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Check out the Snowflake Method He forces you to start with a single sentence that sums up your entire novel. That's step 1 of 10. Then he has you expand it, over several of the steps, adding more ...
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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/6234 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
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Check out the [Snowflake Method](http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/art/snowflake.php) He forces you to start with a single sentence that sums up your entire novel. That's step 1 of 10. Then he has you expand it, over several of the steps, adding more detailed structure as you go. Step 2 is to expand the sentence to a paragraph, for instance. Your acts start showing themselves here. And so on. Interlaced with that is steps that develop the characters, etc. The hardest part is squeezing your story down to that first sentence, but it's actually a really good exercise. Generally, if you can't do it, then your story is too vague in your mind. By the time you can, your story has much more depth to it. It's counter-intuitive, but it works.