I recently read Randy Ingermanson’s How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method and enjoyed it a lot. In it, a newbie author named Goldilocks goes to a writer’s conference. The first workshop she attends is about outlining. After deciding that it’s not for her, Goldilocks next goes to hear a speaker espouse the joys of writing by the seat of your pants. That’s not the right fit either, so she slips into baby bear’s workshop about the Snowflake Method. The rest of the book follows Goldilocks journey as uses the methods taught to finesse her story idea into a well-plotted outline that she can use to write her novel.
Randy Inermanson’s Snowflake Method has been around for a while now and I believe it’s a terrific tool for authors no matter where they land on the outline/panster scale. You can read the original snowflake article (which explains the entire process) for free on his site. The link is here.
Below, Randy speaks with author/podcaster Joanna Penn about the book and the process.
