Character charts

Map Branches

• One-sentence summary
  • Take an hour to write a one-sentence summary of the story.
  • Example: “A rogue physicist travels back in time to kill the apostle Paul.”
  • A selling tool you will use forever to interest editors, bookstore owners, and readers.
• One-paragraph summary
  • One sentence to setup the story
  • One sentence for each of the three main disasters in the story
  • One sentence for the ending
• Character summary
  • Do steps 1 & 2 for the personal story of each character
    • Character's name
    • One-sentence summary of the character's private storyline
    • Character's motivation (abstract)
    • Character's goal (concrete)
    • Character's conflict
    • Character's epiphany
    • One-paragraph summary of the character's private storyline
• One-page synopsis
  • Expand the one-paragraph summary from Step 2 into a full page.
  • Each sentence in the one-paragraph summary will expand to a full paragraph in your one-page synopsis
  • You are growing out the ideas already built into the story
• Character synopsis
  • Write a half-page or full-page description of each major character from Step 3
  • Tell the story from the point of view of each character
  • Put the resulting “character synopses” into your book proposal. Editors love them!
• Four-page synopsis
  • Expand the one-page summary from Step 4 into several pages (four or five)
  • Each paragraph in the one-page summary will expand to roughly a full page in your four-page synopsis
  • Make the big strategic decisions for the story
• Character charts
  • Expand your character synopses from Step 5 into full-fledged character charts
  • Write several pages about each character
  • Birthdate, description, history, motivation, goal, and everything else
  • Be obsessive here! The more work you put in here, the deeper your characters will be
  • Take A Break: Write Your Proposal Now
    • You have now done enough work to write an excellent proposal.
    • If you are a published novelist, you can sell this book with the proposal and some sample chapters.
    • Otherwise, sadly, you’ll need to write the whole novel. But it won’t hurt to write your proposal now anyway, because you’ll want to get some critiques on it and that takes time.
• Sketch scenes
  • You need to make a list of all the scenes in your novel.
  • Use the ideal tool for writing lists--the spreadsheet. Do not panic here. Just do it.
  • Make one row for each scene.
  • Make one column for each aspect of the scene.
  • Spreadsheets are better than 3x5 cards!
• Long synopsis
  • Expand each scene to one or more paragraphs.
  • Each paragraph should sketch out everything you want to remember about the scene.
  • What is the setting?
  • Who are the characters?
  • What is the conflict?
• First Draft
  • Start writing, using your spreadsheet or your long synopsis.
  • You’ll be amazed how fast you write.
  • You’ll be amazed how deep your story is.
  • You may decide to change the story at some point. Go back and modify the Snowflake when this happens and then continue the first draft. It’s OK to do this!

Comments