With the millions of writers writing novels, it took a PhD in astrophysics to write an easy-to-read, comprehensive, thorough and effective 10-step guide to writing a novel.
Think of Randy Ingermanson's Snowflake Method book (How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method by Randy Ingermanson, DitDat.com, 2014) "as a humorous parable-style business book that presents an effective method for getting the first draft of your novel finished."
The parable begins when Goldilocks a wanna-be novelist determined to write her first novel attends a novel outlining seminar taught by Papa Bear, a creative writing teacher. Goldilocks tries to create an outline of her novel but it goes nowhere. She then attends an organic novel writing seminar taught by Mama Bear but again she finds the advice in this class, "No need to plot in advance, just let it well up in you," leads her nowhere. She next attends a class entitled "How to Write a Novel When You Hate Outlining and Hate Organic Writing" taught by Baby Bear, "a tiny, energetic bear."
Baby Bear promises Goldilocks "I'll teach you a method that tens of thousands of writers around the world are using right now to write their novels. It might work for you and then it might not. Different writers [need different methods], and your first mission as a novelist is to find the method that works best for you."
A few of the subjects covered in Baby Bear's class:
How to get inside the skin of every one of your characters, especially your villain.
How to develop a deep, emotionally powerful theme for your story.
How to know when to backtrack and why backtracking is essential to writing great novels.
How to test every scene before you write it so you're sure it will be excellent.
The difference between a character's values, ambitions and goals. (Values drive ambitions. Ambitions drive goals. Goals must be simple, concrete, important, achievable and difficult. They are what really drive a character.)
How to define your target audience so you can anticipate how your ideal readers will think and feel about your story.
The difference between a proactive and a reactive scene as well as the parts of each.
The fact that nothing is more important to a character than compassion.
The way characters make decisions (Reaction, Dilemma, Decision).
How characters advance (Goal, Conflict, Setback).
One key take-away I got from this book: The strength of your story is largely determined by the strength and complexity of your villain, not your hero/heroine.
I loved the way this little book with its cast of funny characters got at the benefits of thinking about stories and characters and developing them in this way. One of my key takeaways: Every character has a moral premise, an inner secret. The story shows how Goldilocks goes about discovering her character's inner secret which has to do with living courageously: "She realizes that living in fear leads to disaster, so she decided to try living in courage."
I won't keep you in suspense any further. Here are the ten steps:
1. Write a one-sentence summary of your novel.
2. Expand that sentence to a paragraph by describing the story narrative (the major events) and the ending.
3. Write a one-page summary for each of the main character:
A one-sentence summary of the character's storyline
The character's motivation (an abstract view of what the character wants)
The character's goal (what does he want in a very concrete sense)
The character's conflict (what prevents him from reaching his/her goal?)
The character's epiphany (what will he/she learn, how will he/she change?
4. Return to the story paragraph you wrote in step 2 and expand each sentence into a paragraph. Ingermanson's thoughts here are telling:"Take several hours and expand each sentence of your summary paragraph into a full paragraph. All but the last paragraph should end in a disaster. The final paragraph should tell how the book ends."
(Note: Most students of story structure talk about Act One, Two & Three; Ingermanson refers to "Disaster." He wants each of the Acts to end in a disaster. And what he means is at the end of each act your main character must reach a turning point, meaning your character can't go back to his old ways. In The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler, the end of the first act is known from as making the transition from "The Ordinary World" to the "World of Adventure" in which most of the story takes place. One example: From the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy says, "Something tells me we're not in Kansas any more."
5. Write a one-page description of each major character which tells the story from that character's point of view.
6. Expand your one-page plot synopsis into a four-page plot synopsis
7. Expand your character descriptions from three into full-character "charts"
8. Using your expanded synopsis, make a list of every scene you will need to write the complete novel.
9. Using your list of scenes, write a multi-paragraph narrative description of each scene.
10. Write the first draft.
I already began applying The Snowflake Method to the novel I'm writing which is called Charging the Jaguar. Here's step one, my novel summary in a single sentence:
Charging the Jaguar is a literary suspense novel about a Peace Corps Volunteer in 1967 Colombia who falls in love with an undercover revolutionary soldier on a mission to determine if he's a CIA agent and to assassinate him if he is.
In my opinion this version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears can lead you to big, important themes and believable, complicated characters who make turning-point decisions that win over your target audience and turn them into fans or your stories.
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