Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A How can I learn how to outline, so I can write like an architect?

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 ...

posted 12y ago by Patches‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T02:29:40Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/6234
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Patches‭ · 2019-12-08T02:29:40Z (almost 5 years ago)
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.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2012-08-21T21:23:51Z (over 12 years ago)
Original score: 8