sentences, think about the short summaries on the back of books but with the ending! :)

Step 3: Characters are the most important thing you have to think about before you actually write your story. For each character make a one- page profile about them. Here is how I format the information, remember you can create your own character formats too.

Character's full Name
It's goal and motivation
What is stopping them from their goal or their main confict
Their personality and extra profile facts. (Only add facts that contribute to their character in the story)
What the character learns/ message
A one paragraph summary of how their character plays through the plot.
The characters relationships with the other characters.

Step 4: Take some time to expand each sentence of your summary paragraph (from step 2). Add more to each sentence that explains the plot of the whole story, a skeleton of your whole novel. So you should end up with 5 paragraphs (or how many sentences you described the plot- summary) that your story is broken into.

Step 5: "Take a day or two and write up a one-page description of each major character and a half-page description of the other important characters. These "character synopses" should tell the story from the point of view of each character... Editors love character synopses, because editors love character-based fiction."

Step 6: "Now take a week and expand the one-page plot synopsis of the novel to a four-page synopsis. Basically, you will again be expanding each paragraph from step (4) into a full page. This is a lot of fun, because you are figuring out the high-level logic of the story and making strategic decisions."

Step 7: Take the four-page synopsis and make a list of all the scenes that you'll need for your story. To make the list, a spreadsheet is reccommended.

"Make a spreadsheet detailing the scenes that emerge from your four-page plot outline. Make just one line for each scene. In one column, list the POV character. In another (wide) column, tell what happens." Remeber you can add more columns for page numbers and other stuff.

Step 8: This step is optional, but helpful. "Switch back to your word processor and 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. Put in any cool lines of dialogue you think of, and sketch out the essential conflict of that scene. If there's no conflict, you'll know it here and you should either add conflict or scrub the scene. "

Step 9: When you have arrivied at this step, it's time to actually start writing the first draft of your story. The other steps you did helped you understand your plot, characters, and setup better so when you write your first draft, it should fly right out of your pen.

Tell me guys what you think of this Method, try it for yourself! Here is the website I got the information and the quotes, http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/art/snowflake.php