I made a discovery today. I discovered that what we believe is our aim when planning a story, isn’t necessarily what we are really aiming for at all.

That makes no sense, I know. I thought the theme behind book 2 was to do with “walking in your father’s footsteps”, but it became absolutely clear to me this afternoon that the theme for this book is actually to do with “communication”.

Shocked by this, I had to rethink my earlier steps to ensure I’ve got the theme covered and what do you know…I have! Now I’m doubly shocked. Who said planning was not beneficial? It is!

With this revelation, I am pleased to announce that I’ve completed the first three steps of the Snowflake method of writing a novel. I now have a solid plot, a good theme, two exciting new characters and some existing characters with realistic problems of their own. Yeah, there’s a setting too, don’t worry.

The next step is to turn the one-paragraph summary of the story into a page. I like this step. It helps me iron out problem areas, whilst filling in the blanks. Then, after this step, I’ll write out a chapter plan and then I should be ready to write.

Full steam ahead.

Filed under: Cat's Paw, My Writing: