Could somebody please tell me WHY I didn't read this sooner?
Well, maybe because whoever I heard talking about the snowflake method gave me a really twisted, off-the-mark idea of what was involved, and I was getting psychosomatic hives thinking of all the nitpicky work.
As in dozens of pages of character charts and psychological analysis and writing out a description of each scene and all sorts of anal-retentive-to-the-maximus work before I wrote one word ...
It ain't so!
For those of you who consider yourselves mega-pantsers, this won't interfere with your method. And it's adaptable so that the most organized of plotters will be happy and cozy.
The big word is flexibility.
And yeah, going back and revising, the more you learn about your characters and setting and their goals and dreams and fears and values and figuring out what will work -- yeah, BEFORE you write that opening scene.
The really fun part is that our esteemed teacher presents this as a story -- appropriately, set at a writing conference. There's conflict, fear, shame, old secrets and grudges, humor, angst, suspense, and discovery. Whew! Essentially, as our heroine Goldilocks learns to prepare to write her book and know where she's going and more importantly WHY she's going there in the story, we also learn along with her.
This is one of those writing books where it makes sense to go back and re-read it every few months, as a refresher course. If you haven't read this one yet ... don't be like me, and let an itchy fear of hives get in your way. Read it!
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