I've discovered a resource, for teaching new authors how to pre-plan a novel. According to the method's developer, life is too short to spend months or years writing a meandering first draft, not knowing what's going to happen in it. So this award winning author has a list of planning steps laid out, in quite simple form. He calls it the Snowflake method. (Click on the link to find out why. )

I found his advice to be common-sense, and his enthusiasm for writing was catching, so I am currently trying the method. Already, I think my space-y plot is getting revamped. So, I decided to share it with y'all, in case you could be helped by it.

(Is it just me, or did this post sound like a commercial?)

That was what I thought when I was reading that.

First I was interested, then I was going 'Hey, this is pretty cool.' 'Oh my, this is brilliant!' 'Why didn't I ever do this before?' 'This is awesome!' 'I'm totally going to use this for my novels!"

I'm a planner. I don't like just going around not knowing what is happening. I did that through most of NaNo, and ended up with 50,000 that was decent, but now it still rambles about. I know I have the patience to use this. So I totally am!

Thank you so much for sharing this, Aemi! =D I think it will be really helpful.

Yea, I heard about this from Tim first, I think. He posted about it on the Sci Fi side.

Thanks for posting this, Aemi.

This is a very interesting system. I will have to look at it more in-depth. Thanks for sharing the link.

You're welcome! I wonder how well it will work for me? I'm most excited about the spreadsheet.

Well, be sure to let us know how it goes!

Melody uses the snowflake method.

I'm going to give it a shot again this summer, if I'm not busy fund-raising for a mission trip.