A friend of mine found a method for plot outlining a novel called The Snowflake Method. You basically take one concept and expand upon it until you have a whole novel charted out. It’s a concept that I never thought of before and I thought to myself, that’s nice but I don’t think I can use that based on my current creative process. There is no one method that works for everyone and that is just fine.
I found myself with some downtime and decided to nail down certain things in Northam, the fantasy world my current works take place. Things are getting too long and complicated to rely on going back and looking so I started an outline of how magic worked in my setting. I started with the broadest concept of magic and started to break it down into its many points, adding types of caster, types of magic, sub types of magic, etc. I’m not going to tell you what I devised, you will have to read my novels to figure that out, but when it was done I realized that I had used the Snowflake Method.
I guess without even realizing it, something I had read about maybe a month ago was still rolling around in my brain and I found a practical application for it. Since most of my story ideas originate from dreams I’ve had, I am not certain it will work for plotting but it has other application. I’m sure that I can use the technique for outlining other things in the setting.
So I thought that I’d share the article I found in hopes that you can find use for it. Like I said, not every method works for everyone but knowing your options will help you devise the method that works best for you.
elleclouse.com 