October Novel Prep Challenge

This is a great question, and thanks so much for kicking off the discussion. Also, thanks for the link, which I'll include in the writing tools. I particularly like the worksheets.

We're offering options for outlining and some other assignments because authors have different writing styles and preferences. We've had suggestions from past participants that some assignments were too defined and not adaptable enough to their specific projects.

I personally think that the way we've always done the Outlining exercises in the Prep is very similar to the Snowflake Method anyway, and I'll explain in a moment.

Here are the differences between traditional and snowflake outlining, with some comments about pros and cons.

Traditional outlining is more linear. It's simply a list of events in the order they occur. This can be awkward for planning parallel events in your storyline, subplots, and moving around in chronology (e.g., flashbacks.) Typically, traditional outlining works best for planning scenes in the order they will appear in your novel rather than a chronological description of your actual events. A traditional outline serves as a linear roadmap, helping the author stay on track during the writing process without including so much scene detail that it stifles creativity.

Snowflake outlining is two-dimensional. You start with a bare frame (beginning - climax - end) and branch out. This is more useful for planning subplots and events that run chronologically parallel or coincide. It also yields a much more detailed outline, because instead of a simple list, you write detailed descriptions of each scene, which is like writing a brief version of the novel itself. This has the potential to stifle creative spontaneity and get boring for the writer.

Here's how I think the Prep already loosely follows the Snowflake Method with its 5-revision outlining process:

We start with a bare frame - beginning, climax, end. We plot out how the protagonist gets from the beginning to the climax. We fill in more details on each iteration. What we haven't specifically included in the assignments is detailed subplotting instructions, though I suspect most participants have filled in those blanks on their own.

So now we've introduced the Snowflake Method as a tool to which some participants might find themselves partial, and remember that using it is completely optional. However, we've only pulled five steps of the Snowflake Method into our five Outline Revision assignments. What we left out is the character development steps that we cover in other exercises anyway, as you aptly point out, and the final detailed scene descriptions:

Outline #1: Write a provocative one-sentence description of your story. This is Step 1 of 10 in the Snowflake Method. In theory, this isn't much more than the premise itself, except that you start to think in terms of beginning-middle-end instead of just, something-happens-to-someone.

Outline #2: Expand your sentence to a paragraph. Include the beginning, conflicts/disasters (traditionally, three acts' worth including the climax), and end. This is Step 2 in the Snowflake Method.

We skip Step 3 (character development) because we do this in a separate assignment.
We skip Step 4 (text expansion) because we didn't have enough days for that many iterations.

Outline #3: Write a one-paragraph summary of each key character’s personal storyline. This is Step 5 in the Snowflake Method. While this reads in Ingermanson's instructions like more character development, we're really developing subplots around our characters. This is where our snowflake starts to branch out and proves itself useful.

Outline #4: Compile a synopsis of your story by expanding each sentence of your summary paragraph into its own full paragraph. All but the last paragraph (which describes the story ending) should close with a disaster. This is Step 6 of 10.

We skip Step 7 (more detailed character development) because we cover this in other assignments.

Outline #5: Using your synopsis, list the scenes needed to create your novel. Each scene should include the POV character and the action. This is Step 8. Ingermanson's instructions say to use a spreadsheet.

Step 9 is to write detailed descriptions of each scene. We left this out because it would take significantly longer than 15 minutes. Maybe we'll add this as a bonus assignment next year if we get requests. I personally feel like I'll be ready to just write the novel after five outline revisions, but, hey - to each his own!

Step 10 is to actually write the novel, which is obviously scheduled in November.

Regards,
Michelle