Snowflake Method Four

The Snowflake Method alternates back and forth between character-focused and plot-focused exercises. The first step, the sentence, starts with a character and what they do. The second, the paragraph, outlines the plot very briefly. The third step returns to characters again, focusing on each main one in more detail.

Now, the forth step is an expansion of the second step. What was a sentence becomes a paragraph, just like in the jump from step one to step two. At the end, you should have a full page, with about five paragraphs. The first outlines the characters, setting, and initial action. The second paragraph is about something going wrong. The third and fourth are about things getting worse, with new challenges and conflicts and rising tension. Finally, the last paragraph outlines the ending...or as much of it as you've figured out so far...sometimes you won't know the ending until it happens!

Now you have a plan, a roadmap, a guide to what is going to happen to whom, when and how and maybe even a little bit of why. If you can see a flaw in the story now, it's only a sentence or two to fix it, rather than a whole discarded chapter later. You can't afford to throw away any words in November! If the story looks good on the page you just made, then congratulations. And if you can't wait to expand each of those things some more, then excellent! That is the attitude to have.

I'm not going to post an example today, since it's long and I've rambled on enough already. But I did it and I have it, and it looks like a summary of an interesting story!