yesterday, i said i was plotting my novel using a slightly altered Snowflake Method. i’ve replaced the character bibles/profiles/summaries with a trick i learned from one of my all-time favorite authors, David Mitchell.

“This might be a trade secret,” Mitchell jests, “but it works for me, and you can have it.”

he suggests writing letters to yourself in the voice of your characters about the things they care about, like money, work, politics, religion, sex, and the concerns/other people/world of the story.

i find this advice so helpful and reassuring and accessible, i have it Scotch-taped above my makeshift writing desk, right next to the Harmon story circle. and somewhere along the line, i’ve added the topic of ‘Family,” which rounds it out to a nice, uneven nine.

“When you get stuck, get systematic,” Mitchell says. “You’re usually stuck because you don’t know your characters well enough.”

listen to his full advice below—