Your initial idea for a novel is usually just a gem of an idea, which you
think around and gradually expand it to an outline. This outline has to be
expanded into a whole novel. Here are two ways of doing it:
Randy Ingermanson’s Snowflake
Method of designing a novel starts with a one-sentence description which
grows into a paragraph. Then you take each sentence of the paragraph and expand
that into a paragraph, and so on. There are other techniques involved, but this
is the core of it. Taking each part in turn and expanding it. I have used it and
it works very well. He has even written a short novel about it, where the
protagonist learns how to outline her novel – in a novel!
The Story Book by David
Baboulene, suggests another method. This involves writing the major sections
of the story on file cards, and then expanding each card to more cards as you
identify more details and more incidents. You could do it on a computer, but I
think file cards work better because you have more room to spread them out.
You often find that an incident you want to happen at one point, needs
setting up earlier on. So you can create a card for the setup, and insert it
where it needs to go. For example, in Back to the Future, which he
worked on, one incident is that Marty McFly invents rock and roll. To do that,
he needed to be shown earlier playing rock and roll before he gets sent back to
the past.
David Baboulene ends up laying them all on the floor, and rearranges them to
decide the order of the story. This is particularly helpful if you can’t decide
where in the story to start the novel, or whether you should use flashbacks.
Just one word of warning – number your cards in some way in case you drop
them!
Ann Marie Thomas is the author of three medieval history books, a
surprisingly cheerful poetry collection about her 2010 stroke, and the science
fiction series Flight of the Kestrel. Book one, Intruders, is out now.
Follow her at http://eepurl.com/bbOsyz
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