Before we get into it, I’d like to say that the main reason for this blog is not to show off my work (after all, most work I’m hoping I can use to make money sometime down the line), but instead to help inspire people being stuck in the same hole of creative meh-ness I often find myself in. Going over my own creative processes, showing some insight into my routines and attempts at them, might just help someone else to get going themselves.

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Ever heard of the snowflake method?

It’s that thing you do to start building your story, the narrative, a character or more, history, whatever. You start with simple bullet points of whatever tickles your fancy. Then you go into each point and add some details. Then you add more details to each detail.

And so on.

And so forth.

Called snowflake for the obvious reason of the structure just spreading out and forming like a snowflake would from such a simple a beginning.

Maybe I got that wrong. I read about that in a self-help how-to-be-a-writer books. And that’s how I remember it working. Not like there’s one true way of how to build a story.

Usually, I am what they call a pantser. A type of writer that just jumps in and starts writing. However, as I’ve been whining about for a while now, I don’t really have much of a jumping-off point. So, maybe I need to be a bit more focused.

Last year I started NaNo by using a short I posted here, called The Drop. I wanted that piece of fiction to be my first chapter. Then, I sort of outlined the rest of Part 1 (which was Act 1 of the narrative), which I then wrote on day 1 of NaNo (just over 10,000 words). Which proofs that preparation really does work.

Holy shit!

Which is why I’m going down that road, again.

Though, all I have this time is a few concept ideas (see last post). Going over them, I find like “Swansong of a Countess” the best at this point, since it doesn’t have to be a pure action piece, and has potential to show off some of the dark sides I want to explore in this fantasy world.

So I start with a very rough outline in the form of bullet points, which I then detail a little more. And because everything following will be a huge spoiler for my kick-off into this world, as well as my NaNo project, I’ll be separating each step into its own page going forward. Only click if you’re interested in my way of brainstorming. If you’re just here to read my work, you might want to hold off until the story itself is finished.

Spoilers on the following pages.

If you decide to not read on, I get it. In that case, have yourself a great start for this year’s NaNoWriMo, should I not be able to write another update before then! And let me know what you do to get ready, let’s have a chat about our processes and, perhaps, learn from one another.

Find the links to the next 3 pages on the very bottom of the post (I find it a little hard to see at first).