Book Bibles

When you write a lot of books, details tend to get lost in the cracks. How do you keep track of all those details?

And then there's the concept of names. My hairdresser asked me once how I come up with names for all my characters. Well, I have a variety of sources, from sports figures to tombstones to actors. I still have to remember them all.

I have a database certification, which means I use my skills to track my book details with a program I've written. When I come across a name I might want to use, I add it. When I use it, I assign it to the book. More than names, I add the fictional places I create so I don't have to go back to look up "what was the name of that town I made up?" or "What was the name of the restaurant in town?" This is especially helpful when I'm writing a series. 

Character names should be varied. If all your characters' names start with the letter M, a reader is going to get confused very quickly. Which "M" was that? There are occasions when "like" first initials have a place, or homonyms, but that should be the exception rather than the rule. For instance, I have twin sisters named Molly and Polly in FAMILY ALCHEMY. Families often stick to an initial when naming kids. My stepson and his wife have named all their children (and they have many) using her first initial for their daughters and his first initial for their sons. I have Max and Marissa who are brother and sister in MIST ON THE MEADOW. But when it comes time to add a new character, I want to look for a different first letter. With my database, I can sort the "available" names I've collected alphabetically (names I haven't used in other books or "this" book).

My database is NOT like Scrivener, which is designed to organize your thoughts in addition to gathering this information. Mine is strictly for organizing books, characters and places--a quick reference point. Which brings me to a question. Is this something other authors might find useful? How do other authors track their series? I imagine for authors like me with an extensive backlist, it would require a lot of backtracking, but for newer authors, or authors who are looking for a way to get organized, it might be a useful tool to share. What do you think? 

(You can see a demo on my website... "For Authors" page.)

Ask the Author

Last weekend, I participated in the Elgin Literary Festival (or ELF, for short). Because the weather has been awful, my dear husband took it upon himself to escort me, which means I didn't have to park several blocks from the venue and hike across the several inches of snow that might or might not be plowed while hauling my books and other signing paraphernalia. As a result, he also sat in on the author panel I was part of - How To Write a Series.

My husband is a very thoughtful man, as you can tell by this act alone. He does not, however, know much about my writing. He doesn't read fiction, has never read any of my books. When I ask for an opinion, he offers one, when I ask him for a point of reference, he understands the context and tries to help. But read it? Not so much. That's why, after sitting in on the panel, he circled back to me later and said, "I didn't know you did that."

AJ Pine, Karla Brandenburg, EM Kaplan

The people who attended felt they'd gotten a lot from the panel, so I thought I'd recap some of the high points for folks who might be considering writing a series.

What defines a series?
1. One approach is a continuing arc that progresses to an ultimate conclusion at the end of the series.
2. Another approach is a returning character. Think Hercule Poirot or Nancy Drew.
3. Or there is a recurring venue. Lucky Harbor, or that town in Maine where Jessica Fletcher lives.
4. A family of characters, like with my Epitaph series, or my Northwest Surburbs family of friends.

Why a series?
For an author, one of the fun parts is giving secondary characters in one book a chance to step out into the world on their own in the next book. Another reason to write/read a series is that you become invested in your characters. Readers want to read more. Authors want to know more about the characters they've created. It's a comfortable place to return to.

Common Pitfalls
When an author starts writing book two, it's easy to want to recap everything that happened in book one. The last thing a reader wants is an "info dump." They want to get right into the action. When I wrote the Mist Trilogy, I found myself wanting to return to Marissa's voice, as she was the main character in Book One and an important returning character, but Book Two wasn't about her. Yes, she had a major role, but more than once I had to tell her to step back. Backstory should be introduced when and where appropriate, but not more than a sentence or, at most, a paragraph at a time. Little bites work much better than big chunks.

I'm also in the camp that a series of books should each stand on their own. If you write a cliff hanger ending, I'm less likely to stick by you than if you give me a satisfying conclusion to this "episode" of the series.

AJ Pine, Karla Brandenburg

How much of a Series do you Plan in Advance?
As much as you can! The stories will naturally morph as the writing goes on, so I don't like to get too tied in, but you need to know why it's a series and hold that thread. For Epitaph, I planned out the two families and each of the siblings. They are introduced in the first book, all of them, and then they step back to wait their turn. Some of the things I'd planned in book one changed as the characters grew. Kathleen McCormick, for instance, is flirting with a guy at the end of the first book - her potential hero, but by the time she got her own story, they'd broken up. When I went to write it, he didn't fit anymore. It seemed like a good idea in Book One, but Kathleen had changed. Grown. Her life was different. Planning gives you a solid foundation to build off. It also gives you the chance to fix something ahead of time, before you have established a number of books and can't go back to change it.

Which leads me to...

How do you keep track of all the details? Names. Places. Events. Who knows what.
You need a series bible. For me, it's an Access database that I created. Some folks use a spreadsheet. One of the rules of writing is keeping names distinct and unique. You don't want to name three guys Mike through the series. How can you expect anyone to keep them straight if they all have the same name? One of my co-panelists pointed out another pitfall, similar names. She had a hero named Cash in one of her books, and in another, she went for the name Ash. Oops! Back up. Too similar. It's also helpful to know the names of the venues you create, from towns to bars to cafes. And here is one big OOPS I made with mine. By the time I hit book 7 in EPITAPH, I misspelled the main character's name. Brian Benson had suddenly become Bryan. Not only that, in Book 1, he is the youngest of the Benson siblings. In Book 7, suddenly he was second youngest. This is where I am deeply indebted to my editor. In spite of having my database, my series bible, I still screwed up. She and I both did a made dash to ferret out the details I'd carelessly forgotten or ignored to make the corrections before the book went out into the world.

Those were some of the highlights of the panel discussion. They're also good reminders for me as I look ahead to starting a new series.

Any questions I've missed? Anything you want to know about writing a series?