When writing epic fantasy, you are dealing with thousands of characters and places, and there are so many subplots and ideas to keep track of. How do you hack this crazy complex data set of your own making?
One thing is coming up with it all, but how do you structure a bunch of loose ideas into a plot outline and later remember all the details, when it’s years into the creation of your series?
First things first. People often ask me how I remember all those many characters, places, and so on.
The short answer: notes.
The longer answer is that I have more than one way to retain all the vast epic fantasy data: I have a sourcebook brimming with the world-building including my magic system (most of it this I wrote down when I did the plot outline for my first novel), I use a wicked smart app to help build up and structure each novel, and I maintain an extensive glossary.
And sure, I have a good memory too, even use a memory technique to remember ideas, but while I do remember a lot about the ancient history of Gaia or how this or that spell work, NO WAY, I can remember ALL the stuff that I come up with (or for that matter which cupboard holds the plates in my kitchen. I think maybe the plates don’t want to be found. Plates are sneaky bastards.)
What kind of notes do I keep and where do I put them?
Sometimes my notes are four words but often they are huge chunks of texts, as a third of a chapter just waiting to be written down from memory. No matter how big or small a note, each time I think up something new, I write it down in a notebook, on my phone, or on the pc.
When I’m without those, I use a simple memory technique: I place the idea(s) as the funny or odd visual situation(s) in my mind as a string of pearls. One situation could be Phytiax dancing in an odd way, intended to remember that I want him to wear a red cloak from now on. Then later when I remember the odd dance, I have a picture of the red cloak, and I go “Ahhh…that’s right. I have to put that in chapter two.”
Wicked smart
Later, I type all my notes for the NOVEL into Causality. This is a wicked smart app, that lets you drop and drag and rearrange your information into a script.
Click the image to go to the Causality homepage. They go much deeper into explaining how their app works.
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Once I have a bunch of notes I start to lose a complete overview, and so I make chunks of the plot. Grouping ideas that I feel should probably be close together in the novel. I sift through, alter, and move each note, one at a time directly into what becomes the plot outline. That way I build up chunks of text that eventually become the chapters of the novel I’m working on.
A chapter example: Each blue bubble shown is just a headline. In fact, each bubble can hold just as much information as you like. I often have a lot of dialogue or half-written scenes under each of the bubbles.
Keep inside the lane
I move the grouped bubbles (the notes) into lanes going across the app. Most go into my chapter lane and the rest either into a character arc lane, or the “evil plans of the Pyramid King” lane (he is my main bad guy).
Creating Book 2: In the process of moving ideas in note form (bottom lane) to the relevant chapters above. The colors are auto-generated by the app depending on which character the note concerns.
The sorted chapters 1-12 (the twelve boxes at the top going across) of Doomsayer Prince in note form. The lane below is the evil plan. Outside of view are all the remaining chapters. It keeps going to the right.
Sure, I could have done the same on paper. Had I started out twenty years ago I might have used post-it’s or little pieces of paper to rearrange and structure my ideas, but there is just so much stuff in epic fantasy (or other long books), and I like it better on the app where the wind doesn’t blow the post-it’s away when the glue stops sticking.
The big screen
Causality is not a smart device app, as you REALLY need a big screen (or two) to get some overview here. I use it on my pc. As an added benefit all your notes are searchable, so when I need to find something, I can, without reading through a hundred post-its.
You could write the entire novel in Causality, it supports various languages and has spell check, but I like Word better for that. Honestly, I probably only use like 20% of the functionality in Causality, it can do so much more than what I need. Still, I can definitely recommend it.
I made me a sourcebook
Some of the stuff I come up with is secret (the reader will find out eventually, but not till the end of the series,) and some things don’t really fit into the novel (such as historical background information and other info dumps, which often become boring to read.) That stuff is very important to me though for future reference. I do not put it into the Causality app, as it is not a part of the novel, what I do is put it into a sourcebook.
If you have played roleplaying games (at least if you did back in the “golden age of RPG” when I spent every free moment for around 15 years playing every system I could find like Warhammer, AD&D, and Shadowrun) you have probably read a lot of RPG books, such as rulebooks, worldbooks, and sourcebooks. Each holds a ton of data about the fantasy world, and really helps the game master create a believable world for the players.
When I started out as an author, I sorely missed having such a book telling me all about the people, places, and culture on the continent of Gaia where my series takes place. I wrote half of a chapter of the Doomsayer Prince, and could really feel my lack of understanding of the world I was in: If my main character is not well off, but not poor either, how much does he own? How poor are the poor on Gaia? What is the currency? Do people in rural areas have some form of schooling? Do they have clocks and know the time? Is there more than one form of magic? Do the humans share the world with others (elves, trolls, what?)
Before continuing to write the novel, I began the creation of my very own sourcebook, just for me, and who knows, it might become a real roleplaying game. I think so :-)
No, it’s not real yet, the Doomsayer RPG (or whatever it will eventually be called,) but I’m talking to a very smart guy about helping me create a roleplaying game out of my fantasy world. The image is just the front page of my mini sourcebook, BUT I hope one day to turn it into a real roleplaying game. That would be so cool.
I have a number of “Sourcebook Word files” filled to the brim with all the stuff I came up with during the initial world-building, and later dips I felt I had to do, like sketching out the political situation in various countries, the number of people living in various areas including the number of mages and the discipline they belong to, the economics and trade, the magic system, a lot of inspirational images, notes about important or dangerous places (the Hag sites), and so on. Some of this I keep up to date and super structured while the rest is half-finished or not very structured. A bit like my life, I suppose :-)
I also tried making actual old-school roleplaying character sheets for the main characters, and this did help me understand Pino better, but it was too much work, compared to how rarely I use them.
The last place I put the vast epic fantasy data is my glossary at the end of Doomsayer Prince.
Not just for the reader
The glossary is a good way for me (as well as returning or confused readers,) to remember who or what someone is.
I keep an online version of the glossary too, and one day I might turn it into a wiki (that would be way smarter,) but for now, my Glossary is just a “flat list.”
How do I keep it updated? It is a chore, as in every chapter I keep creating new stuff. Things that need to find their way into the glossary. I make a note in a file each time I create someone or something new (like a spell, character, place.) During the final editing I fill in the stuff I forgot to note down, and I polish the explanations. You have no idea how many times I have written some explanation in the glossary, and then later changed my mind. Then you have to change both the text in the novel and in the glossary, so it is double work, but I know no other way to do it.
Maybe you have a better way? Let me know, and I will put a link at the bottom of the article.
Recommended links (how other authors make sure their novels/worlds stay consistent)
Video: Christopher Paolini’s take on how to organize information
Video: Joe Abercrombie writes a draft of all novels in the series before publishing the first book