Changing my writing process

I was selling my books at a local author event.

On the table next to me was science fiction writer, H.G. Ahedi. It was a very rainy Friday night so not many potential readers showed up, leaving me and H.G. with plenty of time to talk.

After chatting about cover artists, the difference between being self or traditionally published, and the lack of visitors to our event, she mentioned The Snowflake Method. I was in love!

My two works in progress began using this method.

In the same breath she mentioned how it fast tracked the final draft. I wholeheartedly agreed.

My old method consisted of finding images of my characters, then writing the headings, heart, head and below. These headings came from a guy who wrote HBO scripts I saw interviewed once. Under heart I’d write the character’s view on love and their romantic history. Under head I came up with their educational background and under below, I explored their sexuality.

But ‘below’ didn’t mean their sexual fantasies or experience made it on the page, it just helped create a more three dimensional character. Then a catchphrase was added for each character which helped keep them consistent.

Next, I outlined.

If it was a third person novel, which character’s point of view came first, followed by what they wanted in that scene, what must happen, where the conflict was, and the cliffhanger.

Knowing the ending was, and still is, important. It allows me to steer the reader off course so the final page is a new twist.

In the past I’d have three novels in progress at any time.

One would be fairly new, another would be mid development, and the other would be close to submission. This rotation allowed me to return to a project with fresh perspective after not working on it for at least three months.

I’d print it in a different font and see where it was overwritten, or underdeveloped. I’d see typos and bad sentences, or add to the things which worked. I once deleted a character, seeing he was unnecessary to the overall message of the novel.

This process allowed me to submit new work to my publisher which had taken three years to write, but also gave me a new release each year.

With The Snowflake Method, I’m more obsessive.

One of the cornerstones of this process is working out what each character wants both consciously and unconsciously, and what their epiphany will be. From there you begin plotting their role in the story.

There are various other steps after this and you quickly find you have an ensemble cast all reliant on each other. Before I type the first word of my manuscript, I know my characters more deeply than discovering more about them as each draft is written.

It has also made me a hybrid plotter/panster.

The Snowflake Method keeps me reassessing my outline. For example, in a work titled Tin Men and Scarecrows, the character who needs to find courage navigated a relationship with a man in the closet. Putting this romance back on track was how he would find inner-strength.

Then I realised it made more sense for him to be the one in the closet, thus giving him a stronger reason to find courage. This meant rewriting two chapters early in the novel, long before the first draft was finished.

I have a polished draft of this manuscript which took less than two years, thanks to both this method and my writing group.

Part of the magic is the characters start driving the novel.

And they continue to rewrite the outline, not affecting the final outcome while displaying behaviour which compliments the story. But best of all, their ideas further strengthen the themes you are exploring.