July 4th, 2014
An open-sourced science-fiction novel written by the community via the snowflake top-down method.
The goal of this project is to see if it’s possible to create a high-quality community-written science-fiction novel. It will be written in stages via the snowflake method. Each stage will be fully completed before moving on to the next stage of the snowflake.
We’ll be using org-mode syntax with plain-text files ending in the “.org” suffix. While using emacs makes org-mode more powerful, for the simple markup needs we need for this project, any plain-text editor will do.
Please read the org_quick_tutorial.org file in the repository for a quick rundown on the syntax.
And just to be perfectly clear, you do not have to use Emacs. You can use any plain-text editor that you prefer; you can even use Github’s web-based editor.
Org syntax is important to me in that it makes it wonderfully easy to export to different formats such as html, latex, pdf, odt, plain text, etc..
When we get into writing prose, I’ll put together a style guide for everyone to follow that includes both org syntax as well as grammar and other conventions.
Licensing under the project shall be under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA license version 3.0. For further information, please see the included LICENSE file in the repository.
By contributing to the project, each contributor is licensing their contributions under the same CC-BY-SA license version 3.0 as this main project. All contributions must be entirely the contributor’s original work and not derived from any other source, even including public domain information and shall require a typed statement to that effect. Contributors shall not be anonymous to help enforce this.
This section discusses the planned progression of the project according to the snowflake method. We are currently on the first stage.
The detailed substeps in each stage still need to be fleshed out. If anyone has any good ideas, please send me a pull request or submit an issue please.
- TODO Single Sentence Description of the Novel
This is our current stage
- Approximately 15-word sentence. No character names, think big picture. The idea is to get the very basic arc of the story in one single sentence.
- These sentences go in the file snowflake_stage_01-STORYLINES.org. Try and follow the syntax even if you aren’t using emacs to write in org-mode format.
- Each contributor shall have a set number of days to vote for their favorite three main sentences without any particular order. The three sentences that win the initial vote shall be subject to a runoff vote with each contributor getting one vote. The winning sentence shall be the basis for the novel and we’ll move forward to the next stage.
- TODO Expand the Single Sentence into a full paragraph of 5 sentences
Describe the story setup, three act structure and an ending. Think of this like three disasters and an ending. Ideally, with the second and third disasters caused by the protagonist’s attempts to fix things.
- TODO One-page Character Sheets on Main Characters
These sheets are for consistency purposes to get background details hammered out before progressing too far.
- TODO Expand each sentence of prior paragraph into new 5 sentence paragraph
Back to the plot. At the end of this we should have 5 new 5 sentence paragraphs. Please resist the temptation to put in too much. We’re getting the big picture stuff in line so we know now whether there are any problems with the story.
- TODO Expand Character sheets for Main characters and synopses and one-pagers on minor characters
Now we go into much more detail on the characters. Any character-specific sub plots, motivations, desires, fears, etc.. Again, this is for consitency purposes.
- TODO Full Detail Synopsis, by expanding each sentence of prior into 5 sentences.
Back to the plot again, we take the sentences from stage 4 into 5 sentences each again.
- TODO Use Synopsis to create sheet of chapters / scenes
We take step 6 and start ordering scenes to march through the synopsis. Will need to determine if a table is the best format or to use org syntax headings to order the scenes.
- TODO Organize Scenes into Proactive and Reactive
Scenes are further broken down into proactive scenes and reactive scenes. I’ll give more detail on this in the future.
- TODO Break Scenes down further
Proactive scenes broken down into Goal, Conflict, Setback.
Reactive scenes broken down into Reaction Dilemma Decision.
I’ll give more detail on this in the future.
- TODO Break Scenes down into Motivation Reaction Units
I’ll give more detail on this in the future.
- TODO Write Novel according to Motivation Reaction Units
- TODO Technical Editing and Proofreading
- TODO Beta Readers and Revisions
- TODO Release Novel
- TODO If Successful, Repeat!