Retallion Redux
This summer as I was going through what I had written again, I looked for the areas I had left blank. These were parts of the story that I had left to figure out later. There were more of these holes than I realized, and some of them if left unchecked could destroy my story down the road. So I decided to take action. I wrote down a long list of all the questions, and I started finding answers.
In doing this exercise I realized that the new details would not fit into my vision of Retallion as it currently existed and so in addition to fixing the holes in the story I started revising the world too, and that required a new map.
This is the new map of the World of Retallion. I have kept some of the main features like the inland sea and the mountainous terrain.
Some of the biggest changes to the world are that there are now 3 distinct nations of humans instead one, and the timeline of history that lead to the current status quo. Geography wise there is a much higher ratio of land to water in this new world and there is a mighty glacier that once covered almost all of the inland sea. I’ll be diving deep into the world of Retallion in an upcoming blog post so check back then to learn more.
During what I’m calling the Retallion Redux I looked for a strategy to help me outline my story in an organized manner. I looked online at various outlining methods and decided to use what was called the snowflake method. This involves starting from one sentence expanding the details of your story one step at a time until you have a full outline and can start your first draft.
A visual that shows the philosophy behind the snowflake outlining.
These are the steps I’m following.
Write a one-sentence summary of your novel
Expand this into a full paragraph summary, detailing major events
Write a one-page summary for Each Major Character (5 in total) Write a half-page summary for each minor character (4 in total)
Expand each sentence in #2 into a paragraph summary
Write a one-page account of the story from the perspective of each major character
Expand each paragraph you wrote for #4 into a full-page synopsis
Expand your character descriptions into full character charts (birthdate, description, history, motivation, goal, how they change, etc.)
Using the summary from #6, list every scene you’ll need to finish the novel in a Spreadsheet
Group the scenes into chapters
Write a multi-paragraph description for each scene (Description, dialogue lines, key moments)
Right now I am in the middle of step 3. Right now I am planning to write a bit of these steps 4 days a week to try and progress through them at a steady rate. I also have an eight page rough outline of the whole story to help me along.
A tool I am thinking of using to help me through this process is Campfire Blaze. It is an online organization app for writers and world builders. I think this will help keep everything I write organized so I can easily reference it anytime. I am also thinking of livestreaming of of the working in Blaze.
If you have any questions or comments about this process or the World of Retallion please leave them below and I’ll try to answer them in the next post.
