Story Bible
The 10 Second Summary (Step 1)
A novice monk learns the horrifying truth that drives a conquering empire’s war.
The 1 Paragraph Summary (Step 2)
Kos, a young, novice monk, is ripped from his simple life when an invading imperial army conquers his city and conscripts him and his friend, Achi. Kos’s refusal to recant his monastic vows and kill for the empire earns him a court-martial and a place in the blood pits, fighting for his life. Kos’s uncanny ability to defend himself without wounding his opponents earns him the respect of his fellow gladiators, but elicits the anger of the imperial forces once again – Achi, now an officer, betrays his one-time friend and sentences Kos to death by execution. Kos escapes, only to find himself facing an enemy far more terrible than the empire. Kos finally sees the truth behind the imperial war and joins with the empire, using powers he didn’t know he had to defeat a force more evil than could be imagined.
Basil Munroe Godevenos earned the nickname "Bucket" because of a combination of bad webcam audio and an extended family member's English accent. He likes the name though, so he's kept it.
Hi Basil,
Are you worried at all about someone stealing your ideas? Are you wanting this book to ever get published?
Serina
Hi Serina,
Good question. The answer is “no”. The great thing about openly publishing your work online (even in progress) is that there’s a permanent record of it. I can prove I own thesnowflakeproject.com, and everything that goes up here is date-stamped.
And my plans are to publish the book myself as an ebook through whatever channels make the most sense when it’s ready to be released into the wild.
Hi Basil,
I like your blog already. I come here by a Google result for “story structure+Snowflake Method.”
I am evaluating Snowflake Pro for use as a Mind Map/kickstarter of sorts. My thin plots need more-complete thinking. One Big Doubt is that SnoPro is too deep, or too rigid, for my task. (I’m not after the Great American Novel, just a graphic novel that explores themes much like your Kos journey… How much is “character” formed from inner processing, and what kinds of outer pressures trigger unifying hardeness or dissipating fissures in character?)
Anyways, I’m interested in your discussion with Slade. I thought Google was embracing The Cloud for its products. Before Snowflake, I was considering Google “Wave” with its ability to insert text portions from anywhere in a massively-multiple way, allow collaboration, commenting and spot-edits, all while tracking detailed history. To me, this functionality beats spreadsheets! But, I read Google was shelving Wave; looking elsewhere I stumbled onto Snowflake.
Thanks for letting me read your progress. I’ll resume lurking… ;o)
David
Hi David,
Glad to have you as a reader.
Hey Basil,
Thanks! (For your answer and the compliment to my name.)
The Google Docs is a good idea. After the few but devastating Lost Data episodes I’ve lived through in my writing life, I really, really prefer to be syncing with a cloud as I write these days.
I use Evernote for almost everything and love it, but the table function is very rudimentary. (Not sure how I feel about the Spread Sheet approach, but I usually find that constraints in the Process can be surprisingly liberating or grounding — not sure which, but something like that…)
I have worked with Scrivener for a few years and really dig that software, but again, we need one of these specialized writing tools that’s backing up online somewhere as we work, and accessible from any web-connected device.
Keep it up, man. I shared your link on Twitter and Facebook.
I worked with an application called Copywrite when I was taking part in the 3-day Novel Contest over labor day weekend. Sunday morning I awoke to find a corrupted file, and no back up. 1/3 of a novel down the drain. Extremely depressing.
But that’s not going to happen this time!
Thanks for passing on the link!
Basil,
This is excellent!
I have a question about your process: Are you using the Snowflake Pro software or a spreadsheet (or other)?
I have subscribed to your RSS feed – I’m rooting for you and watching your progress.
Slade
Hi Slade. Great name by the way!
Currently, I’m using Google Docs to keep my notes in one place. I’m considering the Snowflake Pro software – but I like that Google Docs lets me hot-desk and work with multiple devices without having to worry about uploading or downloading or syncing. I’ll see what happens when I move to the scene list step. That’s where I could really see Snowflake Pro coming in handy.
Thanks for subscribing! I look forward to your thoughts on my work!
-Basil