I’ve Got a Good Idea, but Where do I Start?

For novice writers like myself, having a really great idea for a novel, but not knowing where to start, is a common challenge.  Writing a novel is easy, but writing a good novel is hard.  As many first-rate writers will attest, good novels don’t just naturally evolve from a hodge-podge of ideas into a beautiful story, they are intricately planned and meticulously constructed.

snowflakeThere are many ways to begin building your story, and I will definitely be providing more suggestions and resources for this in future posts, but one very simple method I have learnt recently is called “the snowflake metaphor”.   One of my writing partners Jaye had recommended this method to me and I have found it very helpful with getting started on my own story.  Created by Randy Ingermanson,  the basic premise of this idea is that, by using the same mathematical principle as you would to create a snowflake, you can apply this same method to writing your novel.

Below is an example of a design of a snowflake.  It starts off as a simple triangle and with each step it develops a bit more complexity as it slowly starts to take shape and in the process, become more uniquely defined.
snowflake-iteration-1snowflake-iterationsnowflake-iteration-3snowflake-iteration-4

 

By adopting this same principle, you can effectively design your novel by starting small and working your way up.  Below I’ve briefly listed the first five of the ten steps to applying this method to your novel.

The First Five Steps of Design:

  1. Write a one-sentence summary of your novel.   This will be the hook that will sell your book to your editor and your future readers, so make it a good one!  Here are some hints on how to best construct your sentence:
    • Shorter is better.  Try to make your sentence fewer than 15 words.
    • Do not use character names.
    • Tie together the big picture and the personal picture of your story.  Who is your main character; what does he/she stand to lose and what does he/she want to win?
    • Read one-line sentences on the New York Times Bestsellers list to get some inspiration.  This was my personal recent favourite:

      “After her husband’s death, a woman returns with her daughter to her Smoky Mountain hometown, only to discover that her husband was a fraud who implicated her in his deceptions.” — “The Liar” by Nora Roberts

  2. Expand your one sentence into a full paragraph, describing the story set-up, major disasters and ending of the novel.  One suggestion Randy gives is to use the structure of “three disasters plus an ending”.  If you choose to follow the “Three Act Structure”, the first disaster or obstacle corresponds to the end of Act 1; the second disaster is the mid-point of Act 2; the third disaster is at the end of Act 2 and Act 3 is your conclusion.  Ideally your paragraph will have five sentences:  Your first sentence will be backdrop and story set-up; sentences 2-4 each describe your three disasters or obstacles, and your fifth sentence reveals the ending.   This paragraph should, in essence, summarize your whole story.
  3. Write a one-page summary for each of your main characters.  Characters are the most important part of your novel and creating them in advance will give you a more specific idea of who they are and where you want them to go when you start writing.  Your summary sheet should include the following details:
    • The character’s name
    • A one-sentence summary of the character’s storyline
    • The character’s motivation
    • The character’s goal
    • The character’s conflict (what prevents him/her from reaching their goal?)
    • The character’s epiphany (how will he/she change based on what he/she has learnt?)
  4. Expand each sentence of your summary paragraph (from step #2) into a full paragraph.  By this stage, you should have a good idea of the large-scale structure of your novel, so now just keep growing your story.  At the end of this exercise, you should have a minimum one-page synopsis of your novel.
  5. Write a one-page description of each major character and a half-page description of the other major characters, telling the story from the point of view of each character.  Your characters and how they interact with each other are the most important elements of your story.  As a side note, editors love character synopses, so if you’re writing a proposal, including these instead of, or alongside of, a plot-based synopsis to show the additional development of your story.

Keep in mind that it doesn’t have to be perfect.  The purpose of each step in the design process is to advance you to the next step. Keep your forward momentum!  You may find that you need to re-think and change your one-sentence summary and/or your one-paragraph summaries.  Remember it is always okay at any stage of the design process to cycle back and revise earlier stages.  The more you understand the direction of your story and the motivation of your characters before you start writing, the better.

For a more detailed description of “the snowflake method”, including the additional 6-10 steps of design, please visit this site.

Also, if any of you readers/writers have found alternate ways to build your story that have worked for you, please share them in the comments!    After all, I’m a novice writer too so I’m always interested in learning and researching new ideas, and I’d be happy to write about them in future posts.  We as writers are as individual and unique as the stories we write, so the best method is the one that works for you!

Thanks for reading and happy writing!  🙂

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