To structure a novel is not a simple thing. Besides the narration, you have to choose different elements. For instance, which narrative techniques to use, how to create dialogues and others.

In this first part of our Story Structure Series, you can learn how to structure a novel with Randy Ingermanson’s Snowflake Method.

Everything starts with a basic story structure in which you defined a beginning, a middle and an end. But there are also different story structures you can consider structuring your novel which we will see in next articles of this Story Structure Series.

Let’s start with Randy Ingermanson’s Snowflake Method.

What is the Randy Ingermanson’s Snowflake Method?

Are you curious about how to structure a novel with Randy Ingermanson’s Snowflake Method?

Randy Ingermanson is a theoretical physicist, and he is also an award-winning author of six novels. He invented “The Randy Ingermanson’s Snowflake Method” composed of 10 steps.

The aim of his method is to start from a central idea. Then, develop your narration around this starting point, by adding different concepts, techniques and details.

The 10 steps of the Randy Ingermanson’s Snowflake Method

In other words, imagine that these 10 different steps are like little snowflakes. Through them, you can create your very final result as a big ball of snow, your narration. Every step has approximately a duration, that you can use just for reference like a guideline.

1. Start by writing a single sentence in which you summarize your novel. (The duration of this step is about 1 hour)
2. Furthermore, expand the sentence you create in the step above. Then, create a complete summary and giving more details about the most important events (this took 1 hour)
3. Concentrate on each character. Write a page in which you resume the behaviour, characteristics, attitude and other details about your characters. (It took about 1 hour for each one)
4. Each sentence you wrote has to be expanded into a paragraph summary, as you have done in point #2. (Several hours)
5. After that, put yourself in the shoes of your character. Write about one page about the story, from the eyes of them (1-2 days)
6. As you have done in point #4, detail each paragraph you create. After that, create a full-page synopsis (this is the longest part of the Method: it took about a week)
7. This is the moment to create a character chart to give more details. Write a full description of your character (about 1 week)
8. Take advantage of point #6 and make a list of every scene you need to complete your narration
9. For each scene, write a whole paragraph with a complete description
10. Now is the time to write your draft, which you can revise at the end

“You need three major resources to have a successful writing career: time, writing space, and money.”

Randy Ingermanson

The innovative novel planning software of bibisco to create a novel

To sum up, if you are searching for one method to create your novel and avoiding losing details, you can get inspiration from this Story Structure Series. Likewise, you can test the novel planning software of bibisco.

This is a very useful tool that you can use to list the main points and characters of your novel and to put your ideas into words.

Take a look at the example below where you can define Premise, Fabula, Setting and Narrative strands of your novel.

Conclusions

Every writer has a method to write the novel. This is the Randy Ingermanson’s Snowflake Method.

In conclusion, in this Story Structure Series, we keep analyzing some of these methods from which you can start to create your narration, full of details, of interesting dialogues, which will take your reader’s breath away.