Hello, writers. Lately I've been snowflaking several different ideas. We've talked about the Ingermanson Snowflake before. I don't always use it. When I do use it, I tend nowadays to just do the first four steps, as I find character charts reduce my motivation to write. (I suppose I write in large part to discover the character.) But this is definitely a YMMV thing.
I find the Ingermanson Snowflake useful partly because it gives me something to do, as I'm working toward starting my manuscript. If you're not a planner, though (a recent survey showed that 40% of us weren't planners) then the snowflake is probably of little use to you.
One way I find it helpful-- not to say maddening-- is that it shows me the gaps in what I thought were fairly cohesive story plans. Some of these gaps are large enough to have national parks named after them.
In other writers' formula news:
Recently while dabbling around the internet avoiding working on my snowflakes, I ran across the Awesome Indies criteria for a successful (self-published) novel. This is really the most exhaustive list of what a novel should contain that I have ever seen. I like it! I definitely wouldn't recommend using it for planning, because it's just too intimidating, but I think it would make an excellent checklist for revisions or for a final going-over when readying a manuscript for submission.
I particularly like the section entitled “Wordiness Or Overwriting”.
(Thanks, GussieFN, for sussing out the link after I lost it.)
The page also introduced me to Michael Hauge's Six-Stage Plot Structure, which I had not heard of before.
I'm not sure whether that would be useful at the planning stage or the revision stage for some writers. It's a darned interesting way of looking at plot. A bit too formulaic for my tastes, but Hauge writes screenplays (more about his method here) and it may be more appropriate to them. (She says, knowing nothing about screenplays.)
Still, maybe I'll give it a try with the current works-in-progress. I'm most interested in Stage 2 of Hauge's six stages, which he calls “Turning Point #1: The Opportunity”. I suppose this would be the stage where, in the first Harry Potter book, Harry finds out he's a wizard. This stage carries a suggestion of what's to come later in the story; it's a first step toward the major challenge the protagonist will face later.
I think it's equivalent to the third and fourth stage of the hero's journey. (By the way, this early stage of the journey very frequently involves crossing water. In Harry Potter's case, a stormy ocean. It also almost always involves meeting someone.)
What do you think? Could the Hauge recipe be useful? Have you tried the Ingermanson method?
Tonight's challenge:
Write a scene showing a protagonist who has just encountered the opportunity that enables him/her to take the first step toward the major challenge of his/her story.
Use one of the following as a basis of the scene:
- something you've been thinking about writing
- a scenario from our handy Write On! List o' Scenarios ® such as:
- Intrepid mercenary soldier Wallace Higginbotham meets...
- A callow youth and his/her stout companion are hanging out at the Startled Duck, it's just another Thursday night, when...
- Incorruptible detective Scotty Blaine receive a visit...
- Furious at seeing Lord Postlethwaite-Praxleigh (pronounced Puppy) leaving the ballroom on the arm of her rival, Adelaide, Belinda decides it's time for a change. She...
Try to limit yourself to 150 words.
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