Wonderful blog post, saw on…

I have a number of ‘helpers’ that I use to keep track of all the details which would otherwise cause me a LOT of headaches.

I’ve created an entire world consisting of things never before written. I’m not using things like elves, dwarves, dragons, etc… All of the races in my world, creatures/animals, places, history, many of the plants, some languages …Most things are unique. So I have a LOT of details which I need to be able to keep straight.

The following is a list of the editorial ‘helpers’ which I use to keep track of everything as I write:

1: A timeline not only for the MS I’m currently working on, but also a broad historical timeline for my world.

2: 3X5 cards containing information on all my characters on which I list their basic traits such as race, hair, eyes, skin, height, build, style of clothing they may prefer, any personality traits that I might find important, etc…

3: A list with general racial descriptions to make sure I keep things within the boundaries I’ve decided upon for each one, including any general racial aversions, blood-fueds, etc…

4: A list of all the creatures/animals I’ve created (one for plants as well) where I not only describe my creation, but also what climate or specific area of my world they can be found in, any ‘uses’ the creation might have to any of the world races, any special traits the creation might possess (like chameleon-like abilities), etc…

5: Maps, maps and more maps… I’ve been a Dungeons and Dragons fan and player since the age of 10 and I’ve always been a big fan of the ‘art of mapping’. I’ve not only mapped the layout of my world, but also cities and any large/important buildings which have a reoccuring role.

6: I also keep a 3-ring binder which I have divided into various sections such as “history”, “plot/scene notes”, “characters”, “maps”, “ideas for future novels”, “general world notes”, etc…

Any time I can’t remember what color I made a character’s eyes or what climate a creature can usually be found in or its uses all I have to do is flip to its section in my binder. To help me further I arrange information in each section in alphabetical order as much as possible and rearrange the sections as I add more. Finally I keep an ever growing word list as a lot of the spellings for things in my world are unique and are NOT found in any spell-check dictionary.

When I get “on a roll” while writing I find it helpful to literally create a fill-in-the-blank space for myself if I can’t remember a detail right away. That way I can go back later, look up the detail I omitted because I suffer from ‘some-timers’ and keep things consistent rather than write something down which is wrong and then have difficulty spotting it in a later edit.

Each time I brought in a new character, I made notes on the trailer court diagram, so I could remember which characters did/said/owned what. Dog names, habits, who has problems with their sprinklers, etc…

But you said a writer can actually submit this along with the manuscript? What if it's just a page of scribbly writing? Wouldn't that make you seem unprofessional?

However, I do find that a story board works well. I section it into boxes (each box representing a chapter) and write a word or two at the top of each box to indicate what happens in that chapter. Then I write details below. This is quite effective too!

To keep track of timing, dates and the order of things, I keep a master spreadsheet that lists chapter, scene, whose POV scene is written in, date or day of week on which scene occurs, a brief summary of scene and word count of scene. The spreadsheet is full of colors and it keeps a running total of my word count by chapter and for the entire manuscript. Wow! I had no idea how Type A I was until I wrote this comment.