Them's The Rules
As writers of fiction, we ask our audience to suspend their disbelief. For a speculative fiction story to work, the audience has to believe in faster-than-light travel or unicorns or zombies or angels or time travel or alien abduction, or whatever new and exciting concept you cook up.
A key element is internal consistency. The characters, the story, and the rules of the rules of the world need to make sense, even if only self-referentially. At best, continuity failure shakes the reader out of the story by causing them a bit of head-scratching; at worst, it reeks of authorial intervention, especially when reality seems to warp around the characters for no reason (barring unfortunate encounters with Infinite Improbability Drives).
Different authors have different approaches, but my coauthor and I are both big fans of the 'series bible' technique. Whether you keep it in a notebook, an online log (my coauthor) or a spreadsheet (Yours Truly), or a stack of color-coded cards, this is where you document the salient details of your world and characters for future reference.
For the world, include things like the limitations and mechanisms of magic or technology, relevant geography (including distances and travel times between key points), important deviations from the 'real world' timeline, the natural history of magical or alien flora and fauna, the history of major countries/governments/political movements...In short, someone should be able to pick up these notes cold and write a short summary of your fictional world which would include plot-relevant backstory and physical setting.
For characters, you want to get the physical descriptions, life history (particularly family details and important life events), a timeline (to make sure their backstory is reasonable, barring a Time Turner), and personal details such as education level, political views, major relationships, career/job/skills, and sexual orientation. There are a selection of online character sheets which can help you organise your thoughts.
You'll probably have to play around to figure out the best way for you to keep track of this information and then use it to create strong continuity in your story. But the payout for keeping your story believable and coherent is huge. [image error]
A key element is internal consistency. The characters, the story, and the rules of the rules of the world need to make sense, even if only self-referentially. At best, continuity failure shakes the reader out of the story by causing them a bit of head-scratching; at worst, it reeks of authorial intervention, especially when reality seems to warp around the characters for no reason (barring unfortunate encounters with Infinite Improbability Drives).
Different authors have different approaches, but my coauthor and I are both big fans of the 'series bible' technique. Whether you keep it in a notebook, an online log (my coauthor) or a spreadsheet (Yours Truly), or a stack of color-coded cards, this is where you document the salient details of your world and characters for future reference.
For the world, include things like the limitations and mechanisms of magic or technology, relevant geography (including distances and travel times between key points), important deviations from the 'real world' timeline, the natural history of magical or alien flora and fauna, the history of major countries/governments/political movements...In short, someone should be able to pick up these notes cold and write a short summary of your fictional world which would include plot-relevant backstory and physical setting.
For characters, you want to get the physical descriptions, life history (particularly family details and important life events), a timeline (to make sure their backstory is reasonable, barring a Time Turner), and personal details such as education level, political views, major relationships, career/job/skills, and sexual orientation. There are a selection of online character sheets which can help you organise your thoughts.
You'll probably have to play around to figure out the best way for you to keep track of this information and then use it to create strong continuity in your story. But the payout for keeping your story believable and coherent is huge. [image error]
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