So what do you do when you have several stories and a couple of draft novels all occupying the same universe? Well, you get very confused and very overwhelmed.

My first novel, Any Tomorrow, has been sitting in stasis on Amazon for a couple of years now. Since then I’ve written a number of pieces, including a couple of novels, that link directly to it. I am currently working on two new novels that, again, link whole or in part to the people, places, and events in Any Tomorrow.

Until now I thought I’d done a pretty good job managing the worlds I’d created, but I’ve run into some issues that definitely need resolving before I can continue. The problem is that the timeline for the events around which the story is built run from around 15,000 B.C. to 3500 A.D. With a timeline like that it can be a daunting task to keep everything straight.

Just to give you an idea of what I mean, Any Tomorrow has over 230 characters and almost 300 individual locations distributed over 750 or so pages. My other works will add dozens, if not hundreds of additional characters and locations to keep track of.

My primary tool for managing all this is a massively comprehensive Excel spreadsheet, which not only includes timelines, but lists of characters, locations, vocabulary, and syntax. All this to write a relatively simple story about good and evil, darkness and light, and love.

So, if you see me wandering around looking lost, a little on edge, and angry at the world, it’s all because writing is more than just plot and characters, it’s also about consistency in your data.

©Copyright 2018 by Kevin Fraleigh