The Planning In Writing a Series: Calendars of the Future

Sometimes I think people don’t realize how much research, planning, and care is taken in writing fiction. I’ve written before about the amount of research I’ve done for my futuristic Seed Savers series, but the care I’ve taken in working out the chronological order, the seasons in which certain plants would be bearing fruit in certain regions, whether or not I have the right day of the week for some date in the far future . . . these are also things I’ve worried about and painstakingly researched and planned out.

Thank God for the internet.

This whole process, of course, becomes much more complicated over the course of a five-book series with multiple storylines and characters who are not always moving in sync. (Example, in book 3, Heirloom, Clare and Dante’s storyline in Canada is not happening at the same time as Lily’s storyline in the U.S.).

When I wrote the first book, I wasn’t really planning a five-book series. The book was very seat-of-your-pants. As I started adding more books, I started adding calendars. By the time I got around to the final book, this is what I had:

 

It was really crazy! Every now and then I couldn’t reconcile a few things. Will anyone notice? I’d ask myself. Does anyone but me care? I also did this with the kids’ ages. I realized I should have already known my characters’ birthdays. Oh, the trials and tribulations of being a pantser!

Or maybe I just make things more difficult than they need to be. If you are a reader, do you pay attention to the geography, seasons, distance, and timing in books you read? If you are a writer, do you make calendars and research minute details? I’d love to hear what you think in the comment section below.

Included in the new Flying Books House Seed Savers editions are links to many of the research sources used in writing the books.

Sandra Smith is the author of the awesome and award-winning middle grade/YA series,  Seed  Savers.  Visit her  Facebook  and  Pinterest  pages. Follow her on  Twitter .  Sign up for the newsletter!