Here is a unique way to tackle the problem of writing
a novel. Randy Ingermanson, a physicist and the author of
Double Vision, has applied the concept of the snowflake
fractal to writing a novel. Ingermanson shows how building a
novel is like building a snowflake as you go from a very basic shape
to the finished product: a complex and completely unique snowflake.
I claim that that's how you design a novel -- you start small,
then build stuff up until it looks like a story. Part of this is
creative work, and I can't teach you how to do that. Not here,
anyway. But part of the work is just managing your creativity --
getting it organized into a well-structured novel. That's
what I'd like to teach you here.
Ingermanson's snowflake method includes the "Ten Steps of Design"
which can be found here.
