Let It Snow

I finished up the dossiers for the five main characters in the new novel. The last item on each was a paragraph that explained that character’s storyline. Funny thing was that when I got to the end of the fifth one, I realized that none of them matched all of the details (where people met, etc.) so I went back and tweaked them to bring the mini stories more in line with one another.

Step Four, then, was to expand on the basic storyline I created in Step Two. That was fun; I had to go back several times and adjust details about the characters and even the main story arc. It took three or four tries, so I guess it’s not exactly writing itself (stupid lazy story, making me do all the work.) I think the story that’s forming is a good one, so the extra effort is paying off.

Step Five is to write a one-page synopsis of the story from each character’s point of view. This should be where the details of the story become solidified. Each character has a role to play, so it will be interesting to see how each perceives his or her place in the grand scheme. I should also start to see where minor characters will be needed to provide supporting roles.

All in all, things are going well. I’ll only be able to tell if this method is working once the final product (the rough draft) is complete, but so far I have a good feeling about it.

Well, back to work.