How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method

Advanced Fiction Writing, Book 1

By: Randy Ingermanson

Narrated by: James L. Rubart

Length: 5 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

A magical key to unlock your creative wizard

Are you writing a novel, but having trouble getting your first draft written? You've heard of "outlining", but that sounds too rigid for you. You've heard of "organic writing", but that seems a bit squishy to you.

Take a look at the wildly popular Snowflake Method - a battle-tested series of 10 steps that jump-start your creativity and help you quickly map out your story. All around the world, novelists are using the Snowflake Method right now to ignite their imaginations and get their first drafts down on paper.

In this book, you'll follow the story of a fictitious novelist as she learns to tap into the amazing power of the Snowflake Method. Almost magically, she finds her story growing from a simple idea into a deep and powerful novel. And she finds her novel changing her - turning her into a stronger, more courageous person.

Zany, over the top, and just plain fun

How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method is a "business parable" - a how-to guide written in story form. It's zany. It's over the top. It's just plain fun. Most important, it's effective, because it shows you, rather than telling you.

You'll learn by example how to grow your story idea into a sizzling first draft.

You'll discover:

• How to define your "target audience" the right way, so you know exactly how your ideal listeners think and feel. Forget what the experts tell you about "demographics."
• How to create a dynamite selling tool that will instantly tell people whether they'll love your story or hate it. And you want them to either love it or hate it.
• How to get inside the skin of every one of your characters - even your villain. Especially your villain.
• How to find a deep, emotively powerful theme for your story. Do you know the one best point in your novel to unveil your theme - when your listener is most eager to hear it?
• Why backtracking is good, even essential.

©2014 Randall Ingermanson (P)2017 Randall Ingermanson

loved it.

stick with it. seemed silly, but ended up brilliant. highly recommend this for writers struggling with their stories.

Worth a listen to help start your novel

Great advice. The fairytale characters are a bit tiresome. Be prepared for that. Over all good stuff.

A Snowflake in July

I tried the Snowflake Method online several years ago when I was stuck on a novel I was writing. I gave up after the first two or three steps, and my novel eventually became a short story. But when a fellow writer recommended the Audible version of the book, I figured it was worth a second look. I discovered that this is the best book on novel-writing I’ve ever read.

Unlike other such books that just give you information and instructions, How to Write Your Novel Using the Snowflake Method turns the tale of Goldilocks and the three bears on its head in order to explain this method. You may wonder if this book is for children, but I assure you, it’s for adults who are serious about writing novels.
After weaving his compelling story to illustrate the ten steps of the Snowflake Method, Randy Ingermanson outlines the steps and includes his own steps in this method that he followed when writing his tale.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in writing a novel. I may try the Snowflake Method with a new novel before I write it.

Loved it

I love how the practical advice is written in storytelling as an example of the advice itself. I started following the steps right away and got off with my book easily. I love the idea of good structures and arranged materials for easy back tracking - my greatest fear was to go over hundreds of pages to change something. The snowflake method helped me to figure everything out in advance, change the storyline back and forth multiple times without getting frustrated. I recommend it if you, like me, are more of a planner and need a way into actual content creation.

Great content, deplorable narration, silly.

The content is great. It could have been presented better- the fairy tale aspect was a bit silly to me. The worst part of the deal was the horrible narration. Really wooden in parts. completely misunderstood the vocal inflections of the Robin Hood character. At times thought it was a computer voice like Siri. Really bad.

Author is Ingenious!

I am at Chapter 10 and I'm not wanting to stop listening but for now, I must do something else - responsibility calls. The book captivated me from the moment I heard the sample before purchasing. Now having purchased and listened up to this point - I am NOT disappointed, in fact I'm more intrigued than ever. The author is teaching a method of writing a novel but at the same time he is interweaving a novel while at the same time interweaving another novel but NOTHING distracts - it all works together beautifully!!! I just keep thinking as I'm listening, "Wow! So cleaver of this author!" He has made this a very easy listen! I haven't felt at all like I am trying to learn because the book is so entertaining - yet, I am learning a lot! When I have more time, I'm going back (after finishing the book) to make notes. This book totally fits me as a novice writer and one who doesn't like to come up with outlines and other hum-drum writer-processes. He makes it sound so easy and even like fun on those things we must do in order to market, such as the synopsis - which has never been easy for me. Now only ten chapters in, I think I can write my synopsis AND I think I can write my book and make it BETTER than I EVER thought before. I can't sing the praises of this author enough. The reader is VERY GOOD also! He adds to the interest with his style. But, you get to hear him in the book preview. I cannot imagine that at any point in this book I'm going to have less of a great experience than I've had with the first ten chapters.

Easy to grasp lessons

such an amazing book. lessons easy to grasp. a story within a story. listening to it again now. cant wait to buy the next one. for someone whos been writing a book for 20 years and afraid of back tracking this book is dedinatly for me.

Super helpful

Stayed up for twelve hours using the methods in this book. I went from a blank page to having a full fledged outline. Helps me organize for my novel, which is awesome.

You either love it or hate it

Very informative, but it is a story you'll have to listen to rather than something like a teacher giving a lecture. I thought it made it easy and had some funny parts. Using children's story characters made sense in order to capture a greater audience as most people are familiar with the characters and their personalities, but I can see how it could feel childlike or condescending. Again, though, the logic of the method does make good sense and allowd you to feel a little more organized in writing your book and thinking about your goals, while still allowing creative thought.

Loved this 100%

The story was good bc it offered examples of how a story evolves through the process, which makes finishing my novel so much better. I had my novel lined out and about 10K words into the manuscript when getting this and it still helped me immensely avoid too much rework.

For the narrator, he did great. Almost every narrator I listen to changes their voice to match characters, and he did a great job.