the snowflake project

Just a short post to keep everyone up to date on what’s going on.

I have gotten better at writing every day. As I mentioned earlier, I have a stack of index cards that I carry around, and I’ve committed to plotting a minimum of 5 scenes scenes every day using them. Most days I do 10 scenes.

I have no idea how many scenes this novel will have in it, but I have 200 cards. So when I fill those up, I’ll transfer the whole mess into the Scrivener corkboard and see if I need any more.

Parallel to building a scene list for the novel, I’ve been building a character profile for an unrelated project. I’m going to write a series of short stories featuring this character. This will give me a little break from Kos and the gang if and when I need it, and will give you all something to read that’s actually finished.

I used to think I knew how to write a short story, but I’m not so sure anymore. I’m calling for suggestions from you – I’m looking for resources that will get my head in the short story game (free articles and/or tools are preferred). Specifically, I’m looking for tips on plotting a short story, and on keeping the unnecessary stuff out of the narrative.

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.

After a much too long wait, I give you: Sky-Kicker’s Character Chart!

Let me say this: creating a made-up language is extremely hard. Naming characters is tough enough, nevermind naming everyday objects or concepts in a way that seems remotely convincing. I have new respect for Adam, naming everything in the world. But despite the pain of it, the language of the Eldest (which also happens to be the ancient tongue of the religion of The One God) is taking shape, tiny piece by tiny piece. I don’t expect to have a real working vocabulary ever, but there will be enough words to support several phrases that I’ll need to pull out.

In other news:

I’ve been struggling with time management lately – as evidenced by my long absence from this blog/site. Yesterday, I paid $10 + tax for an iPhone app that tracks all the time I spend on everything (as long as I remember to push the buttons when I start something and when I stop it).

It began with a desire to limit TV watching in order to read more and write more. But as I’m realizing the possibilities, I’m seeing that I’ll gain a much better understanding of how precious time is and really start using it better. Even now, it’s ticking away the minutes I’m spending writing this blog post.

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 officially moved on to step 7 of TSM – full fledged character charts.

Kos’s chart is finished and live on the site. You can access it through his character page or go directly to it.

The chart I’m using (which I didn’t at all set up as a chart, but rather more like a questionnaire…) is fairly extensive. I stole it from this book, so you are welcome to steal it from me – but buying the book wouldn’t hurt either. I’ve met one of the authors, Tee Morris, and he’s a fantastic guy. You could do a lot worse than supporting him.

I’ve started in on Achi’s chart, and you’ll have that in a few days. Even just the first few items on the chart are very useful – it’s really important to know what your characters look like!

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.

Continuing with the 5th step in The Snowflake Method, I’ve added a long format plot summary from Sky-Kicker’s point of view. This gives a little bit of insight into the doings of the Elves or Eldest in Kos’s universe.

You can find Sky-Kicker’s plot summary on his character page.

Hit me with comments on how you feel about the name “Sky-Kicker”. My thinking was that it would be a rough translation from a proper name in Elvish. And further, that the Elves have a type of society and that’s similar to an aboriginal tribal culture.

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.

Sorry for the long delay – but the one page summary from Kos’s point of view turned into something more along the lines of three pages, and I’ve been suffering from a particularly nasty cold.

Anyway on Kos’s Character Page, you can find the whole story from his point of view. I’ll be following that shortly with a (hopefully) shorter version from Achi’s perspective.

I’m beginning to see how much material is hidden away in this plot, waiting to be unpacked in prose. It’s exciting!