I’m sitting here at my desk in the study, a well-stoked fire roaring in the fireplace beside me. Outside, the wind is blowing steadily and the sun, while bright, doesn’t seem all that warm. It is 9:15 in the morning and the thermometer on the wall near the sliding glass doors to the deck says its 28 degrees outside.
Did I mention I live in
As our brother Mort might say, “What the Fzck?”
But I digress.
I’m on deadline. I’ve got 15 more days to finish the third book in the Templar Chronicles series, A TEAR IN THE SKY. Fifteen days and about 35,000 words to go. Which means I’m sorry to say that I don’t have a deep, philosophical essay for you this month. Instead I’ve got some practical writing advice for those of you who are thinking about writing a series.
It’s pretty simple really.
Take notes.
Take GOOD notes.
And put them in your bible.
Some of you are nodding your heads, completely in tune with what I’m saying. You’ve been there before. You know how important it is. The rest of you are looking at the NIV or the New King James you’ve got over there on the shelf (if you even have one) and are going huh? So let me explain.
I hit a scene yesterday where I needed to know the eye color of a character that had appeared way back in the short story that had first introduced Cade Williams and his notorious Echo Team. It was a minor character, to boot, one that had wandered on stage for a few scenes and then had disappeared back into the woodwork, until the midst of the third book in the trilogy. I hadn’t really intended for him to ever come back, to tell you the truth, but when the plot morphed into its present form, he suddenly became a major player rather than a minor one.
So I needed to know his eye color. Trouble was, I’d forgotten it long ago, if I’d ever decided on it at all.
I checked my bible, looked up his eye color, and went back to work. Took me all of fifteen seconds, if that.
A few hours later I needed to know what model Jeep my main character habitually drives. I thought I knew that one off the top of my head and simply dropped it into place without hesitation. But later, as I was looking over the day’s work, something about that choice just didn’t sit right with me. Once again I took out my bible, looked it up, and discovered that I was wrong. It wasn’t a Cherokee, it was a Wrangler. And it wasn’t even red, it was black.
Without that bible, the continuity of my work would be way off. And for readers who’ve been following along with the tale through each successive book, details that are inconsistent can pull them right out of their suspension of disbelief. As a horror and dark fantasy writer, that’s the last thing I want to happen. I spend too much time lulling them into believing that the fantastical things that I write about are perfectly normal inside my fictional world and I don’t want innocuous details to spoil that effect.
What I’m talking about is the three ring binder I put together whenever I start writing a book. The binder has multiple sections; one for characters, one for locations, one for specific technological or mystic items that are important to the story (like the mobile command center that makes an appearance in A SCREAM OF ANGELS), one for my ever-evolving outline, and even one for any notes that occur to me throughout the writing process that don’t fit anywhere else, reminders to check some particular fact or to be sure to resolve a certain issue in a later chapter, that sort of thing. This binder is my story bible (or in this case, my series bible, which major sections devoted to each book in the series, with those then subdivided into the minor sections named above.)
I make it a regular habit to update the binder on a daily basis, so it keeps pace with the work itself and remains a useful tool. This allows me to check the facts I need quickly and easily while in the midst of a writing session, without having to search back through earlier manuscripts or published works to find the information I need. It’s not perfect, and I still occasionally make mistakes when I’m too lazy to look something up that I’m positive I recollect correctly, but my bible goes a long way to keeping me on track and productive when I need to be.
Like right now.
With 14 days, 13 hours and 52 minutes left until my deadline.
If you liked this post, visit Joe's XtremeLife blog for more of the same. If you're interested in working with him as either a writing or life coach, check out XtremeLife Coaching. Joe's fiction can be found at his official website, JosephNassise.com
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8 Comments, Comment or Ping
David Niall Wilson
As one who has both flown by the seat of the pants, and flown with bible in hand, I know the wisdom of this essay only too well. Of course, I have yet to get a format that works for me, and the haphazard bible files I create aren’t what they could be. What I think I’ve decided, just from reading this post, is to develop a spread sheet or database for my current book projects that links to all the information by key word (: I can’t stand three ring binders.
DNW
Jan 15th, 2007
Brian Hodge
Very timely! I used to think spiral-bound notebooks were sufficient to keep track of everything, and in most cases they were. But lately I’ve been working on something of sufficient scope it’s almost paralyzing to look at the spiral-bound pages: How much space should I allow for notes for this stuff? For that stuff? What happens when things inevitably get chopped up piecemeal and put wherever they’ll fit?
A week ago I bought the first 3-ring binder I’d gotten since gradeschool, although for something else … and within a couple days was thinking, “You know, I need a lot more of these babies.”
Good luck through the home stretch!
Jan 15th, 2007
Frank Wydra
For me its an electronic (Excel) spreadsheet, and I use two of them, a chapter log and a character log. Never called them a bibles, but I have sure used them to save a lot of prayers. Sames idea, though.
Another thing I find useful, since all of my stuff is in my hard drive, is to pull up the story (or on a series character a past story) and do a word search on whatever little detail is bothering me. Ain’t technology grand?
However you cut it, whether paper or pixels are your choice, you are right on, Joe, when you say that log is mother’s milk.
Frank
Jan 15th, 2007
Sully
“…log is mother’s milk.” Oh, brother, I’m not gonna touch that.
Anyway, series, hell, I can’t keep notes straight within a solo novel. The problem always ends up being how to organize the many files I’ve built up for character, settings, plot elements of many stripes, backgrounds, and extraneous stuff. Have had as many as 40 major folders containing notes. Glad to know someone has learned how to make a good book with “the good book.”
– Sully (Thomas Sullivan)
Jan 15th, 2007
Joseph
I’ve tried a variety of other methods as well - Microsoft’s OneNote, which allows for folders with note-taking ability and fairly easy organization, Excel spreadsheets, folders on the hard drive with Word docs, etc. The issue for me was the fact that I’m always jotting down notes on scrap pieces of paper wherever I might be and having to transcribe them all the time was a pain in the neck.
I went with the binder idea because I can rearrange at will, can add pages that I’ve taken notes on, can make fresh notes easily if I have it handy, don’t have to learn to work a computer program, etc.
So far, so good, I guess.
Jan 15th, 2007
John B. Rosenman
I don’t know, Joe. My characters, especially the minor ones, have a tendency to have eyes that just change color. And they trade cars a lot without telling anyone. Cherokee? Wrangler? Hey, sometimes they have at least six cars in their garage.
Seriously, this is very useful, and I may start to keep a bible or binder or spreadsheet, especially since the old memory is starting to go. Yes, a word search is wonderful. Ain’t technology grand, especially when it comes to learning that you used the word “suddenly” nine times in three pages. It’s amazing how fallible the human memory is, especially when it comes to a narrative you’ve lived with and loved and revised and revised and revised. You would think that nothing would make you forget any of it. But then you find your blue-eyed bit player now has brown eyes and drives a Mack truck instead of a Toyota.
Jan 16th, 2007
Joseph
John - what’s really going to screw the system up is when I have characters whose eyes have to change color as an intentional part of the story…:)
Jan 16th, 2007
Mort
Yep.
When I did MONOLITH, a four issue spinoff of Bill Willingham’s ELEMENTALS comics series, the publisher handed me Bill’s extensive 600+ page guide to the characters and places of ELEMENTALS’ UNIVERSE.
Explains something about the care Willingham, now scoring big with FABLES, puts into his work–and why it was so much easier for me to come on board.
Mort
Jan 16th, 2007
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