Snowflake [writing tutorial]
Fiction writing is supposed to be fun, why else would we do it? Writing a fiction novel can be a task in futility though when approached from an “in the moment” method. That is, you can’t just sit down and dive right into the manuscript.
There are a lot of ways you can approach your design documents, and there is quite a bit of advice on how to do so on the market. The best way to approach your next bestseller is to do what is comfortable for you in order to let your voice shine through the story. But getting comfortable isn’t always as easy as it seems. We have all had a bit of good dialogue, character monologue, scene and plot ideas move us to get to our computer only to find ourselves blocked. This method I am about to relate is one designed specifically to not only prevent getting blocked, but retain the spontaneity and reader pleasing style we all love.
1. First off, you need an idea for a novel. If you have that already, this makes this step of the process pretty easy. That first step is to write a sentence, preferably 5–8 words summarizing your book.
For instance:
“A judge is blackmailed and he and his family are hunted by hit men.”
Don’t tell us any names, that will come later and at this point will only confuse the subject for right now. We need roles, not proper names, though you may have a symbolic or brilliant one in mind for your protagonist already which will pepper your work soon.
Don’t be too hard on yourself, this part of the process may take a day to mull over in your mind and capture a good short brainstorm about your story.
2. The next step is the signature method of this design system. Take your first sentence and expand it into a full paragraph of between 5–8 sentences.
This gives you a solid idea of what significant events will transpire between that first fire starter scene and the brilliant and captivating events of your final chapter.
The number of sentences are like bullet points in a short description which when done right, could serve as your back cover. (right there next to your pretty face and bio)
3. Now we can get to the proper names and faces that will live in your tale and move us to laugh, cry, and relate to their parts of your perfect puzzle. Using the paragraph you have, figure out between 5–8 major, and 5–8 minor characters. Moving through your paragraph, figure out what people are necessary to facilitate the plot being in motion. Basically say who does what by giving them a “title” and “role”. Give these players names that you feel fit them, and don’t worry about the details, if needs be you can change this
all along the way.
Take your names and roles list and give each a full page devoted to telling what the character experiences over the course of your story. This will breathe the life into the realistic and relatable elements that will pull your readers in. Real characters make for real fiction that can approach the fact that reality is indeed “stranger than fiction”.
4. Now, on the back side of each of these character development summaries I want you to create the dynamic details to put your plot in drive. Not paying too much attention to the plot developed so far, take each major and minor character and create a list (it can be as long as you want) of their demographic and personal background. List everything from what toothpaste they prefer, who their family is, what their kids names are, where they went to college, what their favorite food is, to what their innermost dreams and demons to fight are. This will make those stylistic scene dialogue and narrative points fall off of the development pages and into the meat of each scene.
5. Here we come into what for me is the start of some of the most fun in the steps to a bestseller type novel. I want you to take that one paragraph plot description and expand it in an easy and yet exponential way that promotes the chronological flow of your story.
Take each sentence of that paragraph and use it as a topic sentence. Under each sentence, create an entire paragraph of what happens between that and your next paragraph. (5–8 sentences/per again) Use your characters, their demographics and day to day details and create a masterminded sequential story line to write.
This should leave you around 4–6 pages of great work!
At this point you have an incredible and all the way original planned work near to making the story write itself. We are very nearly to the actual manuscript at this point. Here is what may seem unnecessary to some and quite a daunting task, but it works for me and has been the key to completing some very good work. (750k page views driven to my profile in a few months) You might be able to guess what I am going to say.
6. Take each sentence of each paragraph and turn them into unique and chronological paragraphs of their own. This part of the process sets up our next and final part of the design documentation and will leave you (in my experience) between a 16–20 page long form synopsis of your coming novel. The story now has not only a plot, but a lot of the eye to detail that allows it flow in a natural way that will make it a page — turner!
7. Last of all of the documents you need to create to use as your reference to the story, is the scene chart:
Scene # -Setting -Characters -Plot
Make a spreadsheet style scene chart with around a hundred scenes using the formula I have above. Referring to your long synopsis tell each scene number, setting, (ie:”courtroom”) who the characters are in the scene, and what happens!
Now you have all of the necessary self made tools to make a great manuscript!
8. Write a bestseller!
Just follow the scene chart and your synopsis, adding dialogue from character details expanding your work into a very saleable novel! And now you are ready to look into the world of publishing, and the hangovers and headaches of finding an agent to represent your work. Most importantly you are ready to let others in on the thrilling journey you just went on!
Happy writing!
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