the snowflake project

This is how I feel. I’ve been working on my novel for a good long time. Over half a year. And I am just now at the point where I can say “I’ve almost started.”

Most of that is on me. I haven’t given the project the amount of time it deserves. But I can place at least SOME of the blame squarely on the Snowflake Method. It’s never taken me this long to get into the actual writing of a project – and I’ve put in many hours of work already.

However – my record for the span of time I’ve focused on one project has been blown out of the sky by this one. As I predicted, The Snowflake Method has kept me stuck to it. So, yeah, it might be taking a long time – but at least it’s getting done, and it will get finished. And if you know me personally, you know that’s a big freaking deal. I’m not great at finishing writing projects, especially when working alone.

Anybody out there writing a dystopian epic (or short story or screenplay)? I had a neat idea today that could be useful in rounding out your government controlled isolationist nightmare.

Encrypted mailing addresses. The idea came to me randomly, as ideas do, as a possible solution to people not wanting to give strangers on ebay (or craigslist, etc.) their residential address. Because, you know, ax-murderers.

So I thought – suppose everyone had an encrypted version of their address they could give, which the post office or courier service had the key to. Stuff would get delivered, and addresses could be kept secret. And fewer axes would be murdered. Win-win!

Then I thought – what if this became the norm, and the government controlled the post? And conventional addresses became things of the past. You could have a pen-pal who lived two pods over and never even know that’s who you were talking to.

Anyhoo – maybe that’ll get some of your brain-goo chugging away. Anybody else have any cool dystopian elements or ideas? Put them in the comments!

Here it is, at long last – the final segment of step 6 of TSM! As usual, access it here, directly, or go to the Long Format Synopsis directory page to start from where you last left off.

Sorry for the delay in this post – I’ve had very little time in the last few days to devote to anything other than my day job. However, I have finished Kos’s full character chart, and I’ll be posting it very soon!

Part 5 of the Long Format Synopsis is live. You can get straight to it from here, or start from the beginning if you need to.

I’m almost finished writing out Kos’s full-length character chart. I’m learning all kinds of neat things about him. For example, he’s probably afraid of storms. Also he’s a bit fidgety – which is strange for someone who is supposed to be more or less a buddhist monk.

Can’t wait to share it with you guys!

Part 4 (likely of 6) is live. Read it here, or start from the beginning.

By mid-week next week, the whole synopsis will be up for you to read. I’d love to hear what you guys think of it. If you see problems, don’t hold back – I want to hear about them!

There are all kinds of elements and minor characters that don’t even get a mention that keep cropping up in my head when I think about the story. For example – I’m looking forward to inventing some fascinating insults for the drill sergeant on the conscription ship to use.

I’ve started filling in Kos’s character chart. I have a fairly clear picture of him in my head now (visually speaking). The questions the chart I’m using forces you to answer are very interesting. Can’t wait to share it with you!

The third installment of the Long Format Synopsis is up. Read it here, or, if you need to catch up, start here.

I’m now FINISHED writing the Long Format Synopsis – but part 3 isn’t the end of it. I’ll keep releasing content every weekday for probably a few more days before the end is reached. The total size of my *ahem* four page synopsis turned out to be just shy of 5,000 words. 19 manuscript pages.

I’ll now be starting in on the complete character charts. I’m looking forward to giving some serious flesh to the inhabitants of Kos’s world.

Part 2 of Step 6 of TSM is live – you can read it here.

If you haven’t read Part 1 yet, it’s probably a good idea to start with it instead.

I’m almost finished with Step 6. I think one more good day of writing should wrap it up. I wrote over 500 words over lunch today, and if I can do that again tomorrow, I think I’ll have it done.

Then it’s on to Step 7. I’m going to use the character chart outlined in The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy Vol. 1. I find it to be very complete.

Stay tuned for more LFS tomorrow!

I’m not quite finished writing Step 6 of TSM, but that doesn’t mean I can’t share it with you.

I’m going to be releasing it in stages so as not to overwhelm you with a huge wall of text (I’m approaching the end, and it’s measuring up to be about an hour and a half’s read). I’m putting it on different pages to make things a little easier for everyone. There’ll be links at the bottom of each page to get to the next one – if the link is broken, that means I haven’t published the next page yet.

You can find the Long Format Synopsis through the menu via the Story Bible. For those of you with less patience for menus – find it here.

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.

I’ve added a brief description of Dwarves to the Races page. There are fundamental differences to each race that go much deeper than the typical differences between fantasy races. There are hints of elemental origins, totally different biology (iron blood, copper blood, carbon blood), and extreme cultural differences that I hope will play out strongly, if not in this book, then in followup books where the non-humans factor in the plot more heavily.

One of the cultural quirks of the Dwarves is certain to be controversial – doubtful to endear them to anyone, and sure to make them abhorrant to many. But systemic misogyny is a real thing that real societies practice. I may only hint at that factor in Dwarvish society, or I may really run with it. Regardless of how heavy-handed I am on the topic, knowing that Dwarves abuse their women, and knowing that THEY are not the chief evil in the world, will certainly keep things interesting for me as an author.