Keeping Up With Your Story World - Examples

 

Hello everyone, Winnie Griggs here. On April 25thHer Amish Patchwork Family, the third book in my Hope’s Haven series, willrelease. This book will feature the final and oldest of the Eicher sisters,Martha.

When writing a multi-book series there are a lot of partsand pieces to keep track of – today I thought I’d share a little bit about mypersonal method of doing this. First let me say that I’m a spreadsheet nerd. IfI need to track anything I usually put it in a spreadsheet. So of course that’swhat I use to track all the details of my story world. And let me add that I’llkeep up with a lot of this same info even if it is a standalone book – it savesa lot of time trying to remember what the name of a particular restaurant is orthe 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?
PURCHASE LINK