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01/07/2006: "If you're writing a series..."

I mentioned in another entry that I was creating a bible for my Blaze suspense series, and some folks have asked me what I do, so I thought I'd talk about it here, just in case others were planning multi-book connected series.

First, I work with a program called Power Structure that holds all my notes on plot and character. I can print out individual pages, which helps.

I have a big 3-ring binder, and I separate it into sections, one for each character, a bunch for research, and one for each book itself. I use pictures for my characters, usually actors, because I like to hear their voices in my head, so I go online, find the right actor to portray the character, and print out a picture of them. I tape those pictures to the main character pages.

On this book, I have an overarching story, so I have a section for that. I print out everything I've written about that story and put it in the book, so that I have an easy reference.

When I was writing the first book, I used some locations and situations that might come up in other books, so I printed out those sections and put those in the binder.

Then, every time another recurring character was mentioned in the first book, I printed out that section and put it in that character's section. If I mentioned more than one character in a scene, I'd print out as many copies as necessary.

If I have pictures, say of a weapon, a map, a location, I print them out and include them in the bible.

As the books build, the notebook fills up, so that everything I'm using for the book is in one convenient place, and I don't have to scramble to remember what I said before, or what things look like.

It's immensely helpful, and I recommend the process. Hell, I've even used a small bible when I've had a particularly research and/or character heavy book.