The Snowflake Method

Randy Ingermanson developed the popular Snowflake Method for planning novels. He claims, ‘Good fiction doesn’t just happen, it is designed.’ He suggests that to design a novel you start small, then build up until it looks like a story. This plan helps you define your plan in brief, then build on that until it is a one page story outline.

To learn more about the Snowflake Method visit Randy’s Advanced Fiction Writing website.

PLEASE NOTE: You must use the "BUILD MY STORY" buttons before attempting to save your plan.

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Step 1: Create a one sentence summary of your novel.

Step 2: Create a paragraph describing your novel

Now expand your sentence to one paragraph of around five sentences. Describe the story narrative, major events and the ending.

Now expand your paragraph into a one page summary.

Step 3) Create a one page story summary.

Expand each of the sentence s in your previous summary into a full paragraph. All but the last paragraph should end in a disaster. The final paragraph should tell how the book ends.

Please note: You must use Build my story and Build my story if you wish to save or export your plan.

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