Last Tuesday I went to the monthly Willamette Writers meeting at The Old Church in downtown Portland, Oregon. The Speaker was Randy Ingermanson, software engineer, novelist and author of Writing Fiction for Dummies. Over 26,000 people read his on-line advanced writers zine. He was there to talk about how drawing a snowflake is like designing a novel. Here’s a very abbreviated version of The Snowflake Method: *When you are ready to begin writing, think of one sentence of that describes your novel. The closer to fifteen words you can make it the better. For example: A sailor barely escapes drowning when the great white whale his demented captain is chasing smashes the ship. Moby Dick, Herman Melville or A grieving fifteen-year-old girl falls into a parallel universe and becomes a warrior mage. Forging the Blade (my book, new title) *Write a one-paragraph description of the plot. Use five sentences. The first sentence sets up the story, the second describes the first conflict point, the second… Read More »