The Snowflake Method (merged with Dwight Swain's Techniques)

[Judg]

Somebody somewhere at the Water Cooler posted a link to this (http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/art/snowflake.php). I've been trying to find that thread but with no luck. So consider yourself thanked. This looks like a really great way of putting a novel together. I've been edging towards some of those principles, but this has given me a good leg up and at a particularly good time. So consider yourself thanked. I'd give you a rep point if I knew who you were.

Anybody here ever used this method, or elements of it?

[veinglory]

I tried it, it didn't suit. I found the structure too limiting.

[caromora]

I used it to plan my last book. It helped SO much in making me focus on what the actual story was, and to work out all sorts of kinks. BUT--I wound up deviating pretty far from my plan. :) Still, I don't think I would have gotten the story I did if I hadn't had the foundation I created using this method.

Oh! One major benefit of using this is that when you need a synopsis, you can just tweak some of the stuff you worked through in your planning stages.

[David I]

Not my kind of thing, but if it seems attractive to you, go for it.

[Judg]

I do find it attractive. But I know myself. I will deviate so much from it that it won't be recognizable in the end. I've never been much good at sticking religiously to methods in any field of my life. Still, I find that that parts that do stick can sometimes be very helpful.

[maestrowork]

I tried it, it didn't suit. I found the structure too limiting.

Same here... just didn't sound like it would work with me. I think for those starting out or are really well organized it could be a good way to build a novel.

[Sassee]

You might also try FreeMind ... it's a free flowing map of sorts. I liked the principle behind Snowflake but I'm a very visual person and FreeMind works better for me. (Thanks SpaceJock for the link!)

SJ's example - http://www.spacejock.com.au/PlottingANovel.html
The site - http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

[Judg]

Sounds cool, Sass.

[David I]

I do find it attractive. But I know myself. I will deviate so much from it that it won't be recognizable in the end. I've never been much good at sticking religiously to methods in any field of my life. Still, I find that that parts that do stick can sometimes be very helpful.

Then it sounds as if you have much to gain and little to lose, which is a good situation.

[Judg]

I have a wonderful template to use for chapter building. I distilled all the useful things I'd heard and learned and made a form. I use it about once every ten chapters... ;o) It does help me when I'm stuck, but when I already know where I'm going and why, it's such a pain to stop and fill out the stupid thing. Really great when I'm feeling lost though.

So I'll try his method and I'll find out what is just a pain and what really gets me somewhere. Chances are I'll start getting excited about the story and run off and write it before I've finished building my "snowflake" and that I'll go back to it when I'm feeling stuck in my writing.

Whatever works.

[Madison]

Sounds like a good idea, helpful when stuck, but pretty restricting, all the same. I like some of his ideas, but all of them together just seem like a lot of time spent not adding to word count. DOn't get me wrong; I outline. Just not that much. Wow. I would get a headache. Not that my comparatively sparse outlines don't give me headaches already...

[HourglassMemory]

You might also try FreeMind ... it's a free flowing map of sorts. I liked the principle behind Snowflake but I'm a very visual person and FreeMind works better for me. (Thanks SpaceJock for the link!)

SJ's example - http://www.spacejock.com.au/PlottingANovel.html
The site - http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page


Oh my God! I heard of this program from this forum and now I have tons of stuff that help me organise my thoughts on basically everything in my stories.
I don't know how I would organise myself without this.
It's quite helpful for me.

[Aslera]

It's like the KISS method. Keep It Simple Stupid. Break it down into bite size bits rather than seeing the Huge Pizza Pie and you'll eventually get there.

[caromora]

The part of the snowflake method most helpful to me is when you write a paragraph or so telling the story from each of your characters' perspectives. When I told the story from one of my minor character's pov's, it shed a whole new light on things. And also helped me to make my secondary characters more realistic.

I just downloaded FreeMind. I can't wait to play around with it. I love stuff like this. :)

[ajkjd01]

I use my own abbreviated version of the snowflaking method.

I write the one sentence and the three sentence parts.
I generally skip character stuff unless I'm bogged down on a character.

The I start writing 2-3 sentence blurbs for each chapter, so that I have a coherent outline for at least the first half or so of the book, with a paragraph or two of how I see the end.

This gives me the structure to get started, as well as the freedom to follow the story. I've done it on two different projects now, with pretty good results, at least in my mind.

[Inky]

The Snowflake method...eh, not so much, but I DID purchase his 101. Why? The how to write a synopsis thing in there rocked! Gads, I actually enjoy writing them now.

*ducks from tomatoes*

[Alexandra Little]

I tried using it to revise an old novel, but it didn't work, and I only ended up exacerbating the problem.

[heidirebecca]

I found the bit about outlining using Excel to be extremely helpful, I managed to outline my entire series, I keep adding to it and I am amazed that I didn't think to do this before.

[benbradley]

I found a few threads discussing it with this search:
http://www.google.com/search?q=advancedfictionwriting+site:absolutewrite .com

From reading about the first half of it (and I also having had experience in programming), it does appear to be "top down" or perhaps "piecewise refinement" or whatever, a "structured" way of writing a novel, much like writing a fairly large/complex computer program to do a specific task or solve a specific problem. This looks interesting, and is almost certainly something I shudda/wudda/coulda used for my failed attempt at Nanowrimo.

[loiterer]

It was me posted the link in Narrative... is there a formula (http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90835) a day or two ago.

I have used it for things that I've made a start on (say 20,000 words) and have found myself bogged down in. The one-sentence, the main conflicts, the expand-into-paragraph stuff (I don't tend to use the character-stuff as it gets too much like micromanaging for me but I know some people like that!). Also, I first got the idea for using Excel to organise my scenes/timeline from the Snowflake. So I certainly consider it's worthwhile having a try at, and adapting it to suit your own needs.

I think it works better for genre-writing such as a romance or thriller, but as I said in my post on the other thread, it has helped me clarify where the story is in my often muddled kitchen-sink approach to starting a new novel.

[callalily61]

I used the Snowflake when I switched from horror to mystery. I didn't do all the pieces, but the Excel spreadseet is now my personal favorite method of outlining.

I took Randy's Fiction 301 class 2 years ago at a conference. Great, great, great stuff.

[Brighid]

I've known about the Snowflake Method for a while, but never really got into it until recent. I hadn't worked on the novel in a while, so I went through the first four "steps". It helped me get reacquainted with the characters and in writing the one page synopsis, I finally figured out how it should end.

[CaroGirl]

I don't outline and write organically, scene by scene. I don't know if this method is something I can use but I'll certainly give it a look-see. Thanks for the link!!

[stormie]

I just couldn't use that method. I'm more of a write-as-I-go or if needed, a synopsis-type person. Judg, for those who can use it, thanks for posting a link to it. Writers can use all the help we can get!

[L M Ashton]

I've used it quite a bit and found it useful - really helped me clarify a lot of stuff. But I'm also a major plotter.

As with all things, it's a tool that will work well for some, not at all for others, and somewhere in between for the rest. Take what works for you and leave the rest. :)

[Dreamer3702]

I used the snowflake method before on this great idea I had. Once I was done, I found that I didn't want to write the story. I felt like I already did. I've found that I can only work from loose outlines.

My MC had to make it to this cave so X Y and Z could happen. The fun part was not knowing how I was going to get him there.

For each story, I have 5-10 places the MC needs to be or things that need to happen. I spend the rest of the novel working towards those moments. Sometimes my brain wants to explode, because I don't know how I'm going to get the MCs where they need to be... it's part of my creative process. :) It always turns out well in the end... I haven't exploded yet.
'

[Judg]

I wish I'd heard about the spreadsheet outlining earlier. I'd used one for making a timeline, but about 3/4 of the way through the first draft I finally made the chapter-by-chapter outline, just so I could have a good overview of where I'd been. Of course, then I just charged on to the end without updating the outline...

I might be able to try this method in a few days or a couple of weeks. I'm still brainstorming for the next novel, a sequel to the first (assuming I get professional interest in the first). I have a tentative main character (who was a minor character in the first), her conflict on a public level, her conflict on a personal level (pretty much impossible for both to be resolved to her satisfaction seeing as a happy ending for one precludes a happy ending for the other.) So I put her in the centre of a sheet of paper with a couple of notes on the potential conflicts underneath. I wrote in other characters and locations (there are geopolitical things going on) around her, with their agendas, their own conflicts, and so on. Some of them don't have much written under their names yet, so they might end up being very minor characters. We'll see. As I consider each one, that often inspires a thought about another, so I'll write it down too. If I see one of the other characters or conflicts as having more potential, I'll change it all. I'll keep prodding and poking and turning it over until I have a good sense of where the richest story potential is, and then I'll see if the snowflake can help me. If I discover anything of interest, I'll post it here.

I must confess, I do like the idea of successive iterations, expanding and fleshing out the central idea. I suspect I'll end up doing part of the process, plunge into the writing, and having to stop sooner or later to do another piece of the process to help me out of my slump, mainly because that's the way I tend to do things. I love tidy processes in theory, but in practice I have a hard time sticking to them, and turn back to them when I'm in trouble. But at least I have something to turn back to. So I am grateful to the people who come up with these systems.

Which probably puts me officially smack dab in the middle between the outliners and the pantsers.

[Judg]

Reporting in as promised (threatened?).

I tried it, it didn't suit. I found the structure too limiting.
I've run into this already at step two. He says to expand the one-sentence plot summary to about five, using the three-act structure, having a sentence each for the set-up, three disasters, and the wrap-up. Yes, well, I don't want to do the three disaster thing. I can't think of three disasters, properly spaced. I tend more to have conflicts happening on two or three different levels, each of which will probably come to a crunch or two. I'm having difficulty trying to wrap my head around a more linear concept. Not working. So if I'm going to go ahead with this, I'm going to have to do some adapting right off the bat. I'm thinking of having conflict on the internal, interpersonal and big picture levels (with the big picture probably being the dominant strand for this story) so I'll probably have to do a sentence for each strand, rather than for individual disasters. This means I am probably not going to get a chronological outline out of this exercise, which won't necessarily be a bad thing. I hope.

[The Grump]

"Snowflakes" present an interesting idea. I may try it for the draft I put on the back burner -- after my head comes up from my current WIP.

I've always thought writing similar to painting with oils. You put layer on layer as you learn more about your characters' motivations and reactions.

[Hopcus]

This looks like something that might be helpful---maybe I'll try it when I start my next book. Thanks!

[MerryDay]

I used this technique when my current book started giving me some plotting trouble...and with a little flexibility of the structure, it worked wonderfully! It's perfect for getting ideas flowing past the initial stages of a story.

[kzmiller]

For me, snowflaking is only useful up to about step 4 if I remember correctly. I suggest that you don't take it to it's ultimate conclusion, where you basically have the novel written except for the juicy parts. Use it until you're so excited about your work that you can't stand to not write on it, and then start writing. Don't hold back when you're at an inspired point.

[timewaster]

You might also try FreeMind ... it's a free flowing map of sorts. I liked the principle behind Snowflake but I'm a very visual person and FreeMind works better for me. (Thanks SpaceJock for the link!)

SJ's example - http://www.spacejock.com.au/PlottingANovel.html
The site - http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

I do plan using my own bizarre method which I've mentioned in another thread http://www.nmbrowne.com/
It's much looser because I find that unless the writing itself involves a good deal of discovering and inventing on the hoof I get a bit bored.
I have to find a balance between a general direction ( kep the sun to your left and head for the sea ) and a road map.
I find this is particularly true of character building - if I do it anywhere but in the novel, it is in my head and not on the page: as all that matters is what's on the page it is actively unhelpful.

[Judg]

KZ, chances are I won't be able to discipline myself to get that far anyway. Rigid self-discipline has never been my strong point. I have never hesitated to borrow techniques from those who are, but I usually cannibalize their methods for parts, rather than driving off in the car.

[Laurie Champion]

Hi Everyone,

The following link provides a great summary of techniques Swain outlines. When you click on the link, it looks like the homepage of the website, but it's not. Scroll down a little on the page that comes up when you click.

The website author has lots of bells and whistles, but the summary is great. Obviously not the only way to structure a novel, but a FINE summary of Swain's principles for those interested.


http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/art/scene.php

[Shweta]

As far as I can tell from the post, Laurie, this is the same thing as the Snowflake method. So, threads merged.

[Maika]

It's an old thread, but is someone here using The Snowflake Method?

[SaltwaterServr]

It's an old thread, but is someone here using The Snowflake Method?

Rise! Rise! Rise from the dead!

Okay, the thread is alive. I used it a bit to develop my current WIP. Like anything else, knowing how to use it and when to deviate from it are equally important. I'm a big planner and organizer type person, although you'd never know it judging by the backseat of my truck.

It allowed me to develop things in a logical way because when I started writing this past January, I had no idea how to write or develop a plot.

So I used it to a point, and then use the overall idea of the Snowflake on parts and pieces of some scenes. When the characters take over though, it become summer and Snowflake does as snowflakes do in such times.

[sunandshadow]

I feel like I shouldn't reply to this because I've already made so many posts on AW explaining my take on the snowflake method, which could probably be found by using the forum search function...

Brief summary of my previous posts:

I don't find the snowflake method restrictive at all, because to me the important part is just that it's iterative: first write a really short summary, then write a short synopsis, then write a chapter by chapter synopsis, then write the story. I find that repeatedly summarizing my plot, adding detail each time, is the most natural way for me to get from hazy idea to coherent plan for a story.

Where the snowflake uses the word disasters, I think the word transformations or realignments can be substituted if that fits your story idea better. And I don't think it's required to have exactly 3 in a novel. I see these peak moments as the climaxes of each act of the story, and I don't think every novel has to have a 4-act structure (3 disasters + an ending = 4; or if you prefer 3-act structure, one is the turning point that keeps act 2 from sagging in the middle). I think some novels might naturally have 2 acts or 5 or 6 acts, and then would have a corresponding number of act climaxes.

[jallenecs]

I am currently using the Snowflake method of my WIP. Okay, I modified it a bit; I prefer to use a different template for designing my characters, and don't really like to write them out until they actually appear in the story. I also don't go all the way to the spreadsheet step; I get the multipage outline, and that's far enough for me. Any further than that, and I end up leaving my game in the gym, so to speak; I exhaust myself before I can get to the actual writing.

With those caveats in mind, I have to say I like the system. I approach writing in an organized fashion, so this suits my mindset. And working from the multipage summary/outline/whatever-you-want-to-call-it has been a godsend for me; each morning I just look how far I got in the outline yesterday (marked by italics), and pick up from there.

The creator of Snowflake says that you should adapt the system until it fits you. I took him at his word.

[jinap]

Like a couple of people upthread, I could only use it until step 4.