The Healer and the Pirate

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Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Writing Wednesday - Snowflake in Phoenix

No writing this week, but some planning. I'm slowly working on that snowflake for my new (OK, rewritten) novel. The idea behind the Snowflake Method is to start with a one-sentence description of the story, and work from there. My current step 1 of the snowflake says:

Brought to a world of magic, a high school girl battles the god who wants her for his priestess.

That's subject to change (i.e. get phrased better).

I have a paragraph-long summary of the plot (Step 2) and now I'm working on Step 3, which is where you explain the characters' storylines.

The Snowflake Method itself states that you should spend 1 hour on Step 1, 1 hour on Step 2, and then 1 hour for EACH character's storyline in Step 3. I spent over an hour on Step 1 (still not satisfied), and something in the ballpark of an hour on Step 2. But for Step 3, I just can't sit down and think about one character's story for a full hour, at least not since I already know 2/3 of the story quite well (it's just the last third that I'm really fuzzy on). For myself, I think it's better to run through that stage fairly quickly, and then double back once all the characters' stories are established. After all, I'm likely to come up with some ideas as I write each storyline, and what affects Bunfa may affect Kelar, and so forth.

The novel is young adult and was called "Chosen: Bonnie of Sheshack." Now I'm wondering if "Bonnie Greenfield, Priestess of Plants" might be better? Or maybe I just like the "P" noise since it sounds like "pirates...."

I also went to the VNSA Book Sale and got a (tiny) book on trees and an (equally tiny) book on flowers. I was born and raised in the desert so I know mesquites and palo verde and saguaros agave and ocotillo...but very, very little about plants that require larger amounts of water to survive.

So I'm (slowly) working!

AND, I ordered Charles Denson's Coney Island Lost and Found. I had a Groupon for Barnes and Noble, which I bought using the referral credit I got when my mom signed up. So my out-of-pocket cost, including tax, was less than $8. Not too bad! I'm hoping to eventually plot and write another novel with Maggie, set on, you guessed it, Coney Island.

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