A ~14km radius – insane.
How to write a novel using the snowflake method (2013)
41–49 of 49 posts
Re: How to write a novel using the snowflake method (2013)
#42Example of the author's own work: https://www.amazon.com/Transgression-Time-Travel-Suspense-No...
Thank you, I find it interesting to read the "back cover" now that I know about his writing method: one can see how it emerges from the various steps he described.
Also, it manages to make me want more, even though the premise is as corny as can be. If I ever write a novel, I will definitely have a closer look at this method.
Re: How to write a novel using the snowflake method (2013)
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
> makes planning the events and character development easier My impression is that it makes the former easier and the latter harder. Having a planned-out plot-focused story can lead you to a very tight, satisfying climax. But it can often make the characters feel wooden or like they are acting out of character in order to do what the plot needs them to do. When a writer focuses more on the fidelity of a character's i…
> At one end of that continuum, you have thrillers and action novels where characters are little more than a bullet list of personality archetypes, but a bunch of cool shit happens and the pacing is perfectly dialed in. At the other end, you have literary fiction where you feel like you're getting a window into the minds of actual people, but nothing really happens. Part 1 of Dostoevsky's The Idiot is maybe the best…
I sure want to read about these things. :) Any more books about chaotic assholes? Not necessarily junkies, but misfits at odds with civilized society.
Re: How to write a novel using the snowflake method (2013)
#44OT: Just decided a new reading rule for myself: when a popup interrupts my reading I'll ask myself "Does finding out what this says based on what little I know so far matter to me?" If the answer is not a resounding "yes!", I close the tab.
If you use uBlock Origin, I highly recommend enabling one of the "Annoyances" filter lists (EasyList, AdGuard, and uBlock each have one. I use EasyList.) Besides mailing list signups, chat widgets, etc. it also blocks GDPR cookie notices.
Ticking ublocks annoyances lists is first thing for me on any new browser. Holy h**, do I hate getting annoyed.
Re: How to write a novel using the snowflake method (2013)
#45I'm curious to know if authors of great books know the "ending" ahead of time? In Stephen King's case, I'd say "no". In John Irving's case, where the ending is often "put the book down in awe", I'd assume he MUST, right? I'd love to write a book, I have ideas, I just don't know if I'll ever have a good ending. This must be the curse of most aspiring writers!?
You are correct - John Irving writes his endings first. https://www.backwordsblog.com/single-post/2016/04/27/john-ir... "People have commented – sometimes with irritation, sometimes nicely – on the amount of foreshadow that there is in my novel. Well, yeah, it’s not that hard to foreshadow what’s coming when you know what’s coming…I write endings first. I write last sentences – sometimes last paragraphs – first. I kn…
I've just re-read Foundation original trilogy to wash the bad taste that the first (and for me last) season of the TV series left on my mouth. I was surprised to find so much foreshadow in the second and third books for the key twists in the plot.
By the way, Asimov is mentioned in TFA, that makes sense. With our Corín Tellado, he was one of the most prolific authors ever.
Re: How to write a novel using the snowflake method (2013)
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
A favorite anecdote, and I don't know anything, I could have misheard it, was about Tolkien. Apparently, he did not know the character Saruman existed. He was just working the story, and had this gap which eventually turned into Saruman. Saruman seems rather "important", so it's interesting (to me) that it was not a core character from early on. As a non-writer, even as a programmer, I find it kind of surprising that…
It can be even more surprising when a character, planned from the beginning, suddenly leaps up and demands attention. Many years ago, near the beginning of writing one my several unpublished novels, I created a minor character essentially started demanding her due...she had a place in the story I hadn't anticipated. Eventually she became the protagonist of the prequel.
That happened in The Mentalist TV series.
Patrick Jane's archenemy, Red John, needed an identity. It wasn't planned beforehand, so they chose one of the insignificant characters from the first chapters.
Re: How to write a novel using the snowflake method (2013)
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
> At one end of that continuum, you have thrillers and action novels where characters are little more than a bullet list of personality archetypes, but a bunch of cool shit happens and the pacing is perfectly dialed in. At the other end, you have literary fiction where you feel like you're getting a window into the minds of actual people, but nothing really happens. Part 1 of Dostoevsky's The Idiot is maybe the best…
I sure want to read about these things. :) Any more books about chaotic assholes? Not necessarily junkies, but misfits at odds with civilized society.
Anything by Charles Bukowski, or the beatniks, whose names I can't recall at the moment.
Edit: ah, Jack Kerouac was at least one of them (although On the Road was already mentioned). Electric Kool Aid Acid Test is a wild ride, as well as pretty much anything by Hunter S. Thompson.
Re: How to write a novel using the snowflake method (2013)
#48I'm curious to know if authors of great books know the "ending" ahead of time? In Stephen King's case, I'd say "no". In John Irving's case, where the ending is often "put the book down in awe", I'd assume he MUST, right? I'd love to write a book, I have ideas, I just don't know if I'll ever have a good ending. This must be the curse of most aspiring writers!?
>In Stephen King's case, I'd say "no". Haha! I his case I don't think he has anything figured out. I think as he's writing it, he's discovering what the characters are doing and is in just as much shock as we are.
King is probably the inspiration for Garth Marenghi.
Re: How to write a novel using the snowflake method (2013)
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
> makes planning the events and character development easier My impression is that it makes the former easier and the latter harder. Having a planned-out plot-focused story can lead you to a very tight, satisfying climax. But it can often make the characters feel wooden or like they are acting out of character in order to do what the plot needs them to do. When a writer focuses more on the fidelity of a character's i…
> At one end of that continuum, you have thrillers and action novels where characters are little more than a bullet list of personality archetypes, but a bunch of cool shit happens and the pacing is perfectly dialed in. At the other end, you have literary fiction where you feel like you're getting a window into the minds of actual people, but nothing really happens. Part 1 of Dostoevsky's The Idiot is maybe the best…
> Part 1 of Dostoevsky's The Idiot is maybe the best example I know that works from both perspectives. It's full of interesting characters with different motives, and it escalates to a incredible firework involving all these characters and motives all acting at the same time.
Yeah, that's absolutely the goal for most writers, but boy is it hard to craft a set of character psychologies that both feel believable while also leading to a plot that feels inevitable and monumental.