God help my poor readers, I've discovered the Snowflake Method X)
Decided to turn this into a full-blown post after it blew up in Fanfiction Writers Unite! What is the Snowflake Method?
Created by Randy Ingermanson in 2002, the Snowflake Method is a way of outlining novels before the large-scale writing begins. Since I've been struggling with a lot of things while working on my longfic (like context blindness), I decided to see if there was some way I could reduce that.
Here's the Cliff Notes version I wrote up, and there's more detail below:
Start with a 15-word sentence explaining your entire story. Like those blurbs they put on the backs of books.
Turn that sentence into a paragraph, with the same goal.
Make one page summaries of your MAIN characters. Name, motivations, goals, ALL of it.
Go back to your summary paragraph. Turn every sentence in that paragraph into its own paragraph.
Make half-page summaries of all your SIDE characters. Done correctly, all of the character pages you've done should briefly tell the story from each character's POV.
Those paragraphs from step 4? Turn that 1-page plot synopsis into FOUR pages now :)
All your character sheets? M O A R D E T A I L. birthdate, description, history, motivation, goal, etc. Most importantly, how will this character change by the end of the story?
Back to the plot synopsis now--time to make scenes! Randy Ingermanson (the guy who came up with all this) suggests using a spreadsheet to map out all your scenes, what happens in them, whose POV it is, etc. (You could probably pull off something similar in Scrivener. IDK about other writing software.)
OPTIONAL: In your main story doc, expand those scenes from general descriptions into multiple paragraphs. Ingermanson says EVERY scene should have conflict, but for fanfiction I disagree. Nothing wrong with a bit of fluff sometimes :D
(FINAL) Write the thing. All the pieces are in place, just put 'em together!
Under the cut, I have more info on each of these steps, as well as my own analysis of them.
(Full disclosure: some of this is directly copied from Ingermanson's page. This is just for simplicity's sake and nothing more.)
While it’s perfectly valid to write a fic entirely as improv (and often more fun lol), for longfics you’ll want some kind of framework. It’s the same thing as artists transitioning from line art to flat colors to a full-blown painting. The Snowflake Method is the writer’s version of that premise—and only one potential way of many to go about it! Ingermanson calls his method the Snowflake Method because you essentially design the novel in ever-increasing stages; you start small, then build stuff up in ten(-ish) steps, until it looks like a story.
Note that all of this is recommended to be completed over the course of about a month. Each step supposedly should take at least a week, but the original Snowflake Method was also written in 2002—a long, LONG time ago ^_^; Some of the things listed here can now be completed in a much shorter time (or in much easier ways), but the concept itself could still be quite helpful. Without further ado:
Step 1
Come up with a one-sentence summary of your fic. Ingermanson’s example was “A rogue physicist travels back in time to kill the apostle Paul,” the summary for his first novel, Transgression. Where it’s intended to be a simple selling tool to publishers and literary agents, it’s also the foundation of the Snowflake Method. In fanfic context, think of it as your fic’s first impression. What do you want readers to feel before they even click on your story?
Some hints on what makes a good sentence:
Shorter is better. Ingermanson says to try for fewer than 15 words.
In a fanfic context, character names are optional (though Ingermanson says not to put them). This if FAN fiction; readers want to know who you have doing what!
Tie together the big picture and the personal picture. Which character has the most to lose in this story? Now say what he or she wants to win.
Read some one-line blurbs from books you like to learn how to do this. Writing a one-sentence description is a lot harder than it looks, especially when you want to info dump about your fic so bad X)
Step 2
Expand that sentence to a full paragraph describing the story setup, major disasters, and ending of the novel. This is the second stage of the snowflake. Ingermanson suggests a three-act structure (or as he calls it, “three disasters plus an ending”), with each act taking up a quarter of the story. The final quarter should be devoted to the ending and epilogue (if you’re doing one).
It’s not like you have to be precise about it, though—this is still fanfiction. No sane person is gonna be like “Uh akshually yuor secund act wuz 2.034587 words longer than it shuda been!!1!1!!” Please block people who leave comments like that, seriously XD
Step 3
This is the part where you map out storylines for each of your characters. Write a one-page summary sheet that includes:
The character’s name
A one-sentence summary of the character’s storyline
The character’s motivation (what does he/she want abstractly?)
The character’s goal (what does he/she want concretely?)
The character’s conflict (what prevents him/her from reaching this goal?)
The character’s epiphany (what will he/she learn, how will he/she change?)
A one-paragraph summary of the character’s storyline
My personal suggestion: if you have an action-heavy story and want to get even more creative with it, try using DND character sheets for this! They’re still helpful even if your story doesn’t involve magic—just use the first 2 pages of this one and forget the magic section altogether.
IMPORTANT: You may need to go back and revise your one-sentence summary and/or your one-paragraph summary. Go ahead! Tweaking things is an inevitable part of the design process; better to do them during the planning stages now than when you’re 25k words in. (Ha ha. Ha ha. Ha... 🥲) You likely won’t get it right from the outset—and sometimes things will need to change to keep the story manageable, or even as you learn new things during the writing process.
Step 4
By this stage, you should have a good idea of your fic’s overall structure. Getting to this point can take some time, but if the story is broken, you know it now. From here, you keep growing each “node” of your story. Expand each sentence of your summary paragraph into a full paragraph. The final paragraph should say how the fic ends. At the end of the exercise, you’ll be left with a one-page skeleton of your longfic (or 2, or whatever—it’ll likely be single-digit). The idea is to expand the overall story.
Step 5
Write up a one-page description of each major character and a half-page description of the other important characters. These “character synopses” should tell the story from the point of view of each character. If needed, go back to the earlier steps and make revisions as needed.
TIP: If you're dealing with a story that has a large ensemble cast, rate each person in that cast on a scale of 1-10 (or a star rating) in terms of importance to your story.
If we're using ATLA as an example, Aang would be a 10 on the 1-10 scale (since he's the MC) and the cabbage guy would be a 1 or 2. And yet, both characters have distinct storylines; Aang is trying to master the 4 elements, and the cabbage guy just wants to sell his cabbages. Just because a character is a 1 or 2 in plot relevance doesn't mean they have to be boring! (This also tells you that not every storyline has to be overly complicated!)
Step 6
By now, you have a solid story and several story threads, one for each character. Next, expand the one-page plot synopsis to a four-page synopsis. Similar to the last step, you’ll be expanding each paragraph from step 4 into a full page. This is to help you figure out the high-level logic of the story and make strategic decisions. Here, you will definitely want to cycle back and fix things in the earlier steps as you gain insight into the story and new ideas whack you in the face.
Step 7
Expand your character descriptions into full-fledged character charts detailing everything there is to know about each character. The standard stuff such as birthdate, description, history, motivation, goal, etc. The most important thing you want to note is this though: how will this character change by the end of the story? Change can be literally anything from "He masters the 4 elements and becomes the Avatar" to "he finally sells a cabbage". (I must be in an ATLA mood today lol)
This is an expansion of your work in step 3, and it will teach you a lot about your characters. You'll probably go back and revise steps 1-6 as your characters become “real” to you and begin making petulant demands on the story. This is good — great fiction is character-driven. Take as much time as you need to do this, because you’re just saving time downstream. (It may take a full month of solid effort to get here. Longfics are long for the authors too, y'know?)
Step 8
Take that four-page synopsis and make a list of all the scenes that you’ll need to turn the story into a proper longfic. At this point, Ingermanson suggests using a spreadsheet (like Excel). Keep in mind this method was written in 2002, so yeah.
He says to make a spreadsheet detailing the scenes from your four-page plot outline:
one line for each scene
one column for the POV character
another (wide) column saying what happens
(optional): more columns that tell you how many pages you expect to write for the scene
Note: If you have something like Scrivener, you can do something similar by making a file for each scene and noting the POV character, what happens, and so on in the Notes window.
If you use the spreadsheet method, you’ll want to make new versions of the story spreadsheet as you progress. Ingermanson suggests determining what scenes go in which chapters after you’re done; I like to do it as I go (since Scrivener lets me drag and drop anyway).
Step 9
Ingermanson says this is optional, but I thought I would include it anyway.
Switch back to your word processor and begin writing a narrative description of the story. Take each line of the spreadsheet and expand it to a multi-paragraph description of the scene. Put in any cool lines of dialogue you think of, and sketch out the essential conflict of that scene. If there’s no conflict, you’ll know it here. Ingermanson says that every scene should have conflict, but for fanfiction I disagree. Nothing wrong with a little fluff now and then :D
Step 10
Start the real first draft of the fic! About midway through a first draft (or if you get writer’s block) take a break and fix all the broken parts of your design docs from all the previous steps, if needed. Nothing left after that than to polish—if you want to!
...Phew that was longer than I thought it was, but I'm glad I got it out there! :D If this was any help to anyone, let me know! (And check out Ingermanson's website, too. It's mostly geared toward novelists that want to get published, and he does sell some books and things, but most of the stuff on his site is free! That's how I wrote all this in the first place! :D)
I'm a hobbyist writer that dabbles in both original fiction and fan fiction. Lately I've been vagueposting about my original work and disappearing from Tumblr for months at a time :V Since I have a little bit of a following on here, I've added some basic ground rules. (I'm learning as I go lol)
CAUTIONS
I typically try to keep what I post and reblog sfw, but sometimes mature topics and adulty language slip through the cracks. I'd rate my tumblr PG-13, so there's your general warning. I'll do my best to tag anything that goes above that, though that should be a rare thing here. I reblog a lot and tag for content; if I miss a tag, let me know!
RULES
🌇 Do not send me anything nsfw or nsfl in my asks. Instant block.
🌇 No unsolicited beta reading offers. Not interested.
🌇 No writing requests. I simply don't have the free time.
🌇 Please no messages about shipping discourse/arguments. I don't care. :)
🌇 I am not interested in talking about the Egypt vs. Argentina game anymore. IYKYK. Instant block.
Will add more as I remember them.
THE FUN STUFF
Works: (IMPORTANT NOTE 5/3: For personal reasons, I will no longer be posting on AO3. I am looking into alternatives. The fic's Tumblr is still up, though.)
Birth of a Paradox (MHA x Omori crossover fic - Fic's Tumblr here)
Just a Little Longer (Omori, unedited vent piece)
Nonfiction resources I've created:
The Snowflake Method (novel outlining strategy, adapted for longfics)
Stuff I'm a fan of:
Omori
My Hero Academia
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles
Legend of Zelda (especially Majora's Mask)
Fire Emblem (esp. PoR and RD)
Slay the Princess
Dispatch
Ghost Trick
Lord of the Rings
Star Fox
probably way more I don't remember right now
Hobbies:
writing (obviously lol)
crochet (I need to get back into this, fr)
gaming (Been playing since the NES <3)
Researching things (I will research the silliest things to death if I'm interested enough lol. The last rabbit hole I fell down was what the furusiyya were!)
Can't think of anything else to share, so I guess that's it for now. ^_^;
I jut wrote this and HELP I'M LAUGHING WAY TOO HARD XD Sorry not sorry Ojiro XD
On his left, Sunny tried to read the index card on the desk—no luck deciphering the kanji. He did spot a boy with a muscular-looking tail, deep in conversation with an energetic-looking boy that seemed to make some of Sunny’s hair—and loose threads from his clothes—stick out at odd angles. Sunny didn’t like how…wrong the tail boy’s tail looked. Tails were supposed to be fluffy or scaly all the way around, not look like a faceless man wearing a bad toupée. Now he was starting to imagine what it might look like if the tailed boy put a top hat on it and drew a face on it… Or taped glasses to it…
Now Sunny was imagining a hairless Cousin It. He shuddered and looked away before anyone could catch him staring at people for a second time.
Oh my frick I just realized something. Making a note here so I don't forget it.
Sunny would possibly be afraid of Shoji's Dupli-Arms at first. The arms would remind him too much of Something in the Dark, especially since Shoji can change the end of his arms to be eyes, mouths, and so on!!
Overview Gallery Synopsis Relationships Mezo Shoji (障 (しょう) 子 (じ) 目 (め) 蔵 (ぞう) , Shōji Mezō?), also known as the Tentacle Hero: Tentacole (触
This article is about SOMETHING IN THE DARK. For more info on SOMETHING and its variants, see the category page. SOMETHING IN THE DARK, also
I wonder if Sunny would be afraid of Ibara Shiozaki, since her hair is plant vines that can move? That's a lot like Something in the Water.
This article is about SOMETHING IN THE WATER. For more info on SOMETHING and its variants, see the SOMETHING category page. SOMETHING IN THE
I don't think anyone has a spider quirk in canon MHA? Sero's tape might be close, but I mean appearance-wise.
And Sunny would be afraid of Dark Shadow at first because of the whole darkness thing...
Also I could see him thinking Yaoyorozu resembles Mari (with her hair down). I already have a scene in my fic where Aizawa looks like the Something, too. 😈
OMORI is a surreal psychological horror RPG Maker game developed by OMOCAT and co-published by PLAYISM which fully released for PC Windows a
Might have to redo a couple scenes... hm...
EDIT: Added pictures/gifs! Closest I could find anyway... _-_;
So I'm working on the USJ Incident in my fic and I decided to focus on Tokoyami, Koda, and the Storm Zone. So I went looking in the anime for research, and there's not much to go on. (Which I don't mind, that gives me wiggle room.) The villains there were...something X)
So just for fun, I came up with throwaway quirks for all of them! Feel free to use, or not. :P
Man with large teeth and small, stone “horns”
Quirk: Stone Toss - can grow stones and pull them out of his head to throw at people, think stone Mineta
The teal Golduck-like heteromorph, no clothes
Quirk: Mist - does what it says on the tin, he can generate mist from his body. Reference to one of Golduck's moves lol.
Man in gas mask with a knife.
Quirk: Acid Cloud - can produce acid in a burst 2-3 feet around himself. Susceptible to his own acid, the gas mask is so he doesn't breathe it in.
pale, unknown feminine villain with white legs in heels (or hooves?) Quirk: Sawed in Half - Can separate her top half from her bottom half at will, like the magician’s trick. Like a severely discounted Setsuna Tokage. (Since we can't see the top half of her lol)
red-haired heteromorph with snout, large forearms, and big hands, shirtless.
Quirk: Werewolf (guess what it does lol)
green-skinned heteromorph with horns and comb-like hands.
Quirk: Tuning fork - when he bangs his hands/claws on the ground, they produce a tone that can shatter glass, like an opera singer does. Can control the lengths of his digits to hit different frequencies.
buff man with gray hair, only seen from behind.
Quirk: Werewolf (surprise, he's the red-head's cousin! idk lol)
buff man with mohawk and spiked armlets, shirtless.
Quirk: super strength (really nothin to this lol)
Nothing serious here. Just something dumb I wanted to share. :D
Minor spoilers for my fic, but major spoilers for Omori.
So I was editing a couple of scenes in my fic and I just realized what Sunny's hero costume reminds me of. And I did this completely subconsciously. XD My excerpt (might get edited later):
What Sunny walked out in was a jet black, wrist-length cloak adorned with beady black eyes, eye-like mirrored discs in strategic places, a hood that partially hid Sunny’s face, and not a hint of color to be seen. Sunny pulled his hood down. The light glinted off his purple-tinted glasses, and for a moment, the mirrored discs on his cloak reflected his classmates’ stares back at them. He couldn’t blame them for gawking, though. He looked like a Something right out of Black Space, his nightmares made manifest. And that was exactly what he’d wanted.
And then there's this guy:
So imagine Sunny in this but there's only one visible eye and it's purple (Sunny's remaining eye glows purple when his quirk activates) and there are Lili eyes all over the cloak. And the cloak is black. And also some of the eyes are magnetic metal discs, and they're sharp, and and and-- XD
But it legit makes me happy that I basically made Sunny a Garo Ninja. PFFFT XD All these years and I'm still a Majora's Mask stan at heart!
