10 Tricks To Motivate Yourself To Write–Right NOW 

Sep 2 by Ollin

Editor’s Note: the original version of this article was first posted on the C2C in

2010.

A writer’s love of writing does motivate us in the long-term, yes.

But the dirty little secret is that sometimes writers need a little kick

in the butt to get us motivated in the short-term, during the day-to-

day battles of the long-long-long drawn out war.

I’m not saying we can live without passion and love for our art. Yes,

love is a good solid base for our writing careers, but it is our

capacity to utilize tools for self-motivation that keeps us building on

that strong base.

We writers have to be REALLY good at motivating ourselves

because sometimes we’re the only ones around to

motivate… ourselves.

Here are several methods that I have found helpful:

1.  Reward Yourself For Trying

I don’t think any fiction writer writes to win awards or to make

money. Writing is no get-rich-quick career or an instant fame

booster. But that doesn’t mean you don’t deserve an award for your

day-to-day efforts. You do. Is no one else rewarding you? Then do it

yourself.

This might be embarrassing but usually a strategically placed red

velvet cupcake, or banana nut muffin, or double chocolate brownie

by my laptop will get me through to a whole night’s revision of a

passage in my book. Use whatever little goodie, or treat, or gift that

will get you through the day-to-day drudgery. It’s not a luxury if you

literally need it to get the writing done.

Rewarding yourself for trying also means not demanding that your

work be brilliant every day. It won’t be:  it will be awful most of the

time, but that’s ok.  You’re growing a tree, it’s as important to work

on the roots as it is to work on the bark and the branches. So if you

think you did a crummy job today, remind yourself:  “I’m still

working on the roots!”

2. Don’t Place A Goal On When You’ll Receive Your Worth

Please don’t say “when I publish this,” or “when my book sells this

many copies I will be a writer.” If you’re writing with a goal in

mind, then you’re already a writer, and if you’re trying your best,

then you’re a good writer. If you’re writing regularly, then you’re

showing up to work every day and that makes you a great writer. If

you place your worth in the future, then you’ll think your worthless

now. And I don’t have to tell you that feeling worthless is not fertile

ground for motivation.

3. Be Flexible With Your Writing Schedule

If something happens that’s out of your control don’t feel too guilty

about not writing that day. Guilt is one of those other emotions that

will kill motivation in a heartbeat.

4. Don’t Self-punish

If you constantly punish yourself for not writing or for not being as

good as Virginia Woolf already, then you’ll only fall into a hole of

self-loathing and despair that will evaporate all motivation. This

isn’t helping you or your book, so stop doing it. Be gentle with

yourself. Patience is important, so if you find yourself being

impatient with yourself, take a deep breath and quickly say: “Good

job, ____!  You’re doing it!”

Try also to see impatience like the yellow on a traffic light. When

you start getting impatient with yourself, get ready to stop

yourself before you start spiraling down the self-loathing hole.

Impatience is often a precursor to self-punishment, so stop way

before the red light hits.

5. Don’t Overwork Yourself

If you are an artist, it’s your job to play, no excuses. Now, there are

times when you might be inspired and will go on for hours and

hours with your creation, that’s not really workaholism. Usually

that’s a good thing, because you feel a boundless energy. But when

you start to feel a strain coming in, your eyelids closing, and that

shine from the screen is starting to hurt your eyes, and your brain

is all fuzzy and fried, then that’s when you’ve overworked yourself.

Overworking is no good because the motivation to work the next

day is taken from you. So, in the end, you actually end up getting

less done if you overwork than if you simply allowed yourself to

stop and play for a little bit.

6. Follow The Inspiration

Following the inspiration is difficult because that little pixie of

inspiration that makes writing effortless and brilliant is not

someone you can constantly count on. So, sometimes you set a

schedule to just move through what needs to get done, but then the

little pixie shows up, and even though you’ve scheduled yourself to

be working on Ch. 2, she says you need to work on Ch. 19, a

chapter you haven’t even begun yet. Just follow her. If you don’t,

you’ll be beating yourself up as you write on Ch.2, and you’ll end up

writing an awful draft that’ll just be tossed anyway. So why not

move forward?

7. Work Through Emotions

When we are highly emotional or under a lot stress these are the

most challenging moments to get motivated to write. After all, if

our boyfriend or girlfriend doesn’t love us, or our parents are

judging us, or our boss hates us, how can we possibly feel good

enough about ourselves to do what we love to do?

Now, generally writers and other artists get their greatest

inspiration from their pain and anguish, so in those cases making

the art is easy. But that’s not the situation I’m talking about. I’m

talking about when what you are planning to write either is not

congruent with your emotions or the emotion acts as a wall to your

creativity.

To work through these emotions, first write all of your emotions

down. Just listen to what your mind is ranting about and write it all

down, let it all out, everything. If you’re writing it on your laptop

then as soon as your done, trash that document. If you wrote it on a

piece of paper, throw that paper away or burn it if you’re into

dramatic displays.

For the moment at least, you’ll wash away that emotion and you

should be able to move forward with your work.

8. Avoid a “Me vs. The World” Strategy for Motivation 

You know this one. You motivate yourself by pitting yourself against

your greatest enemy. “If I write this then I’ll show so and so that he

was wrong and I’m not a talentless idiot who’d never make it

anywhere.” Or you pit yourself up against society, who never

thought a person from you background, your class, your country,

your race, your region, your gender, your sexuality would ever

make it, and so you work hard to prove themwrong.

This strategy seems to work to get you through the process, but

doesn’t provide much joy in the end. Because you set up your

motivation against the fall of an enemy, there’s never any closure

when you accomplish your goal. When you finally produce that play

or get that short story in the literary magazine, there is no anvil

that will automatically fall on the head of that second grade teacher

who said you couldn’t do it. In this motivational strategy there’s

simply no victory. Plus a lot of negative energy has been built up in

your body at your expense, and it often drains from you the

strength you need to move happily forward to your next project.

9. Instead Use a “Me Together With The World” Strategy for Motivation

Remind yourself that you are playing a necessary role in society

and, without you, a big part of what makes this world move forward

will be missing.

Think about the first time you decided to be a writer. Was it a book

that motivated you? Of course, right?  It’s only logic. Unless you

read something, you never would have imagined yourself as a

writer. If writing gives you joy now, then that means you owe great

deal of your personal happiness to other writers, the one–or many–

who inspired you.

Chances are you’ve used some idiom or quote during your life to

get you through a tough time. Was it: “Be the change you want to

see in the world,” or “To thine own self be true,” or “The bigger

they are the harder they fall,” or “You reap what you sow,” or “Do

unto others as you wish them to do unto you”? We’ve all used these

quotes to get us through snags in our life, and whose responsible

for those bits of inspiration? Writers are.

If you’re a writer you’re delusional if you think it’s you against the

world. That way of seeing things isn’t true at all. You are a vital

part of this world. Writers have moved mountains, they’ve changed

continents, they’ve set up governments and caused them to

collapse.

Money may make the world go round, but the only reason you know

that is because a writer told you it did. So whose more powerful?

Understanding how much you are vital to this world as a writer is a

powerful motivator. When we know we are not only useful but

necessary, we can write with greater ease.

10. Write

When you don’t feel motivated to write your poem, short story,

novel, then don’t write that. But, please do write. Write in your

journal, write on you blog, write on your notepad. It can be awful, it

can be brilliant. It doesn’t matter. Write in your head. Write

something that will remind you what motivates you so that you are

motivated to write, and maybe motivate others to do the same.

That’s what I did.

much love,

Ollin

Narrative Firstwhere story is always king

by Jim Hull

To Tell a Tale, To Craft a StoryWhat writer wants to be forgotten? To spend weeks, months, crafting a work of fiction only to have it become an afterthought in the minds of an audience mere moments after its completion? Devastating.

But to craft something with power, something with emotion, something that lives and breathes within the hearts and minds of audiences for years to come? Writers everywhere nod their heads in concert, That’s what I want for my work. The key to achieving this lasting effect rests in the understanding of the differences between a tale and a story.

The TaleA tale is a STATEMENT–a simple linear progression from one point to another. This happened, then this happened, then there was an outcome. A tale exists with no greater sense of its self, no greater purpose beyond a simple rehashing of events. Thoughtful explorations of thematic issues find little sanctuary within this form of fiction.But perhaps the most startling aspect of the tale, particularly within the context of motion pictures, is that it does not beg multiple viewings. Any additional screenings beyond the first become a painful process endured only by those with an affinity for the subject matter. 127 Hours captures audiences with its harrowing tale of mountain climber Aron Ralston (James Franco), but does anyone make the effort to watch it more than once? One could argue this apathy exists because of the film’s biographical nature, but then what about Amadeus or Hotel: Rwanda?The lack of motivation to watch a second time exists because 127 Hours doesn’t try to say anything. It doesn’t argue a position. The tale of what happened and how it happened becomes more important than the sum total of what happened. Entertainment supplants purpose. In short, it’s a tale.

And 127 Hours isn’t the only one–Taken, Coraline, Battle: LA, True Grit,Inglorious Basterds, 2012, Where the Wild Things Are, The Informant, Public Enemies–all tales with little to say. All works of fiction that are easily forgotten.

The StoryA story is an ARGUMENT–a carefully crafted exploration of thematic elements designed to argue that a particular approach solving problems is more or less appropriate than others. There is Purpose. There is Author’s Intent. There is something the writer is trying to say. Now, there are a whole host of obstacles and barriers that can lessen the effectiveness of this argument (well-meaning studio executives, faulty sound systems, distracted audience members), but the overriding difference between the two is that sense of purpose.In sharp contrast to the tale, a story compels subsequent viewings. This desire to see a film again and again exists because a story offers us something we can’t find in real life: meaning. As depressing as it may be to consider, real life has no meaning without some greater context within which to appreciate it. Stories–complete stories–provide that greater context.By offering an objective view into a story’s events and at the same time offering a subjective view

(through the Main Character), a story gives audience members an experience they can’t have on their own. This experience is why audience members return to a film over and over again. Star Wars, The Shawshank Redemption, The Lives of Others, The Godfather, The Apartment, The Sound of Music, Toy Story, Toy Story 2 (pretty much anything Pixar), The King’s Speech,The Dark Knight, Good Will Hunting, Chinatown–all stories with very much to say. All works of fiction that are not so easy to forget.

Short Stories and Short TalesEven a short story can be a “story.” While they can’t enjoy the luxury of time and space that their full two-hour cousin can, short stories can employ the same purpose of providing some greater meaning for their audience.

Scuffy the TugboatIn this classic Golden Book, Scuffy dreams of a bigger life far far away from his little toy shelf and far away from the man in the polka dot tie who owns him. Recognizing the toy’s need to stretch his sea legs, the man deposits the helpless toy in his bathtub. Of course, this isn’t enough for the tugboat and the man gives in, taking Scuffy out to the local river.

Scuffy takes the opportunity to break free of his oppressive master and sails down the babbling brook. Life, it turns out, presents more than simple adventure: there’s an owl, a scary rabbit, bridges, rain, sandbags and finally the open sea. Faced with the anxiety of the limitless wild blue before him, Scuffy wishes for some savior–and gets it. The man in the polka dot tie scoops him up and takes him back home. Safe and sound, Scuffy cheerfully gives up his big dreams for the comfort of the old man’s bathtub.

Sam and the FireflySam the Owl needs a friend. Every night he searches and every night he comes up empty-handed. Difficult to make a friend, especially when your status as a “night owl” finds you awake while others sleep.

In steps Gus, the firefly with a flair for mischief. Finally! Sam thinks and together the two flit through the night air, darting this way and that. Sam teaches Gus to write “Sam and Gus” in the the air, solidifying their relationship while at the same time providing the potential for trouble.Gus, driven by the desire to have fun no matter what the cost, takes his newfound skills and begins wreaking havoc on his community’s infrastructure. He tells cars to “Go Left” and “Go Right”, smashing them into each other. He tells

planes to “Go Up” and “Go Down”, crashing them into each other. In a strange reverse of progressive complications, he tells crowds they have access to a “Free Show”. And even stranger he changes a vendor’s sign to read “Cold Dogs” instead of “Hot”.

Sam fights him every step of the way, but Gus is one stubborn firefly. The further Gus goes in his maniacal jaunts, the further he drives a wedge between their floundering friendship.

The hot dog vendor snags Gus, secures him in a glass jar, and drives him out to the country, ostensibly to be shot. Sam follows closely behind, distraught at the prospect of losing his only friend. Alone in the jar, Gus experiences a moment of self-awareness, promising to change if he gets out of this. Fortunately for him, the vendor’s truck stalls out on a pair of train tracks.

Sam grabs the glass jar and smashes it, freeing Gus. Sam begs his little friend to do the right thing. Without hesitation, the firefly writes “Stop! Stop!” in front of train, saving the vendor and preventing any further destruction.

The two return home safely. Their community returns to a state of normalcy, but more importantly, their relationship survives intact.

Sam goes to sleep that morning content with the knowledge that when the sun sets once again, his friend will be there waiting for him.

Meaningful StorytellingOne of these books is a tale, the other a story. Can you tell which is which? The tale simply strings together a series of events that ends because there aren’t any more events to tell. The story argues there is a certain way to go about solving problems, one approach purposefully gives way for another.

Scuffy has a dream, follows it, gets scared shitless, yet before he can have the moment of self-awareness (that Leap of Faith moment everyone looks forward to), the old man steps in and makes the decision for him. A despicable deus ex machinathat basically makes the statement Hang around long enough and someone will come along and save you. Sounds like Tangled, doesn’t it? For that matter, it sounds like Saving Private Ryan, Toy Story 3, War of the Worlds or any other work of fiction that weakens any purposeful intent it had with mere happenstance.Contrast this with Sam and his buddy Gus. Two approaches: one driven by doing what is right, the other driven by doing what is most fun. The

two approaches battle it out until eventually, one gives way to the other. Gus changes his approach and the outcome that ensues happens because of that change. The events and choices that are made mean something.

Honoring the AudienceSuccessful authors use characters, plot, theme and genre to argue an approach to solving problems. Sam and the Firefly is no masterpiece, yet it works far better than the insidious Scuffy the Tugboat because it endeavors to say something meaningful. It doesn’t rely on chance to save the day. It doesn’t disrespect the audience.By crafting an argument, authors respect the time and attention granted to them by an audience. Viewers and readers alike want that experience they can’t find on their own. Stories satisfy that need. Tales do not.

Writers who crave everlasting life for their work would do well to follow through on that promise to deliver something special. Deliver a story and the audience will respond in kind.

The Snowflake Method For Designing A Novel

Writing a novel is easy. Writing a good novel is hard. That’s just life. If it were easy, we’d all be writing best-selling, prize-winning fiction.Frankly, there are a thousand different people out there who can tell you how to write a novel. There are a thousand different methods. The best one for you is the one that works for you.

In this article, I’d like to share with you what works for me. I’ve published six novels and won about a dozen awards for my writing. I teach the craft of writing fiction at writing conferences all the time. One of my most popular lectures is this one: How to write a novel using what I call the “Snowflake Method.”This page is the most popular one on my web site, and gets over a thousand page views per day, so you can guess that a lot of people find it useful. But you may not, and that’s fine by me. Look it over, decide what might work for you, and ignore the rest! If it makes you puke, I won’t be insulted. Different writers are different. If my methods get you rolling, I’ll be happy. I’ll make the best case I can for my way of organizing things, but you are the final judge of what works best for you. Have fun and . . . write your novel!

The Importance of DesignGood fiction doesn’t just happen, it is designed. You can do the design work before or after you write your novel. I’ve done it both ways and I strongly believe that doing it first is quicker and leads to a better result. Design is hard work, so it’s important to find a guiding principle early on. This article will give you a powerful metaphor to guide your design.Our fundamental question is this: How do you design a novel?For a number of years, I was a software architect designing large software projects. I write novels the same way I write software, using the “snowflake metaphor”. OK, what’s the snowflake metaphor? Before you go further, take a look at this cool web site.

At the top of the page, you’ll see a cute pattern known as a snowflake fractal. Don’t tell anyone, but this is an important mathematical object that’s been widely studied. For our purposes, it’s just a cool sketch of a snowflake. If you scroll down that same web page a little, you’ll see a box with a large triangle in it and arrows underneath. If you press the right-arrow button repeatedly, you’ll see the steps used to create the snowflake. It doesn’t look much like a snowflake at first, but after a few steps, it starts looking more and more like one, until it’s done.

The first few steps look like this:

 

 

 

I claim that that’s how you design a novel – you start small, then build stuff up until it looks like a story. Part of this is creative work, and I can’t teach you how to do that. Not here, anyway. But part of the work is just managing your creativity — getting it organized into a well-structured novel. That’s what I’d like to teach you here.If you’re like most people, you spend a long time thinking about your novel before you ever start writing. You may do some research. You daydream about how the story’s going to work. You brainstorm. You start hearing the voices of different characters. You think about what the book’s about — the Deep Theme. This is an essential part of every book which I call “composting”. It’s an informal process and every writer does it differently. I’m going to assume that you know how to compost your story ideas and that you have already got a novel well-composted in your mind and that you’re ready to sit down and start writing that novel.

The Ten Steps of DesignBut before you start writing, you need to get organized. You need to put all those wonderful ideas down on paper in a form you can use. Why? Because your memory is fallible, and your creativity has probably left a lot of holes in your story — holes you need to fill in before you start writing your novel. You need a design document. And you need to produce it using a process that doesn’t kill your desire to actually write the story. Here is my ten-step process for writing a design document. I use this process for writing my novels, and I hope it will help you.Step 1) Take an hour and write a one-sentence summary of your novel. Something like this: “A rogue physicist travels back in time to kill the apostle Paul.” (This is the summary for my first novel, Transgression.) The sentence will serve you forever as a ten-second selling tool. This is the big picture, the analog of that big starting triangle in the snowflake picture.When you later write your book proposal, this sentence should appear very early in the proposal. It’s the hook that will sell your

book to your editor, to your committee, to the sales force, to bookstore owners, and ultimately to readers. So make the best one you can!

Some hints on what makes a good sentence:

Shorter is better. Try for fewer than 15 words.

No character names, please! Better to say “a

handicapped trapeze artist” than “Jane Doe”.

Tie together the big picture and the personal picture.

Which character has the most to lose in this story? Now

tell me what he or she wants to win.

Read the one-line blurbs on the New York Times

Bestseller list to learn how to do this. Writing a one-

sentence description is an art form.

Step 2) Take another hour and expand that sentence to a full paragraph describing the story setup, major disasters, and ending of the novel. This is the analog of the second stage of the snowflake. I like to structure a story as “three disasters plus an ending”. Each of the disasters takes a quarter of the book to develop and the ending takes the final quarter. I don’t know if this is the ideal structure, it’s just my personal taste.If you believe in the Three-Act structure, then the first disaster corresponds to the end of Act 1. The second disaster is the mid-point of Act 2. The third disaster is the end of Act 2, and forces Act 3 which wraps things up. It is OK to have the first disaster be caused by external circumstances, but I think that the second and third disasters should be caused by the protagonist’s attempts to “fix things”. Things just get worse and worse.

You can also use this paragraph in your proposal. Ideally, your paragraph will have about five sentences. One sentence to give me the backdrop and story setup. Then one sentence each for your three disasters. Then one more sentence to tell the ending. Don’t confuse this paragraph with the back-cover copy for your book. This paragraph summarizes the whole story. Your back-cover copy should summarize only about the first quarter of the story.

Step 3) The above gives you a high-level view of your novel. Now you need something similar for the storylines of each of your characters. Characters are the most important part of any novel, and the time you invest in designing them up front will pay off ten-fold when you start writing. For each of your major characters, take an hour and write a one-page summary sheet that tells:

The character’s name

A one-sentence summary of the character’s storyline

The character’s motivation (what does he/she want

abstractly?)

The character’s goal (what does he/she want

concretely?)

The character’s conflict (what prevents him/her from

reaching this goal?)

The character’s epiphany (what will he/she learn, how

will he/she change?

A one-paragraph summary of the character’s storyline

An important point: You may find that you need to go back and revise your one-sentence summary and/or your one-paragraph summary. Go ahead! This is good–it means your characters are teaching you things about your story. It’s always okay at any stage of the design process to go back and revise earlier stages. In fact, it’s not just okay–it’s inevitable. And it’s good. Any revisions you make now are revisions you won’t need to make later on to a clunky 400 page manuscript.Another important point: It doesn’t have to be perfect. The purpose of each step in the design process is to advance you to the next step. Keep your forward momentum! You can always come back later and fix it when you understand the story better. You will do this too, unless you’re a lot smarter than I am.Step 4) By this stage, you should have a good idea of the large-scale structure of your novel, and you have only spent a day or two. Well, truthfully, you may have spent as much as a week, but it doesn’t matter. If the story is broken, you know it now, rather than after investing 500 hours in a rambling first draft. So now just keep growing the story. Take several hours and expand each sentence of your summary paragraph into a full paragraph. All but the last paragraph should end in a disaster. The final paragraph should tell how the book ends.This is a lot of fun, and at the end of the exercise, you have a pretty decent one-page skeleton of your novel. It’s okay if you can’t get it all onto one single-spaced page. What matters is that you are growing the ideas that will go into your story. You are expanding the conflict. You should now have a synopsis suitable for a proposal, although there is a better alternative for proposals . . .

Step 5) Take a day or two and write up a one-page description of each major character and a half-page description of the other important characters. These “character synopses” should tell the story from the point of view of each character. As always, feel free to cycle back to the earlier steps and make revisions as you learn

cool stuff about your characters. I usually enjoy this step the most and lately, I have been putting the resulting “character synopses” into my proposals instead of a plot-based synopsis. Editors love character synopses, because editors love character-based fiction.Step 6) By now, you have a solid story and several story-threads, one for each character. Now take a week and expand the one-page plot synopsis of the novel to a four-page synopsis. Basically, you will again be expanding each paragraph from step (4) into a full page. This is a lot of fun, because you are figuring out the high-level logic of the story and making strategic decisions. Here, you will definitely want to cycle back and fix things in the earlier steps as you gain insight into the story and new ideas whack you in the face.Step 7) Take another week and expand your character descriptions into full-fledged character charts detailing everything there is to know about each character. The standard stuff such as birthdate, description, history, motivation, goal, etc. Most importantly, how will this character change by the end of the novel? This is an expansion of your work in step (3), and it will teach you a lot about your characters. You will probably go back and revise steps (1-6) as your characters become “real” to you and begin making petulant demands on the story. This is good — great fiction is character-driven. Take as much time as you need to do this, because you’re just saving time downstream. When you have finished this process, (and it may take a full month of solid effort to get here), you have most of what you need to write a proposal. If you are a published novelist, then you can write a proposal now and sell your novel before you write it. If you’re not yet published, then you’ll need to write your entire novel first before you can sell it. No, that’s not fair, but life isn’t fair and the world of fiction writing is especially unfair.Step 8) You may or may not take a hiatus here, waiting for the book to sell. At some point, you’ve got to actually write the novel. Before you do that, there are a couple of things you can do to make that traumatic first draft easier. The first thing to do is to

take that four-page synopsis and make a list of all the scenes that you’ll need to turn the story into a novel. And the easiest way to make that list is . . . with a spreadsheet.For some reason, this is scary to a lot of writers. Oh the horror. Deal with it. You learned to use a word-processor. Spreadsheets are easier. You need to make a list of scenes, and spreadsheets were invented for making lists. If you need some tutoring, buy a book. There are a thousand out there, and one of them will work for you. It should take you less than a day to learn the itty bit you need. It’ll be the most valuable day you ever spent. Do it.

Make a spreadsheet detailing the scenes that emerge from your four-page plot outline. Make just one line for each scene. In one column, list the POV character. In another (wide) column, tell what happens. If you want to get fancy, add more columns that tell you how many pages you expect to write for the scene. A spreadsheet is ideal, because you can see the whole storyline at a glance, and it’s easy to move scenes around to reorder things.

My spreadsheets usually wind up being over 100 lines long, one line for each scene of the novel. As I develop the story, I make new versions of my story spreadsheet. This is incredibly valuable for analyzing a story. It can take a week to make a good spreadsheet. When you are done, you can add a new column for chapter numbers and assign a chapter to each scene.

Step 9) (Optional. I don’t do this step anymore.) Switch back to your word processor and begin writing a narrative description of the story. Take each line of the spreadsheet and expand it to a multi-paragraph description of the scene. Put in any cool lines of dialogue you think of, and sketch out the essential conflict of that scene. If there’s no conflict, you’ll know it here and you should either add conflict or scrub the scene.I used to write either one or two pages per chapter, and I started each chapter on a new page. Then I just printed it all out and put it in a loose-leaf notebook, so I could easily swap chapters around

later or revise chapters without messing up the others. This process usually took me a week and the end result was a massive 50-page printed document that I would revise in red ink as I wrote the first draft. All my good ideas when I woke up in the morning got hand-written in the margins of this document. This, by the way, is a rather painless way of writing that dreaded detailed synopsis that all writers seem to hate. But it’s actually fun to develop, if you have done steps (1) through (8) first. When I did this step, I never showed this synopsis to anyone, least of all to an editor — it was for me alone. I liked to think of it as the prototype first draft. Imagine writing a first draft in a week! Yes, you can do it and it’s well worth the time. But I’ll be honest, I don’t feel like I need this step anymore, so I don’t do it now.

Step 10) At this point, just sit down and start pounding out the real first draft of the novel. You will be astounded at how fast the story flies out of your fingers at this stage. I have seen writers triple their fiction writing speed overnight, while producing better quality first drafts than they usually produce on a third draft.You might think that all the creativity is chewed out of the story by this time. Well, no, not unless you overdid your analysis when you wrote your Snowflake. This is supposed to be the fun part, because there are many small-scale logic problems to work out here. How does Hero get out of that tree surrounded by alligators and rescue Heroine who’s in the burning rowboat? This is the time to figure it out! But it’s fun because you already know that the large-scale structure of the novel works. So you only have to solve a limited set of problems, and so you can write relatively fast.

This stage is incredibly fun and exciting. I have heard many fiction writers complain about how hard the first draft is. Invariably, that’s because they have no clue what’s coming next. Good grief! Life is too short to write like that! There is no reason to spend 500 hours writing a wandering first draft of your novel when you can write a

solid one in 150. Counting the 100 hours it takes to do the design documents, you come out way ahead in time.

About midway through a first draft, I usually take a breather and fix all the broken parts of my design documents. Yes, the design documents are not perfect. That’s okay. The design documents are not fixed in concrete, they are a living set of documents that grows as you develop your novel. If you are doing your job right, at the end of the first draft you will laugh at what an amateurish piece of junk your original design documents were. And you’ll be thrilled at how deep your story has become.

Over the years, I’ve taught the Snowflake method to hundreds of writers at conferences. I’ve also had this article posted here on my web site for a long time, and the page has now been viewed over 2,400,000 times. I’ve heard from many, many writers. Some people love the Snowflake; some don’t. My attitude is that if it works for you, then use it. If only parts of it work for you, then use only those parts.I write my own novels using the Snowflake method. Make no mistake — it’s a fair bit of work. For a long time, I did it the hard way, using Microsoft Word to write the text and Microsoft Excel to manage the list of scenes. Unfortunately, neither of those tools knows about the structure of fiction. Finally, I realized that it would be a whole lot easier to work through the method if the tools were designed specially for fiction.

So one day I decided to create that software. I wanted something that would automate every step that could be automated. The result was a commercial software package I call   Snowflake Pro . It makes my own Snowflaking incredibly easier, and it’s now doing the same for zillions of other writers.

Snowflake Pro makes the Snowflake method fast, easy, and fun. It runs on Macs, Windows, and Linux. Currently, I’m running a $pecial promotion that gives a 50% discount on this cool and fun tool for anyone who owns a copy of my book Writing Fiction for Dummies. 

Learn more about Snowflake Pro

 

Ways To Use The SnowflakeAre you struggling right now with a horrible first draft of your novel that just seems hopeless? Take an hour and summarize your story in one sentence. Does that clarify things? You’ve just completed step (1) of the Snowflake, and it only took an hour. Why not try the next few steps of the Snowflake and see if your story doesn’t suddenly start coming to life? What have you got to lose, except a horrible first draft that you already hate?Are you a seat-of-the-pants writer who finally finished your novel, but now you’re staring at an enormous pile of manuscript that desperately needs rewriting? Take heart! Your novel’s done, isn’t it? You’ve done something many writers only dream about. Now imagine a big-shot editor bumps into you in the elevator and asks what your novel’s about. In fifteen words or less, what would you say? Take your time! This is a thought game. What would you

say? If you can come up with an answer in the next hour . . . you’ve just completed Step 1 of the Snowflake! Do you think some of the other steps might help you put some order into that manuscript? Give it a shot. What have you got to lose?Have you just got a nightmarishly long letter from your editor detailing all the things that are wrong with your novel? Are you wondering how you can possibly make all the changes before your impossible deadline? It’s never too late to do the Snowflake. How about if you take a week and drill through all the steps right now? It’ll clarify things wonderfully, and then you’ll have a plan for executing all those revisions. I bet you’ll get it done in record time. And I bet the book will come out better than you imagined.If the Snowflake Method works for you, I’d like to hear from you. You can reach me through the contact page on my web-site.Acknowledgments: I thank my many friends on the Chi Libris list and especially Janelle Schneider for a large number of discussions on the Snowflake and much else.Best regards,

How to Write a Short StorySample Short Story Writing a Short Story Editing a Short Story Edited by Acebrock, Ben Rubenstein, Waited, Sondra C and 237 others

For many writers the short story is the perfect medium. While writing a novel can be a

Herculean task, just about anybody can craft — and, most importantly, finish — a short

story. That does not mean that short stories are easy to write, or that they aren't as

artistic and valuable as novels. With practice, patience, and imagination, you could be

the next best-selling author.

Sample Short Story

Sample Short Horror Story

Sample Short Literary Story

Sample Short Love Story

Part 1 of 2: Writing a Short Story

1.

1Collect ideas for your story. Inspiration can strike at any time, so carry a notepad with

you wherever you go so that you can write down story ideas as they come to you.

Most of the time, you’ll just think of small snippets of information (a catastrophic event

around which you can build a plot, a character’s name or appearance, etc.), but

sometimes you’ll get lucky and a whole story will reveal itself to you in a couple of

minutes.

If you have trouble finding inspiration, or if you need to write a story in a hurry (for a

class, for example), learn how to brainstorm, or if you can't come up with any ideas, you

might have to look to family and friends for inspiration.

Experience usually helps to build good plots. Many of Isaac Asimov's mysteries came

from experience of certain incidents.

2. 2

Begin with the basics of a short story. After you've chosen an idea, you need to

remember the basics of a short story before writing one. The steps to a good short story

are:

Introduction: introduces characters, setting, time, weather, etc.

Initiating action: the point of a story that starts the rising action.

Rising action: events leading up to the climax or turning point.

Climax: the most intense point or turning point of the story.

Falling action: your story begins to conclude.

Resolution: a satisfying ending to the story in which the central conflict is resolved—or

not! You don't have to write your short story in order. If you have an idea for a great

conclusion, write it down. Move backward or forward from your starting idea (it may or

may not be the beginning of the story), and ask “What happens next?” or “What

happened before this?”

3.

3Find inspiration from real people. If you have trouble understanding or finding

attributes of a character, turn to your life. You can easily borrow attributes of people you

know or even strangers you notice.

For example, you might notice that someone is always drinking coffee, talks in a loud,

booming voice, is always typing away at the computer, etc. All of these observations

would together make a very interesting character. Your character can even blend

attributes of a number of people.

4.

4Know your characters. For a story to be believable, the characters have to feel

genuine and realistic. It can be a difficult task to create interesting and realistic

characters. But here are a few strategies to create "real people" to populate your story:

Write a list, titled with the character's name, and write all the attributes you can think of,

from their position in the orchestra to their favorite color, from their central motivations to

their favorite foods. Do they talk with an accent? Do they have any quirky mannerisms?

You won’t include all this information in your story, but the more you know, the more

your characters will come to life, both for you and for the reader.

Make sure your characters' personalities are not perfect. Every character needs to have

some flaws, some problems, some imperfections and some insecurities. You might

assume that people wouldn't like to read about a character with a lot of flaws, but that

couldn't be farther from the truth. Batman wouldn't be The Dark Knight if he weren't a

borderline sociopath!

People can relate to characters with problems, as that's realistic. When trying to come

up with flaws, you don't need to give your character some huge, bizarre issue (although

you definitely can). For most characters, try to stick with things you know about. For

example, the character could have anger issues, be afraid of water, be lonely, dislike

being around other people, smoke too much, etc. Any or all of these could be developed

further.

5. 5

Limit the breadth of your story. A novel can occur over millions of years and include a

multitude of subplots, a variety of locations, and an army of supporting characters. The

main events of a short story should occur in a relatively short period of time (days or

even minutes), and you typically won’t be able to develop effectively more than one plot,

two or three main characters, and one setting. If your story has much more breadth, it

probably needs to be a novella or novel.

6.

6Decide who will tell the story. There are three main points of view from which to tell a

story: first-person (“I”), second-person (“you”), and third-person (“he” or “she”). In a first-

person story, a character in the story tells the story; in the second-person the reader is

made a character in the story; and in the third-person, an outside narrator tells the story.

(Second-person narration is rarely used.)

Keep in mind that first-person narrators can only tell what they know (which will be

limited to what they see firsthand or are told by others), while third-person narrators can

either know everything and explore every character’s thoughts, or be limited to only that

which can be observed.

You can also mix and match. For example, you could switch between a first-person

narrative in one chapter, and third-person in another, or even have more than one first-

person point of view. An excellent example of this is the short story "Rashōmon", by

Akutagawa Ryunosuke[1]. This was later turned into a movie of the same name by Akira

Kurosawa.

7. 7

Organize your thoughts. After you've prepared the basic elements of your story, it can

be helpful to make some sort of time-line to help you decide what should happen when.

Your story should consist at least of an introduction, initiating incident, rising action,

climax, falling action, and resolution. You can draw or write a visual with very simple

descriptions of what should happen in each of these stages. Having this done will help

you keep focused when writing the story, and you can easily make changes to it, so that

you are able to keep a steady flow as you write the full story.

8.

8Start writing. Depending on how thoroughly you’ve sketched out your plot and

characters, the actual writing process may simply be one of choosing the right words.

Generally, however, writing is arduous. You probably won’t know your characters and

plot as well as you thought, but it doesn’t matter—in a sense, they will tell you what they

need, even if you paint them into a corner. Plus, there's always the second draft!

9.

9Come out swinging. The first page—some would say the first sentence—of any writing

should grab the reader’s attention and leave him/her wanting more.

A quick start is especially important in short stories because you don’t have much room

to tell your story. Don’t dillydally with long introductions of the characters or

uninteresting descriptions of the setting: get right into the plot, and reveal details about

the characters and setting piece-by-piece as you go along.

10. 10

Keep writing. You’re almost certain to hit some bumps in the road to finishing your

story. You’ve got to work through them, though. Set aside a time to write each and

every day, and make it a goal to finish, say, a page each day. Even if you end up

throwing away what you wrote on that day, you’ve been writing and thinking about the

story, and that will keep you going in the long run.

Consider participating in writing groups or activities. One very good activity for writers of

all kinds is "National Novel Writing Month," or NaNoWriMo.[2] Every year, from

November 1 through November 30th, you are tasked with writing a novel of at least

50,000 words. Brilliance and quality are off the table—the goal is the act of writing.

Check out the reference link for more information.

11. 11

Let the story write itself. As you develop your story, you may want to turn your plot in

a different direction than you had planned, or you may want to substantially change or

remove a character. Listen to your characters if they tell you to do something different,

and don’t worry about scrapping your plans altogether if you can make a better story as

you go.

Part 2 of 2: Editing a Short Story

1.

1Revise and edit. When you’ve finished the story, go back through it and correct any

mechanical mistakes, as well as logical and semantic errors. In general, make sure the

story flows and the characters and their problems are introduced and resolved

appropriately.

If you have time, put the completed story down for a few days or weeks before editing.

Distancing yourself from the story in this way will help you see it more clearly when you

pick it back up.

2. 2

Get some second opinions. Send your revised and edited story off to a trusted friend

or relative for revisions, edits, and suggestions. Let your reviewers know that you want

to hear their real opinions of the story. Give them time to read it and think about it, and

give them a copy that they can write on.

Make sure you consider everything that your reviewers tell you—not just the parts you

would like to hear. Thank your reviewers for reading your story, and don’t argue with

them.

Incorporate whatever edits, revisions, and suggestions you feel are valid. Your writing

will be better if you can carefully consider constructive criticism, but you don’t have to

follow all the advice you get. Some of the suggestions may not be very good. It’s your

story, and you need to make the final call!

3.

3Don't give up. It may be frustrating if you're having trouble writing. You can run out of

steam, get angry at characters, and feel sad—or even a little guilty—when a beloved

character dies or is killed.

Just know that you will, in all probability, doubt your own writing skills at some point.

This is totally normal. You'll feel it's not worth continuing, and that you should give up

and become a waiter in a dive café. When these thoughts arise, they can easily take

over and make you quit then and there.

One of the hardest tasks as a writer is to learn to squash those feelings and continue

writing. When you begin to have these doubtful feelings, or get tired or bored, stop

writing! You can get up, take a walk, get a snack, watch TV, or anything to relax. When

you return, do so with a fresh mind. You may still not want to write, but tell yourself a

few good things about your story—anything about it, from one good passage you wrote,

to a well-thought out dialogue, to an interesting character—and congratulate yourself.

You're doing something most people can't do.

If someone else knows about your story and has read it, they can also be a good source

of encouragement. Just tell yourself that you will finish this story because you want to. It

doesn't matter if the story isn't the best ever written—there will be others. If you have a

goal to finish it, that's what you'll do.

4.

4Read! Nothing can help you learn how to write a good short story better

than readinggood short stories. Note the style and how the author uses brevity to their

advantage.

Reading a variety of authors and styles will help you learn how to adopt different

"voices" for each story you write, and broaden your creative palette. Pay attention to

how the authors develop their characters, write dialogue, and structure their plots. Here

are some suggestions:

"I, Robot", by Issac Asimov.

"Steps", by Jerzy Kosinski.

"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", by Mark Twain.

"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", by James Thurber.

"A Sound of Thunder", by Ray Bradbury.

"Three Questions", by Leo Tolstoy

"Brokeback Mountain", by Annie Proulx

"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", by Philip K. Dick.

Note: many of these short stories have been turned into successful films, or have

become familiar cultural references. For example, "A Sound of Thunder", the most re-

published sci-fi short story of all time, introduces us to the "butterfly effect." Philip K.

Dick's stories have given us Blade Runner ("Do Androids Dream of Electric

Sheep"), Total Recall ("We Can Remember It for You Wholesale"),Minority

Report ("Minority Report"), A Scanner Darkly ("A Scanner Darkly"), and many others. It

is important to have all these elements in order so you can have a head start of ideas to

work with.