The Snowflake Method

The Snowflake Method is a rather anal retentive way of planning out your novel that, for some reason, really appeals to me. :) It was created by R. Inglemanson, a physicist, PhD, author and now public speaker (usually about writing and his snowflake method). You can find all the steps to the snowflake method here.

Here's the skinny:

Essentially, you start with just one sentence. (The "gist" of your novel...everything boiled down to one, short (as possible) sentence.) From this one sentence, you expand to one paragraph. Then one page, then four pages, and so on. There's also detailed character sketching and scene mapping. All of this, especially when explained by Inglemanson, makes perfect sense and seems perfectly logical.

I am prepping for NaNoWriMo 2006. (National Novel Writing Month...essentially its a challenge to write 175 pages or 50,000 words between Nov. 1 and Nov. 30) Last year, I completed my 50,000 word crappy "novel" in 11 days. Somewhat impressive. However, this year, I would really like my "nano novel" to be 1) Readable and 2) less rambling. ;) All that being the case, I have decided to, like, actually plan out my November Noveling Adventures.

Thus, the snowflake method.

I'm going to give it a shot. It will take approximately a month and a half to do correctly, but I'm up for the hard work!

I recommend you, at least, check out Inglemansons's site if you have any interest in writing a novel, long piece of fiction, and especially if you're interested in NaNoWriMo. Take what's good, leave what isn't. (I sure am. Spreadsheets? Ummm. No.)

Happy Writing!