I make charts for every book. One chart is of names put in ABC boxes so I don’t start too many names with the same letters. It also helps me remember last names. I have a timeline chart of dates: birth, death, when people met, etc. I have a calendar that follows the scenes of the book. I have plot charts of who did what and why.
If my idea for the book came from something that happened in real life, I print out pages about the happening.
I try to find photos of what my main characters look like online, and I download them. It’s easier to describe a character while looking at a picture than from memory. And photos keep me from changing hair and eye color.
I have photos of objects mentioned in the book.
And I have outlines. Before I can write a novel, I need to know the background of the characters. Parents, childhood, schooling. Were they a loner or popular? Big family or small? What about previous loves? I make one of these for each of the main characters.
I outline the plot as far as I can get. Once I get into a book, the characters often change the plot, but I need to know what leads up to the beginning.
These outlines often add up to 20,000 words.
Before I start a book, I have a lot of pages. I tried putting them in folders, then in plastic file pockets. But they were too big and pages fell all around me. I finally started putting them inside half-sheet size binders and that has worked well. When I write, I can easily flip the pages and see how old someone was in a certain year or what day of the week it is or the name of a road.
And also, I send copies of everything to my editor to turn over to the copyeditor. In my many years of writing, it’s my experience that no matter what date you put in a book, the copyeditor will tell you that it’s wrong. My charts prove that I’m right. And the art director loves to see the photos!
started using the binders, because everything was falling onto the floor. If my people are in a house for more than one scene, then I need a floorplan of that house. I get them from Savills estate agency in England or ePlans. When they drive around a town I’ve made up, I have to make a map.
