You’ve written book one in a series and you’re merrily punting down the river to finished in Book Two.
…And you realize that you’ve changed a crucial detail which leaves you with a gaping plot hole.
If only you’d been more organized and had a whole list of the characters, their descriptions, major points in the story and so on!
Never fear, after reading this you will have a system to put everything together in a way that will ensure that you never have that problem again.
I have made no secret of the fact that I prefer paper files because they are so much quicker and easier than a computer — I can find anything on a card file before the computer has even had a chance to boot. If you wish to use a system of folders on your machine, then to each their own — the principles are exactly the same.
1. Work out your categories. These will include, but are not limited to: Titles, Chapter Titles, Characters and their Descriptions, Locations and Season, Unused snippets, Bibliography of both Reference Books and Reference Articles, Future Titles, Possible Chapter Titles.
2. Grab your stack of file cards, or make a folder for each heading you’ve chosen, plus one with the title of your book — this will be the Master folder where all of the other folders nest.
3. Begin filling in your cards or document (no judgment if you choose a spread sheet). The first three are self-explanatory, but it gets a little more complex as you move along the list.
CHARACTERS: Beyond the obvious of height, hair and eye color, there are scars, birth marks, tattoos, or other distinguishing features. Pretend that you’re a witness at a crime scene and have to provide a description good enough to nab the bad guy. You have to go beyond the physical though, and make them human.
Ø What is their favorite meal?
Ø What is their favorite song?
Ø Did they have any major traumas that scarred them forever?
Ø Family tree and emotional relationship with the members.
Dig deep for this one because it turns a character in a story into a living, breathing person that you care about.
If you care about your characters, your readers will too.
LOCATIONS/S — SEASON: It is a major faux pas to have the characters enjoying a swim and sweltering in the sun, only to have them in boots and jumpers strolling hand in hand amidst the piles of fallen autumn leaves on the same day, whilst listening to a radio broadcast about an incipient blizzard. Thank you, Passions, I shall forever remember that episode.
UNUSED SNIPPETS: Don’t discard anything that you didn’t use in your story, whether it was a scene, dialogue, or research. It will be used somewhere and somewhen else. You’ll just have to tweak it.
REFERENCE MATERIALS: If an ARTICLE: write down your source (which magazine/issue/ URL). Keep these until you have published the book, because you may just need to double check something that comes up in the editing process.
If a BOOK: at a minimum you need the title, the chapter and the page number, if you own the book. If you have borrowed it, add in the ISBN and the Dewey Decimal number as well.
If it is a book which you refer to often, then having the ISBN means that it is easier to obtain your own copy should you choose to buy. At this point, also note whether you actually used any of the material for reference in your own work. If you didn’t then you don’t need to include it in a bibliography. NB: if you are writing fiction, then the compiled bibliography is optional as part of your published book. It is however, crucial for you, because book three may need more of the same information!
So there you have it, some simple tips to ensure that your main character never goes from blonde to redhead in the space of eleven pages ever again. #guiltyascharged
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