Created by Randy Ingermanson - "the Snowflake Guy"
America's Mad Professor of Fiction Writing

Advanced Fiction Writing Blog

This is a Really Bad Idea, But…

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in Fiction Writing

Writer’s block is real, but there’s a way to fix it. You can break it in about ten minutes, or fifteen if you’re a slow typist. I’m making one assumption here, but I think the assumption is correct. 

I’m assuming that if you have writer’s block, it’s because you’re afraid of something. Maybe you’re afraid the scene you’re working on won’t go anywhere. Or that it will go somewhere, but it’s the wrong direction. Or worst of all, that it will just be a bad idea.

If fear is the cause of your writer’s block, then try this. 

Write yourself a really long sentence (like maybe a 500-word sentence). Make it the worst sentence ever. In fact, begin the sentence with the words, “This is a really bad idea, but I’m going to write a scene in which _____________”

Now fill in that blank with a really bad idea. Something extremely stupid. Something that could never happen. And just keep rolling. Type as fast as you can. You have literally nothing to lose, because you already acknowledged it’s a bad idea. Just keep going, and make it ridiculous. Make it absurd. Don’t end the sentence. Instead of typing a period, type a comma, followed by the word “and” or “but” or “so” or whatever crazy fool thing comes into your head. 

Then What Do You Do?

When you’ve finished that horrible, crazy, stupid sentence, stop for a minute. Look at the thing. And see if it gives you a better idea. It probably will. Nothing jogs ideas like writing. The very act of writing gets your creative juices flowing, leading to more ideas. And those ideas will almost certainly be better than the one you started with, because you intentionally started with a bad idea, so you have nowhere to go but up.

Now pick one of those ideas and run with it. If you’re not sure it’s a good idea, start out with the words, “This is probably not such a great idea, but I’m going to write a scene in which __________.”

Now fill in that blank and write yourself a scene. Even if it starts out not great, it will probably get better as you go along. Write that scene in a blind fury. Don’t stop to fix your spelling. You can edit the beast tomorrow. Or you can throw it away tomorrow if it’s really not any good. But it will probably be something decent. And once you have something decent, you can always improve on it.

It’s just a law of nature. Bad ideas lead to good ideas. Bad writing leads to good writing. 

Try it and see. I think you’ll find that this is a really good idea.

Your Secret Weapon–Character Synopses

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in Proposals

If there’s one step in my wildly popular Snowflake Method that hardly anyone seems to care about, it’s Step 5—Character Synopses. I find this odd, because this step has been my secret weapon for the last thirty years in writing winning book proposals. 

No kidding. Character synopses are the one thing that can turn a really good proposal into an “oh-my-gosh-I-can’t-possibly-reject-this” proposal. 

You might be thinking that synopses are boring, and you’re right if you mean plot synopses. Every novel proposal ever written contains a very boring plot synopsis. It’s typically around 2 pages, single-spaced, which adds up to about 1000 words of pure torture. I have never read a single plot synopsis that made me want to read the novel. Ever. 

But a character synopsis is not a plot synopsis. This ought to be obvious, but since so many people confuse the two, I might as well explain the difference.

Plot Synopses versus Character Synopses

A plot synopsis covers the main events in your novel. It’s supposed to sketch out the storyline of the whole 100,000 word novel, so it races along from one “exciting” event to the next. Fiery car crashes or sizzling bed-rumpling scenes or terrifying zombalypses, or whatever it is that makes your story exciting.

And the problem with all these sizzling events is that the reader doesn’t care about them. Nobody cares about a car crash until they know that driver in the car. Nobody cares about thunderbolts in the bedroom until they know that naked person in the bed. And a plot synopsis can’t give you that. So you read the synopsis and you don’t care. Because you can’t. 

A character synopsis focuses on one of the major characters in your novel. What does she want? What does he desperately need? What do they obsess about when they wake up at 3 AM and can’t get back to sleep because of __________? When you fill in that blank, you know what makes your character tick. And so does the person reading your character synopsis. 

But a great novel proposal doesn’t contain just one character synopsis. It contains several. And here’s the secret sauce that puts the fire in your editor’s pants—a great novel proposal chains together several character synopses, one for each of the major characters. One synopsis may focus on the early part of the story. The next may focus on the middle part. The next may focus on the ending. When you do that, you tell the whole story, but it now feels character-oriented, rather than plot-oriented. And editors love characters. 

One last secret, and then I’ll illustrate all this with an example. The secret is this—you’re allowed to tell stuff in your character synopses that may not actually be in the novel. It might tell what happened before the story begins. It might tell what happens after the story ends, or at least hint at it. 

But enough theory. An example is worth a thousand words. Actually, this example will probably end up being a thousand words, so maybe you’ll decide it’s worth a million words. I’m going to give you three character synopses for the novel The Hunger Games. If you’re one of the few people on the planet who hasn’t read the book, then spoiler alert—there will be a lot of spoilers here. So go read the book first. It’s brilliant. 

I’ll chain together character synopses for three of the major characters in The Hunger Games. Peeta’s synopsis will focus on the beginning of the story. Katniss’s will focus on the middle. And Haymitch’s will focus on the ending. I could have done them in any order, but this is the one I chose after thinking about it for five seconds.

Peeta Mellark

Peeta Mellark has a problem. He’s in love with a girl who barely knows he exists. Peeta lives in a grimy town in District 12. He’s the baker’s son, so he actually has almost enough to eat, unlike most people in his District. The girl he’s been in love with since the age of 5 is not so lucky. Her father’s dead, and her’s mother’s pretty useless, so her family ought to have starved to death long ago. But Katniss Everdeen is one amazing girl who illegally hunts and forages in the forest to put food on the table. 

Then the unthinkable happens. Katniss’s younger sister’s name is drawn to go as a “tribute” to the Hunger Games. Katniss volunteers to take her place, saving her sister from certain death in the Arena. Peeta knows Katniss is tough, but there will be 23 other tributes in the Hunger Games, and only one will get out alive. Peeta would willingly die to get Katniss out of the Games, but that’s just not possible. A boy can’t volunteer to replace a girl. 

Moments later, Peeta’s name is drawn as the second tribute from District 12. Now Peeta’s in shock. He’s a big, strong guy, but he has absolutely no killer instinct. When push comes to shove in the Arena, he’s going to be killed by one of the brutes from District 1, or District 2, or District 4. Those kids are trained killers who actually volunteer for the honor of competing in the Hunger Games. Peeta knows he will never live to see his 18th birthday. 

But there’s one thing he can do to make this thing better. He can never make it good, because there isn’t any good way out of the crucible. But he can make it less horrible.

Peeta Mellark is going to be the guardian angel for Katniss in the Arena. She won’t know it. Not while she’s in the Arena. Not until it’s too late. But after he’s dead, after the Games are over, when they show the whole gory replay on TV, Katniss will know that Peeta Mellark loved her and gave his life to save hers. And that will make Peeta’s death bearable. 

Katniss Everdeen

Katniss Everdeen cannot believe she’s going to the Hunger Games. She was crazy to volunteer to save her sister, but of course, she had to. Her sister wouldn’t last ten seconds in the Arena. Whereas Katniss knows she has a tiny little chance. She knows about edible plants, enough to live off the land for a few days or weeks. And she can shoot pretty well. If she can get hold of a bow and arrows in the Arena, she could even defend herself. But that’s a long-shot, and her best bet is to run and hide and let the other tributes kill each other. 

But then, in the pre-Game interviews, the other tribute from District 12 blurts out a “secret” that makes it all a thousand times worse. Peeta Mellark claims he’s in love with Katniss. The TV people eat up that kind of thing, but Katniss knows perfectly well it’s all a sham. First chance Peeta gets in the Arena, he’ll put a knife in her belly. From here on, Peeta is her most hated enemy. 

To make things worse, the mentor for District 12 is a weird old drunk, Haymitch Abernathy. He once won a Hunger Games, decades ago, so it’s his job to coach Katniss and Peeta. But Haymitch is worse than useless. Katniss has no choice but to kiss up to him, because his job during the Games will be to find sponsors who can send in gifts. Food at the right time, or medicine from a sponsor—those could be life and death. But Katniss hates Haymitch for his surly incompetence. 

When the Games begin, Katniss fails to get a bow. She grabs a knife and a few odd supplies and then runs for her life. Within minutes, a number of tributes are dead, but by that time, Katniss is far away, running deep into the forest, looking for a safe hideout. Soon enough, she learns the awful truth. Peeta has teamed up with the killer tributes from Districts 1 and 2 and 4. Together, they’re scouring the Arena, killing off the weak. And they’ve taken Peeta onto their team specifically because “lover boy” has promised to deliver them Katniss. 

Katniss is enraged. She’ll have Peeta’s head on a platter. But first, she needs to attack the killer tributes and get the precious bow and arrows that one of them is using so poorly. Fat chance of that. Late one evening, they get her cornered high in a tree. Tomorrow morning, they’re going to take her out, and there’s not a thing she can do to save herself. 

Haymitch Abernathy

Haymitch Abernathy’s life has been hell ever since he won the Hunger Games 24 years ago. He still lives with the guilt and self-hatred that is natural for any victor with a soul. He drowns his shame in alcohol, but a bottle only lasts so long. Haymitch’s problem is that he has no killer instinct—he won the Games because he has survivor instinct, a very different thing. And Haymitch sees in Katniss a kindred spirit. She’s a survivor, that one. Peeta, not so much. Peeta’s going to be dogmeat in the Arena.

Haymitch desperately wants Katniss to win. And if he has to use Peeta to make that happen, it’s not his fault there can only be one winner. To help Katniss win, Haymitch needs to make her a TV audience favorite. That’s the surest way to loosen up the wallet of the wealthy sponsors. But Katniss is not the most likable person, whereas Peeta is. So Haymitch’s strategy is to get the audience to like Peeta, and then get Peeta to say he’s in love with Katniss. Everyone loves a lover, right? Peeta’s going to be Haymitch’s patsy to save Katniss. And the horrible thing is that Peeta’s sincere. The dumb kid really is in love with Katniss, and he’ll do anything to save her. 

And it works, sorta, kinda. Once the Games begin, Peeta pretends to team up with the killers. When they corner Katniss in a tree, she fights them all off with a crazy trick. But she escapes only because Peeta defends her from one of the bad guys, getting badly wounded in the process. Now Peeta’s no use to Katniss. So Haymitch persuades the Gamemakers that the TV ratings will go berserk if they announce a “new rule”—that two tributes from the same district will be allowed to live, if they’re the final two. Of course, it’s a lie, but it motivates Katniss to find Peeta. 

And the TV audience goes wild. Now the Hunger Games are a tale of love AND a tale of war, and what could be better? This is crucial because Haymitch needs to find sponsors willing to pay exorbitant amounts to send gifts to Katniss in the Arena—food or medicine that could keep her alive. When Katniss finds Peeta, she has the great good sense to show some human decency. She nurses him back to health. Haymitch times the arrival of his gifts so that Katniss finally figures out that a little lovey-dovey kissy-face will open up the TV audience’s wallets like there’s no tomorrow. She’s a bit slow on the uptake, but once she gets the idea, the girl can act. 

As the Games progress, more tributes die, but Katniss and Peeta hang on. 

At the end, when only Katniss and Peeta are left, the Gamemakers revoke the “new rule” allowing two survivors from the same district, as Haymitch knew all along. Because the point of the Games is to rub misery in the face of the Districts. Peeta is doomed, just like Haymitch expected. Katniss has this thing sewn up. Except that Haymitch wasn’t counting on one thing. 

Katniss Everdeen has a heart after all. Or something. She finds a way to keep both her and Peeta alive. And in the process, she makes the Gamemakers look stupid. So now Haymitch is going to have to fight the battle of his life to keep the little idiot from getting killed when she gets out of the Arena. The Games are finished, but they’ll never ever ever be over. 

Unless an old, drunk washed-up loser named Haymitch Abernathy can pull one last trick out of his threadbare sleeve.

Homework

What do you think? Do you like my character synopses? Think maybe you could do better?

Actually, I think you can. Because there’s one very important character I left out of my synopses. One guy who pulled some strings that most people didn’t even know were there. If you’re wondering why I didn’t say a word about Cinna, it’s because I’ve been saving him for you to work with.

Your homework, should you decide to accept it, is to write four character synopses—for Peeta, Katniss, Haymitch, and Cinna. But don’t write them in that order. The order of character synopses matters. If you reorder the synopses, you have to change each one so as to tell the whole story in a somewhat linear way. So scramble up my order, write your own versions, and put in Cinna wherever you think best. This exercise will teach you much more than merely reading what I’ve done above. 

And may the odds be ever in your favor when you write your next proposal.

Every Yes is a Thousand Noes

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in Production

As the New Year rolls around, it’s easy to commit to a bunch of new things intended to turn you into a Whole New You. But commitment comes with a cost. When you say Yes to one thing, you’re implicitly saying No to many others. 

The Problem of Limited Time

The problem is that nobody has unlimited time. Most of us work for a living. And we have to sleep and eat and exercise and all the other essentials. A week contains 168 hours, but most of those are already spoken for. If you’re lucky, you’ve got one free hour per day that you could commit to something new. 

An hour per day is seven hours per week. Which is a lot. With seven hours per week, in a year’s time, you could:

  • Get a lot fitter than you are right now. 
  • Write a novel. 
  • Learn a foreign language. 
  • Build a following on TikTok or Instagram or YouTube. 
  • Read all those books you always wanted to read. 
  • Binge-watch all the episodes of several long series on Netflix. 
  • Grow an amazing garden. 
  • Fix everything broken in your house. 
  • Hundreds of other things—fill in the blank with your own private dream.

But you can’t do all of those things. You just can’t. If you try, you’ll burn hot for about three days, and then you’ll flame out, and then next year will be just like last year.

Pick One and Stick To It

So pick just one of those and commit to it for a year. You can always regroup at the end of the year and see if it gave you what you thought it would. Maybe it will; maybe it won’t. But in a year, you’ll know if it was worth the candle, and next year you might choose something different. 

But this year, just for this year, pick one thing. One “Project of the Year.”

And now stick to it for the whole year.

Yes, But How Do You Stick To It?

Some things are easy to stick to. Binge-watching Netflix doesn’t take any discipline. But getting fitter does. Or writing a novel. Or learning a language. So here are a couple of things you can do to help with the discipline thing. 

First, schedule time to do it. Maybe mark your electronic calender with the days and times you’re going to do it. Maybe set an alarm on your phone to remind you when it’s time. Whatever it takes to remind you that it’s time to work on your Project of the Year.

But scheduling time only goes so far. Because when the time comes around, there are always excuses. Trust me, I know them all, because I’ve used them all. 

The only way to fight excuses is with motivation. Here’s something I’ll be trying this year to help with the motivation thing. It works for some people, so it might work for me, and it might work for you: 

  • Set a timer on your phone for late in the day, about 15 minutes before bedtime. 
  • When the timer goes off, shut down whatever you’re doing. This may take a few minutes. That’s fine. Take those few minutes and gracefully shut down. There’s no rush here. 
  • Spend about 5 minutes journaling about your current Project of the Year, whatever it is. What is the next step you want to take? What problem might you run into? What ideas do you have so far for dealing with that problem? Please note: you don’t have to solve the problem. Just be aware of it.
  • Now go to bed and let your subconscious mind work on the problem. Or not. You can’t control your subconscious mind. You can lead a horse to water, but it’ll only drink if it wants to. 
  • In the morning when you wake up, you’ll be eager to work on your Project of the Year. You just will. 

That Sounds Too Good To Be True

The above idea sounds too simple. How could that actually work? 

For one thing, it reminds you every day that you have a Project of the Year. And a big part of motivation is just keeping your Project of the Year at the top of your mind. 

For another thing, it gets your subconscious mind excited about your Project of the Year. And your subconscious mind is the little guy that’s so good at coming up with excuses. When your subconscious mind is excited, you’re excited. Your subconscious mind is your secret helper. 

Finally, your subconscious mind is a lot smarter than you are. Oh, sure, you’re smart. You’re a writer, and all writers are smart. But your subconscious mind is smarter. Mine has solved countless math problems while I slept. Which is useful to me, because I solve math problems for a living—that’s what my day job is. And I know from experience that when I wake up in the morning and my subconscious mind has solved a problem, I’m incredibly eager to get to work to fill in the details. 

Homework:

If you’re in on this, here’s your homework in 4 easy steps:

  1. Pick your Project of the Year. Just one. Not two, not three, and definitely not seven.
  2. Take a look at your life and figure out how many hours you have per week for your Project of the Year. Can you find 3 hours per week? Or 5? Or maybe even 7? If you can’t find enough hours, are there some things you said Yes to in previous years that you could now say No to?
  3. Schedule time to work on your Project of the Year. Pick days of the week and a time block in each of those days. Write it down in your journal or on your calendar. Maybe set an alarm on your phone to remind you. 
  4. Schedule 15 minutes at the end of every day to cue up your subconscious mind to think about your Project of the Year. This is NOT time to work on the Project of the Year. This is time to think about it and get your secret helper excited about it. 

Let me know how this works out for you. And let me know if you find ways to make it work even better. 

Your One-Sentence Summary

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in Fiction Writing

It’s never too late to write the one-sentence summary for your novel. Or rewrite it.

The one-sentence summary is the first step in my wildly popular Snowflake Method of writing a novel. But even if you don’t use the Snowflake Method, you still need a one-sentence summary.

What is a One-Sentence Summary?

A one-sentence summary is a sentence of up to 25 words that sets up the Story Question in your reader’s mind. Please note that the one-sentence summary usually is not the Story Question itself. The one-sentence summary causes your reader to ask the Story Question.

And what is the Story Question? That’s easy. The lead character of novel has some goal that they want to achieve by the end of the novel. Either they want to get something, or do something, or become something. The Story Question asks whether the lead character will achieve their goal. 

An Example One-Sentence Summary 

Let’s write an example one-sentence summary for one of my favorite spy novels, The Eye of the Needle, by Ken Follett. A little background is in order. 

It’s the spring of 1944, and World War II is anyone’s war to win—or lose. The German army is defending Europe, and the Allies have captured much of Italy. Everyone knows the Allies are going to attempt an invasion of France by crossing the English Channel. But nobody knows where the attack will land. Calais is the closest point on the French coast for an attack, but Normandy is less well-defended.

The German armies must defend both Calais and Normandy against attack, but they have limited forces. Their job would be much easier if only they knew where the attack would land. 

The Allies intend to attack Normandy. To fool the Germans, they create a large fake military camp on the ground in East Anglia, making it appear that they will attack Calais. The camp can easily be seen from the air and has thousands of fake tanks, airplanes, and buildings. The Allies generate fake radio messages from the camp, and run a bombing campaign against Calais.

The ruse works, and the Germans focus their defense on Calais. The Allies attack Normandy and create a foothold in Europe that eventually leads to victory. 

All of the above is standard history. What could have gone wrong? Suppose a German spy had investigated the fake military camp and discovered the ruse? Suppose the spy notified the Nazi high command? Then the Germans might have shifted their defenses to Normandy, and the war might have ended differently. We’ll never know, because it didn’t happen. 

But Ken Follett decided this possibility would make an exciting novel. Here’s my one-sentence summary of the storyline: “Shortly before D-Day, the only German spy in England discovers that the Allied invasion force threatening Calais is a fake.” 

That’s it. Just 20 words. I’ve left out all the story background. I’ve left out the names of all the characters. I’ve left out the Story Question. The one-sentence summary leaves out almost everything. But what goes into it? 

The Ingredients of a One-Sentency Summary

  These are the usual ingredients I use for cooking up a one-sentence summary. I don’t always use all of them, but I usually use most of them:

  • Time or place information to establish the setting. 
  • A paradoxical description of a major character.
  • A surprising event that suggests the Story Question. 
  • At least one emotive “kicker” word. 

In my example one-sentence summary, the phrase “shortly before D-Day” tells us the time, and the words “in England” tells us the location. We don’t need to be more precise than that. 

The paradoxical description of a major character is “the only German spy in England.” This is paradoxical because it’s rather shocking to hear that there might be just a single spy in the entire country. The reader probably won’t know for sure if it’s true, but it’s possible. And this fact massively raises the stakes on the story. This is the only spy who can inform the German high command, so everything is riding on him! 

The Story Question is obvious: Will the spy be able to warn his superiors about the fake invasion force, or will he not? The one-sentence summary doesn’t “tell” the reader the Story Question. It “shows” the reader enough information to figure out the Story Question. And having figured it out, the reader is now engaged in the story. 

The “kicker” word is the last one in the sentence—“fake.” The first 19 words of the story appear to be about an invasion force, and everyone knows there was an invasion. So the first 19 words make it seem like this is just another war story. Then the word “fake” turns everything around. Readers who know the history of the Normandy invasion will realize that this must be FUSAG—the famous fictitious First United States Army Group, under the command of George Patton. Readers who don’t know the history of the invasion will wonder what’s going on—and if they care about World War II, they’ll want to know more. 

Why Do You Need a One-Sentency Summary?

There are many reasons you need a one-sentence summary. Here are some of the most important:

  • It keeps you focused when you’re writing your first draft, potentially shaving months off the time it takes to get it written. 
  • It helps you edit your manuscript, because it tells you what to leave in, and what to take out. 
  • It sells your book to your agent, who now knows how to sell it to your editor.
  • It sells your book to your editor, who now knows how to sell it to their publishing committee. 
  • It sells your book to the publishing committee, who makes the final decision on whether your editor will be allowed to publish your book. 
  • It sells your book to your marketing team, because when you hand them a great one-sentence summary, you’ve done half their job. 
  • It tells your cover designer how to create the perfect cover for your book. 
  • It sells your book to potential readers in your target audience. In ten seconds, they know your book is exactly what they’ve been dying to read. 
  • It scares away potential readers who are not in your target audience. You absolutely don’t want them reading your book and then leaving a review explaining why it’s not the book they were expecting. 

What if You Don’t Have a One-Sentency Summary?

There’s no better time than yesterday to write one. If that didn’t work out, there’s no time like the present. If that’s not in the cards, then tomorrow still works.

Some writers know their one-sentence summary from the get-go, before they even write the first word of their novel. Other writers like to discover their one-sentence summary as the story unfolds in their mind, bit by bit. They may need to write the whole first draft before they know what their story’s about. And that’s fine. 

The truth is that even writers who planned their story in advance will find some surprises while writing the first draft. By the time the manuscript is written, the story has usually evolved. In that case, it doesn’t hurt to refine the original one-sentence summary—or scrap it altogether and write a new one, a better one. 

I like to write a one-sentence summary before I start writing. But then I refine it after I’ve written the first quarter of the first draft. Then I refine it again when the book is half done, and again when it’s three-quarters done. And (hopefully) one last time when the first draft is complete.

There’s no harm in revising your one-sentence summary several times. It’s a bit like a fine wine—it gets better with age. 

Homework

  • Do you have a one-sentence summary for your novel? If not, would you like one?
  • What is the time and place where your novel is set? 
  • What is the most important goal of any of the characters in your story? (It doesn’t need to be your protagonist who has the goal.)
  • How can you define that character in a paradoxical way? 
  • What is the “kicker” you can put at the end of the sentence that makes the story special? 
  • Give yourself one hour and write the best one-sentence summary you can within that time limit. It can be awful, if that’s the best you’ve got, but it needs to be 25 words or less. Less is more.

Some Example One-Sentence Summaries

What makes each of the following one-sentence summaries work? Can you do better?

  • A 17-year-old girl pretends to fall in love with another contestant in the arena where she and 23 other teens must fight to the death. (The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins.)
  • A young English woman with little prospect of marriage must fend off a rude young aristocrat who thinks he loves her. (Pride & Prejudice, by Jane Austen.) 
  • At the height of the cold war, a Russian submarine captain decides to turn over his latest-generation nuclear sub to the Americans. (The Hunt for Red October, by Tom Clancy.)
  • A rogue physicist travels back in time to kill the apostle Paul. (My first published novel, Transgression.)
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