Step five of the snowflake method is to write a character synopsis for each character in the book. Major characters get one page, minor get half a page. This builds on step three. To get the most out of this part of the snowflake, I suggest writing each one from the character’s point of view, as if they were recapping events. This help builds the character’s voice and tells you really useful things like what minor characters were doing while they were off screen for major chunks of the book. This step right here was probably the most useful step in drafting Aphrodite 3–Untitled, because I had so many characters to keep track of and their different interpretation on events impacted the plot in a big way.

Here’s an example of a character synopsis from a fairly minor character in Aphrodite 3– Untitled. I’m only including the first two paragraphs to avoid spoilers, but this should give you an idea.

Now, this is not my best writing ever, or particularly good. This drafting was purely for my benefit, so it hasn’t been polished or made pretty.

~@~

I have nothing against Persephone as a person, but I don’t trust her as a leader. I advise her, push her, and outright bully her to take a more extreme stance against the demigods, sensing her hesitation to do anything that could endanger Hades or make her responsible for lost lives. I thought she was being weak.

When I meet up with Aphrodite and Medea in the dreamscape, I give Aphrodite advice and am pleased to see how far she’s come, though she still has Persephone up on a pedestal. Even Poseidon seems to worship the very ground Persephone walks on. I also get a feel for Medea and realize she’s a very broken, very unstable young girl. But I think we can help her. Furthermore, I think we should……