the snowflake project

Yikes. 10 days since my last post. That’s a few too many. But in order to make up for my tardiness, I worked extra hard this weekend and finished the final two character charts.

Here’s Aryenne’s.

Here’s Torik’s.

So, now that I’m on the final step of the process (prior to actually WRITING the novel, that is), and because of the nature of the work from here out, I’m going to be changing the format of the snowflake project’s blog (what you’re reading right now, for those of you who are keeping track).

I’ll still be talking about the novel and my various wrestling matches with its content. I’ll still be posting content as I write it elsewhere on the site – I promised to write a novel online, and that’s still what I’m doing here. However I want to use this blog for more than just a platform to announce when I’ve written another 500 words. That would get super lame, extra fast.

So this is going to become a proper blog. I’ve got a few topics lined up that I hope will spark some discussion and help bring in a new cadre of readers. You’ve already seen some of this with book reviews (via Goodreads), and one political rant (I promise I’ll keep those to a minimum). Expect more like that – but probably with a bit of a narrower writing focus.

By no means whatsoever am I qualified to give writing advice – and you certainly shouldn’t treat this blog as a “how-to”. I’m just a guy trying to write a novel. I intend to share that with you, as well as other aspects of my life I hope might hold your interest.

So please, email me with questions or ideas for stuff I can talk about here. I’ll either talk about them, or I’ll throw up a post that says I don’t have a clue – and hope the comments section comes alive with useful information nuggets for all (I always order the 10-pack and ask for 2 sauces).

Achi’s character chart is complete and live on the site.

Get straight to it here, or find it via Achi’s character page.

I’m getting a really good sense of Achi’s personality and what drives him. His path towards villainy is becoming clearer in my head.

The last thing I wanted was to make him into a cliche, so hopefully I can avoid that by keeping him sympathetic. The chart I’m using really helps with that by asking about your character’s fears and vulnerabilities without any prejudice. Villains have pathos too!

I’ve added a plot summary from Aryenne’s point of view – you can find it on her character page.

I’m finding this exercise to be instrumental in developing the edges of the story. Kos’s journey as a hero is fairly straightforward – if I had started writing with only his story in mind, I’m sure the result wouldn’t be as rich as I can now see it becoming. Writing out these character POVs has really made me eager to start actually writing the novel itself – but there are three more steps to go (I’m going to skip step 9 – if I start providing too much detail before actually writing, I may not be as eager to tell the story afterward).

As I write this post, I’m already 1/3 of the way through step 6, which I’m finding is more or less directing itself as I write it.

I’ve completed my second Character Plot POV – this time for Achi, the antagonist. It’s a little shorter than the one I wrote for Kos, and subsequents will be even shorter (for Sky-Kicker, Aryenne and Torik).

You can find Achi’s over on his character page. I know these are a lot to read and they aren’t written very well, but they’re just lists of events and general thoughts/feelings the characters may have. Very rough stuff – so please forgive me.

I hope you’ll read them and suffer through the poor writing so that you can alert me to any horrible problems I might be setting up for myself when it comes to the plot.

The final stage in Step 3 is done (unless I need to add more later!) – Read the third secondary character’s summary from the characters page.

No decent fantasy novel is complete without a roguish trickster in the cast of characters. Torik provides that for this one.

I’m not sure at this point whether I should move to the next step (step 4, expanding my 1-paragraph summary of the novel into 5 paragraphs) or if I should spend some time on world-building. I need to break from The Snowflake Method at some point to world-build. Likely a few times. I’ll think on it – and let me know in the comments below whether you think now is a good time!

I’ve just added the first female character profile – she’s caught in a love triangle between Kos and Achi.

Head over to the Characters page, or visit her dedicated page to read her summary.

I have one more secondary character I want to write up before moving to step 4 – and he’s male. I’ll admit that troubles me slightly. I don’t want my novel to lack a reasonable number of strong female characters – but I’ve only thought up one. I’m sure there will be plenty of opportunities to add female characters to the story without making them into love interests for the males.

The easiest way would be to do what Frank Herbert and Robert Jordan did and create a powerful, all-female society or organization whose power runs through the entire world. I don’t necessarily want to do that – as it seems just a little be cliché. However, if it really does fit, I will. We’ll see how it goes!

I’ve added the first secondary character to the Characters page. I chose to start with Sky-Kicker, Kos’s elvish (elven?) teacher. Elves in Kos’s world are very different from traditional elves. You’ll see how as Sky-Kicker develops. For one thing, they participate fully in nature, rather than seeming only to represent natures most savory aspects. As much as I like Tolkien, his elves are far too detached for my taste.

Sky-Kicker fills the role of “sage” in the Kos’s journey, but he’s not so one-dimensional. He has his own struggles that he’s dealing with, and ultimately must face.

More secondary characters to come soon!

Having done the basic work to create my primary characters, I now have to spend some more time thinking about the secondary characters.

The main thrust of my plot can be told with just the primaries and some incidental characters – but that would make for a novella at best. I want to tell a story on multiple levels – so I need multiple levels of characters. Does that make sense?

Here are some of the types I’m considering:

• A “sage” – My plot already calls for something of a sage – that being the elf that Kos meets in the wilderness. However, I will be looking for ways to make him less stereotypical than, say, Obi-Wan Kenobi.
• A love interest – Kos is a monk, but not necessarily a monk whose vows preclude romance. Or perhaps they do and love is a further opportunity for conflict for him. My thinking here is that he’ll meet someone later on in the story – certainly after he’s left home.
• A companion – at first, this role will be filled by Achi, but that relationship will evaporate in the first half of the novel. Someone else will need to fill the role, and I’m placing my bets it will be one of the gladiators. But maybe that’s too obvious? I’ll tackle this one last I think.

So stay tuned for more character sketches before I move on to Step 4.

I’ve finished the brief character sketch for Achi, who I have decided will be my antagonist for the first part of Kos’s story. I had intended for Achi to be a friend to Kos all the way through his life, but that’s not the way it goes sometimes.

I find it incredible how much characters can teach you about your story when you develop them on their own, before you really start getting into the details of your plot. It’s looking like Achi’s story will figure heavily in the narrative as well. Which means that I’ll be writing from at least two points of view. I’m happy with that – focusing on one character is much more difficult than jumping around a bit.

Achi’s character sketch can be found on the Characters page. Enjoy!

I’ve completed step 3′s brief character sketch for Kos, my lead protagonist, over on the Characters page in the Story Bible section. Read it here.

As The Snowflake Method predicts, I now have to go back to the paragraph I wrote in step 2 and revise it slightly. That excites me. Not the prospect of having extra work to do, of course, but the fact that this process is really causing something resembling a story to take shape.

In addition – writing Kos’s story down in the form of a paragraph has told me about at least 2 other major characters I need to tackle, and I expect that those characters will project their own influence on the story at large.

Finding out what Kos’s motivation and goals are really helped me focus him as a character, as well as giving me an insight into what is really holding him back. This character sketch was actually fairly easy to write, which in my experience, means I have a good thing going.