Some of you might be thinking, ‘Wow that Snowflake Method sure focuses on plot. What about the characters?’
Before using the Snowflake, I never got past the short synopsis. I wanted to jump into the writing.
And this time, I finally (yes, I’m slow to catch on) worked on the characters.
Here’s what I did:
- Per the Snowflake, for each main and important secondary character, I wrote down their story goal, conflict, epiphany, sentence summary and paragraph summary.
- And then, I wrote a characters synopsis for each of them – taking a few paragraphs to tell the story as if they were the main character. (Wow! Enlightening.)
I’ve barely started writing, but I feel as if I understand my villain, and I’m friends with my characters. But, knowing all this and creating 3D characters on the page are two different things. I have a lot of hard work ahead.
And I need all the help I can get. How do you make sure your characters are fully developed? And, what are some techniques to bringing them to life on the page? (Other than blood, sweat and tears.)