Hello everyone, Winnie Griggs here. On April 25th
Her Amish Patchwork Family, the third book in my Hope’s Haven series, will
release. This book will feature the final and oldest of the Eicher sisters,
Martha.
When writing a multi-book series there are a lot of parts
and pieces to keep track of – today I thought I’d share a little bit about my
personal method of doing this. First let me say that I’m a spreadsheet nerd. If
I need to track anything I usually put it in a spreadsheet. So of course that’s
what I use to track all the details of my story world. And let me add that I’ll
keep up with a lot of this same info even if it is a standalone book – it saves
a lot of time trying to remember what the name of a particular restaurant is or
the street name my hero’s house is on.
SO here goes:
The first thing I start tracking is backstory. Here is a view of my tracking chart for backstory:
As you can see, I built on this from book to book - necessary because the books are so interlaced through family. So when I created this for the first book, it just had event columns for the Eicher and Stoll families, the age columns for Micah and Asher didn't exist, and the rows ended where it says Greta's story opens. The other information was added as I began work on each book.
Next comes my character tracking which also includes pets/work animals. Here's my sheet for that. Hopefully it's pretty self-explanatory.
The next sheet in my workbook is reserved for location info
Next I have my story calendar, a day by day chart of what happens when. Having this picture helps me keep up with certain things that are fixed (holidays, church services, standing civic/committee/business meetings, etc.) It also helps me make sure I don't have two Wednesdays in one week or a nine day week or any of the other weird things that can happen if I don't keep up with things. I have one of these for each book
I also will create sheets that are specific for each book/series. For instance, in this serries I have children show up in each book and even some that are born between books. As these children will interact with each other, I needed a quick reference on how old they were at particulars points in time. So I created this sheet
So there you have it. my personal Storyworld Tracking method. Leave a comment letting me know what you think to get your name in the drawing for an advanced copy of Her Amish Patchwork Family.
And here is a little more info about my upcoming release
HER AMISH PATCHWORK FAMILY
In this heartwarming Amish romance, a former schoolteacher and a single father discover a second chance at friendship, family, and love
Former Hope’s Haven schoolteacher, Martha Eicher, has always been the responsible one, putting her family first and caring for her widowed father and two younger sisters. But now they’re all happily married, and Martha isn’t sure where she fits in anymore . . . until she hears that Asher Lantz needs a nanny. Even though her childhood friendship with Asher ended abruptly years ago, when a misunderstanding drove a wedge between them, Martha offers her assistance.
Asher is also feeling adrift. As a single father to his niece and nephews, he struggles to balance his new family responsibilities with those on the farm and in his workshop. He’s grateful for Martha’s help, but worries things will always feel awkward with her. Yet before long, Asher realizes Martha is exactly what his family needs, and he can’t imagine his home without her. Martha and Asher thought they were lost, but could they be right where they belong . . . together?
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Oooooo!!! I love, love, love it! We have similar methods, Winnie. I make a book of worksheets which includes, amongst other things, my Timeline, Story Calendar, and Set Design pages. They are something like what you shared, some made on Exel, some on Word. I have to print them out, though, so I can work with paper and pencil. I can't "see" things very well on a computer screen. I also have an index card system that is something like the storyboards they use for animated movies, for when I need to be able to physically move the pieces of my story puzzle around.
ReplyDeleteAlso, thank you so much for sending me The Hand-Me-Down Family. I thoroughly enjoyed it! Gulped it down in one sitting. I loved Callie's angel kisses. I realize that it's not one of your newer projects, but isn't that one of the mysterious, amazing things about books? The transcendent timelessness of the written word? The potential and possibility that anyone, anywhere, at any time might pick up something you've written and be touched by it? Hope you have a happy, productive day today, Winnie! Thanks for sharing your process.
Terri, glad the post resonated with you. Would love to hear more of what you call your set design page - I'm always open to learning no ways to be more efficient. This also reminded me that I have one other tool - an images sheet. It has pics I base my characters physically on and also some personality cues. I also have a research file where I store notes and links of the research I had to do - for instance the hero in this latest book does tin piercing and I had to dig into that a bit.
DeleteAnd i'm sooooooo happy you enjoyed The Hand-Me Down Family - it holds a special place in my heart since it is the one that first got me into the Love Inspire Line. And I loved those characters and regreet that I never did a follow-up book in that same world.
The Set Design Worksheet is super simple. It's a 2-page spread, so I have plenty of room to work. The top of the left-hand side consists of a list of questions. A few of them are: Is there a logical reason this scene MUST be set in a particular place? Where is the last place the POV would want the events in this scene to unfold? Why? Would it work to set the scene there to increase the conflict/tension? How does this location make the POV feel? Why?
DeleteThe bottom half of the left-hand side is labeled Reference Photos - for pictures I find online of rooms, props, furniture, fabrics, striking images I want to describe, etc. Sometimes I physically print them and tack them in there. Sometimes I leave them on my computer and just note in this area which ones I have so I can go look at them if I need to.
The right-hand side is simply a blank page. I imagine it as an empty stage. I use a pencil to very roughly sketch in where everything needs to be in the scene, the flow of people through the scene, the action that needs to occur. In one story, I had jotted down some ideas for a scene in which the heroine ran from the bad guys and threw herself in the river to escape. The river that was half a mile away. That she could only get to by running across the bare dirt of a previously established fallow corn field. The danger of her jumping into the rain swollen river was what had captured my imagination. It wasn't until I started sketching the scene that I realized how ridiculous it was. The bad guys could have shot her in the back at any point in her half mile run. I still ended up using that scene and that setting. I just rearranged the geography a little so it made more sense.
Don't know if this would be more efficient for you, but it helps me to work the kinks out of the logistics of a scene. :)
That sounds awesome! I'll have to play around with it a bit...
DeleteI am not a spread-sheet gal, but I am an organization freak when it comes to keeping my story worlds straight. :-)
ReplyDeleteI tend to keep things straight in chart or list form - and similar details to yours. For locations I draw maps, and for genealogies I make a family tree (definitely needed for multi-generational series.) I also use a calendar, especially in my Amish stories, to keep track of church days, the farm calendar, etc.
I like to use hard copies of all these things, and keep them in a separate folder or notebook for each story/series.
I don't know how I'd get any writing done if I continually had to look up details! It's worth the time to have those dates and names at the tip of your fingers!
Hi Jan. Yes, I've done town maps and genealogies for some of my series as well. In fact the town map for the Turnabout series is up on my website.
DeleteI think every author has a way that works for them and Winnie’s books are great so keep the spreadsheets coming ❤️📚
ReplyDeleteAwwww, thanks so much for thos super kind words
DeleteSo impressive, Winnie! I'm in awe! Thanks for sharing your sheets with us!
ReplyDeleteYou're quite welcome! I'm sure you have systems in place that work for you
DeleteWinnie, this is awesome! The details are so hard to keep up with. I usually do a word document, but then it gets to be several pages long and it's hard to keep scrolling. I love the excel format. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteYou are very welcome. And the excel sheet sometime gets long as well :)
DeleteWow! This is absolutely amazing! You are one organized person. Please enter my name.
ReplyDeleteLOL, there are folks who would disagree with you on that organized comment :)
DeleteWinnie, the older (and hopefully wiser) I get, the more I see the need to find some kind of organizational structure - for my entire life!! Since I'm starting a new series, I asked for help creating a master document. I discovered that having someone else created the structure of the document made it so easy for me to simply fill in the details I need to track.
ReplyDeleteSpreadsheets have become a new friend in my writing life. Thanks for the examples you posted. I love seeing how everyone keeps their book details straight!
Audra
LOL - if you finds something that works for your entire life, please share!
DeleteWinnie, this was a great post. Thanks for sharing your process. I don't do spreadsheets, but I like how you kept track of each of these areas of the story, and I might need to look at doing something more like this.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome. As I said I'm a spreadsheet nerd so it was a natural fit for me. But I can see doing something similar in word or even in a spiral notebook!
DeleteThank you so much for sharing your spreadsheets! I want to try this! It looks so helpful.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to read Martha's story! I love the Eicher sisters.
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